TH!NK electric car on sale this year

My round trip is 105 miles. Unfortunately, most of it is interstate/freeway which I think I would get killed in this car. It's bad enough in the Prius with the way people drive.

But even with a greater than 125 round trip, wouldn't most people be able to get access to an outlet at work for a partial recharge? I would Th!nk that as the number of EVs on the road increase, that there would be a call for parking lot recharge stations.

 

In what color would you like your xB?

Ah Tony... stop it! If everything is only about the price of gas at the pump, then we're all screwed. Yeah, I know money has to come into it - but does it always have to be the end-all justification for our transportation?! What of the cost of sending billions of dollars outside of our economy (to nations that hate us?) What the the lives lost to protect our oil "rights?" And what of the cost of the military to defend those rights? Our health? Is that worth anything? We don't pay any of that at the pump!

Our road maintenance funds come from the general fund. You pay for road maintenance even if you never drive.

If I were paying for my electricity, I'd be paying the equivalent of about 70c/gallon of gasoline (assuming 27mpg in a gas Rav4 instead of my Rav4EV). Add The same "road taxes" (mis-named) to my electricity and it'll be nowhere near what we'll all be paying for gasoline in the coming years.... or right now.

Uh... yeah! When we speak of new technology, everybody assumes that EVERY other aspect will remain the same. When we started driving gasoline cars in this country, there were no gas stations! Imagine what the nay-sayers were saying about the idiot gas car drivers back then! But alas, somewhow we turned that corner and made it work, didn't we?

 

daniel, check out ZENN Motor Company and look at the latest news on the proposed 250 mile range and 80mph speed. Apparently, it will be competitive with ICE vehicles. I'm definitely buying this if true, and, it's made in Canada so it's locally produced(though the micro cars currently used are from Europe I believe).

 

Well, since ACP doesn't want to sell outside of CA, I'm debating between blue and yellow for my electric Porsche.

Maybe, might be, some day... just one more in a long list of worthless press releases. BTW, I clicked on the link and didn't see any mention of the super car, but I think I have heard of this far-fetched announcement before.

 

I'd say if you drive less than 85 miles a day this may well be the commuter car for you. I come to this conclusion using the boaters fuel code, one third out, one third back and one third in reserve. The reserve is in case of bad weather where a big sea or head wind can double fuel consumption. This would also apply to an energy efficient vehicle like the Th!nk.

I'd like to see the price come down, but then again I'd like lots of things to be cheaper.

The Solar Energy Company was trying to release the Reva (G-Wizz) onto the AU market but couldn't cut the red tape, that would have cost about $18,000AU but with a range of only 80km and crash safety was dreadful.

 

Although clearly a better automotive choice, I don't see anyone calculating any cost increase associated with electricity. I believe we will see the average nationwide (USA) price DOUBLE within a decade.

 

Electricity has to go up, for at least two reasons: Higher demand, and a falling dollar. But when electricity has gone up from 6 cents to 25 cents per kwh and gas has gone up from $3.50 to $25 per gallon, electricity is going to be even more advanageous than it is now, compared to gas.

 

I'll just add some more PV panels to my array.

I've still got the entire garage roof available too.

I can also do Solar Water pre-heating for my tankless water heater on my bedroom roof.

 

there are SEVERAL viable BEV's available... just not here. i posted a link to an excellent option... but that would be great if you lived in Belgium.

as far as computing costs, we have to realize that the faster you go, the rate of discharge in any stored battery system goes up... iow, it can take 5X units of charge to drive distance A if driven at 30 mph but 10X charge to drive same distance if averaging 50 mph...

on my Zenn (now going by website info only) its rated at 145 mpg using power output only comparing the amount of calories in a gallon of gas to how many calories it takes to move the Zenn a mile at a max 25 mph (i have 36 mph upgrade so my power consumption would be greater)

now that does not mean a vehicle that does 65 mph would use significantly more power. mine does because it direct drive, no tranny. with a vehicle that goes that fast, it has either a humongous motor (which i doubt) or some sort of gearing system. so it power consumption would not change drastically from mine. so i think it a good bet to say that it would still correlate to 100 to 120 mpg...

now on my sig, i post mileage but that is figured by cost of electricity verses cost of gas and figured at cost per mile against current gas prices. i should adjust that down to about 141 mpg... the current figure uses gas at $3.38 a gallon... gas now $3.31 a gallon now.

 

no doubt true... but in some areas. unlike gasoline, electricity is something that people are somewhat more entitled to. it keeps you warm which could a life and death situation so its price is very strictly regulated. no one really cares if you are forced to take a bus or walk, keeping warm to live is another story

huge price increases will not happen everywhere. sure in certain places it will happen, but most of the country will go elsewhere first simply because they will not be allowed to pass on the entire cost of fuel to the consumer. in many places, including mine, pricing is pretty much fixed and it has been for years.

i do pay more for my electricity but only because my area used to enjoy a HUGE subsidy paid to us by the government for the Bonneville Power Administration. (the collection of dams that line the Columbia) we were receiving kickbacks because we lived in the area where the power is coming from....well they stopped that. so my base rate for electricity is 6½ cents/kwh. premium rate is 9.1 cents... 5 years ago, the base rate was 5½ cents, premium rate was 7½ cents... relatively small increase to be honest with ya...no need to talk about gas prices.

now i do pay more because before after the Bonneville kickback, my base rate was only about 4¼ cents...(ya...kickback was around 20-25%...*sigh*.... wish i had my Zenn back then...)

also, its always been said that solar and wind will emerge when cost of gas and oil gets high enough, after the initial startup costs, it will be waaay cheap. so that will also prevent a huge rise in cost...now keep in mind, CA is a different story, but they have been paying crazy prices for EVERYTHING for years

 

You can't just convert the UK price from GBP to USD to get the US price for a car. Brits and Europeans pay about 50% more for the same cars that are on sale in the US. For example, a BMW 335i is 31,000 GBP in the UK which converts to $62,000 at the current conversion rate. However, if you buy the car in the US it is only $38,000. I would expect that the TH!NK will be about $18,000 to $20,000 if it goes on sale in the US.