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Title: Smithsonian removes electric-car exhibit
Source: SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER/AP
URL Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/natio ... 155AP_Electric_Car_Booted.html
Published: Jun 19, 2006
Author: n/a
Post Date: 2006-06-21 20:25:57 by Esso
Keywords: GM EV1, electric-car
Views: 294
Comments: 18

WASHINGTON -- Just weeks before the release of a movie about the death of the electric car from the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution has removed its EV1 electric sedan from display.

The National Museum of American History removed the rare exhibit yesterday, just as interest in electric and hybrid vehicles is on the rise.

The upcoming film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" questions why General Motors created the battery-powered vehicles and then crushed the program a few years later. The film opens June 30th.

GM happens to be one of the Smithsonian's biggest contributors. But museum and GM officials say that had nothing to do with the removal of the EV1 from display.

A museum spokeswoman says the museum simply needed the space to display another vehicle, a high-tech SUV.

The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the electric car back on view. It will remain in a Suitland storage facility.

Poster Comment:

Out of sight, out of mind. Move along, nothing to see here.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 12.

#7. To: Esso (#0)

GM happens to be one of the Smithsonian's biggest contributors. But museum and GM officials say that had nothing to do with the removal of the EV1 from display.

A museum spokeswoman says the museum simply needed the space to display another vehicle, a high-tech SUV.

While I was born at night, it wasn't LAST night.

The guy who made the film was on NOW last weekend. This film is pretty devastating. GM and the others didn't just take back all the electric cars (they were all leased, with no option to buy, although many tried), just to be sure, they had them all crushed. And just to be sure, they literally shredded the remains.

I got a ride in one of them one time. Amazing vehicles, fast as hell, and absolutely silent.

Mekons4  posted on  2006-06-22   22:12:50 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

What's the hubbub over electric cars? They just move the polution from one place to another. Not only that, when you consider the line losses through sending that power from the generating station to your battery charger, they're not efficient either.

Rube Goldberg  posted on  2006-06-22   22:21:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

They just move the polution from one place to another.

The pollution created by powerplants would be only 2% of what is produced by internal combustion engines in vehicles. Economy of scale comes into play.

Not only that, when you consider the line losses through sending that power from the generating station to your battery charger, they're not efficient either.

The efficiency of the electrical grid is on the order of 95%, inefficiency is induced on the users end, the most inefficient use being incandescent light bulbs, which are only about 10% efficient, 90% of the energy is dissipated as heat.

At best, ICEs are only about 15% efficient, and develop their torque in a very narrow range, where electric motor efficiency is close to 100%, while delivering full torque over its entire RPM range.

On a cost basis, the EV1 delivered the equivalent of about 200 MPG with virtually no maintenance over the life of the vehicle.

Esso  posted on  2006-06-22   23:14:38 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

#13. To: Esso (#12)

At best, ICEs are only about 15% efficient, and develop their torque in a very narrow range, where electric motor efficiency is close to 100%, while delivering full torque over its entire RPM range.

If you want to talk efficiency we could use the reciprocating steam engine-- maximum torque at zero RPM. Lets see you electric motor do that. I think you'll find that the average gas engine today is about 30% efficient but I think that's a false analogy. In an electric car, the motor would be more akin to the gear train as the battery is where the power comes from.

Rube Goldberg  posted on  2006-06-22 23:26:04 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

The efficiency of the electrical grid is on the order of 95%, inefficiency is induced on the users end, the most inefficient use being incandescent light bulbs, which are only about 10% efficient, 90% of the energy is dissipated as heat.

At best, ICEs are only about 15% efficient, and develop their torque in a very narrow range, where electric motor efficiency is close to 100%, while delivering full torque over its entire RPM range.

On a cost basis, the EV1 delivered the equivalent of about 200 MPG with virtually no maintenance over the life of the vehicle.

What he said. It's a lot easier to put scrubbers on a few thousand power stations than hundreds of millions of cars, trucks and buses.

The maintenance issue is, according to the movie, the real reason they killed the car, along with pressure from the oil industry. But the car industry makes its money not on the cars, but supplying the parts and service to repair cars.

The electric car has virtually no moving parts.

Which reminds me of a story. When I was about five, I for some reason put two batteries into a roller skate clamp and noticed they heated up. So I got out a shoe box, put sticks through it and attached the roller skate wheels, then dropped the "engine" into the box and waited for it to drive away. The concept of drive train had not yet entered my ken.

It was not the last of my scientific experiments and I finally gave up and became a writer. But looking back, I might have been on to something.

I understand the skepticism about electric cars and so on. But we are starting to see energy created by kelp and sun, and the oil industry attacks it as a pipe dream. It's not, just hard to do and without funds.

Greg Palast, among others, has pointed out that there is no oil shortage, just oil quotas. As we get to $70 a barrel, there's all the oil you can eat. Alberta is suddenly RICH because their inefficient oil reserves are now financially viable. Montana is getting rich because its coal reserves are now financially viable. There's a theme here. Everyone is getting rich except the people who have to pay for energy.

Mekons4  posted on  2006-06-22 23:46:32 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Typical power losses through the transmission grid are 7-8%

Rube Goldberg  posted on  2006-06-23 18:24:10 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

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