What type of EV would you like to see offered?

[edatoakrun]

Unfortunately the article below comes out as the plug may soon be pulled on Saab's financial life support. Yea, they're really re-badged Opals, but it's still sad to see a great marque go under.

IMO, the specs are the most interesting part of the article, particularly the use of air cooled (and presumably unheated) lithium batteries. Given a miraculous recovery, this Saab could probably find a market in the bid empty space between the LEAF and the Tesla S.

"The ePower is equipped with a 135-kilowatt electric motor, the equivalent of a 184-horsepower gas engine, which drives the front wheels and is powered by Boston-Power’s 35.5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, with cells made at the company’s factory in Taiwan. Saab claims the wagon accelerates from zero to 62 m.p.h. in 8.5 seconds to a top speed of 93 m.p.h. It was expected to have a range of 124 miles.

Despite the cold winters in Sweden, Boston-Power claims its air-cooled batteries can perform in temperatures as low as -35 Centigrade, and in European testing, retained full power at -20 Centigrade."

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/with-financing-in-flux-saabs-first-e-v-program-awaits-its-fate/?hpw

 

[Herm]

Its a shame the Chinese financing deal fell thru.. the Chinese have lots of money to invest and are very gun ho on electrics. Saab death watch goes on again.

 

[redLEAF]

I'm sure this is slanted to how the survey questions were asked but ...

Survey reveals consumers prefer plug-in hybrids over EVs

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20064668-48.html

What was more interesting is older age groups wanted pure-EV's less than younger groups; they also include a link to a few consumer opinion videos (appears to be U.K. folks -- a bit of a surprise). In many cases the question of getting a pure EV as your only car versus a plug-in many would say that they need the added range (survey average was 271 miles!). Too bad that they didn't break this out into two or multiple car families versus those depending on a single car -- of course that may be more prevalent in the U.S. than the U.K. or Europe.

http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Page...ic-vehicles-changing-perceptions-summary.aspx

 

[daniel]

There are several ways I can answer this question:

1. Given the practical realities of battery size/cost/weight today, I think the Leaf is ideal, though I agree with those folks above who say dump the "luxuries." Or at least offer a no-frills version. My Prius has electronic climate controls and my old Civic had knob controls, and I MUCH preferred the old version. My Zap Xebra has crank windows and I have no problem with them, and you can actually open or close the windows without having to turn the car on! The Prius requires you to turn on the fan before you can turn down the heat setting so that you don't get passive hot air flow on hot days if the last time you drove the car you had the heat on. But those nits aside, I think the Leaf is ideal, given the limitations on batteries. I'd like more range, but realistically, I NEVER drive in the 75 to 300 mile range window. I have no place I go that's farther than 75 miles round trip except when I drive to Canada and it's a bit over 300 one way.

2. If batteries were cheap enough and energy-dense enough, I'd like a 500-mile EV, and motel-based chargers capable of charging the car in 12 hours. I'd then be able to do all my driving electric. I think this will come, but not in my life time.

3. Back to realistic again, I probably would not even be on this forum and wanting a Leaf at all if my Zap Xebra just had enough power to reach 35 mph in 15 seconds instead of 30, and if it had enough power to go up our steepest local hills without slowing down below 20 mph, and if it had a good bms so I wouldn't have to worry about the health of the batteries, all while having a real-world range of 50 miles so that I could go 40 without depleting the batteries below a healthy level. I think this is all both technologically and financially possible. I could live without freeway speed, though I'm looking forward to having an EV that has it. OTOH, I've been very happy with the little three-legged clown car, as it's enabled me to drive electric for 4 years when nothing else was available. It's still my daily driver until either the Leaf or the EV Porsche shows up. (Both of which are being promised "real soon now," but neither of which seems really likely to materialize any time in the foreseeable future.)

4. If I had more money than I do, I'd like a Maybach roadster converted to electric.

http://www.coachbuild.com/gallery/d/32292-2/Spohn_Maybach_SW38_Roadster_1939_2146_09.jpg

http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/maybach/maybach-00001.jpg