Nissan's new electric car
From slashdot + comments comes word of this new Nissan electric car thing. Also you can do some stuff with it remotely with your iPhone.
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2009/_STORY/090802-02-01.jpg Here's the official site: Slated for launch in late 2010 in Japan, the United States, and Europe, Nissan LEAF ushers in a new era of mobility - the zero-emission era. The car is the embodiment of Nissan's radical, transformative vision for the future and the culmination of decades of investment and research.I don't know anything about cars, but it seems neat |
05:41pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Did they intentionally make it ugly?
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05:45pm 03/08/09 Permalink
it can travel a whole 160km by itself. a standard car does 600km. seems pretty crap to me.
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05:46pm 03/08/09 Permalink
This is good, very good.
We need fully electric cars, the technology is already here, it will do the world a lot of good. it can travel a whole 160km by itself. a standard car does 600km. seems pretty crap to me. It's only a problem if you do more then 160km in a trip/day, otherwise you just plug it in. last edited by CHUB at 17:48:58 03/Aug/09 |
05:46pm 03/08/09 Permalink
160km isnt bad tho, for everyday travel around the city u aren't going over 160k's. just charge it at night. this is fully electric right?
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05:50pm 03/08/09 Permalink
ugh
i dont care until they make it look like this http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x56/maxe1/yesss1.jpg http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x56/maxe1/yesss.jpg |
05:51pm 03/08/09 Permalink
God that looks like absolute s*** Maxe, honestly.
That's not yours is it? |
05:52pm 03/08/09 Permalink
how quick does it do the quarter?
also, lols maxe |
05:57pm 03/08/09 Permalink
what if you get stuck in an uber traffic jam. you're f***ed.
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06:02pm 03/08/09 Permalink
They just need to add giant peddles so you can ride it to the nearest PC to charge it via USB.
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06:15pm 03/08/09 Permalink
what if you get stuck in an uber traffic jam. you're f***ed. the engines aren't "on" as such, think an electric RC car when its sitting there doing nothing, it doesn't use any juice so you sick in gridlock for 2hrs after work and the motor is turned off, press the gas pedal and it starts to feed electricity into the motor again |
06:19pm 03/08/09 Permalink
^^ Yeah but you're still going to have the radio/air con on, if it even has a radio or air con.
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06:23pm 03/08/09 Permalink
^^ Yeah but you're still going to have the radio/air con on, if it even has a radio or air con. you beat me to it... add (charge iphones) since all the new owners will also own iphones. |
06:26pm 03/08/09 Permalink
You too can buy an electric car and recharge it at the low cost of burning coal at a power plant! Yeah, that was my first thought too. It's not a 'zero emissions' car unless you're charging it from a renewable energy source. They could at least whack a solar panel on the roof to help save power too. |
06:46pm 03/08/09 Permalink
They should use a small ICE for AC/Heater, or for backup when the battery goes flat.
How the hell is a battery car going to give you a heater/AC without it drastically affecting the range? |
06:47pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Everyone go and watch "Who Killed The Electric Car". GM had fully electric cars cruising around in 1996 in California.
They didn't sell any, just leased them. Then decided to recall all of them and crush them, even though some of the owners were practically begging GM to sell them to them. I'm pretty sure there was some form of electric car in the 1800's too... |
06:58pm 03/08/09 Permalink
nissan c**** charge $69 for 12 studs for an exhaust manifold
doing my bit to fund research |
07:14pm 03/08/09 Permalink
it can travel a whole 160km by itself. that would suit 99% of my needs. i've been looking into ev cars for the 2nd car. this missus travels 40k each way to work. i have free power points in the car park under the building. could save $50 a week on fuel. solar panel on the roof prius 3 does, but its only to run internal fans when you park, so the cars cooler when you drive and dont need the ac. last edited by mooby at 19:19:43 03/Aug/09 |
07:17pm 03/08/09 Permalink
They didn't sell any, just leased them. Then decided to recall all of them and crush them, even though some of the owners were practically begging GM to sell them to them. yeah but wasnt it cos the batterys cost more than the car was worth and needed replacement every year or so |
07:35pm 03/08/09 Permalink
yeah but wasnt it cos the batterys cost more than the car was worth and needed replacement every year or so I can see why that would make a consumer want to lease not buy. From GM's point of view it would be even more of a reason to sell. Not only could they sell them the cars, but they could keep them buying batteries forever. The kind of people that wanted to buy them would pay whatever GM asked, because they were 'part of the solution'. You'd think that in the end, selling them to overzealous buyers would cost less than repossessing and crushing them... |
07:50pm 03/08/09 Permalink
at this year's isle of man bike races they had the new ttxgp class for alternative feul motorcycles. even though they seemed comically slow compared to the insane speeds of the petrol combustion engined bikes, it was surprising to see that they were getting speeds of about 160kph. not bad considering how slow they used to be imo.
i;d love to go for a ride on one just to see what it felt like :D |
07:58pm 03/08/09 Permalink
a few dozen people doesnt make money and it doesnt save the planet. its business not some hippy s***. Well look at it this way : What they did: They repo/transport the cars to be crushed. They pay for the crushing and deposal of the wreck. What they could have done: Wiped their hands of the cars and made a few bucks. Remind me which one wouldn't make money again? |
08:02pm 03/08/09 Permalink
You're right, it's business.
Now let's say you've produced 100 units. You do some testing in the wild by leasing those 100 units to 100 people. Now after this testing, you've decided that it's not quite what you thought it would be so you decide to recall them. Now of those 100 units, let's say 5 people want to buy them. Wouldn't you sell them those 5 units to recoup at least some costs? As far as I was aware, business is nothing more than bottom line, and selling a good has a far more positive effect on bottoms lines than paying for it's destruction. |
08:02pm 03/08/09 Permalink
maybe because it could be seen to be bad marketing to be seen to be selling off unwanted test vehicle rejects? maybe because in an industrialised, regulated economy like the US companies are generally expected to be responsible for the products they sell to the public (which is a sentiment often backed by consumer protection legislation)? i would think it would be very difficult to do that if those vehicles were sold to the public. i don't know. but i don't think you know either even if you did watch a documentary about eletric cars. |
08:10pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Now of those 100 units, let's say 5 people want to buy them. Wouldn't you sell them those 5 units to recoup at least some costs? Depends on the liability if the units were found to be faulty plus ongoing warranty and servicing costs. |
08:15pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Or maybe then they would have to sell the replacable batteries? Car parts etc when they eventually break. |
08:16pm 03/08/09 Permalink
These people begged to buy them. It's not like they were flogging them off, nor would it be hard to put a positive PR spin on something like selling an environmentally friendly car.
They also did not put the cars on sale to the public. If they did sell them to those that leased, it would be a very controlled sale, and those that were buying them would be well aware of what they were getting in to. I am curious as to why you're so defensive though, taggs? |
08:19pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Not to go Faceman on you all, but it's pretty obvious that big oil has fought and will continue to fight the electric car.
It's common sense. |
08:23pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Now of those 100 units, let's say 5 people want to buy them. Wouldn't you sell them those 5 units to recoup at least some costs? If I had to pay for a warehouse to store spare parts/equipment for servicing and then pay to have to train people to service those 5 cars plus retraining costs as workforce churns then it's entirely possible that I would choose to scrap the 5 cars. |
08:38pm 03/08/09 Permalink
lol, defensive?
way to comprehend amigo. trust a conspiracy tard to see things that aren't there i guess :D |
09:00pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Why do they have to make fuel efficient/electric cars look like arse?
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09:00pm 03/08/09 Permalink
What they did: They repo/transport the cars to be crushed. They pay for the crushing and deposal of the wreck. metal is worth money so it wouldnt cost them money to crush them they probably melted them down into suvs and nobody would buy a car knowing that a year later itd be worth nothing because the batterys are dead |
09:20pm 03/08/09 Permalink
This is how we roll:
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 100 kmph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one. |
09:24pm 03/08/09 Permalink
They seriously make them ugly on purpose, couldn't they mimic the body of a mini or anything else that is decent instead of that ugly piece of s*** design? Do they spend all their money on engineering and then leave 5 bux for some hick in the middle of ocean to think of a design?
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09:45pm 03/08/09 Permalink
otherwise you just plug it in. lol, and just how many people do you think actually forget to charge their mobile phones? Imagine peak hour holdups because some douche has forgotten to and the car dies enroute. |
09:47pm 03/08/09 Permalink
Why do they have to make fuel efficient/electric cars look like arse? |
10:00pm 03/08/09 Permalink
lol, and just how many people do you think actually forget to charge their mobile phones?You guys are acting like we have reached the pinnacle of battery technology. Perhaps we'll have 300km in a few years, maybe 600km batteries in a decade, doesn't seem too far fetched to me. I thought in "Who killed the electric car?" they already had 300km+ battery technology avaliable for use in electric cars. |
10:07pm 03/08/09 Permalink
They have better batteries, but they cost a lot. Exotic lithium varieties have good power density, but are not cost effective. Prototype large capacity super capacitors are awesome, they have been built for loads of $$$, give it ten years. They recharge in seconds, I want them in mobile devices too.
For those who have pointed out that carbon emissions are simply transferred to a thermal power plant, that is true but that is still better than loads of small petrol engines. The power plant has better thermal efficiency than even the best of consumer car engines, and the pollution for a single large source is easier to quantify and regulate than a large number of cars. |
10:49pm 03/08/09 Permalink
For those who have pointed out that carbon emissions are simply transferred to a thermal power plant, that is true but that is still better than loads of small petrol engines. The power plant has better thermal efficiency than even the best of consumer car engines, and the pollution for a single large source is easier to quantify and regulate than a large number of cars. That's true, but they made a point to say that it contributed zero emissions, which simply isn't true. |
11:16pm 03/08/09 Permalink
I caught a glimpse of the car on the news and thought it didn't look too bad - a bit like a Corolla, but after seeing that pic i think the front looks like arse, or like those ugly bug-eyed robots to be more accurate.
As for the GM electric car, the project would have been a secret so making sure the new technology they'd invested money into doesn't get out into the public would have far out-weighed the little pennies they would have made by selling to the few interested leasers. Imagine if rival car company spies got a hold of one and made it commercially feasible. Ofcourse, as a giant corporation, liability and all that would've been considered. |
12:25am 04/08/09 Permalink
You too can buy an electric car and recharge it at the low cost of burning coal at a power plant! (bring on nuclear power already Australia!) we are burning it anyway, and off-peak is cheap! Tesla just got a $465 million loan from DOE over here in the US for a 2011 start with the A4. Then you finance it (although this is for the more expensive $100,000 Tesla roadster). |
01:22am 04/08/09 Permalink
I don't reckon they make all hybrid cars look like arse
http://www.quickcashauto.com/Car-Facts/images/Lexus.jpg But most of the ones on the market are hatchbacks, and hatchbacks look like arse whether they're hybrid or not. |
09:50am 04/08/09 Permalink
Well, they want to revive their auto industry, so, Tesla are going to sell it for $50,000 instead. There's a heap of tax offsets that are also applicable, better loan rates, plus you get a trendy hip car and they say the ongoing cost is about 2c per mile (or, $4 for 200 miles). They cheat a little especially on on the carbon reduction side because those rates are calculated from a IGCC plant, which I think there are like only 2 operating in the states at the moment.
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10:28am 04/08/09 Permalink
surely they can design a new electric car that doesnt look like a piece of crap?
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11:00am 04/08/09 Permalink
couldn't they mimic the body of a mini or anything else soon....bmw are doing one. http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/images/2009/02/09/minie.jpg last edited by mooby at 11:21:55 04/Aug/09 |
11:20am 04/08/09 Permalink
Well, they want to revive their auto industry, so, Tesla are going to sell it for $50,000 instead. There's a heap of tax offsets that are also applicable, better loan rates, plus you get a trendy hip car and they say the ongoing cost is about 2c per mile (or, $4 for 200 miles). They cheat a little especially on on the carbon reduction side because those rates are calculated from a IGCC plant, which I think there are like only 2 operating in the states at the moment.The American auto industry is such a joke. Reading the comments on Slashdot in threads about it are hilarious. I've read sooooooo many (anecdotal) stories from nerds on Slashdot who bought American cars to try and support the market, ran into all sorts of problems with them, then changed over to a Japanese car and never had a problem again. They need to give that s*** up as a bad idea and let the market forces decide whether it's worth continuing to make them. Also they're all f*****g ugly. Except Trans Ams. Telsa Roadster is cool though. What is its range? |
11:21am 04/08/09 Permalink
the only way an electric car makes sense is if it comes with a proper way to charge it, plugging it into your normal home power seems silly, does it work out cheaper to buy electricity to drive your electric car than paying for petrol? surely with electricity pricing going up any advantage is going to become less, but i guess petrols is going up too.
solar panels that charge a battery during the day, that then charge your electric car at night seems to make sense. |
11:35am 04/08/09 Permalink
Well the car itself doesnt so its true. The car itself contributed a huge amount of emissions in its production. I remember a hippy mate telling me something like producing a car puts 10 years of emissions into the planet before it's already on the road. |
12:56pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Get the kids in the back seat to add pedal power to the battery.
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01:09pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Why? That sounds awesome. Everyone has power sockets. They're everywhere Yeah I guess, but it depends on the reasoning for the electric car, to reduce polution or becuase petrol wont be around forever. Charging from a power socket at home doesnt fix the polution issue. How many $ does it cost to "fill" an electric car that does 160ks? By my calculations it cost $16.54 to run a car that does 8ltr/100k's @ $1.3 a litre. |
01:21pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Electricity can come from hydroelectric dams and nuclear power stations - you cannot fit those into your car. First we fix the cars to use electricity, then we fix the electricity generation to use modern techniques and she'll be right.
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01:29pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Charging from a power socket at home doesnt fix the polution issue.See comments above about improved efficiency of generating power en masse in power stations as opposed to in a billion different internal combustion engines. I'd like to see the data backing that up, but it sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Plus there's a stack of different green ways to generate electricity - afaik we don't have any green ways to generate oil yet. |
01:34pm 04/08/09 Permalink
When they make a Hybrid Ute i'll buy one.
A guy in the early 80's was running his car on water the governments told him to repeatedly shut his trap. He was KILLED! Watch both these videos on this page. http://www.magniwork.com/default.php?hop=abletech Note the old ACA chick and the work of the Australians in the clip. last edited by trog at 18:09:46 04/Aug/09 |
02:30pm 04/08/09 Permalink
They do about 320K per charge, but charging takes a while. They reckon 3-4 hours @ 240v @ 80A!! haha.
NASA use a very efficient (~90%) flywheel as the battery on the ISS, storing solar output of the array as rotational energy. These also conveniently cope with very high peak power demands. (The F1 are doing their bit by implementing these this year, as, 'flybrids') Why couldn't we have this in the home charging up the Tesla? |
03:37pm 04/08/09 Permalink
A guy in the early 80's was running his car on water the governments told him to repeatedly shut his trap. He was KILLED! tell me more |
05:42pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Since I was a kid I've been hearing about the 'men in black' working in the interests of fossil fuel companies and government intimidating people who invent alternate engines. I even heard Nikola Tesla was killed by such men.
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06:03pm 04/08/09 Permalink
google 'Wind Generation' in Australia Thermite.
I'm not too sure how many of the old articles are still up there, or even how the King Island Wind Gens still manage to stay up.. it's been interesting to watch from the point of view of someone who's from a hardcore Liberal family. f***! 3-4 hours @ 240v @ 80A... ya wouldn't want to get a high resistance connection :P~ ya wouldn't want to be without your own solar/battery setup sucks to live in a unit :( not all Americans who convert their cars to electric have a 240v panel in their garages. some find it easier to just have 2 cars and use them alternatively.. it might sound crazy, but we're talking about a place where some people have crappy cars they only drive in Winter (winter rats) because of all the salt on the road. |
06:28pm 04/08/09 Permalink
ive heard stories about a guy in my area that made a car that ran on water, he was paid ou by the oil companies to keep quiet. Had seemingly normal people tell me they know the guy and the story is true.
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06:30pm 04/08/09 Permalink
^ You must be stupid to believe a story like that for even a nanosecond. Really f*****g stupid.
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06:41pm 04/08/09 Permalink
^ You must be stupid to believe a story like that for even a nanosecond. Really f*****g stupid. Yeah I didnt believe it, just that I had people that I kinda knew that were otherwise normal people tell me that the know they guy and the story was true, I always told em that it was bulls***. If he realy knew how to do it, he would either have made billions from the idea, or taken a truckload of money from the oil companys to keep quiet, and there wasnt any sign of the money. |
07:24pm 04/08/09 Permalink
I know a guy who powers his house with crystals like this http://www.rainbowcrystal.com/crystal/crystala.html
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07:34pm 04/08/09 Permalink
I know a guy who powers his house with crystals like this http://www.rainbowcrystal.com/crystal/crystala.html Is it this guy? http://timecube.com/ |
08:44pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Nissan Leaf 2010 How can they quote a figure for CO2 produced without stating what produced the electricity? Are they assuming coal given it's Queensland? |
09:01pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Whats the big deal about running an Electric Car on Coal Power anyway?
1. We already burn s***loads of the stuff for everyday needs. So its ok to burn coal to run your Plasma TV but not to run an Electric Car!? 2. There is s***loads of the stuff another 500 yrs worth so no need to worry about peak coal. 3. Most coal comes from stable countries like Australia. No need to invade a Middle Eastern country for coal. 4. Apparently some studies have been done in the USA about 'Off-Peak' charging of Electric Vehicles and it found that many millions of Electric Vehicles could be charged with the 'idle/waste' power from the current number of Coal Powerstation in the US. 5. Yeah the C02 is bad, but most modern Coal Powered Stations have 'scrubbers' that clean a majority of the particle pollution from the smokestacks and flue gases. It's easier to clean up 1 tailpipe rather than million of small ones that spread smog all over the city. |
10:26pm 04/08/09 Permalink
The Toyota Rav4 EV is the thorn in the side of all the Electric Car cynics.
300 or so survived the EV cull that happened in California a few yrs ago. They look exactly the same as the petrol powered 1998 Rav4 and they are all still running on the original Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery packs some with 150,000+ klms on the clock and getting 150klms per charge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNwwUy249Q |
10:40pm 04/08/09 Permalink
nice SF...
if the old addage about consumers (the market) being able to decide the future actually meant something then maybe we'd have them here by now... along with office desktop pcs that cost the same as eeepc netbooks.. oh wait we have that now! last edited by koopz at 23:05:04 04/Aug/09 |
11:03pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Is it this guy? http://timecube.com/ whhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooaaaaaaaaahhh - I read like five paragraphs... |
11:18pm 04/08/09 Permalink
Coal is the big bad bully in the room, and unfairly I think so. The Dirty Chinese coal mines might actually be doing us a favor.
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09:46am 05/08/09 Permalink
12:20am 06/08/09 Permalink
Maybe they will 'branch' out thee lignup too include
a Truck version, called Nissan Trunk And a 4wd/SUV called Nissan Roots |
07:55am 07/08/09 Permalink
