Post #309,014
5/21/09 11:33:47 AM
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not going to get rid of humers that easily
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6556706
he electrical system and software were developed in Utah. They targeted the Hummer because of its bad reputation. Cook said they took the worst environmental offender to prove they could sober up a gas guzzler.
The heart of the system is the drive-controller, an on-board computer that sends signals to the electric motor that drives the wheels, as well as to a gas generator that keeps the batteries recharged.
In long-distance driving, the gas engine might kick in only 15 minutes every couple of hours. If you plug it in overnight and drive less than 40 miles a day, Raser says you'll never need gas.
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Post #309,027
5/21/09 5:59:31 PM
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TANSTAAFL
BS. More Disneyland physics obfuscation for the fantasyland-dwellers.
F [Still] == M · A
K.E. [Still] == ½ M · V squared
China or the Middle East
Report Comment by brantag @ 8:01pm - Mon Apr 20th, 2009
Perhaps you do not understand the economics and/or the science behind electricity and oil. First most of our oil comes from the Middle East--this is transformed to fuel (gas and diesel). Second, most of our electricity comes from coal that comes from USA. Plus, with the additions of renewables (wind, solar, etc) electricity and electric-powered vehicles are the wave of the future. I guarantee that MUCH carbon is produced in refining oil for diesel that it takes to power a hybrid. PLUS, have you even looked at the tax credits and incentives the oil companies get? Google it. Not that the coal companies get any less, but maybe, just maybe, it's time to reconnoiter all this mess.
http://www.ksl.com/i...313&comments=true
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Post #309,037
5/21/09 9:54:56 PM
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There are lunches less costly, however
I suspect that the energy consumption involved in generating electricity to charge electric cars does not have the overhead involved in using petroleum directly to fling these gigantic armchairs (as I believe an appalled Nikita Khruschev described the fundamental particles of our automotive culture on his first visit here in 1959) around our cities. Since we can't cold-turkey our freewheeling ways, it seems meet that we investigate some courses of tech-based methadone.
cordially,
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Post #309,061
5/22/09 1:39:34 AM
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Re: There are lunches less costly, however
But exactly how much less costly when you figure in manufacturing and disposing of batteries and include environmental costs related thereto?
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Post #309,103
5/23/09 5:50:30 PM
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Was addressing the implicit absurdity in this puff-piece --
Suggesting nay Encouraging.. the fallacy that:
You CAN continue to throw all manner of resources into, create many new toxics while -- building 5000# + Living Rooms on Wheels, just like you always did
[cf. The 1959 Cadillac fin-with car attached.]
Hybrids indeed have their place in evolving experiments, as techno-illiterates imagine that throwing $$ at energy storage problems just m i g h t escape the Laws of physics (and chemistry.) Not to mention.. entropy. Methinks that , even as they are now: hybrids are ~ideal for taxi service (especially in a place like say, SF -- where regenerative braking can recapture a % of the up-hill energy expenditure.) And with a time-based warranty on that bettery pack; all those discharge cycles in a taxi's life -- get subsidized by Toyota, though probably that warranty will be nixwd for 'fleet service'. Oh Well.
That HumVee OTOH, with its drag-coefficient about like your screen door, m i g h t achieve 100 mpg at 30 mph on a flat road, toting all those batteries + its std. arrogant-Mass. F=MA; accelerating that mass around the very-same SF: compare with a Prius on same course. Let's see the SF + 60/70 mph figures. Any 'reporter' unacquainted with inertia, kinetic energy and similar HS-physics would have smelled a rat.
Etc. Disneyland physics is rampant amidst iggerant legislators, reporters like this -- and the gullible reader who is their (l)awful prey.
Hope Obama took some science courses along the way, but Mr. Chu, ex-LBL shall assuredly save him from fantasy-dead ends like, the Green Hummer;
Chu Knows about physics, and
... it's The Law.
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Post #309,054
5/21/09 11:15:47 PM
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Oil Imports (possible nit)
In your citation, they say "First most of our oil come from the Middle East"...
While we, as a nation, are focused on the Middle East (for our own reasons), most of our oil actually comes from Canada and Mexico according to this:
http://www.eia.doe.g...rrent/import.html
[...]
"Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in February, exporting 2.512 million barrels per day to the United States, which is a decrease from last month (2.544 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Mexico with 1.364 million barrels per day."
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Post #309,064
5/22/09 7:46:48 AM
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shh, dont annoy the true beleivers :-)
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Post #309,071
5/22/09 8:19:00 AM
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Give it time...
Yeah, too many people conflate "proven" reserves, production, and exports to the USA.
Given current trends, though, Mexico is going to be a net importer before too long (Canterell is collapsing). Canada has big (unconventional) reserves, but a lot of it is expensive to produce and may not ever be profitable.
So, given current trends, Saudi Arabia may be our biggest supplier in a decade or two. (But it's unrealistic, of course, to think that any trend will continue exactly as current trends indicate for the next 10-20 years.)
On Mexico: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2226
On Canada: http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2889
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #309,076
5/22/09 9:02:54 AM
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this guy is not a blogger, sycophant, thinktank maven
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Post #309,106
5/23/09 8:38:19 PM
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Re: this guy is not a blogger, sycophant, thinktank maven
Words like that from the Human Events wacko-vocab , the usual crude deriding of any semblance of scientific literacy -- makes one not some vaunted Hero Skeptic, but just another mouth-breather agin them-smart-college guys; sounds like My Gramma and..
..and does not Convince.
Further, the fact of the politics of science-iggerant massively Corporate-funded Reps guarantees that 'scientific literacy' shall continue to be beside-the-Point: until there is public funding of all Representative elections and full disclosure of every lobbyist's contributions: this info prefacing every bloviation on the public record. Doable, not even hard to enact -- but odds remain slim when only the rich can buy a Rep.
Apples, oranges. Mobs/pitchforks. Muricans are ~uneducable, in the mass.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
-- H.L. Mencken
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Post #309,143
5/25/09 8:56:23 PM
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oh I forgot, retiree :-)
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Post #309,136
5/25/09 3:52:27 PM
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Those pics are all from the showroom, not the jobsite
Zero relevance to how hard to extract the oil sands are.
The biggest problems with the oil sands are groundwater contamination, river contamination, destruction of the local ecosystem, and massive CO2 production.
The natives downriver from those megaprojects are beginning to seriously bitch about how the fish they catch taste like petroleum and that they can't help but notice that a lot more of their people are kicking off from weird cancers at young ages.
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Post #309,142
5/25/09 8:55:41 PM
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jobsite guarrantee
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Post #309,105
5/23/09 6:40:58 PM
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The TV reporting is hype.
What a surprise, eh?
Consider the company's PDF: http://www.rasertech.com/download/14/
Excerpts:
4WD Performance Criteria
Electric H3
Simulation Results
Acceleration: 0 Â 60 mph (seconds) : 8.8
Electric Range: 40 miles
Combined Range: 400 (11 gal tank)
Fuel Economy: 100 mpg at a distance of 65 Miles
Things to note:
1) It's a simulated result. It's not yet a real mileage number.
2) 400 miles / 11 gallons = 36 mpg. This thing only gets "100 mpg" if it uses a fraction of its range.
3) Any car can get high mpg for short distances if driven *very* carefully. They'll only get 40 electric miles out of this thing if it's driven *very* carefully.
http://www.caranddri...oadster_road_test
More:
V-8 Engine Versus 2.0 Liter Engine
Most SUVs and trucks of this size require a large V-8 combustion engine. In RaserÂs plug-in series hybrid architecture, the combustion engine is only used occasionally to recharge the batteries. A much smaller, more efficient 1 to 2 liter combustion engine can replace the stock 5-6-liter engines. The combustion engine is connected only to the electric generator and is not connected to the drive system. The engine is used only generate electricity and recharge the batteries when the vehicle drives beyond its 40 mile battery range.
And when driving beyond battery range, a vehicle using RaserÂs electric drive system should get twice the highway gas fuel economy over the base vehicle. This is primarily achieved by operating the engine only at its peak efficiency of about 30% to recharge batteries, rather than at the average of 15% efficiency when accelerating the vehicle.
Also note that the total range numbers in the PDF are alternatively 360, 380 or 400 miles. It's not a good sign when they can't keep their story straight in 2 pages.
The Prius has a 59 kW (80 HP) electric motor. The Raser claims to use a 200 kW (272 HP) electric motor. (The $111k Tesla Roadster motor is 248 HP and takes 8-10 hours to charge at 240V, 37 hours at 120V, according to the C/D link.) Yet it will be charged by a 1-2 liter gas engine driving a generator and give 320-360 miles of range? And only cost $12k-$15k more than a Hummer H2?
Yeah, right.
It may be an interesting engineering exercise, but it looks like there are too many loose ends to have faith in this ever being a real product.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #309,111
5/24/09 2:53:43 AM
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The Real Question Is...
...will they be able to make the Hummer actually be something you'd want to drive? I've thrashed an H2 round a track and it's quite the most godawful car to drive, even before I starting caning it. Wallowy, slow, and noisy.
And the cabin was crap. And the seat was rubbish.
Electric cars, in their battery-powered guise, are a curate's egg. I believe that hydrogen and fuel cells are the future. It's just a small matter of infrastructure.
In the meantime, the likes of BMW and VW are producing family diesels that do in excess of 50MPG on the combined cycle, and which are a lot cheaper than their hybrid equivalents.
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Post #309,112
5/24/09 8:43:32 AM
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The Hummer is simply an intimidation vehicle...
Designed to look like they can simply crush and roll over any passenger vehicle. They broadcast "Get out of the way, peasants!"
They are suitable for men with a fat ass and a small penis.
Alex
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Post #309,116
5/24/09 9:11:44 AM
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AND surprisingly SMALL women...
I've seen a recent surge in small, petite women (5' 4" or shorter and 100lbs or less) owning and driving these HUGE things.
Or a Suburban, or an Excursion, or an Escalade or an {insert very big vehicle}
Its not just fat insecure men with a small johnson.
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Post #309,120
5/24/09 11:52:19 AM
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Well, there's is even smaller . . .
. . and kind of bent over at the end.
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Post #309,128
5/24/09 11:58:29 PM
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Most of the people I see driving them around here...
... are 60+yo sour-looking women wearing furs. I kid you not.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #309,130
5/25/09 4:06:10 AM
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Re: Most of the people I see driving them around here...
You'd be sour-looking, too, if you were stuck behind the wheel of one of those shitheaps.
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Post #309,133
5/25/09 10:28:31 AM
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I'm guessing it's just furthering the sour...
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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