Ford Backs Down On Electric Vehicle Leases

[MR Bulk]

I've thought about this long and hard (not in just the last few minutes reading this thread, but throughout my life - occasionally - after becoming able to drive), and have reached this (somewhat crazy) idea - why not a little town or city that Only permits electric vehicles?

Cars would have easily slide-out-able (hey, new technology, new words) battery trays for recharging, because...

..."filling stations" would be places where you pull in, a small hoist mechanism pulls off the spent battery assembly and replaces it with a freshly recharged one, and off ya go. The filling station would of course always be recharging the swapped-out spent batteries; in certain areas the entire square footage of the station roofs could be covered with solar panels (perfect places would be Hawaii or other locations with nearly year-round sun) to improve business margins. No more going home and recharging overnight (although of course this is available too), but essentially you would be able to keep driving until the "fuel gauge" reads low and then simply "refill".

The easy-swapping batteries would also make for easy upgrades as new battery technology evolves.

Just a thought as I doze on the keyboard at 11:00 p.m. before turning in...

 

[raggie33]

there is a town some where that all ya can use is golf carts.i forget where though.

 

[MR Bulk]

Cool...wonder how you'd search the web for that info?

 

[raggie33]

i googled a bit and i think this is the place charlie.
north captiva island.sounds like cool place.i saw it on discovery chanel or travel chanel i forget.ill look for more info

 

[Darell]

Charlie -

That idea has some teeth, and has been kicking around for some time. You would own your car, and you would simply pay per battery use - you don't own the battery and don't have to fret about it since you are just leasing it each time. They would be modular so a sports car would require one, an SUV would require four.

The EV community is starting to happen already. There are parts of London, I believe, that are already off-limits to all vehicles but EVs. China will soon go the same dirction (I think and hope.)

And again... let's take THIS kind of stuff over to the Alt fuel thread!

 

[Saaby]

About a modular pack though,

one of the disadvantages is that then you're stuck going to the charging station every few days. Even if it takes only 5 minutes to swap out trays, you've talking about 10-15 minutes per week dedicated to tray swapping -- not including drive time TO and FROM the charging place.

With home charging you park like always and spend 4.5 seconds plugging the car in. Even if it takes you a full 2 minutes each day you're still ahead at 14 minutes a week with no additional drive time.

Of course we would need recharging stations. Places with fast chargers (Nothing too fancy, just some special electrical runs that would be impractical for every house but 10x simpler to install than under-ground gas tanks) and places to buy your morning coffee and Atkins bar.

 

[Darell]

So.. you guys know that there's an EV1 action now at GM, right? Trying to save the last 77 of those vehicles. I am one of 77 people who have now submitted a cash offer. But this thread is about the Ford Rangers...

This just in. I don't have a link, but this is how the article begins:

"CHICAGO, At ProMat 2005, Jan. 10, 2005 -- PosiCharge®, the industrial fast charger division of AeroVironment, today announced that Ford Motor Company has selected the company for its system-wide deployment of fast charge technology throughout its manufacturing operations. In the first phase, PosiCharge will facilitate the seamless replacement of all of Ford's internal combustion material handling vehicles with electric vehicles. As the rollout continues, PosiCharge will help Ford Motor Company to discontinue reliance on battery rooms."

So while the auto makers are telling us that BEVs aren't useful, they're trading in their internal ICE "material handling vehicles" for fast-charging BEVs. How about that for some timely irony?

 

[gadget_lover]

There's long been an advantage to using electric vehicles inside plants. While propane forklifts and such are used in some warehouses, they do require ventilation.

This article does not seem to be talking about passenger vehicles for use between plants.

I could not find the original article about Ford selling it's truck (the original post), so I did a search and found this one with the same quote:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0501/23/autos-66887.htm

I would hope that someone manages to get GM to turn loose of the remaining EV1 models.

Daniel