With the government disrupting our energy supply, and since the price of everything will go up to the level of their dream world, I thought I would check out an electric car. My son owns one, so I didn’t have to go too far. It is a nice-looking car that can be called out of the garage to pick you up. It can also play music and flash headlights, and open doors, all in time with the music. There is plenty room for four adults with a back seat for the grandson.
The computer screen is large and it is packed with so many features, I will never figure them all out. It runs smooth and quiet, and has lots of get up and go. The dynamic braking takes a little getting used to. If you think you are going to coast up to the stop sign, forget it. As soon as you take your foot off the pedal the braking kicks in and stops you short. (I almost said gas pedal, but will have to learn new terminology). The car is capable of driving itself, but I am not ready for that particular feature. I can see the hackers working overtime to take control when you least expect it. We drove over some rough ground and the car raised the suspension for more ground clearance.
It can go three hundred miles on a full charge, which brings us to one of the issues. To fully charge the vehicle on a standard 120V house plug-in would take all day. You might get about 5 miles on an hour’s charge at this level. The next level would be to use a 220 volt charger, which could give up to twenty miles per hour of charge. The next level, which is not available for home use, would be the super charge level. This level will give you around 80 miles per hour of charge. There are some stations that use 400 to 800 volts DC that can give an 80% charge in about forty minutes. The charging stations are many times model-specific, so you can’t stop just anywhere to charge.
There are questions about whether or not the power grid can support this activity, especially after coal is eliminated. Currently, if more than one car is plugged in to the station, the time to charge increases. Cost to charge is not currently an issue, and some are charging for free right now. Solar may be our best option. For less than $10,000, enough panels can be obtained to charge at home overnight. It is my understanding that wind power needs about seven miles per hour to begin producing electricity with 14 MPH being the best. Since our average wind speed in Georgia is about six and a half MPH there will be about half of the year when it will be useless. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but there was a Henry Fonda western where they were having a discussion on windmills. Fonda said that when he was growing up his family had two windmills, but they had to tear one down because they didn’t have enough wind to run both.
The cost of the vehicle is a problem for me. I can’t afford a $120,000 to $150,000 car. Then there is the pollution. If you consider the pollution created in mining the cadmium and lithium, as well as the manufacturing of the one thousand pound battery, things are not as clean as you may think. Then there is always the risk of fires and explosions with batteries, and these are big batteries. Other than that, I like the car.
I was around for the first car of the future and may get to see the second. The first was called an EDSEL.
Frank Hancock has worked as a Farm Manager, Vocational Agriculture Teacher, Vice President at Snapper and currently serves as the University of Georgia Agricultural Extension Agent in Henry County. He is a also a member of the Heritage Writers Group.
