I am a fan of the idea of electric cars.

I would like to be excited at this article, & I would be, if:

1/ I had not read the same stuff in 1980, 90 & 2000.

2/ The thing was not written by a bloke, blinded by the stars in his eyes, & a GREEN dream, about 2 miles high.

I notice he makes no comment about where this power is to come from. KenH is the only bloke who can see the problem.

We are supposed to want to cut back on coal power. Not develop atomic stuff, & then run our electric cars.

We would be better off getting everyone a sailing land yacht, if we want to drive our cars on wind power.

I see no reference to the lack of rare earth to make the required batteries.

The Darwin/Adelaide solar powered car race is now decades old, but I can't buy one of those yet either. Still, I suppose it keeps the greenies dreaming, & public servants spending our money in subsidies.

The electric vehicle (EV) will not take to the streets in Australia, other than in nominal numbers, until the following conditions have been met:

1. Vehicle batteries have been developed which are light, durable and cheap to manufacture which can be charged rapidly and hold a charge able to provide for travel of at least 250 km. between charges and:

2. The cost of new electric vehicles and converting fossil-fuelled vehicles to electric propulsion fall to levels which are much closer to existing vehicle prices, or:

3. Fuel cells have been developed which provide a safe, reliable source of electricity for electric vehicles enabling them to travel virtually distances limited only by capacity of their fuel tanks.

It is likely that the first break-through will come with development and commercial application of battery technology, probably within the next 2-3 years, probably in the USA or Europe. This fundamental development has yet to be made. It is essential to make EV’s a commercial reality.

Equipped with a battery with characteristics described above, mass production of EV’s would become an attractive, much lower risk proposition than at present and unit cost would fall significantly. The product would be perceived as one which is reliable, much cheaper to operate and market demand would grow exponentially, as would production competitiveness.

A reliable, efficient fuel cell would extend the use of electric propulsion to long distance vehicles including road, rail and sea and, ultimately, air. The current state of technology suggests fuel cell development is longer term, unlikely to be achieved before 2015.

What is certain is that increasing demand for a dwindling commodity will make oil-derived fuels unaffordable and the cheapest alternative, electricity, competitive with and cleaner than liquefied natural gas and other fuel options.

Honda has very quietly been developing a hydrogen car with an accompanying home refueler.

http://smh.drive.com.au/green-motoring/fill-er-up--in-your-own-driveway-20100129-n346.html

That is one hell of an advantage they have given themselves. This is the first sign I have ever seen of a car company willing to break ranks, compete and stop holding back good ideas and progress. If this happens say goodbye to the oil industry.

Mikk, would you like to suggest where the hydrogen is going to come from?

Hasbeen
I presume they get it from water using the electricity from the solar panels. A simple and well known procedure for many many years but only now has a company, and a car company at that, broken ranks and decided to develop and manufacture such a system.

Previously all the huge companies that would be negatively effected by such technology (oil companies, car companies, mining, steel, transport companies etc etc) have colluded to bury such ideas as hydrogen, efficient engines, home vehicle refueling, automation and more. Not to mention what they did (and still do) to public transport.

Good to see Honda bucking the system and i hope they clean up with what would be an utter revolution in cars and transport. No more pollution, no more petrol stations (or tanker bombs roaming the streets), a lot less noise (I live on a main road grrrr), independence, no more relying on oil companies to fleece us with their price manipulation.

Mikk, you do talk so much rubbish. Your strange hatred of large companies makes a fool of you. I don't know where you get the idea that fuel cells would cause problems for anyone, other than oil companies, & even they would be able to swing their distribution systems to suit.

Hydrogen safe? Remember the hindenburg? Solar panels? You'd produce more CO2 producing them, than you'd save getting rid of the petrol.

I like Honda, & hope it works for them, but the only advantage of Hydrogen against electric, is range, & so far, the price is too high. Too many losses in the chain.

Might as well, stick the solar panel on the roof of your car, & only go to work on sunny days.

GM, & Ford have both played, at quite considerable expense, with Hydrogen fuel cells. They gave up due to lack of efficiency. The straight electric car suffers is so much less from this.

My old car turns 30 this may, & I'll bet I'm still filling it with petrol, when the age police take my licence, in another 30 or so. I'll be too old then to bother with any of these newfangled electric, or hydrogen cars, they are about to start making at that time. Besides, they'll probably look just as bad as that new box on wheels, we bought for my wife, recently.