NYTimes gives run down on EVs

[thankyouOB]

Maybe I should say the NYTimes runs down EVs.
But after they get over their media urge to conform to EV-bad-news syndrome, there is a summary of where EVs are at, model by model.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/automobiles/electric-cars-future-models.html?_r=1&hp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

my apologies for the runs-down part.

 

[dgpcolorado]

I guess the focus is on coming cars but I find it disappointing that the LEAF is barely mentioned—and not described at all—yet the "i" is and is dinged for poor acceleration.

 

[tps]

What no one seems to mention as they talk about the LEAF's "poor sales" is what the problem actually is: Nissan is selling them almost as fast as they make them, but getting enough battery packs to build LEAFs faster is the bottleneck.

I've seen the demo LEAFs at the dealer, but have not seen one in-the-wild, so far. But they haven't been available for very long here in PA. (This fact, that they weren't sold i much of the country durig 2011, is also not metioned often enough, in conjunction with weak sales.)

 

[SharonaLA]

I see another Leaf here in Southern California almost every day. I'm having a baby in March, and at the medical center, a couple employees have Leafs and one person has a Volt. Today at the shopping mall, I got a wonderful electric car parking spot near the maternity store.

The Los Angeles Times commits similar sins, always writing about lack of electric car demand while failing to interview any of the few hundred local owners who participate in this web forum, for example.

Maybe we should start sending out contact lists of EV owners to all media outlets so they have people to call on deadline.

 

[nosuchthing]

By 2020 there will be multiple 1000-mile batteries patented by the big players with 1-hr max charge time and gas at 6-7-8(?) bucks per gallon. Electrics will go like hotcakes with 5-10% penetration.

However, watch out for the recession of 2022-3 and market crash of 2019 or 2020 at the latest.

 

[aqn]

It's not all bad: "...Mr. Obama’s latest budget calls for raising federal tax breaks for plug-in buyers to $10,000, from $7,500,..." Let see if that draws any fire from the "drill baby drill" crowd.

 

[planet4ever]

By 2020 there will be multiple 1000-mile batteries patented by the big players with 1-hr max charge time ...

Let's see, now. At 4 m/kWh that would be a 250kW charge rate, so a connector and cable five times as big as the current QC. Either that, or a 2,000 volt interface. You're not going to talk me into hooking up either one of those by hand. I sure hope they come up with something that does fully automated drive-up charging.

Ray

 

[Luft]

It's not all bad: "...Mr. Obama’s latest budget calls for raising federal tax breaks for plug-in buyers to $10,000, from $7,500,..." Let see if that draws any fire from the "drill baby drill" crowd.

I'm sure the "drill baby drill" crowd have already begun. I really hate the not so subtle disrespect the right shows when there is a non-republican president. When I was growing up I was taught that you refer to our president as "President" not "Mr." To do less shows a disrespect for the office of the President.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

By 2020 there will be multiple 1000-mile batteries patented by the big players with 1-hr max charge time ...

Let's see, now. At 4 m/kWh that would be a 250kW charge rate, so a connector and cable five times as big as the current QC. Either that, or a 2,000 volt interface. You're not going to talk me into hooking up either one of those by hand. I sure hope they come up with something that does fully automated drive-up charging.

Ray

Isn't that about what the proposed j1772 quick charge extension is? 240kW?