Who will buy an electric car when they are available?

[greenfoam]

Electric cars have potential, at least as very high performance vehicles. But! for basic transport it only takes a couple months riding a decent push bike to average 30km/h, not much less than many commuters average going to work and the fuel costs are only the left over fat from last nights pizza. Better to put the infrastructure in for bikes rather than automated battery swapping stations at this point in time imho. Not to mention every girl would have a hot *** instead of a car seat shaped one

[Stagg]

Originally Posted by greenfoam

Electric cars have potential, at least as very high performance vehicles. But! for basic transport it only takes a couple months riding a decent push bike to average 30km/h, not much less than many commuters average going to work and the fuel costs are only the left over fat from last nights pizza. Better to put the infrastructure in for bikes rather than automated battery swapping stations at this point in time imho. Not to mention every girl would have a hot *** instead of a car seat shaped one

ahahahaha that's true

I mentioned in this thread earlier, all of the merits of riding a push bike are merits that make me gravitate towards riding a bike to work,

The one aspect that deters me from buying a bike is how much rage they cause myself and other drivers!!!

I drive my car normally 20-50km a week (bit extra this week because of interviews and afd on Sunday), but otherwise I get the tram to work and walk everywhere

[fou_bleu]

Originally Posted by cheap

Yep the Land Cruiser is my daily drive, the Mrs has a CX9 to haul the kids and their friends around, the CX9 uses even more fuel than the Land Cruiser and has a bigger footprint (width x length) too. I have a few other toys for weekend duty

So when someone invents an electric vehicle which meets my family needs as opposed to meeting the needs of a some latte drooling, metro-sexual from an inner city suburb, let me know.

I have a brother-in-law who bragged about his Prius, driving from Sydney to Brisbane on a tank of gas, he's only done it once, my guess he need to see a chiropractor to readjust his back from 12 hours of cramped driving. He's also started getting into the "out of warranty" zone with the Prius - ouch $$$ ouch... He doesn't mention the Prius much anymore.

So what is the point of owning an electric car if you can't afford to keep it drivable? Fuel is only a small part of the cost of ownership.

[Matty4]

Originally Posted by MercuryT

Its not lame, uninformed or weak etc for people to have their own view

Originally Posted by 4RD4TW

No, it's not, but ignoring the facts and going by bias is...

A bit like this entire forum really....

[Matty4]

Originally Posted by z80

Sound of the motor ?

Who cares about engine noise when this is standard equipment?

Model S comes equipped with 17" touchscreen, a 200-watt, seven-speaker stereo system with AM/FM and HD radio tuners .


Power?

0-100km/h in 5.6 seconds....


"Whatever"?

-480 km range on one charge

-Top speed 200km/h

30 minute fast charge available...a coffee and snack and you're away again.



So what else have you got to complain about in an electric car?

read this page...

http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/performance

IT's rear wheel drive too....
,

Originally Posted by z80

Unfortunately it will be around $200k by the time it hits the shores in Aus.

You've pretty much pointed it out for us...

[Stagg]

http://www.aptera.com/

http://www.plugincars.com/aptera-2e/price

Here is a car which I had a deposit on (That's right I actually had a deposit down in 2010 to be the first one in Australia to have one of there!!), but it got sent back to me because they didn't have enough interest in the car outside of California.

But, as everyone on here is saying that it's too expensive and it doesn't go far enough. The electric (2e) had a range of about 400km around town. They also had a hybrid version for the Aptera as well for a further range.

Look at it either way you want, but I see a $27,000 drive away price with a fuel economy of 1.18L/100km

[Stagg]

I also think that people should have a look at this at some point in their lives, it sure as anything changed my view about the electric car altogether.

http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

I didn't even know that GM were making road registrable electric cars in 1995, but I obviously didn't know because I wasn't allowed to know hahaha

[superyob]

Never! Fossil fuel rules!!!!

[greenfoam]

I've been paying attention to the Isle of Man TT Zero class which are electric race bikes, every year they get faster. I'm expecting them to be much quicker again this year

[trippytaka]

Once 3 things are done I will buy an electric car as my daily driver:

1) The electricity consumed to charge it is from renewable sources (betterplace.org.au looks like it has this wrapped up)

2) Infrastructure for charging points is built (again, better place is doing this)

3) EVs are the same price as an internal combustion motor powered car.

It seems to me the only thing stopping EVs is the expense... higher volumes of sales would help with this. So would government assistence.

Solution? Why not build a local industry of EV manufacturing and supporting technology with government subsidies generated from a super profits mining tax, or the carbon tax? Nah, that's way too logical to work.

[Stagg]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

Once 3 things are done I will buy an electric car as my daily driver:

1) The electricity consumed to charge it is from renewable sources (betterplace.org.au looks like it has this wrapped up)

2) Infrastructure for charging points is built (again, better place is doing this)

3) EVs are the same price as an internal combustion motor powered car.

It seems to me the only thing stopping EVs is the expense... higher volumes of sales would help with this. So would government assistence.

Solution? Why not build a local industry of EV manufacturing and supporting technology with government subsidies generated from a super profits mining tax, or the carbon tax? Nah, that's way too logical to work.

That sounds more than fair to me. It's not expecting more than what you would expect from a standard internal combustion car (i.e. over 1000km range and be cheaper than an internal combustion car).

Dollar for dollar, they should be the same cost comparably. Just like the Tesla, it's available in Australia for about $200k. What few people know is that it is actually one of the cheapest all carbon fiber cars available today, and that it is a super-car. $200k is pretty cheap considering it is quicker than a $600k Lambo.

Nissan will get there, $50k for an electric leaf which supercedes the Nissan Tiida is a bit rich.

The biggest killer is that EV's aren't cheap or as practical as internal combustion cars currently, because of infrastructure. However, that should not be a deterrent for people to buy an EV in 10 years time, more so that if no one starts buying in very small figures now, than the price will not come down.

I am however confident that people will be buying the Tiida and i-Miev this year, at their current prices, not because they will bring the price down, but because they acknowledge that the transition from internal combustion to EV is inevitable. Whether you buy one now, in ten years, or in twenty years, it will happen. I was willing to put down a $27k loan for the Aptera 2e, and I did at age 18, although it hasn't made it to Australia yet; guess why? because only myself and two other people on the whole country saw a $27k brand new car powered by electricity practical and fairly priced. No wonder they sent me my money back and said sorry but there isn't enough interest yet.

EDIT: IF you're in the market for a cheaper electric car, one that is used because a new EV is too expensive, well they ARE available, here in Victoria:

http://bev.com.au/

No denying the transition from internal combustion to EV will have to come to fruition soon!

[MercuryT]

Originally Posted by Matty4

A bit like this entire forum really....

Spot on, couldn't have said it better.

Imagine being at a pub having a beer with some of these clowns....."Sky was very blue today"...response.... "Sky is not blue? Why would you think that? You are biased and lame and ignoring facts. Its colourless gasses that give the impression of blue".

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by MercuryT

Spot on, couldn't have said it better.

Imagine being at a pub having a beer with some of these clowns....."Sky was very blue today"...response.... "Sky is not blue? Why would you think that? You are biased and lame and ignoring facts. Its colourless gasses that give the impression of blue".

noone is forcing you to log on...