Electric cars...

[Victor3]

They have an at home n/g compressor not cheap by any means($4000+) and it is designed to fill a n/g car tank not a standing tank.

 Yup...


http://www.cngnow.com/vehicles/refueling/pages/refueling-at-home.aspx


 I looked into a CNG Honda Civic before I bought a regular one a few months ago. Dealer I bought mine at sells quite a few CNG Civics around here (SoCal). We have several filling stations. Closest one to me is a city yard a mile away that's open to the public.


 Some advantages are:


 $4500 in tax credits
 $3000 gas card with purchase
 Legal with one person in carpool lanes (reason most folks buy them in SoCal)
 0% financing
 Same mileage as with regular gas
 CNG is ~$2.50/gal equivalent
 Free parking at LAX and some other local places
 Refuel at home (with credit from gas company it's cheaper than at a fill station)


 Disadvantages:


 Price of car is ~$6000 more than regular gas one
 Range is ~50 miles less than with regular gas
 30 HP less than with regular gas
 ~60% of trunk space is taken up by the tank
 Home filling station is expensive and needs dedicated gas line
 Some public filling stations are not open 24 hours
 
 

[Swampman]

You are correct Swampi, they do last well for the most part.  In those instances where they didn't, the factory has covered them to keep folks from knowing.
 
There is no such thing as an "as new" used battery.  I've been doing this over 40 years.  Batteries, all of them are made up of multiple cells.  You can replace bad cells, but unless you replace them ALL, it's still just a used battery with some cells as old as the ones that failed.
 
Ben

When you take the battery out of a new Prius that has been wrecked it's an as new used battery.  That's how you get one for a reasonable price.

[Conan The Librarian]

The concerns about battery life seem to be unfounded. They've been around long enough that the cars wear out and are no longer serviceable. Usually, the batteries are still in good shape. Bottom line is that concerns about battery replacement are based on bad information. The reality is:
1) The battery will generally not need to be replaced during the life of the car. (Nominally about 12 or 13 years)
2) If they do need to be replaced, they are not nearly as expensive as the doomsayers have tried to lead us to believe.

[scootrd]

The concerns about battery life seem to be unfounded. They've been around long enough that the cars wear out and are no longer serviceable. Usually, the batteries are still in good shape. Bottom line is that concerns about battery replacement are based on bad information. The reality is:
1) The battery will generally not need to be replaced during the life of the car. (Nominally about 12 or 13 years)
2) If they do need to be replaced, they are not nearly as expensive as the doomsayers have tried to lead us to believe.

Engineers consider the NiMH batteries in Prius and other Toyota hybrids to be a life-of-the-car component. It could be several owners and hundreds of thousands of miles down the line before the pack requires replacement, at which point the car itself may well be past its prime.

    2001-2003 Toyota Prius (1st generation) - $3,649 minus $1,350 "core credit"
    2004-2008 Toyota Prius (2nd generation) - $3,649 minus $1,350 "core credit"
    2009-present Toyota Prius (3rd generation) - $3,939 minus $1,350 "core credit"
    Toyota Camry Hybrid - $3,541, core credit deducted
    Toyota Highlander Hybrid - $4,848, core credit deducted

[Swampman]

As I mentioned there is no point in buying a new battery.

[BAGTIC]

The easiest way is to adopt reasonable horsepower levels. My car has 215 hp and takes me anywhere I need to go. My first car was a 120 hp straight six that did the same. For 15 years I drove a VW Rabbit with 70 hp and it did too.  All of these with a 16 ft fishing boat though I admit that on a couple of looong  winding 7% grades  I had to shift the Rabbit into third gear to keep the torque up at low speeds (25-30 mph) imposed by the curves. With an automatic even that would not have been necessary.
There are now passenger cars with 600+ hp.. Why? We won WW2 with 300 hp tanks.
Also the average house today is 2-2.5 times larger than in the 1950's while families are smaller. Austetation and conspicuous consumption.
Most important bring the out of control population growth rate to a halt. Or is it easier to send our youth off the die in some god forsaken hell hole to preserve 'our way of life'?

[dakotashooter2]

Electric cars make a lot of sense in urban areas  but for day to day use in rural areas they are wrought with issues. The first being range. The solutions to a vehicle that has run out of charge is pretty limited 40 miles from the nearest town. You can't just run an extension cord to the nearest farmhouse a mile away. That leads to the next issue..time to charge. When you do run out of charge it takes TIME to recharge. With gas you just dump it in and go. Temperature is also an issue in many areas. every degree the temp drop below zero battery performance suffers.  The biggest issue that no one is considering is the tax on the electrical grid. We have trouble providing enough electrical energy for what we have now.  I really think hybreds are the best all around option. utilizing electric for short range and stop and go city driving with fossilfuel capability for long range and adverse conditions.

[BAGTIC]

A new miraculous solution comes along every month or so but the so far have never panned out. The difference is between the opinion of someone trying to raise startup capital from investors and someone having to dig into his own pockets. NASA uses it because there is no suitable alternative at any cost and they are not paying the bill from their own pocket. WE are. It is no different that all the other futuristic balderdash that has been espoused over the years. B.S. is cheap. Reality is not. Put it in the same category a political campaign rhetoric.
Truly practical inventions do not need to be subsidized. If they are superior they will make it on their own merit.
i