Blade Runner EV: Home-Grown Green

@ Swiftly who says it’s all about the energy density of petrol. This bloke obviously has NO IDEA how inefficient ICEs are at actually converting the energy in petrol into forward motion.

An ICE drive train is approx 15% efficient, i.e. $85 out of every $100 spent on petrol is waisted. An EV is closer to 90% energy efficient and with regeneration it is possible to extend range by 50%.

This is EXACTLEY why an ICE costs $20-$30 to drive 100km and an EV costs $1.00 per 100km. End-of-story!

The bottom line is Money. The almighty dollar is making the decisions on what kind of cars are built. As long as automakers continue to make money on IC powered cars, they will continue to build them. They will not produce alternative-drive vehicles until they are forced to. Market DEMANDS are what fuel change. As sad as it is, morals and conscience don’t factor into the big business equation. Prime example of that is the tobacco industry. The deep pockets of automakers and big oil are no different.

LOOK UP NANOTITANATE and NANOSAFE BATTERIES. Li Ion and all other conventional batteries are NOT what should be in EV’s. Using these older-technology batteries is simply planning to fail…

I agree that Blade deserves praise but I have to debate your comment about how batteries do more harm than good to the environment.

Throwing out batteries is worse than burning gas every day of the car’s life? I seriously doubt that would be the case, especially if you consider that even all older batteries are now salvaged, harmful acids are neutralized, and their components are recycled.

What I would like to applaud but still seems to be unlikely is the day that the average suburban American losses their lust for SUVs, MiniVans, and other such urban assault vehicles. Gas is over $3.50 a gallon and I still see the roads filled with these gas hogs and I still see people driving with a lead foot, racing away when the light turns green and never coasting to a stop.

Foo on you wasteful people, you all know who you are.

I forgot who said something like “A person can be smart. People, however, are stupid”.
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That notion creeps in from time to time for me because people are… COMPLACENT. They’re sheep. Consumers, I don’t know about the rest of the world but in the States they complain and yearn but where dose that energy go? It evaporates… *poof* instantly and it’s gone until they get a little pissed off again and *poof* again lost to oblivion.
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There is no resolve. There is no cohesion for people, especially when it comes to the environment and even moreso when it comes to the oil companies and other large, unregulated industries.
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As a result, this lack of solidarity leads to the status quo.
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Big business forges partnerships and finds a “sweet spot”, and once that bond is made, only very close and undeniable oblivion (conceivably), or the sheer weight of uniform public opinion saying “you suck. give us what we really need” will break that bond and get them heading in the right direction.
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What angers me most, to be very specific, is that the leadership of the Automotive companies are not idiots. These are very smart people WHO KNOW DAMN WELL they are not building a product that is as efficient, nor has emissions as clean as they could be building. THEY MAKE THE CHOICE to complain about the rising emissions requirements and what do they do? Plan to just keep building the IC cars in the face of this gauntlet instead of making an HONEST EFFORT to take design in another direction.
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They’re consciously making the wrong choices. They are putting business before the welfare of… everyone. That’s incredibly freaking arrogant.

There are plenty of places to point fingers when it comes to the petrol nightmare America is facing. Consumers spend a great deal of time talking out of both sides of their mouth… on sites like CD especially. There are a LOT of people out there who seem unwilling to sacrifice any type of creature comfort, performance, or aesthetics in the name of efficiency. That is why auto makers spend their time making cars go from zero to sixty in half the time while not doing a thing about how many gallons of gas that same car sucks down to do it.
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It also comes down to where that almighty dollar finally ends up. All big businesses are in bed with each other. Oil companies and auto comapanies are scratching each other’s backs to maintain the status quo. They both exert enormous pressure on legislature and governing agencies to dissuade them from passing legislation with any real teeth and they all sit back and watch the money roll in. Getting fat while the horizon line disappears behind the brown cloud of smog and the average working family gives up a little more comfort to pour more gas into the IC dinosaur.
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The sad fact is that the technology has been there for many, many years. Alternatives have been available but no one has seriously demanded them. If we as consumers were smart enough to see the writing on the wall, we’d stop buying new cars altogether until the automakers released something WORTH buying instead of accepting a so-called hybrid that boasts an enormous 20-30mpg city.
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And a national boycott of gasoline would be incredibly effective in slowing down petrol’s soaring costs, but we all know how impossible that would be.
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If you want to know why auto companies are dragging their feet on building alternative drive vehicles, look in your garages, in your driveways, your neighbors’ driveways, and the mirror for your answer. Everyone who drives a car is guilty for allowing things to continue on their present course… especially those who keep shelling out big bucks to drive newer cars that achieve 30mpg or less in mixed driving.
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of course that is just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

EVs aren’t that hard. Aside from a Tesla roadster, Jay Leno also owns a 1909 Baker Electric. 99 years old and still running strong!!!
So GTwildfire, AAAAAAAAMMMMEEEEEENNN brother.

The commentary, aside from missing the verbal daggers and swords, is what I’ve been saying all along. Thanks!
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It’s fairly apparent that auto companies are motivated NOT to forge into the new realm of alternatively-powered vehicles. I see not other explanation for the way things are right now.
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I also don’t believe that consumer preferences or any evidence of rejection from consumers is what’s holding them back. If anything, there’s clearly a market. Are gas prices going to go back to where they were 3 years ago? Hell no. Anyone who dosen’t believe gas prices will continue to rise, with all the IC cars at the dealerships and on the roads if a fool.
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They gotta wake the hell up FINALLY and not take a freaking decade to give us alternatives.
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Sorry but this situation is really assenine and it pisses me off to no end.

I whole heartedly agree. I mean how hard can it be to take a bunch of batteries hook them up to a motor and make the wheels turn. I just don’t understand what the big deal is.

Why are electric cars so much harder to make? I know that the batteries are hard on the environment but, at least they have begun recycling the batteries now!!!