Those electrics are coming,you knew that?

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
I also find it funny the people that buy "green" energy. Apparently they don't understand how that works. If you are closest to a nuclear plant, you get nuclear power. If you are closest to a coal plant, you get coal power - doesn't matter which "green" energy you get.


It's funny that people who mount that argument have no idea how the electricity market works...

You do not contract to a supplier to get electrons only from their generator, you contract with them to supply power to the grid, equivalent to what you want to extract...if you are paying more for green energy, then that energy must be being supplied to the grid.

If people aren't paying for green energy (and I agree...I don't), then the green players have to bid into the spot market where their product is controllable, and get called in in rank order of price.

Where it's not controllable (like wind), it's in or it's out...not sure how the pricing/bidding works for that yet.

 

[fdcg27]

I've seen three Leafs (Leaves?) on the road and one of the tiny Mitsus.
I suppose that for a dedicated commuter and strictly local use car, these low-maintenance and cheap to run vehicles might make some sense. I have a long enough commute and we have enough really cold weather that they wouldn't work for me.
A Tesla probably would, but that's in an entirely different price class.
If the market is there and sales of both pure electrics and hybrids continue to grow, then we can expect to see continued investment in battery development, which should slowly and incrementally bring batteries offering enough range at a low enough cost to make pure electrics practical for more users.
I don't think that there is any area of our country with enough grid capacity to support very many of these cars, though.