The new Toyota does look very good, and depending on price might be a winner.
Jake I think Paul meant that by self charging an electric car could last a lot longer (like maybe 700km or so as current cars can), not forever.
Electric cars could actually be very good. They put down a lot of power from the start (so much so that a solar power car in France had to have 6 wheels!)
To me this whole thing is a no brainer. Solar power. I read somewhere that a single decent sized solar power station in the middle of Australia could produce enough electricity to meet the current consumption of the
entire world.
Now I know there are some problems with this idea, largely to do with storage and transportation of energy, but that should be a top priority IMO.
In terms of electric cars as we see them today, they will not work in the real world. For starters, you need to plug them in, and that power still comes from non renewable sources. Second, they have no range (as mentioned above).
Now this seems to mean that they will never work, which is crap because what it really means is that we need to make them work.
For instance, instead of having a petrol station, why not have a recharge station with a solar panel on the roof constantly keeping a store of charged batteries. Then all you need to do is have a "swap n go" system like we currently have with gas bottles and all of a sudden the range isnt a big deal. As time goes by they will improve that anyway, maybe they will start putting a thin, lightweight solar panel on the roof of cars to help charge the battery as it drives or sits in the car park?
In any case, all the new ideas wont work atm because what we need is a change in our lifestyle (and the massive infrastructure costs associated with that). We need to invest the same amount into the new technology as we did into petrol.
Therein lies the problem. Things like solar power, aren't going to make money the same way oil does. So who is going to invest all this money to make the system work? The govt? Taxes will go through the roof. Private enterprise? With no chance at being profitable?
when hell freezes over maybe...
Also there is the problem that everyone has different ideas as to what is going to be the best method to save the world. If they just focussed on 1 we might get somewhere!
Ok, that's enough ranting for now
Thanks for reading!
