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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (4347)	1/20/2009 6:06:09 PM
From: Hawkmoon	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86356

You REALLY need to get out there and tell Ford Motor Company, GM, Toyota, Samsung, etc etc this information. Why would they want anyone to point this out? They make a ton of money every 5-10 years when people are required to replace either their car, or their battery pack. It's called planned obsolescence and it's a hallmark of Detroit. From the "how stuff works" website, which maybe you should pay a bit of attention to before you spew your rhetoric: There's also an issue with the battery life. Like the AA batteries that you put into your TV remote control, Li-ion batteries eventually die. Even if you aren't using them, they'll begin to degrade as soon as they're made. You can recharge them, but only a limited amount of times. It's like trying to fill up a pitcher of water that has a tiny hole that grows bigger and bigger with each use. We measure battery longevity in cycle lives, or the number of times that you can run it down, charge it up and use it again. With Li-ion batteries, starting from a 100 percent fully-recharged battery will give you a longer individual cycle life, but will reduce the total number of cycles you'll get from it. For that reason, the Tesla Roadster doesn't allow you to re-charge more than 95 percent of the original power or let it drain down to less than 2 percent [source: Eberhard and Straubel]. Also, the company projects the battery pack to last 100,000 miles, or five years. At that point, you would have to replace the battery. auto.howstuffworks.com Pay special attention to that comment about trying to "fill up a pitcher of water that has a tiny hole that grows bigger and bigger with each use". What could be BETTER for a car company trying to initially sell you the razor, and then have you dependent upon buying their razor blades?? But the question REALLY SHOULD BE, is it the most efficient solution to our economic problems regarding energy and does their benefit outweigh the potential economic costs. Either way we're going to need to import critical materials (Oil and/or Lithium) and you're trying to push a technology where essentially those cars will need a new "engine" every 5 years. And even if they are PHEV, where there is an engine and battery, most people will not be able to afford a new battery pack after 5-10 years, and will just run it on engine only mode. Hawk