Elio Type Vehicle Resurection --- AKA the BEX

[Vaquero]

Here's that article I was talking about the other day.

Wake up Americans. Some facts about the great Electric Car. Or at least one of them.
Shared from my friend Jack Bains.

THE PINEHURST PRESS NEWS & VIEWS

Interesting Take on Electric Cars

As an engineer I love the electric vehicle technology However, I have been troubled for a longtime by the fact that the electrical energy to keep the batteries charged has to come from the grid and that means more power generation and a huge increase in the distribution infrastructure. Whether generated from coal, gas, oil, wind or sun, installed generation capacity is limited.

IF ELECTRIC CARS DO NOT USE GASOLINE, THEY WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PAYING A GASOLINE TAX ON EVERY GALLON THAT IS SOLD FOR AUTOMOBILES, WHICH WAS ENACTED SOME YEARS AGO TO HELP TO MAINTAIN OUR ROADS AND BRIDGES. THEY WILL USE THE ROADS, BUT WILL NOT PAY FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE!

In case you were thinking of buying hybrid or an electric car:
Since the advent of electric cars, the REAL cost per mile of those things has never been discussed.
All you ever heard was the mpg in terms of gasoline, with nary a mention of the cost of electricity to run it. This is the first article I've ever seen.

Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things yet they're being encouraged, even pushed. Glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

A BC Hydro Executive: asked how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious.

If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, you had to face certain realities. For example: a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service.
The average house is equipped with 100 amp service.
On our small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla, each.
For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded.

This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load.
So as our elected officials promote this, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system.

Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes, "For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

"Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity.

I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 Mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car costs about $25,000 while the Volt costs $46,000 plus. So the Canadian Government wants loyal Canadians not to do the math, but simply pay twice as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country.

And, OBTW, the lithium for the batteries comes mostly from China.

Follow the money!

WAKE UP!!

RP

[dave77]

I'm not an advocate for electric cars (no current plans to get one, my Miata and my Ranger will probably both outlast me) and he makes some valid points about road maintenance costs.

Don't know about about the ability of the electric grid to handle large increases of electric cars being charged but around here most houses, even my single wide mobile home have a 200 amp service.
Here's another article showing that the grid can handle a gradual increase of electric cars if done properly .

https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-car ... -the-grid/

Also seems his math is a little off as he states:
"I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery."

The average cost per kWh in the US is 10¢. No one in the US is paying anywhere near $1.16 per kWh, even Hawaii averages under 30¢ per kWh..

https://www.energybot.com/electricity-r ... state.html

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/how-much-d ... rge-an-ev/

[JEBar]

the screen name for the fellow from Australia is Mark BEX .... the guys over on the Elio forum have named his vehicle the BEX .... he reports today that he's bought a used car with a Toyota 1.0 KR1 engine and 5 speed for $400 .... his plan is to remove it from the car and install it in the reverse trike he's building .... the more I follow his efforts, the stronger I believe that he might just pull it off

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

[JEBar]

I just want to point out that the Elio and now the BEX are both to be powered by gasoline motors .... the only mention of having an electric motor in a BEX deals with one he might eventually try to produce for the European market .... I've had one street legal electric vehicle and unless some major things take place, I have no interest in every owning another ....

[Vaquero]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP
[/quote

Exactly!

[markiver54]

Just food for thought...as I said before, how long will these batteries last? And how much to replace them? Do they have a memory, and require them to be run out before re-charging? To me, there are many un-answered questions.
I'll take a gas guzzling V-8 any day!

Also what to do with the old batteries?
Do you know where most of that lithium comes from?

RP
[/quote

Exactly!

[RanchRoper]

Badger says he won't ride in a trailer pulled by that. He likes diesel smoke.

[JEBar]

Badger says he won't ride in a trailer pulled by that. He likes diesel smoke.

.... if someone tried to do that, while it wouldn't be diesel, I suspect everyone in the area would quickly be smelling smoke