detpilot

My question for you guys with electric cars is this:

Has the battery technology improved to the point where they don't begin to lose their energy storage ability?

If it's anything like cell phone batteries, they'll go 100 miles today on a full battery, but only 98 miles next week, 92 miles in 3 months, and 40 miles in 2 years...

Or is the technology different? That is my primary concern with buying an electric car (aside from lack of money)

2StgTurbine

I don't know too much about the LEAF, but jugding by the price of the charging station, it should prevent battery fade from happening. The reason why rechargeable batteries fail is because people do not know how to charge them. A battery is meant to be fully discharged before it is charged again. When the battery is fully charged again, it must be disconnected from the power source. Most people don't wait for their batteries to fully discharge before they charge the again. Then they leave the battery plugged in charging for way longer than it needs to be. This destroys battery life. My cell phone is 3 years old and my battery still lasts 4 days of normal use (it lasted 5 when I first got it). This laptop I am using is 6 years old and the battery will still make it through a 2 hour movie.

If the charging stations are any good, they will automatically stop charging when the battery is full. The best system would also drain the battery first, but if you plugged the car in and then realized you forgot to get milk, you would be out of luck. From the last time I looked into the technology, Tesla had batteries that could last 10 years with only a 20% loss in battery life. It is not for everyone, but for those that drive only a few miles a day (like me) it is the greatest thing to ever happen to a car.

DYNASTY HVY

Yes they all have to pass crash tests , what I,m getting at is the survivability rate of such crashes.
If you had a choice between a Prius and a Crown Vic which one would give you the highest chance of survival in a 60 mph crash ?
And speaking from personal experience I,ll take the Crown Vic over a box on wheels any day of the week .
Years ago I was coming home from a trip and was stopped at a red light when I was rear ended by a pick up truck doing between 55- 60 mph and yes I was wearing my seat belt and literally walked away from that accident , don't know how but I did when you consider that the trunk was shoved into the back seat and and the back seat was shoved forward .
My life's more important than trying to save a few bucks on gas .

flywithjohn

It appears that way...

Cubdriver

Same here. My last car purchase, actually it is a light truck, was meant to be used primarily as a highway vehicle. I want it to be able to survive a roll if I fall asleep at the wheel (hope not) or somebody rear ends me (quite possible). We are all in a potential rear end crash situation just about every day. Safety is a huge factor in buying a car and I do not feel safe in most of the cars out there these days. The other thing to consider is eye height. In the last 15 years so many people have gone to light trucks that it is very hard to see anything when one is ahead of you. I never noticed this in the 80's or 90's and now it is a huge factor in daily driving, just being able to see around the SUV ahead. Another thing which has been shown to be safety risk with smaller cars is bumper height. There is no law that your bumper has to be matched for optimum safety against that Chevy Tahoe that just ran into you. Your car goes underneath requiring jaws of life while he walks away from the scene. I believe there is some interest by NHTSA in solving this problem, but so far it obviously has not been solved. All these concerns are why I feel the best solution to the fuel issue is to come up with a renewable fuel very similar to gasoline or diesel.

atpwannabe

So why the high prices in gas? Is it b/c of the high cost to lower or extract the sulfur that's in the crude? Nigeria has the lowest percentage while Venezuela has the highest.



atp

TonyWilliams

The batteries are warranted for 8 years / 100,000 miles. I'm going to guess that Nissan has some faith in those batteries.

Yes, of course they will lose their energy over time / cycles / quality of the charger. About 2.5% per year is a good rule of thumb over 8 years, so that they'll have 80% capacity then.

My solar panels lose about 1% per year. Not sure what a typical gasoline burning car loses. I have a Chrysler V6 powered car that at 135,000 miles is probably at 80% of the fuel economy that it got at 1,000 miles (after loosened up a bit from brand new). I just put new spark plugs in it, but it didn't seem to improve much. Blow a bit of oil around, leaking some. About a quart between oil changes.

TonyWilliams

I'm not sure what the ability of a Crown Vic is in a crash. It's is big(ger).

Vehicles vary quite a bit in their crash / roll over testing, regardless of size.

But, to answer your question, I'll take my 6000+ pound GMC 2500 HD Duramax diesel crew cab 4x4 pickup. About 20 mpg highway with sane driving, beau coup power to tow anything, and a commanding view of the road.

I had a traffic accident in that vehicle. Let's just say that they put a new hood and bumper on mine, and had to do a lot more on the other car.

However, using the reasoning here, I should probably just get the biggest vehicle that can fit on the highway "for safety". Maybe a 14 ton MRAP ?

DYNASTY HVY

ROFL ! The ultimate in crash resistance ?

Cubdriver

The MRAP is slightly overkill. But the car below is almost as tough. It is an electric-powered '59 Lincoln able to burn biofuel using a tiny turbine engine mounted under the hood. Neil Young came up with it, it is called the LincVolt. I knew all those drugs went for something good. Hunter S. Thompson would be proud. I think they run about $700,000.

LincVolt website