Daily Blog – John E. Johnson, Jr. – March 29, 2008: ELECTRIC CARS ARE COMING SOONER THAN I THOUGHT.

Today’s news reports that Mitsubishi (yes, they make a lot more stuff than just TV’s) displayed its new electric car at the 2008 New York Annual Auto Show:  

http://autoshow.autos.msn.com/autoshow/NewYork2008/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=6566464

I guess the USA is not the only country that is sick of paying so much money for gasoline.

Mitsubishi is already trying them out here in the US to see if consumers are interested.

Interested? Where do I sign up for one of these?

It has high tech lithium rechargeable batteries that will take the car 80 miles. I suspect that is a stretch. Let’s say it will go 40 miles with some stop and go, and some uphill. That is plenty for me, and I think, plenty for most of us who might commute 20 miles or less each way to work every day.

It recharges in 7 hours using 240 volts (every US home has this for use with electric ovens and electric dryers, and if you don’t have it hooked up, it is there waiting in the breaker box). A recharger under development will do it in 30 minutes.

So, what I would like to know is how much mileage gets trimmed off when using a nice big fat aftermarket in-car hi-fi? The motor draws a huge percentage of the current, so I would estimate that for a 20 mile trip to work, playing the hi-fi constantly, at 80 dB, maybe 2 miles worth? If that is the case, run an extension cord out your office window to recharge it while you work.

Maybe some sort of a propane heater like we use on camping trips.

Air conditioning can be had by developing a car version of what we used to call, in Texas, a “Swamp Cooler”. It worked by dripping cold water over a drum-shapped fan with slits in it. The fan could be outside the window, spinning from the air going past it when you are driving.

Now, if they will just sell it to us for under $20,000.