Would you buy one?

[jwax]

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
Very cool car, but why were they destroyed and discontinued?

[VIRAND]

Because it would have put the terrorists out of business?

Take a look at this too.
http://www.fuellessflight.com/

And this! The filling station could be a windmill.
http://www.theaircar.com/

[hlreed]

The main thing that killed the electric car, aside from fear, was the charging problem. Drive 40 miles and charge overnight. I have a Prius and I have an electric hand mower. The hand mower is a lot more trouble.
Sometimes I wish it were a hybrid.

[jwax]

Not a problem for many! I drive a few miles to work each day, a few miles to shop, etc.
Assuming I cannot charge while at work, I'd plug in every few days. No problem.
Certainly not a vehicle for everybody, but would just as certainly solve many commuters needs. More practical than a Hummer!

[jollyrgr]

I went to the fuel less flight site VIRAND posted about. Okay, let me get this worked out as it is giving me a headache.

A proprietary low-boiling-point-liquid is vaporized into a low density lighter-than-air lifting gas using the heat in the air near the surface. This creates buoyancy that allows the buoyant aerostat to upward glide. The air becomes very cold when high altitude is reached and the lifting gas is cooled and changes phase to high density liquid that is heavier-than-air. Lift is lost and the aircraft glides back down toward the surface where the Atmospheric Power Cycle is repeated as the low altitude warmer air vaporizes the liquid back into a lifting gas to create lift again. Phase change is performed by heat exchangers that take in heat or reject heat to the atmosphere. The aircraft is insulated to prevent premature condensation or vaporization of the working fluid while climbing or descending.

This says the gas boils at the surface temperatures and becomes "lighter" and less dense. This creates buoyancy for upward lift. When it cools at the colder, higher altitude this special substance becomes a high density liquid that is heavier than air. The aircraft then becomes a glider and goes back down. Isn't this like the truck driver hauling birds. He goes to the scales and is over weight. To get out of the ticket he bangs on the side of the truck so cause the birds to fly, there by the truck is lighter because the birds are flying around?

Less dense gasses like hydrogen and helium provide lift because they are less dense than air (mostly nitrogen and oxygen). Heating air for a hot air balloon causes the gas bag to have warm, less dense air in it. The balloon floats in this case only because for the shape of the balloon there is LESS AIR in that volume of space than an equivalent volume of the colder air around it.

The way this plane is described does not say anything about venting any of the gas; thus the substance, whether in gas or liquid state WEIGHT THE SAME!

Never mind, I've got to get back and turn some more lead into gold.

[dacflyer]

i seen one of these last month , its was really cool and simple..almost like a road worthy golf cart..

http://www.didik.com/citicar.htm

[hlreed]

Electric cars are wonderfully simple and nice. They are:
Battery -> controller -> motor -> wheels. No grease, no oil, no mess.
Even when you run out of battery, it is not like running out of gas. You can still get off the road.

The problem is the battery does not have much capacity, compared to gasoline. With gas, you refill the tank. With battery you recharge.

There are several ways to recharge:
Plug it in. (takes time)
Use a gas engine to charge. (you can also use the gas engine for power)
Use a fuel cell. (nice, but a long time off until you can buy one)

During the most popular time for electric cars, 1900 to 1915 they had no good recharge methods. Most houses then had no electricity. There were no ready made chargers.

In 1913 the electric starter (electric system in a car) made the gas car usable and the electrics had no customers.

[VIRAND]

I went to the fuel less flight site VIRAND posted about. Okay, let me get this worked out as it is giving me a headache.

A proprietary low-boiling-point-liquid is vaporized into a low density lighter-than-air lifting gas using the heat in the air near the surface. This creates buoyancy that allows the buoyant aerostat to upward glide. The air becomes very cold when high altitude is reached and the lifting gas is cooled and changes phase to high density liquid that is heavier-than-air. Lift is lost and the aircraft glides back down toward the surface where the Atmospheric Power Cycle is repeated as the low altitude warmer air vaporizes the liquid back into a lifting gas to create lift again. Phase change is performed by heat exchangers that take in heat or reject heat to the atmosphere. The aircraft is insulated to prevent premature condensation or vaporization of the working fluid while climbing or descending.

This says the gas boils at the surface temperatures and becomes "lighter" and less dense. This creates buoyancy for upward lift. When it cools at the colder, higher altitude this special substance becomes a high density liquid that is heavier than air. The aircraft then becomes a glider and goes back down. Isn't this like the truck driver hauling birds. He goes to the scales and is over weight. To get out of the ticket he bangs on the side of the truck so cause the birds to fly, there by the truck is lighter because the birds are flying around?

Less dense gasses like hydrogen and helium provide lift because they are less dense than air (mostly nitrogen and oxygen). Heating air for a hot air balloon causes the gas bag to have warm, less dense air in it. The balloon floats in this case only because for the shape of the balloon there is LESS AIR in that volume of space than an equivalent volume of the colder air around it.

The way this plane is described does not say anything about venting any of the gas; thus the substance, whether in gas or liquid state WEIGHT THE SAME!

Never mind, I've got to get back and turn some more lead into gold.

OK, sorry, when I first saw the site they did not say how it worked and I assumed it might have been a hybrid compressed air system, which could intake and compress air and generate electricity on the way down.
Now, it looks like an obfuscated gliding balloon.
There aren't too many choices of compounds that easily change from a liquid to a lighter than air gas, but water and ammonia are the most common ones that do.

[jwax]

Regardless, the thing is a novelty- nothing more and certainly not practical. The thread is about electric cars anywho.

[jollyrgr]

The photo dacflyer posted is of something I remember seeing as a kid. Someone in my neighborhood had one of these. The owner used this to travel around town to go to the local stores and what not. He lived on the far south side of the neighborhood, the stores were not quite a mile north of him, about two blocks north of me.

His car was yellow, almost the yellow you see construction equipment made out of. The most vivid memory I have of this car was the number of times I'd see him pushing it home. (I gues the positive is that you COULD push something like this home as opposed to pushing home a Suburban or Excursion.) But think about this, he lived about a mile away from his desitination and could not get a full round trip. Possibly he did not charge it every time as he would drive home in it most of the time. But he did end up pushing it home enought times that I can recall seeing it happen a number of times.

My point being is a gasoline based car can be "recharged" long enough to get to a "recharging" station in about 30 seconds. Once at a refueling station the system is recharged in a few minutes. Currently it takes me about five to eight minutes to dump 35 gallons into my Suburban. This will get me about 500 miles of travel. Reading stories about electric cars (not hybrids mind you) is that a full charge will garner 40 miles. The recharge is several hours. I'm curious as to what the owner of this car (posted above) experiences.