A car with no timing belt, no ignition, no fuel pump, no gear box, no engine oil... compared to a combustion engine, an electric engine hardly needs any maintenance at all, and there are far fewer things that could break down or go wrong. I just had to replace the clutch on our ten year old volvo v50, and f---, that's expensive.Uncle dans leg wrote:Very good point. Personally I will most definitely buy electric but only when they advnce the technology enough to be functional for everything i use a vehicle for. Dynamic braking and momentum generation will advance to thr point eventually where you likely wont be tethered to a plug every 500 km. I can see them one day not requiring external power except in unusual circumstances...this unfortunately is at least 10 years awayukcanuck wrote: BTW in all this talk about electric car batteries where is the talk about how long a petrol engine will last before it requires constant parts replacement. how long alternators, fuel pumps, starter motors, and car batteries last and need replacing?
electric motors have far fewer moving parts so should last comparatively indefinitely with only brushes and batteries being the weak point.
I think I've seen some concept electric car with solar roof. It recharges while you're at the beach or wherever... Guess it can't generate as much energy as you use while driving, but it should help extend the range.
I agree that they still need some improvement before I switch to fully electric. My mother, my sister and my eldest daughter all live some 500 kms away, one to the north, one to the west, one to the south. Thus 500 km without recharging is a minimum requirement for me. But the way batteries have developed over the past few years, I'm confident that milestone will soon be reached. China is focusing on electric cars, not so much because of global warming, but because their air has become toxic and they need to stop polluting it in order to survive. Since they are now a bigger market for new car sales than North America, they will drag the whole auto industry with them.