Gas Prices

IIRC, the Volt will go a year before it starts burning off fuel to make a room for fresh stuff.

A car's gas tank is by far better sealed than what is used for lawn mower gas. PHEV's tanks are even tighter. This limits the amount of volatile compounds in the gasoline that evaporate and escape, and the amount of extra humidity and oxygen that gets in to the tank.

 

The Volt will turn the ICE on if fresh fuel hasn't been added in a year and will continue burning it until the system determines enough fresh fuel has been added. Maybe the Prime works on the same parameters.

 

There's a Republican state congressman that is trying working on qualifying a ballot measure to rescend the gas tax. I'm not sure how I'll vote. I'm not paying much for gas anyway and want better roads, but we're paying too much for gasoline here and that cap and trade law already raised gasoline prices about $.11/gallon. They should repurpose that money towards the roads. Plus, any increase in fuel costs gets passed on to the consumer in other ways like an increase in goods and services.

 

No. When I had a Volt it would turn the engine on for a few minutes every 6 weeks. After about 6 months without using the engine otherwise, the Volt enters fuel maintenance mode where it will actively burn gas until at least half the tank consists of new gas.

 

You don't think we should eventually get off of fossil fuels?

 

In theory, six months. Fill-up after the summer-to-winter blend and six months later when they revert.

Bob Wilson

 

What does that have to do with gasoline taxes? As far as cap and trade goes, the oil companies don't care, they'll just up the cost of gasoline and make us pay for it.

 

If you would like the world to get off of fossil fuels, then you should be wishing for higher gas prices in whatever form they come. A long steady march towards $20 a gallon would be a wonderful thing. Key word is "long" since quick increases cause lots of issues in the marketplace.

 

But that's since Sept 14th. Still under two weeks, so not a problem. I passed 900 miles this morning.

 

Dang! You obviously charge at least 3 times a day.

 

Mostly, once home and once away. My EV range has been 32 - 37 actual and usually better than the forecast amount.

 

I'd agree if not for the fact that higher fuel costs will make everything that's transported (I.e., almost everything you buy) more expensive. It would push people into buying more fuel efficient vehicles though, but batteries just aren't good enough yet to replace the IC engine.

 

We're in a state of rapidly changing technology:

The batteries and their costs are significantly better to the point they are almost a practical solution. However, the lack of fast DC charging for cross country travel is a hard problem. For example, Chevy has a CCS-style, fast DC charger but I suspect the local dealer will allow access only during business hours like they do for the L2 charger. Then there is a reliability problem.

We have one fast DC charger, 40kW, that has been down more than up over the past two weeks. It won't be until there are at least two, 24x7, fast DC chargers that EVs will be practical. Of course the Tesla owners already have one in Athens AL:

I took this photo while running the BMW i3-REx gas tank down testing the coding. But as I looked at the empty stalls, I'm not ready to give up the gas engine for EV only driving.

Bob Wilson

 

That's why it needs to happen very slowly. Market forces (ie supply/demand) would then push more people to buy hybrid/plug in/BEV cars. This in turn would drive volume making batteries, the tech involved, and those cars cheaper and better. And as a possible side benefit...many times we see people that get plug ins eventually get solar. This would clean up our grid as well.

 

I agree on the slow change. It gives time for people to change their perceptions and not feel forced into a drastic change they may not be ready for. If they think it's their decision to go hybrid/EV, they'll like it much more and give it a chance. As more and more people drive them, they become more and more normal. Historically, we have some of the lowest gas prices in the nation and yet there are a ton of 3rd GENs running around here and I'm seeing a lot of new 2016's as well. Only two confirmed Primes in town that I know ofm and I've yet to see any others, here or in the DFW area.

 

Since inflation is about 3%, we would want a raise in gas prices that slightly outpaces that. About 5% a year would be the sweet spot I think. Not too fast to hurt people, but quick enough that it would impact people's decision each time someone buys a different car.

 

unfortunately, market conditions rule the day, not what 'we' want.

 

Is gasoline really that bad? The power to charge your battery powered car has to come from somewhere. If it comes from a coal generating plant, coal is worse. Any power plant that burns fossil fuels (most do) pollute. Then there's transmission line losses. Nuclear? Remember Fukashima. Hydrogen? Comes from oil (currently). Solar? Helps, but I don't think most existing solar systems are large enough to charge multiple BEVs and also provide for home power use. My system can't generate enough power if I run my a/c and charge my Prime at the same time.

 

California has to pay Arizona to take their solar energy in peak production times so as not to overload the grid. There is more solar than the state of California can consume at times! Think about that for a second. What they lack is a good energy storage system to be able to time the release according to demand. Same with wind. Storage is key. I am pretty sure there is (or can be) enough solar and wind energy in this country (many place with lots of sun and/or wind) to provide a significant chunk of demand. The problem is timing and distribution. That is a matter of time before those problems get solved. So yes, gasoline is bad and yes, we do have the ability today to create enough solar and/or wind to take a reasonable bite out of coal and oil. It's a matter of political (read: business) will, not technological possibilities.

 

Yes, it's that bad. Two big problems, it's not renewable and that means when it's gone, it's gone, and second, it's a big contributor to global warming. While the latter only effects us a bit currently, that will grow over time. We have to move to something else sooner or later, and preferably sooner for our descendants sake, and the country that makes the change the fastest will be a big winner.

Whether it's nuclear (fission, or eventually fusion), larger scale solar projects (they're coming!), wind, hydro, or something we can't even imagine now, I don't much care, but we *will* have to change, no matter what. (unless we kill ourselves.)