Comments on: The Race to Plug-In https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: MDarling https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html#comment-9501 MDarling Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:47:14 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=1449#comment-9501 Maybe this guy is lying- but I think GM is aiming too low.

The claim is a Saturn VUE Plug in hybrid, can go 40 miles in all electric mode- top speed 87 mph. Approx $8700 more than std VUE.

http://www.afstrinity.com/xh-compared.htm

MikeD- the idea is all electric from the overnight (at work) charge- interanl combustion after. Cross country would be mostly internal combustion.

]]> By: MikeD https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html#comment-9500 MikeD Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:04:59 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=1449#comment-9500 How cumbersome are the batteries for these vehicles? If the recharge time is 8 hours, I could do that while I’m at work – but not as a layover on a 100 miles drive. However, if I could approach the car battery the same way I do the camera battery (with an interchangeable set) – then I can leave my depleted battery at the “station” (for them to recharge) and drive away on a fresh set. Of course this requires a standard format battery and an infrastructure to support it (but at some early point we didn’t have widespread infrastructure for gasoline either) If the power station can extract ‘dead’ batteries and install a fresh set while I’m getting my coffee or a sandwich, they wouldn’t be any more inconvenient than my own stomach often is.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html#comment-9499 Phil Bowermaster Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:40:13 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=1449#comment-9499 Right. I think we’re making the same point.

Plug-ins will need a somewhat better electrical range than the current generation we’re seeing if they are to cover most of the “normal” (non-long-distance) driving that a driver will do in the typical day.

Anyway, I shouldn’t have said that the plug-ins will eliminate city driving, but rather that they will eliminate a lot of gas-burning for city driving.

]]> By: Stephen Gordon https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html#comment-9498 Stephen Gordon Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:42:17 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=1449#comment-9498 Phil:

Its not the distance from home that matters here, but how far you’ve driven (on average) before you get home.

It’s possible that you could drive 150 miles all within 10 miles of your house. In the alternative, your work could be 25 miles from your house but you drive only 50 miles everyday. Straight to work…straight home.

Let’s say that as I pull into the driveway in the evening I’ve driven, on average, 50 miles. If I was driving a Volt I might have burned gas for only 10 miles that day.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/energy/the-race-to-plu.html#comment-9497 Phil Bowermaster Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:27:08 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=1449#comment-9497 It would be interesting to see how much driving people do, on average, within certain defined radii of their homes: 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 50 miles, etc. Setting aside the serious commuters who don’t use (or have the option of) public transportation, my guess is that most individual, non-commercial driving takes place within that 10-mile radius. But whatever the percentages are, plug-in hybrids will help to eliminate a good deal of city driving — which is the least fuel-efficient kind.

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