# Who killed the electric car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 26, 2013, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197 "2013-08-26T13:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/81 "2013-08-30T23:12:40Z")
Except Tesla got a tax subsidy. And even with better materials, it’s still not a viable product. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/82 "2013-08-31T00:20:43Z")
> [@lazarus86](#): > > I really like GM’s Volt. It’s a neat idea, although I wish it had a longer electric range and it looks like it’d be hard to parallel park. But I really enjoy the idea of having a back-up gasoline engine. > > What we have today is electric vehicles right now are only for people who are quite affluent and showboating about it. I couldn’t afford a Tesla or a Volt, and the fuel savings of the Prius are long down the road to offset the cost of gasoline on a car that gets less in the way of MPGs. > > Now obviously being green is good so we should all have electric vehicles right? But right now, being green is a luxury for the affluent. Do you think a working-class family can go out and buy a brand new electric vehicle, a charging station at home, and all that?.. Nah. They are for the people whose needs they meet. That is not everyone. If you have no need to travel more than 70ish in a day with the one vehicle a $28,800 base Nissan Leaf (down to $21,300 after fed incentive) is hardly showboating and the savings add up pretty damn fast. Lease is $199 a month. Not so far off with a Honda Fit EV - lease at $259 a month with nothing down and they provide the charger. (Only certain areas.) The Chevy Spark EV, which is supposed to be [a hoot to drive](http://www.autoblog.com/2013/07/22/2014-chevrolet-spark-ev-review-first-drive-video/), also $199/month lease ($999 down) and $19,995 after tax credit bought outright. You want the range extender? The 2014 Volt will be $34,995 which $27,495 after tax credit. Most days all-electric. Tank is not huge though so not the best road trip car. The C-Max Energi with a lesser range but a bigger tank (did quite well on my recent trip from Chicago to the Jersey shore and then to Maine to drop a kid off at college and then back home across Vermont and New Hampshire until meeting back up with the highways) similarly priced. I figure it pays off its premium over about 5 years. And virtually no one realizes it is anything different than a regular C-Max. Plug it in at night (just with the charger it comes with) and it handles my daily commute on all-electric most days. Some days (especially in winter) the gas is needed more. Your needs vary and so does your best choice. Lots of distance travelling? Get a diesel. Hundreds of city miles a day, a Prius. ---
**Author:** ![LaJument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LaJument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaJument)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/83 "2013-08-31T02:22:06Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Do you happen to have a link, or do you recall how they plan to store the hydrogen? > Last I heard, it really wasn’t a solvable problem, but OTOH lots of people are interested in making money from it. I remember seeing a short news story on a guy who discovered that a tank filled with ground up chicken feathers was able to store a greater volume of hydrogen at a lower pressure than a tank filled with hydrogen alone at a higher pressure. ---
**Author:** ![LaJument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LaJument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaJument)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/84 "2013-08-31T02:47:16Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > A gasoline pump moves chemical energy at 20 MW. It takes a small power plant to wiggle electrons that fast. I was a newly hired intern at an engineering firm. The lead engineer and I were discussing a problem they had been working to solve for several years. I was curious to know what they had tried so far an kept asking one question after another. He finally put down the dry erase marker he had been using, turned away from the dry board and said 'Dave, we have tried everything an nothing works you just can’t go against physics" I responded by saying that I would give the matter some thought to which he grunt-laughed and walked away. I left for lunch and had the problem solved by the time I got back. When It old him that I had solved the problem he laughed. When I drew my solution on the dry board he got a very serious look on his face and then said ‘Dave, you need to be proud of that’. I had managed to solve a problem in less than an hour that had stumped his whole team of engineers for several years. I don’t assume anything is impossible, especially if someone else tells me so. I work through it on my own and this mindset has earned me 5 - soon to be 6 patients in just over 2 years and I am still working on my degree. ---
**Author:** ![LaJument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LaJument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaJument)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/85 "2013-08-31T02:59:33Z")
It was the ICE. that killed the electric car sometime around the turn of the last century. Up till then there were a few steam powered vehicles and the rest were electric. Last I knew electric milk floats still make the early morning deliveries over in Scotland. Silent save for the gentile clanking of the glass milk bottles against one another. Man do I miss dairy fresh milk. ---
**Author:** ![LaJument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LaJument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaJument)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/86 "2013-08-31T03:05:36Z")
I drove a stock 1976 Austin Mini while stationed in Scotland and it,s little 998cc engine delivered 50mpg. Not bad for a car with a curb weight of around 1700 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197/87 "2013-08-31T17:15:08Z")
> [@LaJument](#): > > I don’t assume anything is impossible, especially if someone else tells me so. I work through it on my own and this mindset has earned me 5 - soon to be 6 patients in just over 2 years and I am still working on my degree. Uh huh. Well, let us know when you discover an electrochemical medium that can store and delivery energy at a mass energy density and power throughput rate approaching that of hydrocarbon fuels without threatening to explode or eat itself during operation. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-killed-the-electric-car/667197.md?page=4)