🚀 go-pugleaf

bdebreil@teaser.fr (Bernard Debreil) wrote:

>The day when EVs will appear practical, that is, when I can drive 300
>miles with an EV without refueling, and that the cost per driven mile
>(including that due to battery wear) will no longer be a lot higher than
>that of ICEs, I will gladly buy an EV. 

Me too.

>But, if I were to bid on any new car, I would rather bet on an electric
>car that would be powered by an hydrogen fuel cell... Hydrogen seems
>most convenient, since it does not pollute, it is easily produced at a
>good recovery by electrolysis of water... Hydrogen, in a way, would be a
>good medium of storageing electric power, a lot better than chemical
>cells batteries.

I, too, think that this is how it will eventually shake out.

>... however, I think that
>research on fuel cells is going forward a lot faster than that on
>batteries.

Agreed. You can ALREADY get a NG fueled cell to power your house. PG&E
has SEVERAL fuel cell projects in work. There are several buildings in
So. .Cal. powered by fuel cells.

>Well, you must consider that a standard ICE battery remains almost
>always at full charge; it is not being submitted to discharge currents
>of more than one tenth of its capacity (except for a few seconds at a
>time, when starting the car). Lead batteries wear a lot faster when in a
>state of discharge, since lead sulphate is being produced. An EV battery
>is being constantly discharged at intensities that are a lot higher than
>that of one tenth of their capacities. 

You make the point better than I did, do you have this posted on a web
page so I can cite it?


>So, I believe that, with today's technology, an EV is workable in
>circumstances where costs don't count: in the army or for competition
>purposes for instance...

Agreed, or in enclosed spaces.

> Today, I don't know anyone in France who
>owns an EV privately.

And I know of nobody locally who ownes an EV except for golf.

>Maybe someday, when the technology of batteries will have made a lot of
>progress, will there be a possibility of swapping batteries in relay
>stations: you get a fully charged one in exchange for you discharged
>one, for so much money... If this ever happens, the price of the swap
>will have to be rather high, since it will call for costly handling, and
>take account of battery replacement when out of order...

Yes, proponents of charging stations are not taking labor costs into
account.  We have self-serve gas bacause labor is too expensive to
pump it, even though it is a simple operation. I can not imagine a
self-serve battery replacement by someone who knows NOTHING about the
technical aspects of the vehicle.

Part of the problem is that this is bsing discussed in sci.*
newsgroups amoung folks that understand these things. They are going
to be sold to Joe Sixpack whose knows NOTHING about the systems
involved. Till they can be owned  and operated by the general public
and repaired at the corner garage or any dealership, nothing is going
to happen.

Nobody is going to want to take the car to a $200 per hour shop to
repair them.

George Bonser
grep@cris.com

Forbes for President in '96