The existing fleet of owned Toyota RAV4-EV demonstrates that 120-mile-range
all-electric cars can run on the same pre-2003 battery packs for more than 100,000 miles.
These batteries are Nickel-Metal Hydride ("NiMH").
They are the only proven EV batteries; Lithium has not yet been proven successful in Electric cars. No Lithium
EV has so far gone more than 50,000 miles on the same battery. Moreover, Lithium is too expensive for use on Electric
cars; new Lithium must be continuously mined, and reprocessing spent Lithium batteries for safe disposal or reuse
is much too expensive.
For all-electric cars to work, we need a battery "RECYCLING" industry, which takes old NiMH batteries,
after 100K or 200K miles, and reprocesses them into new batteries. This is the ONLY way to drive down costs; ALL
the metals needed in new NiMH batteries are to be found in the fleet of existing NiMH cars, and the only cost is
that of "refreshing" spent batteries into new batteries.
Most important, we CAN do this. It's proven and easy, and cost-effective.
EV detractors are gloating about a coming oil-glut. They are now claiming that EVs are, indeed possible, but much
too expensive. And the use of Lithium batteries in ALL supposedly upcoming EVs is likely to prove them correct.
If the auto companies were serious about EVs, they would use NiMH: even after 100,000 miles, our RAV4-EV still
gets more than 100 miles on a charge, MORE than the 40-mile VOLT and more than the 100-mile Nissan Leaf, both of
which don't yet exist.
It's all in the batteries: we want to redirect industry from oil-drilling, which costs up to $500,000 per day per
rig, to sustainably recycling batteries.
From making oil-fired cars that burn up the money spent on oil, leaving only pollution, to use that money for sustainable
rooftop solar systems.
BATTERIES are crucial. Using the wrong battery, based only on speculation, may lead to disaster.
There are NO planned plug-in cars using Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.
Certainly, Lithium batteries have been improved: but it's very strange to risk an entire new approach to the automobile
on a technolgy that, so far, has NOT proven practical. Every one of the successful plug-in cars started out using
lead acid batteries, and were upgraded to NiMH; when and if Lithium is proven, then use it. For now, use the battery
we know works.
The cost is at least $20,000 for replacing the Tesla pack. If it only lasts 50,000 miles, that's over 40 cents
per mile just to keep it in expensive Lithium batteries. With NiMH, the acceleration is less, but so is the cost,
and they last a lot longer. If NiMH EV batteries were produced as efficiently as cylindrical NiMH, a pack would
cost no more than $6000, or less than 6 cents per mile. Even less, if recycling drives the price down and research
leads to even longer-lasting NiMH.
We need to have plug-in EVs that use NiMH batteries, proven to last more than 100K miles, maybe far more if the
technology has as much focus as it deserves.
We ALSO need solar rooftop power. To run a plug-in car 1000 miles per month takes only 250 kilo-Watt-hours ("kWh")
of energy, about what two beer boxes use and about a third of the average home's electric usage. Even better,
solar power on the roof doesn't require building huge plants on the desert: the rooftops of America, over 10,000
square miles of sunny space, are more than enough to provide ALL our power, even if all of our transport is electric.
It only takes a solar system of 1.3 kilo-Watts ("kW") power, which only needs 6 to 13 square yards, to
power an EV 1000 miles per month. For those who don't have roofs, that's a smaller space than the EV parks in;
if your garage had solar power, it would generate enough power for two EVs.
Obama has not done anything to promote solar power. He needs to hear from you about this.
This is arguably the most important issue of our time: getting off of oil and getting rid of oil dictators. Bush's
forbear Prescott Bush got his start working for Standard Oil of Ohio: Big Oil is the big enemy.
This is something we can do: plug-in cars and solar rooftop power. It's proven, real, and a way to nurture a large
number of Citizens who generate their own power.
The rooftops of America can power all our energy needs: we don't need new land, just use the unused roofs to generate
more power than we will ever need. |