Watched "who killed the electric car?'
 

I actually bought a dvd of it. Interesting stuff. I'm sure we have the technology right now to make a car last 300 miles on a charge. If the car was mass produced by a major manufacturer right now i'm sure it could do 350+ miles on a charge. Did you see that old guy and his wife??? They make solar panels that are thin like paper!!!!!

Wrap those solar panels on an electric car and I'm sure it would go 500 miles on a charge during the day.

Cool stuff. Oh and thank god I bought a civic. I spend now $50-60 on gas a month. Hopefully starting next year $35-45 a month. I wish mine was an electric car.

Yup , good flik that.

I think those thin solar panels were roof shingle replacements that made electricity., weren't they ?

Here i have seen a few buildings now completely covered in solar panels on the sunny side of the building., dont know how it connects up tho.

I doubt it connects to the grid , probably powers the central heating or ventilation system , perhaps the car park lights too.

I priced some solar shingles . . . $109 each for 17 watts and you drill holes throught the roof to get the wires from the back side of the shingles connected in the attic . . . I don't think there will be much of a payback at that price.

Not only do we have the technology for a 300 mile car today... we actually have the cars to prove it. We also have fast-charge technology. Though none of this super range or quick charging is needed 90% of the time, it most definitely exists to quiet the nay-sayers. My EV "only" has a 100 mile range, and we use it for at least 95% of our trips. The Prius stays parked in the garage for four weeks at a time.

The movie represents the first time that EVERYBODY can see what these cars were, and how much the drivers liked them. When my EV1 was taken away from me with fewer than 30k miles, the thing looked and drove like new. It is now "recycled" for my own good.

The day when we can get 200 extra miles out of vehicle-mounted PV panels may come... but that is still a dream. For now PV panels belong on the roof of your dwelling where they are exposed to as much sunlight as possible. Cars get parked in the shade, driven at night, etc. For now there is no reason to tote around solar panels that'll increase your range by about 3 miles in the best of situations. My roof-mounted PV covers my home energy use AND my main vehicle energy use - to the tune of 1000 miles/month. I don't need to carry the panels with me.

If you are interested in buying this movie, your money will do the most good if you purchase it from PluginAmerica. Or you can buy them from me since all my proceeds go back to PIA as well. I only have a few copies left.

You should be grateful the auto maker looked after your interests so well.
Now , go out and buy an SUV.

I can certainly write more off my taxes that way, and be more patriotic all at the same time! Mmmm. Petroleum. The smell of freedom.

it is on my queue:) my father just recommended it very strongly.

With mass production, we could have that 300 mile range car at $20,000-30,000. In automotive volume, Li Ion batteries would be ~$250/kWh. Without automotive volume, they are currently $700/kWh.

https://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/149.pdf

A 60 kWh pack would be needed to give a Prius sized and shaped car a 300 mile range at 60 mph.


Address aerodynamics much more and use a composite body, ala Solecria Sunrise, and a 700+ mile range EV is theoretically possible(but hasn't been built yet). The Sunrise did over 350 miles range on a 30 kWh NiMH pack in 1997. Imagine a 60 kWh Li Ion pack, with less weight.

i finally saw this movie. amazing! i am motivated to go electric after i buy a house!

darelldd, i would really appreciate it if you shared more of your knowledge in the threads around here :)

Check darelldd's website. A wealth of information is available. when I get time, I will also share more of what I know.

Man, I should talk to this guy sometime.

"Payback" is the least of your problems ; 1st...assume you generate 200 watts of power, then you do so at 115 volts, to run your 115 v. ...~80 amp appliance (~200 watts) Plug it in... WHOA! You have just "made" DC!...and you want to run an AC appliance? Rotsa ruck! Not on this planet!

Well, you could try building your own DC to AC inverter, but unless designed correctly, it would be horribly inefficient.

Or you could by a car inverter...

In my landlords solar powered house all of the light fixtures ceiling fans, etc have been converted to run off of DC. everything lower than the ceiling AKA radios, microwave, etc is running off of an AC converter mounted right above the battery bank. Looked simple enough. That is unless I'm totally missing something here?

There are a lot of inverters that convert DC to AC, some use a battery bank to hold the power. This is less efficient, in the mid to high 80's because of the battery bank losses on top of the inverter losses. Then you have grid ties batteryless inverters that just feed solar power directly to the grid as it is made. This is more efficient, in the low to mid 90's. Of course if the power goes out so does you’re potential to generate electricity.

My payback on my system was the done about a year after I installed my system and the power went out. I wasn’t home but our furnace, many of the lights and fridge and freezer kept running for my wife and kids at home.

But speaking strictly from a financial standpoint a typical grid tied batteryless payback is between 10 and 25 years. A battery system is much further out since you will likely have to replace the batteries in approximately 10 year intervals depending on use, likely 25 to 50 years on payback. Again if you have a battery system payback isn't the likely reason you have it, just an added bonus.

I saw it like spending $8k on a nice generator setup, or that same $8k on a system that I use almost daily and generates electricity every day, where the generator just sits there and does nothing.

Watched the movie again on the weekend.

A small annoyance: why did they overdub the "motor" sound effect nearly every time the car goes by? Sounded even like a turbine at times. It seems silly to consciously try to make the car more "Jetson-y" than it really was.