Production Electric Car does 0-60 in 4.7

[thunderhead]

http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/venturi_fetish.asp

Unlike the various "concept cars", you can actually go to their Monaco factory and buy one.  Yours for a mere US$660,000!

[Norm]

  How big of a mill at 15mph wind would you need

to charge that at the 80 amp. rate?...at what

voltage?

  $660,000.... Nice!

  Wonder if they have an ugly model for a little

cheaper?

                ( :>) Norm.              

[kitno455]

800 lbs of lithium ion batteries. no wonder it costs so much. how many cellfones would you have to have ...

allan

[wdyasq]

Ugly models are almost always cheaper.  And, don't seem to have as many boyfriends or husbands either.

Ron

[finnsawyer]

These may do well among the rich in Europe where distances are less than here, but I don't think a 200 mile range is very useful here in (damn this country is vast).  To me, it just points up the need for better cheap batteries, such as a rechargeable aluminum battery.  And therein lies the rub:  One new development can change the whole picture.

"The Devil is always in the details".

[pyrocasto]

I disagree. 200 miles is an awesome distance for EV, yet you can recharge it completey in 3.5 hours. For long distance trips it might not be, but for the average person probably doesnt drive 50 miles a day. You could leave it pluged in at work, as well.

I'm just wondering if you could boost the mileage with some solar cells put ont he roof, hood, and trunk. I would think you could get a good 200-250 watts on there. Though with 200 watts on you car on a sunny day, driving 200 miles at 60mph, you would only gain about 2/3KW. That's not very much considering the engine uses 180KW. :-)

[nothing to lose]

"I disagree. 200 miles is an awesome distance for EV,"

Yes I agree with you and think that is great milage! Keep it into perspective here!

How many people drive more than 200 miles and back for work each day, or for shopping, taking kids to ball games ect...

How many people have to fill up their cars every day with gas?? Not many! Average car maybe 300- 400 miles per tank full. So there you go, you got half a tanks range with an EV for daily use. Use that 20mpg 70's Caddy for cross country trips to visit granny once a month or year, and the EV to work and back every day

Wife drives about 75 miles a day 5 days a week for work, she still would have 125 extra miles to run around shopping and such every day, never would she need it. Just plug in each night and top off the batts

 I rarely drive 1 vehicle that much per day either, If I do I either need a van or truck anyway to bring big stuff home, or I am on a long road trip in a van and can stretch out an be comfy or take a nap if I want. Would not be using a EV car anyway for  200 miles day, and I do ALOT of driving.

Now give me an EV 1 ton truck that does 200miles, I will be happier, but then I would use it for road trips and 200 would not be enough. Course if it hauled 1 ton at 200 miles I would just buy 2 extra battery packs and be happy with 600 mile range.

Yep for a normal persons average driving 200 miles is plenty, if we all had one think how much gasolene would be availble for those long cross country trips and how cheap it would be then

Well less demand would drive the price up. As I always say, it's NOT supply and demand that controlls prices. If they sell less gas they have to charge more per gallon to pay the people working the stations, they still have all the other costs to stay open too. So cut sales by 50% and they're paying out the same money each month they will raise prices. If stations start going under then only the big guys will stay, then they gouge us hard as they can! So supply has nothing to do with at all, it's totally what they can get away with. We use alot we pay alot, we don't use much we pay alot. We won't win any gas wars either way.

I wonder if they would drop the price for me if I let them keep half the batteries

75miles a day gets the wife to work and home everyday, I'd be happy with 100 mile range on it.

[finnsawyer]

Let's face it.  That thing is just a toy.  It sure wouldn't be suitable for pulling a 2000 pound sawmill.  And I can only afford one vehicle.  I do need to be able to drive at least 400 miles a day.  Sometimes I have put on 700 miles in a day.

In your case buy the thing with no batteries and put in lead-acid batteries and see what you get.

"The devil is always in the details"

[pyrocasto]

Still, I dont consider it a toy. It's a classy looking sports car that would save you loads on gas. Yes it wouldnt be fit for pulling a darned sawmill, but would a gas car that size and shape be fit either? I seem to think not.

Though, until the price drops a good $600,000 buying one wouldnt even cross my mind. It would be nice though to have my little truck for certain things, and the car to drive around daily.

[nothing to lose]

Well the price tag is the problem, not the milage it gets. And yes we all have our own specail needs.

If you drive 400 miles a day that's far more than normal mileage and it's a specail need! Just like me for cross country trips, heavy hauling and such. We need something more than just point A to B and back again, most people don't!

Pulling a 2000 pound saw mill does not apply to anything, it's a car not a work truck, and I would not trust a gasolene powered Chrysler mini van to pull 2000 pound trialers much either! I buy lots of nice looking mini vans that are junk, Dodge Chrysler, 3.3 3.0 engines, either the motor is bad or the tranny. Not used that hard, great looking, less than 10 years old, some only 7-8yrs. Got 2 Chrysler Lebaron convertabiles that did not run also, they never pulled 2,000lb trailers (never even had hitches installed on most of them) and probably got around 30MPG unlimited range long as you keep pumping it in. So If a gsaolen vehicl can't handle the work, why expect an electric to do it, gee I didn't even mention Geo metro's yet

Hmm, I wonder if they would sell one with out batteries?

Actaully I don't want one anyway, just anything that gets 100 mile per charge that the wife can drive, would be happy with a DC motor in one of those mini vans I mentioned if it would go the distance. Convertable would be nice too for me, she don't like them though.

[finnsawyer]

I'm not trying to argue with you guys, just trying to put things in perspective.  Yes, it's a pretty car, but it's way too expensive.  And, of course one size does not fit all.  And one could pull the sawmill with many types of vehicles (but not in the woods, that's why I have a four wheel drive gas sucking Ranger pickup - lets not even mention snow).  What I really was trying to get at was that battery developments could change the entire electric vehicle outlook.  That's one reason why I haven't bought into the hydrogen economy hype.  There is always the possibility of a "wild card" development coming from left field.

"The devil is always in the details."

[bparks]

This brings up a point I've often wondered about.  Has any EV ever included a battery pack that could be quickly swapped out?  I've often thought the range issue could be solved by re-using all those gas stations as battery swap stations.  Standardize a set of specs for a battery pack & a mounting system that would allow a hydraulic lift to remove the pack from underneath the car.  You could drive your EV thru & have a pack swapped in less than the time to pump a tank of gas.  The station could have a very efficient (and expensive) charger, which could help maximize the life of these battery packs.

It seems like it would be less economically disruptive as well.  Maybe the battery packs aren't sold to the EV purchaser, but rather leased with part of the cost of each swap being a lease payment.  Now the EV owner doesn't have to worry about paying out several grand every few years to replace their batteries.  Car manufactures could leave the charging components off the car, which would help keep the initial price down.  Dead batteries would be centrally located at the charging stations, which makes recycling easier.  I'd think that over time the swap staions would get very good at bringing batteries back to life & making them last as long as possible.

Brian

[finnsawyer]

This should be easy to implement.  It might also make the vehicles cheaper and easier to sell, if very expensive batteries are used.  The issue then becomes the cost/life of the batteries, the salvage value of the batteries, and the financing of the initial cost of the batteries.  Maybe you should contact the military with this idea.  Switching battery packs in armored vehicles might make more sense than carrying around very flammable fuel.

"The devil is always in the details"

[pyrocasto]

I believe batteries are the only reason EVs arent popular. To bad we can store a MWH in a watch batterie. ;-)

[nothing to lose]

Well, I agree with you on those points.

Except I still would not pull the saw mill with a Dodge/chrysler minivan, maybe my couger or a T-bird