It's not always that easy. If you live in a large enough city, maybe. You can't always dictate the job will be in that area. Short of living in an RV and move from place to place assuming you are the only one that works. In this economy, we have to take a job where we can. I can't sit on my ass and demand that a job miracle itself within 10 miles of my location. But lets say it did. What if my wife loses her job and has to commute? Your european model works for dense areas. A lot of our areas are not that dense.

Telecommuting isn't a cure-all either. It requires a high amount of trust in the employee and the employee has to be disciplined. Would you want your doctor to telecommute with you and be treating you from his bathtub? For certain things, it works. Many things, it won't.

That is also the hard part. 2 things come to mind. Govt curfew and you have to give up convenience.

True. However, if that is the only vehicle you have that does other things, would it pay to simply buy several vehicles to save a few bucks but more headaches? My Excursion, for instance is my grocery getter. It is also my RV hauler, my 2nd car, dog carrier, bad winter day car, etc, etc. How many vehicles would I need for all of that?

Only way to fix what you want is for Big Brother to "guide" change. I prefer to leave Big Brother there and not have him guide anything lest I find that he has guided me into the barrel with a hole in it and everyday becomes my turn in the barrel.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Its a scary thought what it would do to our pittance of an electrical grid....if everyone came home and plugged in their 30A 240Volt car charger thats a LOT of juice....just one neighborhood could be sucking close to an extra megawatt of power....that is a LOT. Our grid would melt, explode, and fall to the ground. A good test would be to have everyone in a neighborhood be doing what they do normally, but then go power up their stove/oven/dryer all at once....and see what happens.

Considering many blackouts have occurred just from everyone running a 15-30A A/C unit.....imagine if EVERYone had a car charging at that rate!

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

There's the other rub - all these wonderful studies on plug-in hybrids and electrics ASSUMES that everyone will wait until they're home and plug in overnight, when electrical demand is lowest.

Wrong answer. Toyota did a study with several Prius's configured as plug-in hybrids, to see how owners would actually operate them. Surprise - the owners were plugging them in at every opportunity and every time of day. Even if they only made a half-mile run to the corner grocery and used less than 5 % of their range, they were immediately plugging it back in once home. Run to the mall 5 miles away, still have 4 times or better as much charge as they need to get home - wait until they get home to plug in? Nope - if there was a public charging station available, immediately slap it on the charger. Then do the 5 miles back home, and plug it in AGAIN.

Gimme a break. With all the people in this country that can't even properly operate or maintain a "conventional" vehicle, you wanna turn them loose these? I'll lay odds that some idiot, despite all the built-in safeties, even finds a way to electrocute themselves when plugging the bloody thing in. Honda was so afraid of people tampering with the battery pack on the first gen Insights they put a warning label on the lid that read "Danger - High Voltage - You Will Be Killed".

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Alright here's one (And why I feel that purely electric vehicles are nonsense)

Lets say you live about 20-30 miles from work which is located in a city (Around the maximum distance for said purely electric) Alright you get to the parking lot or garage....now what? Yes you can plug it in but I don't think the lot/garage would be too happy paying for your electricity out of their pockets. And that's IF you can find a socket.

Perhaps in the new future some enterprising fellow will build or equip a garage to specifically cater to electrics like the Volt. The problem then becomes how much more will people be willing to pay for these facilities and will the vehicle still make economic sense?


In my case there is no way an electric would make sense. I get too many random calls during any given week and would run out of juice in no time at all.

__________________
1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

That is not as big of a deal, as the car's charger computer can determine what level and time it will allow charging. 5-10% would likely result in it just sitting there and not charging. Modern laptops/netbooks do this also, to conserve battery life by reducing charge cycles.

Even if it did charge, it wouldn't take long for it to top off, so the load on the grid is brief.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Crazy

Why? It makes sense. After all, you don't have to pay taxes there

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Low 30's is pretty meh mileage though. My friends little POS C300 4matic renter was doing 27 on cheap regular fuel while getting beat on, and it wasn't even broken in yet.

A CDI does better and its a real car.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I almost bought an EV in the mid-90's. Looked seriously at at a converted LeCar but it didn't have enough range to get me to work and back. I was reading a lot about conversions at the time. One way around the range issue is to have a generator on a small trailer which can be towed when traveling longer distances but doesn't have to be carried around all the time.
My school intended to introduce a class in how to convert a gasoline vehicle to electric last year. It ran into some bureaucratic problems and never happened but I was hoping to get involved.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I agree, the smart car was an interesting concept but it just wasn't implemented very well. I keep threatening my daughter with one; she's not amused. If they sold the diesel here, I might actually be tempted.

Smart had a roadster version in Europe. Seems that would have been popular here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Roadster

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Also, they have a homestead law on the books. If you go bankrupt, your house can't be reposesed. You can't sell it either.
Tom

I really don't understand how anyone can be for artificially inflating the price of fuel and claim that they will cope. EVERYTHING in this country is transported via some sort of fuel burning vehicle. If you arbitrarily double the price of fuel, then that will basically add a third to the price of just about everything. Those who have such great high paying jobs to afford this overnight increase will most likely not have a job at that pay rate anymore as companies start trying to salvage some sort of profit. They'll take the hit of "experience" and hire a fresh college student at half the pay. Now all those things that are a third more expensive on the grocery store shelves will be out of your reach. Your electric bill, grown by a third to cover the rippling inflation, will be beyond your reach. Your unemployment won't be increased, your house will be unsellable due to the ensuing financial crisis, and you will be stuck between a financial rock and the hardest hard place you can imagine.
The solution for this sort of thing is the same as I proposed for the biodiesel situation: Let the well-off and granola crunchers pay the higher prices for this new infrastructure, then as the prices on petroleum products rise if the technology is sound then the prices on the newer alternatives should either level out or decrease, allowing those who work and support this country to afford to continue working and supporting this country while adopting this new technology.

As a side thought: If the price of gasoline were to triple overnight, even if everyone in the country could afford to run out and get a new electric or plug in hybrid vehicle at current list prices, where would they get them?
Does anyone produce a hybrid that can do the work of my truck? I guess I'll just have to do without the extra income I make hauling junk, as that would cost more than I could make from it.

I agree, you really don't understand...