BMW Megacity EV limited @ 90 mph 100-125 mile range
Mini E 95 mph 109 mile range
Volkswagen Golf Blue-e-motion 84mph 60-100 mile range
Other car makers are also scrambling to produce electric vehicles of thier own. Try surfing the web for electric motorcycles and boats as well, it's really fascinating and very good news.
Charging stations are now being incorporated into pay parking lots and garages, office parking , retail stores, hotels, shopping centers, and restaraunts from coast to coast.
by Pete Whipple on Monday, December 6, 2010 at 1:34am
Charge your car while you work or shop.
Electric cars on the market today have a range of 100 miles or more, so with a charger at home and a public charger you could live more than 100 miles from your workplace, favorite restaraunt, or shopping spot. One million EV chargers are expected to be installed in the United States in the next three years. Chargers are already installed all over California, and in Washington, Oregon, Colorado,Texas, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Delaware, Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio and Florida.
CHARGEPOINT partnered with CARCHARGING GROUP and CHARGE NORTHWEST are in the process of installing EV Charging Stations in parking garages, parking lots, hotels, restaraunts and retailers nationwide at this very moment. They are installing EV Chargers in over 1,500 facilities in 21 states. So that drivers have a choice, chargers will be installed in combinations, a fast charger which charges a battery to 80% in about 30 minutes, and a standard "Level2" charger which tops the battery 100% in 6-10 hours, depending on battery size.
Level2 Charger 6-10 hours Full Charge
The cost for charging your car will be low or even free. Merchants are likely to offer free charging, so that they are more appealing to customers than their competitors. Cracker Barrel wich has nearly 600 restaraunts in 41 states is installing 24 charging stations in their Tennessee restaraunts. Just think of the convienence when they have just one or 2 chargers at each of their 597 restaraunts. Once Walmart and a few others install a couple chargers at each of their facilities you could literally drive a pure electric (non-hybrid) car through all 48 states.
Quick Charger 30 minutes 80% charge
There are Smart Phone Apps for finding EV Charging Stations. Station locations are also already available on Google Maps along with all the other hotel, restaraunt and travel information that Google already provides.
2 cents a mile for an EV compared to 12 cents a mile for gas at August 2011 prices under $3 per gallon for regular gas. For the average driver it would cost about $60 per month for an EV compared to $360 per month for gasoline. Todays electricity cost is equivelent to 75 cents per gallon.
Charge at home without ant special equipment (standard 110V outlet) or 4 times as fast with a 220-240 Volt charging station. (about 20 hours with 110V and about 5 hours with 220-240V) Commercial charging stations in cities, restaraunts, and shopping malls are fast charging in 30 minutes to an hour. Charging your car at home draws about the same amount of power as your plasma TV.
Then typical electric car has an 80 to 120 mile range, enough for the average daily driver. Public Quick Charging Stations are already installed with many more to folllow in virtually every U.S. State except the vast wide open and rural area's of the mid-west. Nearly all EV vehicles have GPS and Smart Phone utilities on board to find charging stations anywhere in the world.
The extra purchase cost of an electric car in the U.S. is offset by a $7,500 purchase credit.
2012 Nissan Leaf
Zero to 60 mph in 10 seconds
The solar panel built into the spoiler provides power for the GPS and stereo seperately.
You can pre-heat and pre cool the passenger cabin remotely with your smart phone
while the car is plugged in.
$28,000 after EV Rebate
IRELAND Four Renault Choices Available 2012
10% of all cars on the road in Ireland will be EV's by 2020
2012 Ford Focus EV
Identical to the gasoline Ford Focus
2012 Mitsubishi iMiEV
The most basic EV available today
$20,000 after EV Rebate
2012 EV Toyota Rav 4 Due out this year
Toyota has made a limited number of EV Rav 4's available to the public for the past 10 years
Tesla Model S - All the bells and whistles of a luxury car
Zero to 60 mph in 5 seconds
$49,900 (after EV rebate) with the 160 mile range battery pack
230 and 300 mile range battery options are available
CONCEPT CARS
3 choices from Crysler, a Dodge Sportscar, a Van, and a 4 door Jeep Wrangler.
The Dodge sportscar is 100% EV that goes zero to 60mph in less than 5 seconds with a 150 mile range.
The Jeep and the van will go 40 miles on electricity alone. The onboard gasoline generator and ten gallons of gas goes an additional 400 miles without stopping.
The average car on the road right now is about 11 years old, that translates to 120,00 or more miles for most people. True that a well cared for car should last much longer than that, but if you are in the market for a new car and are lucky enough to be able to afford considering one,
please consider an electric car.
Driving an electric car and never ever buying gasoline again is an Occupy Tactic that reduces your own fossil fuel consumption to the percentage that your local utility uses to generate electricity.
Naturally pressuring your local utility to replace it's fossil fuel sources
with renewables is another tactic.
Reducing you own fossil fuel footprint is a tactic that will make it easier to withdraw our troops from other countries and prevent environmental damage here at home by reducing the demand for drilling and natural gas fracking in the U.S. and Canada.
Another upside to boycotting fossil fuels with your own personal choices is that it reduces the strangle hold that current politicians have on our economy and reduces their power in government because the profits they enjoy with fossil fuel partnerships are less lucrative.
Many people boycott the fossil fuel industry and live green by riding bicycles and using public transportation. Electric Cars will make driving cool again.
This is sorta related, I was just thinking that Subaru has replaced Volkswagon as the Vehicle of choice of the Granola Generation. Subara exploits this in all their TV adds with their all wheel drive models taking people into the heart of nature to camp, hike, mountain bike and ski, so why is it that Subaru has never marketed an EV, in fact they don't even have an EV Concept Car?
The worlds metals and rare earth's needed for the future with or without a green energy economy but necessary for green energy developement such as copper steel, lithium, silica needs to be developed and the worlds coal mines need to be shut down, and oil reserves must be revalued as manufacturing ingredients and not for fuel with the exceptoion of aircraft, trains, and ships.
All mines, oil, and gas fields also become wind and solar farms creating energy production centers with green energy intigrated into the land use during production of the fossil fuels and as part of the land restoration and reclamation at the expiration of the mine or well.
Lets see if everyone can meet everyone else half way and achieve a global goal of 50% green energy worldwide as quickly and efficiently as possible. Each country could achieve energy independence with a multi tier plan.
1. Domestic oil production tier one: Domestic supply for planes, trains, heavy trucks and ships. Tier two: manufacturing. Result: Oil will last much longer than 100 years, much less is burned and manufactured products are partially recyclable going forward.
2. Green energy production tier one: Replace 50% of all fossil fuels burned with green energy. Create energy centers where green power is incorporated on mining and drilling property to optimize land use while the mines and wells are in production and as part of the mine/well land reclamation requirements after the mine/well is retired. (a retired oil rig could become a wind turbine.) Tier two: Superconducting grid installations utilizing wind and solar along highways and all existing buildings. Tier three: Electric cars, trucks, trains and busses.
3. Global fair trade of energy with the goal of meeting everyone else half way and achieving global 50% reduction of fossil fuel use for energy. Tier one: Establish a new global economy based on the fair trade of copper and other raw materials required for each countries own energy independence. Tier two: re-employ coal miners in other types of mines. Tier three: If a country has little or no fossil fuel reserves for commercial transportation endependence then they could import enough oil to do so.
The U.S. and China should be working togeher to build a new Global Green Energy Economy.
Party affiliation has become
an illlusion of choice.
WE ARE ALL THE 99%
If at first you don't succeed, try again.
The Middle East has the right of fair trade of it's natural resources.
Here is a short list of resources by country of some of the countries in global news today
and some comments (in italics) from the editor to help explain global fair energy trade.
Rich in a variety of mineral resources, the United States was a world leader in the production of many important mineral commodities, such as aluminum, cement, copper, pig iron, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, potash, salt, sulfur, uranium, and zinc. The leading mineral-producing states were Arizona (copper, sand and gravel, portland cement, molybdenum); California (portland cement, sand and gravel, gold, boron); Michigan (iron ore, portland cement, sand and gravel, magnesium compounds); Georgia (clays, crushed and broken stone, portland and masonry cement, sand and gravel); Florida (phosphate rock, crushed and broken stone, portland cement, sand and gravel); Utah (copper, gold, magnesium metal, sand and gravel); Texas (portland cement, crushed and broken stone, magnesium metal, sand and gravel); and Minnesota (iron ore, construction and industrial sand and gravel, crushed and broken stone). Oklahoma and New Mexico were important for petroleum and natural gas, and Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, for coal. Iron ore supported the nation's most basic nonagricultural industry, iron and steel manufacture; the major domestic sources were in the Lake Superior area, with Minnesota and Michigan leading all other states in iron ore yields. The U.S. could use thier oil and gas domestically first before exporting and export minerals to balance the gap in GDP while working to a 50% green energy goal)
China produced more than 70% of the world's tungsten, was the largest producer and exporter of rare earths, the largest producer of cement, tin and, steel, and a world leader in the production of antimony. Intensive geologic exploration has yielded greatly expanded mineral reserves. This increase in known subsurface resources was reflected in production rises for China's most important mineral products—coal, petroleum, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, mercury, antimony, tin, molybdenum, barite, fluorspar, magnesite, and rare earths. In 2000, China produced a total of 7.51 million tons of 10 nonferrous metals, 14.6% more than in 1999; production in all 10 metals increased. The production of iron and steel was China's leading industry in 2002, coal production ranked second, and petroleum, cement, and chemical fertilizers were among the top eight. Mineral fuels ranked fifth among export commodities. GDP grew by 8% in 2000 and 7.1% in 1999, due mainly to a strong turnaround of exports. China could use thier oil and gas domestically first before exporting and export minerals to balance the gap in GDP while working to a 50% green energy goal. Replacing coal mines with other energy sources would be the top priority)
With bountiful and diverse minerals, Russia, the world's largest country in land area, occupying 75% of the former Soviet Union, had a significant percentage of the world's mineral resources and produced 14% of the world's total mineral extraction. Mining was the country's leading industry in 2002, and Russia was the largest producer of palladium and nickel (20% of world output), and ranked second in the production of aluminum and platinum-group metals (PGMs), third in potash, sixth in gold, and seventh in mine copper. Russia also produced a large percentage of the CIS's bauxite, coal, cobalt, diamond, lead, mica, natural gas, oil, tin, zinc, and many other metals, industrial minerals, and mineral fuels. Enterprises considered part of the mineral and raw-material complex contributed 70% of the budget revenues derived from exports; petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas were Russia's leading export commodities in 2002; metals and chemicals also were leading export commodities. Russia could use thier oil and gas domestically first before exporting and export minerals to balance the gap in GDP while working to a 50% green energy goal) read more: Mining - Russia - export, problem, product, area, system, sectorhttp://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Russia-MINING.html#ixzz1m12XI759
Bosnia Herzegovina's top seven industries in 2002 were, in order, steel, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, manganese, and bauxite. (Oil could be imported, coal mine retired and other mines improved, green metals exported).
Romania mined iron ore (290,000 tons in 2000; 860,000 in 1996), as well as alumina, bauxite, bismuth, copper, gold, manganese, molybdenum, silver, and uranium. Among industrial minerals, Romania produced antimony, barite, bentonite, diatomite (9,712 tons; 56,906 in 1996), feldspar, fluorspar, graphite, gypsum (229,000 tons; 79,000 in 1997), kaolin, lime (1.48 million tons), limestone, nitrogen (content of ammonia, 700,000 tons; 1.5 million tons), pyrites, salt, sand and gravel, caustic soda, soda ash, sulfur, and talc—from 60 deposits throughout the country. (Exports provided imports needed to achieve a 50% energy balance would be of equal value.)
Major iron and copper deposits were found in Kerman Province, Iran. Global fair trade and developement of it's mines and vast oil fields could be intermingled with wind and solar to create an energy center which balances revenue and output as oil and gas production is reduced to achieve global green energy efficiency and reduction of fossil fuels burned globally by 50%
Afghanistan has valuable deposits of barite, beryl, chrome, coal, copper, iron, lapis lazuli, lead, mica, natural gas, petroleum, salt, silver, sulfur, and zinc. Reserves of high-grade iron ore, discovered years ago at the Hajigak hills in Bamyan Province, are estimated to total 2 billion tons.
On average, some 114,000 tons of coal were mined each year during 1978–84. It is estimated that the country has 73 million tons of coal reserves, most of which is located in the region between Herat and Badashkan in the northern part of the country. Production in 2000 amounted to 200,000 tons. In 2000, Afghanistan produced 13,000 tons of salt, 3,000 tons of gypsum, 5,000 tons of copper, and 120,000 tons of cement. Deposits of lapis lazuli in Badakhshan are mined in small quantities. Like other aspects of Afghanistan's economy, exploitation of natural resources has been disrupted by war. As well, the remote and rugged terrain, and an inadequate transportation network usually have made mining these resources difficult. If all counries with coal like AfghanistanChina, and the U.S. did not mine it's coal then the value of all it's green energy metals in trade goes up. (Investing in wind and solar centers and using natural gas only domestically until tier one of fossil fuels use is met and a 50% green energy supply is met.)
Saudi Arabia production of ore concentrate and bullion (metal content) in 2000 included copper, 900 tons, up from 821 in 1999; gold, 3,800 kg, down from 7,530 in 1996; and silver, 9,300 kg, down from 17,200 in 1997. In 2000, the country also produced lead and zinc. Saudi Arabia could use thier oil and gas domestically first before exporting and export minerals to balance the gap in GDP while working to a 50% green energy goal)
In Iraq geological surveys have indicated usable deposits of iron ore, copper, gypsum, bitumen, dolomite, and marble; these resources have remained largely unexploited, because of inadequate transport facilities and lack of coal for processing the ores. (Developing mines while reducing oil production increases the oil value by making it last longer)
The nonfuel sector of the Libyan mining industry was negligible. Petroleum was Libya's leading industry in 2002—Libya was the second-largest crude oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria—cement production ranked fifth, and the hydrocarbon sector accounted for 98% of foreign exchange revenues. Estimated production in 2000 included 270,000 tons of lime, 175,000 tons of gypsum, and 13,000 tons of sulfur (byproduct of petroleum and natural gas). Also produced were hydraulic cement, clay, calcined dolomite, limestone, nitrogen, salt, crude construction stone, and possibly natron (soda ash). Libya had large reserves of iron ore in the Fezzan. The Wadi ash-Shatti iron ore deposit, near Brach, was estimated to contain 1,600 million tons of oolitic hematite, limonite, chamosite, and siderite with a grade range of 30%–48% iron. There were also deposits of magnesium salts (7.5 million tons) and potassium salts (1.6 million tons) in Maradah, south of the Port Brega oil terminal; potash in the Sirte Desert; and magnetite, phosphate rock, and sulfur. (Libya has the right as all countries have the right of fair trade of it's natural reources in exchange for the natural resources it lacks to achieve energy independence and a global 50% reduction in fosssil fuel use replaced with a green energy source.)
North Korea Minerals and metallurgical products were North Korea's top two export commodities in 2002, and chemicals manufacturing, mining, and metallurgy ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, among the country's top industries. The leading minerals were coal, iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals. The mining and construction sectors grew by 5.8% and 13.6%, respectively, and GDP grew by 1.3% in 2000 and 6.2% in 1999. Gross weight of marketable iron ore and concentrate produced in 2000 was 700,000 tons, down from 1 million tons in 1997. High-grade iron ore deposits lay off the coast of Unryl county, South Hwanghae Province. Outputs of other minerals included crude magnesite, 1.0 million tons, down from 1.5 million tons in 1998; graphite, 30,000 tons, down from 40,000 in 1997; mine copper (metal content), 14,000 tons; zinc, 190,000 tons; lead, 70,000 tons; gold (metal content), 5,000 kg; silver, 40 tons, down from 50 in 1997; sulfur, 240,000 tons; phosphate rock, 350,000 tons, down from 520,000 in 1997; and tungsten, 700 tons, down from 900 in 1997. North Korea also produced barite, hydraulic cement, fluorspar, nitrogen, salt, and pyrophyllite soapstone, and presumably produced varieties of stone, and sand and gravel. As North Korea began emerging from its isolation, mineral trade with the Republic of Korea increased, with the DPRK exporting coal, gold, steel, and zinc to the south. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea has faced shortages of raw materials, in addition to shortages of fuel, food, and electricity. Molopo Australia NL had four gold projects in North Korea—Big Boy, Changjin, Danchon, and Hambung—and successfully processed 625 g of gold from a gravity separation plant in Changjin. (China will need coal even as it retires coal plants and replaces them with other sources, North Korea could supply it, North Korea's minerals would be worth alot in exchange for tier one oil and e green energy infrastructure.)
South Korea The Republic of Korea did not have significant natural resources, and its limited supplies of iron ore, coal, copper, lead, and zinc had to be supplemented by imports. In 2000, 188,000 tons of iron ore and concentrate (metal content) was produced, down from 272,000 in 1998. The output met 1% of the country's demands for its crude steel industry (which ranked sixth in the world) and its pig iron industry (which ranked eighth). Output of zinc was 11,474 tons (the Korea Zinc Group became one of the largest primary zinc producers in the world); lead output was 2,724 tons, down from 5,131 in 1996. No mine copper was produced in 1997, 1999, and 2000. The ROK also produced the metals bismuth, cadmium, gold, nickel, and silver. (South Korea could import green energy metals from North Korea)
Pakistan could export oil and import metals and green energy systems. Since Pakistan has no raw materials towards a green energy goal within it's borders, the worth of Pakistans oil is equal to the cost of a country wide 50% green energy goal. A country with vasts amounts of copper, as nearby as possible would trade for oil. The value of the trading companies exports is determined by it's own import needs to also achieve a 50% green energy goal.
Syria could export oil and glass sand and import coppper and green energy systems.
Israel could export diamonds and glass sand, import copper, and green energy systems.
Our Food Supply and
True Green Energy
are mutually connected.
Seeds may become more valuable than GOLD in an economic collapse...
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James Howard Kunstler - tells us just what to expect after we pass the point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Riveting and authoritative, The Long Emergency is a devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore.
The book explains how solar panels work and how they can be used. It explains the advantages of solar energy and the drawbacks that you need to take into account when designing a solar power system. As well as explaining the underlying principles, it provides a step-by-step guide so that you can successfully design and install a photovoltaic solar system from scratch.
Accompanying the book is one of the most comprehensive solar resource websites in the world. It contains powerful online tools such as the Solar Project Analysis toolkit, which provides a full feasibility and cost document for your project; Solar Irradiance Tables and Solar Angle Calculators for every major town and city in every country in the world; lists of suppliers and a Contact the Author form if you have any questions about your specific project.
Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by Paul Gipe - Wind Power guides us through the emergent, sometimes daunting discourse on wind technology, giving frank explanations of how to use wind technology wisely and sound advice on how to avoid common mistakes. With chapters on output and economics, Wind Power discloses how much you can expect from each method of wind technology, both in terms of energy and financial savings. The book’s updated models, graphics, and weighty appendixes make it an invaluable reference for everyone interested in the emerging trend of wind power and renewable energy.
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses by Eliot Coleman - A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it "just can't be done." Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest, this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.
The Organic Farming Manual: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Running a Certified Organic Farm by Ann Larkin Hansen - is a comprehensive guide to growing, certifying, and marketing organic produce, grains, meat, and dairy. Beginning farmers committed to launching an organic operation and experienced farmers hoping to transition from traditional farming techniques will find all the information they need. The organic certification process is lengthy and demanding, but author Ann Larkin Hansen clarifies every USDA requirement and offers complete advice on selecting equipment, tending the land, caring for animals, and marketing farm products.
Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains, for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers by Gene Logsdon - offers an entirely new generation of readers the best introduction to a wide range of both common and lesser-known specialty grains and related field crops, from corn, wheat, and rye to buckwheat, millet, rice, spelt, flax, and even beans and sunflowers. In this book, Gene Logsdon proves that anyone who has access to a large garden or small farm can (and should) think outside the agribusiness box and learn to grow healthy whole grains or beans--the base of our culinary food pyramid--alongside their fruits and vegetables.
All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew - Square foot gardening - it's an ingenious planting method based on using square foot blocks of garden space instead of rows. Gardeners build up, not down, so there's no digging and no tilling after the first year. And the method requires less thinning, less weeding, and less watering. When he created the "square foot gardening" method, Mel Bartholomew, a retired engineer and efficiency expert, found the solution to the frustrations of most gardeners.
This TV News broadcast begins with unrelated (or is it) camera footage of earth and the Northern and Southern Lights from the International Space Station.
The Sunday TimesArchive ArticlePlease enjoy this article from The Times & The Sunday Times archives. For full access to our content, please subscribe here MY PROFILE From The Times October 9, 2009
Lithium car batteries may shift balance of industrial powerLeo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent The lithium car battery is primed to become a “major disruptive force” over the next decade, dictating the fate of the world’s largest vehicle makers, reshaping the electronics industry and sparking possible tensions between the mineral haves and have-nots.
As carmakers ponder moves into greener manufacturing, the risks of mistakes grow greater with every new battery maker or technology that emerges. With the industry rules reset by lithium, analysts say, new businesses are expected to appear from nowhere. Many will fail but some may go on to become the new General Motors or Toyota.
Lithium batteries and the prospect of some future worldwide market for electric cars have already propelled Wang Chuanfu, the founder of the car and battery maker BYD, to become China’s richest man as shares in his company soared. A year earlier, he was 103rd in the rankings.
The prospect of lithium’s rising dominance over a post-oil economy has begun to draw warnings from government and industrial sources that seismic shifts are about to take place. The investment scene surrounding batteries, analysts say, may become more complex as new companies emerge to challenge the established players and speculative bubbles inflate throughout all stages of the battery-making process.
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Brokers are touting ways to play the lithium story, from battery producers, such as Samsung SDI and Panasonic, to lithium miners, such as SQM and Chemetall. Several analysts believe that Nissan, with its plans to build battery production in Britain and Europe, represents the best carmaker in which to buy shares to invest in electric cars.
A potentially bloody technology race is under way and mistakes will be made in the stampede, Kanehide Yahata, a CLSA analyst, said. He highlighted the temptation prematurely to view Korean and Chinese producers as the likely winners because there are still huge discrepancies in expertise. Japanese research is eyeing a battery that would allow an 80km drive on a single charge. Korea’s research efforts are focused on developing one that could manage 32km.
“Some automakers, such as Mitsubishi, have missed the point by creating commercially unviable electric vehicles,” he said. “In contrast, Nissan’s Leaf shows great promise. Honda is fretting about what to do while Toyota is quietly treading water. GM is on the wrong scent with the Volt and Chrysler’s plan is just a bluff.”
Toyota’s senior management pointed yesterday to the lithium battery as the “deciding technology” by which Japanese and American carmakers would survive or perish. The supply of lithium batteries is expected to redraw corporate partnerships throughout Asia, particularly in the technology’s heartland of Japan: lithium batteries lie at the centre of the world’s biggest electronics merger between Panasonic and Sanyo.
Nomura Securities analysts predict that lithium will create a new balance of industrial power. “We think the barriers to entry [in battery making] could quickly lower over the next four or five years with the switch to electric and hybrid vehicles the main driver of growth. That could trigger a collapse of the existing business groupings, the adoption of new materials and the deterioration of Japan’s position as the industry pacesetter,” a recent note to investors read.
On lithium’s upstream, the transformation is visible. “In terms of interest and exploration, the lithium industry is experiencing an all-time high. Over the past four months, unclaimed lithium deposits have been snapped up at a rate never seen before,” Simon Moores, an Industrial Minerals analyst, said. The majority of projects, he warned, would end in failure.
Some see a potentially risky side to the boom. On a visit to Tokyo this week, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, described the coming competition for resources such as lithium as “the next battle we are going to have to take on”.
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Tesla's Electric Roadster Battery
First, we learn that the cells are manufactured in Japan where there are relatively strict environmental laws, and meet the RoHS standards. They are mostly made of lithium metal oxides with zero lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBBs or PBDEs. In fact, there no heavy metals, nor any toxic materials. Tesla says that, by law, its battery cells could be landfilled, though that's not what they actually do.
Get your own job boardHere's What Happens to a Tesla Electric Car Battery at the End of its Life
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 03.12.08
Cars & Transportation (cars)
August 2009 Update: Tesla Motors is Now Profitable, Shipped 109 Electric Roadsters in July
Electric Car Batteries Three years ago, we were already trying to reassure people about hybrid car batteries. There seems to be a lot of myths surrounding them, and now's a good time for a little mythbusting. Tesla has just released information about what happens to its battery packs (pictured above) at the end of their useful lives, and we think it's a good case study.
Tesla's Electric Roadster Battery
First, we learn that the cells are manufactured in Japan where there are relatively strict environmental laws, and meet the RoHS standards. They are mostly made of lithium metal oxides with zero lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBBs or PBDEs. In fact, there no heavy metals, nor any toxic materials. Tesla says that, by law, its battery cells could be landfilled, though that's not what they actually do.
There are some exciting potential uses for the [Energy Storage System] ESS in its afterlife. While our ESS is designed to maximize performance and life in our roadster, at some unfortunate point, the ESS will come to the end of its useful life in the application :( . However, it might be possible to use the ESS in other applications. For example, the ESS could be used as a power source for off-grid backup or load leveling. The battery requirements for such an application are not as demanding as a high performance vehicle battery. This being said, eventually the batteries will no longer hold a significant charge and will need to be disposed of.
So the batteries might not go straight from cars to recycling, but when they eventually do, Tesla will be working with Kinsbursky Brothers, Inc.(KBI)/Toxco to:
•maximize the amount of materials that can be reused
•maximize the amount of materials that can be recycled
•minimize energy consumption utilized during the transportation and recycling process
In practice, the cells are sent to a hammer mill that turns them into pulp (second photo in this post). They then separate the elements and re-use what can be re-used (cobalt, aluminum, nickel, and copper, etc).
So the battery pack saves thousands of gallons of gasoline/diesel over the life of the vehicle, it is less toxic than the lead-acid batteries that are in regular cars, and at the end of its life it is recycled (which is more than can be said about most things in our society).
The Tesla, and electric vehicles in general, are certainly not perfect and there's lots of room for improvement. But it's nowhere near as bad as those who think battery packs are toxic waste believe.
See also: Very Promising! Zinc-Air Battery Could Hold 300% More Energy Than Lithium-Ion
More about Tesla Motors: From the Model S to the Lawsuit: Recent Tesla Motors News
See also: ::The Tesla Roadster: Electric Sports Car, ::Video: Robert Scoble Rides in Tesla Electric Roadster with Elon Musk, ::First Production Electric Tesla Roadster Delivered
Interested in electric cars? Check out: 17 Electric Cars You Must Know About
On (and on, and on) The Road
The owner of an all-electric Tesla Roadster from Texas has set a new record for distance traveled on a single battery charge: 347.2 miles.
The GPS log of the trip, completed on a closed circuit in California last week, has been posted as proof, but Tesla Motors hasn’t officially verified the new record.
The record is for a production vehicle — no extra batteries or special modifications allowed. The roadster is special in one way; it was the 1000th car to roll off the Tesla assembly line. (Hence its license plate: VIN1K.)
The car, which can reach 120 mph, didn’t set any speed records on this journey. The two-person driving team maintained a nearly constant speed of 25 mph. (That may have been the hardest part of this achievement– resisting the impulse to floor it.)
Tesla Motors puts the official range for the roadster at 244 miles on a single charge.
wow! if typical in city rush hour etc. is mostly somewhere around 25mph…. this ought to last most people an entire work week on one charge. I make a 180 mile round trip once a week to visit home. A little more than 100 miles on a charge is plenty for me since there is time for me to recharge before the return trip. With the Tesla (and soon to be all other EV’s) I can make a round trip on a single charge. Sign me up, because as of today, that 180mile trip costs me a little over $30.
Speaking of signing me up, I don’t understand why EV’s are being manufactured in limited numbers when each model currently available has a waiting list to purchase them. It seems to me that production numbers should already be ramping up, especially with the cost of oil always rising, and never ever really going down due to the spector of “peak oil” looming over the planet.
With that said, and I know i am straying from the topic of Tesla vehicles, but not from the topic of EV’s, the biggest threat to civilization as we know it is the price and availibility of the oil we need to supply our agricultural sector. The day will come when the cost of farming and transporting from farm to market while depending on oil for farm equipment will become so expensive that food will be available to fewer and fewer people until economy and civility enter into a crisis. (Remember the French Revolution exploded into bloody battle “when the price of a loaf of bread equalled a months pay” for the average person.
Fed Ex and UPS both have added medium duty EV delivery vans to their fleets which average 100 miles at 50 mph. While all of “Green-Tech” is fairly new and arguably somewhat rudimentary, it will only become more and more efficient as we manufacture and produce more and more equipment. The flip side of this fact is that “Green Tech” is also much, much more advanced than the older technologies of the fossil fuel based industrial revolution we have enjoyed for the past 100-150 years. Society has made great advances with the benefit of fossil fuels, it has also been general knowledge since the 1970′s (my generation) that the industrial technology of the past has become unstable, and unsustainable, putting all of the next future generations at grave risk of even surviving at all.
By now, if you are still reading, you must be wondering why I would espouse such a diatribe to an article about such an awesome technical achievment in modern transportation such as the Tesla vehicle lineup. It is because I may be the only one, or the first one who believes that a large and concentrated effort to manufacture EV farm equipment would be a very smart and very shrewd move for every global community to be working on right now! I have attached my POV to the Tesla story because the Tesla story is exciting news that I hope that many people will read this and share it with others. I believe in the concept of EV farm equipment as a way to mitigate and solve the global social, political, and environmental issues that a “peak oil” disaster would bring to bare on all of humankind.
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Peter says:
January 7, 2011 at 7:48 am
Cool. But I think the “hardest part” wouldn’t have been resisting the temptation to floor it, but rather driving so damn slowly.
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Osha Gray Davidson says:
January 6, 2011 at 8:48 am
Hi Karen — I get what you’re saying, but this was an attempt to break a record and those always have some non-real world elements. Tesla’s own estimate of 244 miles on a single charge is more realistic. (And even that range would likely only be obtained by using smart-driving habits — no jackrabbit starts, keeping the speed down and consistent, etc.)
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Karen @ Pledging for Change says:
January 5, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Good stuff but I feel it would have more realistic if the car had travelled at a speed of at least 30-40 mph and maybe driven through towns and traffic too! Nevertheless it’s a briliant achievement and paving the way forward.
