a 95K investment.

I am guessing most of the car drivers in the world are not going to be able to afford that.

The Zenn (much more modestly priced at 15K, but still out of reach for anyone who's looking at used car prices of 2 to 5K) seems to be the kind of car people in my home state (ridiculously cold northern latitude state, flat land) would buy if they bike 8 months out of the year and drive 4 months because of the weather. Also useful for hauling things too heavy for bikes (i.e. the monthly trip to the co-op to stock up, gardening tools, piles of huge bags of compost, etc).

At 8K, I am not sure what greater purpose a Vectrix serves other than a need for speed. Personally I would rather slow things down a notch (plan ahead, leave with ample commute time) and take a self charging electric bike like the Giant Twist Freedom DX (2K).

with a lithium-ion battery, and a 250 dollar firewall-breaking wire, you can trick a prius into driving electric only up to 52 mph with a 40 mile range.

total cost--60 k or down to 55k depending.  and you still have a gas tank that can be used when you flip a switch (from overriding gas mode to turning it back on).

however, same car with lead-acid battery can go 52 mph with a 15 mile range.  total cost 38k.  still has the gas tank.  getting there on price.  

of course, this is all mod territory.  toyota could do this with the prius with different battery options (the option they announced is pathetic in the extreme--it's like they don't care).

i'm looking at putting together a company in LA that will do this kind of modding (with various options) right now.  the tech all exists and works on my prius.  the issue is simply price point.  and one thing i believe more strongly than anything else--price point is a function of will.  the way is there.  can the will follow?  stay tuned.

So this is something that's been bothering me every time I read another article or see another TV show getting people all frothed up about 100+ mpg plug-in priuses and the latest wave of electric vehicles that don't even burn one ounce of gasoline. It seems to me that it's a little myopic to favor plugging in our automotive habits considering our country's largest energy and carbon footprints come from the predominantly coal-burning grid.

But this is a smart place with smart people. Can somebody explain to me how using electricity to fuel our over-abundant needs to drive absolutely EVERYWHERE in our culture is an environmentally sound idea? What am I missing in the equation? Honestly not trying to be a smart-ass about this. I just want someone to set me straight if I have it wrong.

I'll volunteer.

It's will take a couple of decades to put a halt to  excess human GHG emissions.  It's a big job.

We have a electrical grid now that is mainly powered by fossil fuel and nuclear power.  That produces a lot of GHG.  The goal is to go to a 100% renewable powered grid over the next 20 years.

If plugin hybrids and eventually pure electric vehicles take over from internal combustion, GHG spewing gas guzzlers, over that time period.  then GHG from transportation will be eliminated.

If I buy a plugin hybrid next week and charge it off the grid, yes it will be using fossil fuel, GHG spewing power plant generated kwhs.  but it will still emit less that a gas guzzler traveling the same number of miles.

But, if I invest in solar panels, wind, or biogas power, then I can power my car renewably.  By selling excess power back into the grid, i can even charge my plugin car with renewable electricty when i'm away from home.

If government subsidized renewable energy and plugin hybrids and energy conservation at the same level it now subsidizes fossil fuel, nuclear, and fuel farmed energy (ethanol); then my solar panels would pay off in a few years.  After that my electric "gas" would be free.  Just as free as it is GHG free.

With a deal like this a gold rush manufacturing and selling these devices would ensue.  WW 2 like war production in this war on GHG would revive our economy and bolster our failing currency, with lower energy costs canceling inflation and our oily trade deficit (that funds terrorist supporting oil rich nations)canceled.

It's all pretty simple really.  Your initial confusion was mainly based on static thinking.  A popular skeptical theory that assumes that either the energy economy must be switched over instantly from coal fired to solar fired.  Or we must abandon attempts to get an energy revolution started.

This is going to take 20 years of good jobs with benefits, a revived economy and tax base, and recycling of the old energy economy into a GHG free one.  With lower energy prices and domstically, locally invested consumer energy dollars.  Your gas money will go to the farmer down the road with a biogas power plant or a neighbopr with a solar panel (at the equivalent of 66 cents per gallon of gas), rather than the exxonmob or saudis or conagra (for ethanol).

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Yep, I meant to add... since the grid is only partially powered by coal.  With plugin hybrids the GHG from transportation goes down along with the grid becoming more GHG-free.

Without plugin hybrids, cleaning up the grid doesn't reduce the GHG from vehicles.

Ethanol, for instance, produces twice the GHG per mile that gasoline does.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog