...the grid they plug it into gets electricity from renewable sources.  No use in swearin' off gasoline for electricity if it just means the coal plants need to ramp up production to deal with the increased load.

I was really glad to see the Better Place effort, and many advances encourage me about cars.

Hybridizing / electrifying cars is clearly long-hanging fruit.

But please, can't somebody start a serious discussion on Class 8 trucks, combines, bulldozers, the subset of diesel-electric trains that won't get electrified any time soon, and ships.  So far, I have yet to see a serious plan that completely does away with fuel.  I didn't ask about airplanes, as   I assume that if we're having trouble fueling trains, planes are toast.  I really fear pressure for tar sands, shale oil and coal-to-liquid.

-John Mashey

The mining industry has been using battery powered equipment for years. Even with the old technology lead acid battery's we have been running a piece of heavy equipment called a scoop down here for years. Battery charging station charges the battery bank and in most cases you will get an 8 hour shift out of the charge. If you haul coal in the bucket instead of doing just normal clean up with them you get about 4 Hrs. With advanced technology battery's I could see charge stations at home and battery change out stations on the road if you could get the battery change down to a simple slide in and out procedure. An industry standard would have to be established. I am not going to trade out my new energizer for a used China made rip off.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Pompey Road: thanks.
I'm looking for firsthand experience with the various important fuel uses that aren't cars and light trucks. [Among other things, I used to work for the US Bureau of Mines, but that was 40 years ago.]

Can you talk about (or give pointers to studies on) the extent to which your part of the mining business is
a) Already electrified, i.e., what's the balance between:
electricity
diesel fuel
gasoline

Not just in the mine, but to move material to the consuming entities.

b) Speculation on what you could do if the two fuels get more expensive?

[In general, as in short/moderate-distance EV cars, and in electric tractors, machinery that stays within a relatively small radius, is sized for reasonable batteries, and has compatible usage patterns seems the easiest to electrify.]

If I understand Shai Agassi's views right, I think battery change-out stations are part of the vision for Better Place & related efforts.

-John Mashey

It would be easy to have a retrofit backup generator that would plug in to the Renault design as well.

Or for those who want to own their own batteries to simply buy them, rather than subscribing as with the cell phone minute type model.  We all know the problems involved in cell phone billing schemes.

The battery swapping business might double the cost of plugin driving, but even that premium would put the US cost at 2/3rds of gas powered driving.

Many of us would prefer a plugin hybrid that we recharge from our own solar panels.  This design would be easily adapted to that mode.

And we would like to be able to buy a US manufactured plugin hybrid.  Will that ever happen?  Not much talk about it from any of the presidential candidates, except Hillary.

It's good to have wonkish leadership.  They understand the details down on the ground.  They don't just flyover and wave, like the chimp over katrina aftermath.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

There is an ability to electrify heavy duty construction equipment which today runs on diesel.  I believe this is the direction Sweeden (one of those countries) is going in.  

It takes care of the local pollution problem as well, which is a nice bonus.