Introducing the Electric Duster Project

Have to say, I'm not really excited about this. Great work, keep at it, I'm not trying to discourage you, I just haven't bought into the whole EV thing.

I remember being in school after I got out of the Navy some 15 years ago or more, and the community college I was attending had a little VW pickup or golf or something they had converted to electric power, so they aren't all that new. And, as I recall, it wasn't a whole lot different than this one in power and range. They have been claiming for years that technology was going to catch up and battery's would get better, but I haven't seen much yet.

Range seems to be about the same as before, and it had always been much too short for my commute. Maybe if I lived closer to work, but as it stands right now it wouldn't work without charging before I left for home. And forget going farther into town to pick something up as I would never make it home then. Might just as well have kept the motorcycle I sold, couldn't do anything but travel on it, but at least I could go where I want without having to plan a 4 hour layover to charge the car (twice as I probably couldn't make it home on one charge from anywhere in town).

I still feel like electricity is just as much in "their" control as gas is. Look at California when they had the blackouts. As soon as gas is outlawed, you can bet the price of electricity will climb at a record pace. Not that we are making enough as it is. Seems like a little while ago they were talking about how we were short, just wait until everybody has two EV's to plug in. Better hope the tree-huggers don't get the dam's removed like they want. If they kill the dams, better hope they build a bunch more wind farms (even though the tree-huggers seem to hate those, too) or figure out the solar charges as the other sources are nuclear or coal (great trade there). I'm sure there are other sources, but I don't see it getting much better.

Also, seems like most electricity is generated by some other power source, and last time I looked every conversion costs in efficiency. Seems like it is just a slight of hand to me.

If anything, I think diesel is the future. At the least in the short term it would cut back on oil use (more out of a barrel of oils, plus better mileage as a bonus). In the long term we need to figure out the bio-diesel thing, and I don't mean using farm land to grow it. It needs to be one of those algea plants that produce more base then farming does to leave the farms to grow food like they were intended. As a nice byproduct, diesels can be great fun to drive. Get the auto manufacturers to build a lighter duty diesel instead of the industrial giants they put in the trucks and we would see mileage that beats the hybrids and still has a fun streak. If I could figure out how to put a diesel conversion on a slant 6 I would go for it, but if it was to work it would have to be a more designed specifically for diesel, GM proved that. Certainly something an EV has a leg up on the diesel.

In the end, I agree we are teetering on the edge and I'm not sure any of these are going to make any difference. Hopefully I will see a radical change in my location before it gets too bad.