The future of transport... is it the electric car?

[Lorr]

Hi,

I have to say I would like to see our transport system being developed a lot quicker than it is. I want to see a world, hopefully very soon, where petrol and diesel cars begin to be obsolete.

I personally hate them. Not only are they noisy (and I live near a main road) but cars smell disgusting. If you happen to be a cyclist like me, it doesn't make your commute to work particularly lovely when you have to breathe in the smog.

I also like this idea, importantly of course, because it would begin to make a huge impact on our carbon footprint. Something we all want to see happen.

So tell me - where are the other options for the diesel and petrol powered car? And why are they not the main option now? Hybrid's just don't seem good enough to me.

Lorr

[Jonzuki]

Hi.

I too would like to see an effort made but sensibly that would be economically viable system for the government to introduce. I this modern world we have the technology but the prices are too high.

Making Petrol and Diesel cars obsolete would be good if we could do it!. The military will continue using it for years to come (they are our biggest polluters) because of contracts and spares for such vehicles (cost also comes into it). We rely on oil still and we need to wean off it not break from it!.

Also we needs to look beyond the limitations of pure electric cars such as the G-Whiz as they are completely impractical for most situations (aside from giving another option to a bicycle) I live in Mid-Wales and there are a lot of hills, to produce such a motor on a large production scale is very expensive and companies want profit. Also I am an off-roader and for such tasks it would be useless, for example say you do a lot of off road work and then get low, you then need to travel 10 miles to the nearest town (lets face it they won't be installing in tiny villages for years to come) and wait 8 hours for the car to charge (big batteries and big motors mean bigger 4x4's and I am sure you won't like that despite that I won't mind).

It won't make a difference on the carbon footprint yet unless we go eviromentally on power stations, remember the electricity has to come from somewhere!.

Hybrids are as good as we are gonna get for 10 years I reckon because of costs, they can't sell hatchbacks at 50k a pop!. Hybrids are also extremely un-economical as it has been proven that a Hummer H2 is greener than a Prius!! (battries killing the landscape).

Hydrogen is an excellent idea and would be the best option other than diesel alternatives (bio-diesel). But as yet getting hydrogen cars cheap is difficult. I hope for the day though. It would give me an option to build an off roader that would go everywhere and be green! (rather than my current build of a 1L petrol 5mpg off roader which will never see the road)

[calvin227]

The answer to these issues lie in the social power of vested economic interest. Consumerism sold out the peoples' innovations to vested interests. Can you put the genie back in the bottle? Can we as a society re-establish the importance of individual innovation?

[Black Knight]

I think that to say that the military are our biggest polluters (Jonzuki's reply) is a very off hand remark to make.  Where is your evidence to support that statement?  If you are talking about the British Armed Forces then you would have to go a long way to find a more greener military command as ours.
That said, of course they are going to continue to use oil and oil based fuels.  Not only because of the contracts already in situ but more to the point, have you ever seen an efficient electric tank?  How about a electric Strike fighter or a battery powered warship that can deliver a real threat outside of a boating pool!

One of the reasons behind the failure to develop more efficient electric cars or greener vehicles may well be down to the enormous amount of money tied up in producing the black gold by the three or four countries who supply the stuff.  There have been several attempts to find ways of going without oil and they have all folded due to lack of support from the governments around this sceptered globe of ours.  Whilst ever governments can gain considerable tax revenue from oil we shall continue to find it controlling our destiny.

It is also down to market pull.  If enough people actually wanted an electric vehicle, and started to boycot petrol and diesel engined cars, the manufacturers would soon be forced into changing their product lines.  Its the old adage - what the market wants, the market gets.  It's out there - we just don't want it enough - YET!!!

[Chenrose18]

It could be the future of transport ,you would have to go a long way to find a more greener military command as ours.



_________________

[suneelkumar85]

Once a dream of the future, these cars are suddenly very real, but are they
viable?


DALLAS, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Tonight's "Dan Rather Reports" examines the
coming revolution in transportation--the electric car. While hybrids like the
Toyota Prius have sold well, electric car makers - many of them Silicon Valley
startups - are rolling out cars with zero emissions, and six- figure sticker
prices.  The first all-electric to be introduced was the Tesla Roadster.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080324/HDNETLOGO)

In tonight's episode, Rather test-drives the new 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport on
the busy streets of Manhattan.  This two-seater accelerates from 0-60 in 3.9
seconds and retails for around $125,000.

Tesla, has just received a 465 million dollar loan from the U.S. Government
and plans to use the money to build a larger, seven-person Tesla "S" sedan,
which will have a 300 mile range, go from 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and will retail
at around $50,000.

Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president for Tesla Motors sees a future in which you
no longer stop to "gas up," but to "plug in and charge up."  He is already in
discussions with many different interested parties.  "Convenience stores,
7-Eleven's," O'Connell tells Rather.  "Any place where people would reasonably
stop to take a break or to grab a meal or to overnight."

One writer who thinks electric cars are coming fast is Dan Neil, Pulitzer
Prize winning automotive writer for the Los Angeles Times.  "Really, the
transformation and the American rolling stock will be breathtaking, I
predict," says Neil. "We're going to see millions of electric vehicles on the
road very, very soon."

The report concludes with a round table discussion on the future viability of
these fascinating electric vehicles and how soon they may actually become the
car of choice for American drivers.

Joining Rather in the discussion are Jim Motavalli and Matt DeBord.  Motavalli
is an environmental writer, speaker and author.  He is also a regular
contributor to the New York Times Automobile section and Wheels blog, among
numerous other publications.  Matt DeBord also writes about automobiles and
sustainability for national newspapers such as the Washington Post and the Los
Angeles Times.  And, he's a regular contributor to Slates: The Big Money,
where he writes the Shifting Gears blog. 

"Dan Rather Reports: Electric Cars" premieres on HDNet on Tuesday, September 8
at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore presentation at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate
west coast prime time.

HDNet (www.hd.net, twitter.com/hdnet) is the independent network with unique
and provocative content that appeals to men of all ages and is delivered in
true high definition.