Finally ELECTRIC CARS are HERE: Nissan announces LEAF Electric Car Roll-Out Plans (ZERO MPG, Zero Emissions, $25K)

Zero emissions, but most of the energy that goes to your house is generated by fossil fuels, so that's a bit deceiving. Still, at least in California PGE has ~50% renewables so it's definitely a start.

I am not sure where you at getting this information, PG&E looks more like 30% renewable. The rest of the states untilities are even lower and CA is a net importer of electricity.http://www.pge.com/myhome/edusafety/systemworks/electric/energymix/index.shtml

Tim Culpepper's Ghost wrote:

Zero emissions, but most of the energy that goes to your house is generated by fossil fuels, so that's a bit deceiving. Still, at least in California PGE has ~50% renewables so it's definitely a start.

Shimizu is working on that as we speak

http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/lunaring.html

Actually, the most innovative car I know of a French designed compressed vehicle. The car is being built by Tata motors, India's largest car maker.

http://www.mdi.lu/english/

This car can be zero pollution if the air compressor used to charge it is renewables based.

Of course, renewables based charging could be done with an all electric car.

Air compressor technology is much simpler than electric engine technology. This is probably why most people in the U.S. haven't heard of it. It is a threat to the automotive maintenance, and oil industries. It is not really a threat to service stations. They could still provide refueling points using high speed compressors, or high speed electric chargers.

For short range driving, less than 100 miles, an electric or compressed air car is the way to go, at least until service stations offer recharging/refill options, and the range gets over 200 miles per charge. But for local driving, less than 100 miles per day, which represents the vast majority of driving in the U.S., these two types of vehicles are a great low pollution option.

zero emissions. nahhhh. still gotta be hooked up to the electric grid to charge. I'm thinking more of Tesla's old work. now too bad he's RIP. he'd come out with a solution in a jiffy. mine his old stuff there are gems in there that potentially solve many problems, I'm too lazy to give an arse about global warming. the Cavet is they don't generate profit he was so ahead of his time, so they axed his research.

electrified car wrote:

For short range driving, less than 100 miles, an electric or compressed air car is the way to go, at least until service stations offer recharging/refill options, and the range gets over 200 miles per charge. But for local driving, less than 100 miles per day, which represents the vast majority of driving in the U.S., these two types of vehicles are a great low pollution option.

But therein lies the problem... What about the day that you need to go 201, 301, or 601 miles in one shot.

The next car I buy will be the last "traditional" car, with an internal combustion engine only. That said, this technology right now is still very much in the vaporware category. The Leaf and Volt are the first serious threats to the traditional automobile industry. Eventually the price and reliability of Tesla and Fisker will arrive to the masses and push the Coke machine over entirely, but even then, there are hundreds of millions of gas burning engines out there, and it will take decades before they are relieved of their duties, even in a majority sense.

There isn't going to be a silver bullet technology that turns the industry overnight.

July 30, 2010 will be remembered as the day the 1st ZERO Emissions car became available for sale to the public. Pretty kewl ! The Nissan Leaf is the 1st heirloom electric car. It has a life of around 1,000,000 miles so you can drive that vehicle for 50 years at 20,000 miles per year before it dies. Your grandchildren can drive that car. I can't wait to see the Toyota iQ. Toyota has 4-5 more cars other that the iQ in development in addition to assisting Tesla in Palo Alto. These are great days for us, bros !

Theres Only one number One wrote:

July 30, 2010 will be remembered as the day the 1st ZERO Emissions car became available for sale to the public. Pretty kewl ! The Nissan Leaf is the 1st heirloom electric car. It has a life of around 1,000,000 miles so you can drive that vehicle for 50 years at 20,000 miles per year before it dies. Your grandchildren can drive that car. I can't wait to see the Toyota iQ. Toyota has 4-5 more cars other that the iQ in development in addition to assisting Tesla in Palo Alto. These are great days for us, bros !

Tesla motors has been selling cars for a while.

PDong wrote: But therein lies the problem... What about the day that you need to go 201, 301, or 601 miles in one shot.... There isn't going to be a silver bullet technology that turns the industry overnight.

The solution for now, is have one short range car for the majority of your driving. Studies show that the average daily miles driven in the U.S. are below 50. For the majority of driving a short range vehicle covers what you need.

For long range driving, the best option would be simply rent a gas-guzzler. If you need to do long range driving more than a few times a month, then you should keep a gas-guzzler for those special occasions. This is not the most environmental solution, but until the range in new vehicles increases, it the best we can do.

Very few gas-guzzlers get more than 400 miles per shot. Most small cars get just under 300 miles per tank full of gas. Long range driving requires refueling stops. Service stations need to start offering fast electric charging, and also fast air compressing charging.

The American fast-paced mentality would hate stopping to refuel every 100 miles for an electric or compressed air car. But, this would be offset if you charged you vehicle at home overnight. You could eliminate the need to go to service stations by a huge amount.

Gasoline engines won out over all other engine technologies because of "investments" by oil financiers. Gasoline engines were not the best technology available. They won out simply because those with money to invest could increase their profits in other industries they have economic interest in.

Theres Only one number One wrote:

July 30, 2010 will be remembered as the day the 1st ZERO Emissions car became available for sale to the public. Pretty kewl ! The Nissan Leaf is the 1st heirloom electric car. It has a life of around 1,000,000 miles so you can drive that vehicle for 50 years at 20,000 miles per year before it dies. Your grandchildren can drive that car. I can't wait to see the Toyota iQ. Toyota has 4-5 more cars other that the iQ in development in addition to assisting Tesla in Palo Alto. These are great days for us, bros !

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the G Wiz has been out for years. Plus the Leaf isn't really zero emissions, as the power comes from your local power plant. Anyways, cars that need charging will never catch on. Hydrogen fuel cells are where it's at (which actually ARE zero emissions, not counting water), and Honda has had its FCX Clarity out for 2 years now.

No, hydrogen is not an energy source, but an energy carrier because it takes a great deal of energy to extract it from water. You still need an energy source to create hydrogen fuel. The same as is true for electric vehicles or compressed air cars.

Gasoline is also a type energy carrier since it does not occur naturally.

Nissan takes 1st prize with the first Emissions Free production car. Honda and Toyota, catch me if you can !

i holding on to my 18 year old car as long as possible till i see how this whole thing shakes out. electric cars were built in 1996 but they never took off. but this time around, it's more promisiing.

i suspect the next car i buy though will be a hybrid vs all electric. i need something i can take on road trips and until the infastructure is set up for the plug in electrics, i'll need gas.

Nissan has a good track record of reliability. but I understand your caution given Microsoft has had 30 years and it still hasn't gotten an OS to work without crashing and burning ever day.

Tim Culpepper's Ghost wrote:

Zero emissions, but most of the energy that goes to your house is generated by fossil fuels, so that's a bit deceiving.

Exactly. That's why we all power our houses with our own gas generators.

Microsoft is an interesting analogy.

What MS really needs to do is rewrite Windows from the bottom up. They are loath to do this because it will affect short term profitability of the company.

The same holds true for auto makers and the oil industry. Auto makers have invested billions making an the inefficient gasoline engine more efficient, because the government is forcing them do it. If the oil industry were to recreate itself as a refueling provider, and saw the "green light," then the automakers will follow. Foreign automakers are pushing the future, not the U.S. automakers.

mr sarcastic says use ur brain wrote: Exactly. That's why we all power our houses with our own gas generators.

Powering your house with your personally created "natural" gas doesn't seem practical. Maybe you envision your solution as something similar to what happened in the Matrix movie.

As an Industrial Engineer please be aware that EVs have a totally different Cost of Production Curve than Fossil Fuel Vehicles. The Leaf is listed at $25,000 after US tax rebates. I would expect Nissan can cut the retail price of a new Leaf EV to $2500 in 10 years as battery technology improves, leveling off at that price point.

Still having the energy produced en masse, rather than at each individual car, as is done with gasoline, is more efficient. Better to have centralized energy production, which is what electric cars favor.