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The all new Electric Mini Cooper


cityboi

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well next year an all electric Mini will be available for leasing. The new mini will go 100 miles per charge making it an excellent vehicle to go to and from work. An amp box can be installed at your home for charging and it can take as little as 3 hours to completely charge your car depending on which box you get. If you use no amp box, it will take 20 hours to charge to 100%. This would not be a great car for long distance traveling because there are no charging stations in most areas but its a great vehicle for just daily city driving. You would no longer have to worry about how high the gas is today. But the vehicle is a very quiet and has a unique sound to it. The down side is that there is no back seat because the lithium battery takes up the back seat area. The battery adds an additional 300 lbs to the car but thats actually a plus because it helps improve handling on the Mini.

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I love the look of the Mini and wouldn't mind having one myself. Having an all electric version would be something I'd be interested in since my commute to work is only three miles. I'm worried about the premium they would put on an all electric version though. Most companies are getting ridiculous with the premiums for this.

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Lithium Ion batteries are pretty expensive to manufacture. (ever price a replacement laptop battery) Enough of them for a car is enormously expensive which is why these are not common but within the realm of technology today. Hybrid Technologies in Mooresville, NC already makes a lithium Mini cooper, but it cost $65,000. These batteries don't last a long time either. You are also looking at a very expensive car that might have a $0 resale value after 5-7 years because of the cost to put a new battery pack in it. In fact it may also be a negative cost because there are expenses in disposing of these batteries in a safe manner.

My guess is that until this problem is solved that vehicles will move towards some type of series hybrid setup where there will be a small engine of some sort where fuel can be burned to generate electricity. It would reduce the amount of batteries needed and give the care more range.

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eventually those problems will be solved, including newer and cheaper battery technology that allows the driver to go 600 to 700 miles per charge. Thats when the majority of the cars on the road will be electric. But you are right about the cost of the batteries monsoon. That may make up for the cost of gas you pay depending on how long the batteries last. Also there would be a spike in your power bill. I still think the oil companies are positioning themselves to make money off this some kind of way. I wouldnt be surprise to see power companies merge with the oil companies in the future. Charging stations will replace many gas stations in the decades ahead. In the end we may learn that nothing is for free but I guess we'll see how this turns out. On a positive side this is good for the environment.

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^

The oil companies are already experimenting with alternative fuels. Shell, for instance, has its hands in biofuels, wind, solar and hydrogen. BP is also dabbling in this and even has experimental hydrogen refueling stations in Iceland. I believe that in the future, there will be not just 1 fuel dominating like there is today, but there will be a number of competing fuel technologies; from electric/battery to hydrogen to biofuel and maybe some we don't even know about yet. I believe that oil companies will just transform themselves into mobile energy companies and sell a myriad of different energy products that will make them a one-stop shop for energy, much like big box stores are to retail. Charging stations will be just one of many things out there and will likely be integrated into other refueling stations.

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mass conversion of the american driving fleet to electric cars would most likely be powered by the burning of coal. most of the good spots to locate hydro electric plants have already been developed. hydro electric and other renewables are less than 10% of our current domestic electricity diet.

do we ramp up coal burning or nuclear power to fuel our electric cars?

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I still don't believe this. First there is the argument that continuing to devote so much resources to the automobile dependent lifestyle isn't good for the environment. i.e. Let cars die off and concentrate on making cities more dense and having effective mass transit rather than attempt to keep building highways for cars.

Second, even if you reject the above argument, battery powered cars mean building a car that has and effictive life of 5-7 years of driving because nobody will invest the money in that age of a car to put a new battery back in it. This has huge implications for disposal of the old batteries and it eliminates a big portion of the used car market because nobody will want to buy a used car that will have to have the batteries replaced in a couple of years. This means that cars become disposable much faster which has huge implications for resource use, energy use and so forth of the entire fleet in general.

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Can't argue against a conspiracy theory. I personally don't believe in something like this as an oil company would make quite a bit of money on something like this. There is also no such thing as a secret patent. It ranks up there with the same stories of oil companies keeping the pill that turns gasoline into water off the market too. It doesn't make business sense.

Being an electrical engineer however I would not be so quick to say a battery that lasts forever is just around the corner. They have been working towards that for the last 100 years since cars are not the only thing to need batteries. Progress is slow and difficult and may not turn out to be viable against other potential technologies.

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clean coal... thats rich! clean coal is whitewash packaging crafted by the best public relations professionals that money can buy. healthy cigarettes anyone? is there a cool, catchy zinger developed for mountaintop removal mining?

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  • 2 weeks later...

idian manufacturer mahindra to introduce diesel/hybrid pickup that is to be assembled in ohio?

interesting.... still hung up on where the additional electricity is going to be generated. "just plug it into the wall!"... i laugh so as to not cry.

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