Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Think I will buy volt meter stocks.

Hmm...

1st China makes this announcement via Volvo and then India within a couple of days of each other...

Can't say I'm surprised. One estimate says that by 2025 electric cars will be equivalently priced or cheaper than their gas-powered counterparts. If Moore's law applies to Electric Vehicles, they get faster, cheaper, and more range exponentially over time. -While the cost of internal combustion engines and cars continues to go up pretty rapidly, partially due to R&D for meeting CAFE standards, the cost of electric vehicles is coming down at a much faster rate. (Maybe 2 billion people getting electric vehicles will drop the price of all of that 110 octane fuel we're supposed to be getting by 2025 for the rest of us???

It's a huge global disruptor of a trend, particularly for China, who has most of the rare earth metal access required for batteries and a pretty well established electric motor manufacturing capacity and supply chain.


Adam

I use an electric as my shop car. It is pretty slick to buzz around town picking up and dropping off parts without using any gas. I save $200 a month on gas and my electric bill only went up a small amount. The electric car is super low maintenance since the number of moving parts is much lower. No oil changes, transmission is super simple, no water pump or fuel pump or timing belt, etc.

But the electric cars have a big range problem so I still need my old shop truck in case I have to haul something big or go 100 miles. At this point in time I'd say the electric cars are perfect third vehicles, maybe a second vehicle in the right situation, but not ready to be the only vehicle for most people.

I think they have been saying this since the first one in the 1700's, then ethanol was the wave of the future, then they struck oil and the first barrel sold for $40.00 a barrel, my how times change.

EDIT: My understanding is that most of India barly has dependable electricity?

General Motors will stop production of the slow-selling Chevrolet Volt next month and extend the normal retooling time to make the next generation of the extended-range hybrid vehicle.
Sales of the 2015 Volt are slow -- only 1,874 have been sold through the first quarter, down 48% from a year ago.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/g ... /25511433/

exhaustgases wrote:Cool soon every one here will be talking transistors and diodes, instead of cams, carbs etc.

... just as we used to talk about horseshoes and harnesses.

I was thinking lately that tech does not so much "advance", rather "expands"
Weren't we supposed to be "Paperless"? no, now you have to have a computer and a printer and mail and email and computers, and a fax machine. New stuff just adds, but a lot of the old stays. It's like that with music too.
Does not really make sense, but since it is driven by luxury, and just always wants MORE, more, more

modok wrote:I was thinking lately that tech does not so much "advance", rather "expands"
Weren't we supposed to be "Paperless"? no, now you have to have a computer and a printer and mail and email and computers, and a fax machine. New stuff just adds, but a lot of the old stays. It's like that with music too.
Does not really make sense, but since it is driven by luxury, and just always wants MORE, more, more

Yeah it seems like the more tech we get to simplify our lives the less time we have to live it.

I did a driving holiday around California and Nevada last year in a Dodge R/T Challenger ,and in hilly one lane areas if you got caught in a conga line it was almost guaranteed there would be a Volt or Prius at the head doing an impression of the little steam engine that tried {yes i can ,i know i can} .
At the passing areas the Dodge had enough mumbo to clear 10 cars before they could work out who was and who wasn't in the mood for passing.

modok wrote:I was thinking lately that tech does not so much "advance", rather "expands"
Weren't we supposed to be "Paperless"? no, now you have to have a computer and a printer and mail and email and computers, and a fax machine. New stuff just adds, but a lot of the old stays. It's like that with music too.
Does not really make sense, but since it is driven by luxury, and just always wants MORE, more, more

My life has become almost paperless.
I used to make hundreds of paper drawings a year, now it is rare that I see one in a year.
I also do multiples of the work that I used to thanks to technology.

And the power to run these cars will come from??? Coal, natural gas or nuclear?

Solar?

Sounds great...if only they Obeyed any type of traffic laws, street lights…anything.


Oh and maybe one day this “modern mentality” for cars will translate into NOT urinating and defecating right in the street…

andyf wrote:I use an electric as my shop car. It is pretty slick to buzz around town picking up and dropping off parts without using any gas. I save $200 a month on gas and my electric bill only went up a small amount. The electric car is super low maintenance since the number of moving parts is much lower. No oil changes, transmission is super simple, no water pump or fuel pump or timing belt, etc.

I looked into doing this also, but since I would still need my work truck for longer trips, I would have to insure 2 cars, not just one. The added insurance costs offset any fuel savings I would have seen from the electric car.

I think it's coming sooner than later. The Chevy Bolt (not volt) has much better range and could be practical for many drivers.

Best to enjoy the ICE powered vehicle now. I think were in the last great era of factory ICE muscle cars.