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Old 08-02-2009, 06:06 PM   #13
irrelaAnnekly

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Oct 2005
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While that is true, the Volt's drivetrain is entirely electric. The IC engine onboard can only power the cars electrical system, and even then its barely puts out any pollution. Its a smart idea considering how far battery technology has to go before it can replace the average persons car in a cost effective package. The motor and controller technology is there, its rock solid and will last a very long time. But the batteries that power electric cars wear out, and can be exceedingly expensive to replace when they wear out, and they will wear out far more quickly than a IC car will. My average daily commute is about 35 miles round trip not including other stops. I visit my friends on the weekend and sometimes we go out during the week. At most, i would put maybe 90 miles in a day. An electric vehicle with a range of 150 miles would give me plenty of headroom for what i need. Sucks for long trips though.
Luckily, Toyota left RAV4 EVs to their owners and didn't crush them, like GM did. They have them for more than 10 years now, they have NiMH batteries and they still run with full charge and RAV4 EVs do 100 miles per charge, so these batteries have passed the age test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRjsu_zHxac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shk_JEXShzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbeCLkRwzBU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rav4_ev

Why did Toyota stop the production, you say? Because GM sold the NiMH battery technology and patents to Texaco and Chevron and those were the only best batteries, at the time, to run electric vehicles. Without these batteries, Toyota couldn't produce any more RAV4 EVs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiMH#En...ybrid_vehicles
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