In electric car stakes, it's Miles to go

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If you have a long commute or take a lot of long

trips then a hybrid is a better choice. But if you don't have a long commute (probably about 80% of the population) AND you don't take a lot of long trips then an electric vehicle is perfect. Need to take a trip? Rent a car, that way you don't have to worry about maintenance.

Another thing the electric car is more maintenance free than it's petrol burning counter part. So either you are part of the oil company as well or you're part of the auto industry. Sorry pal, people are starting to wake up and realize they have been getting screwed!

Let's just look at technology advances... computers in 25 years have gone from massive slow and simple to small, fast and complex, their power has increased 100 fold. Yet, fuel efficiency has been rather stagnant. We have planes that can achieve hypersonic speeds... fuel efficiency hasn't improved since the 70's really... We have nano technology being developed for batteries and many other awesome applications, and yet automotive fuel efficiency in the United States has not improved significantly since the 1970's when we had the oil embargo.

I did some research and fuel efficiency in the last 5 years with the exception of hybrids but those are dual power source vehicles, not 100% internal combustion and that is what I am targeting, has only improved at best, 3%. And yet in that same 5 year period the efficiency of the PV array has improved, 9-10% and is currently on the road for another 2-4% improvement.

Yet the internal combustion engine, which has been around for a long time, still cannot seem to get more than 30MPG on average. Computer technology which is an infant when compared to automotive technology has improve on the scale about 60% or better in the last 5 years.

What's my point? Simple either force an improvement, and yes I do believe it's possible to have a gas powered car that can get 80, 90 or even 100MPG, or abandon it and move into electric.

Posted by: Linux User 147560   Posted on: 08/14/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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