RE: Cars On Contract
Thursday 1st November 2007
An iPhone for the roadThe mobile phone has become a near-essential accessory in recent years. New generations of phones aren’t just capable of making calls either: they are cameras, personal stereos and now, thanks to an American entrepreneur, may be responsible for allowing electric cars to actually become a feasible alternative to fossil-fuel powered transport.
Cars On Contract
Mobile phones make electric cars viable
An iPhone for the road
Project Better Place takes the business model of mobile phone operators and, in the same way that wireless operators deploy a network of phone masts to provide an area of mobile phone coverage, the project will establish a network of charging spots and battery exchange stations to provide ubiquitous access to electricity to power electric vehicles.
The intention is that instead of paying up-front a relatively large amount for their car, they will instead pay a smaller amount and then pay a monthly tariff to recharge as and when they need to. According to CEO Shai Agassi, consumers will still own their cars and will have multiple car models to choose from.
The infrastructure will be established in America and other, as yet unannounced, countries over the next two years in a variety of launch markets. The ambitious company reckons that the system will be a completely viable alternative within 10 years.
I wonder how much a Tesla Roadster on contract will cost?
Discussion
I would have thought that most electric car owners would want to recharge their car at home 98% of the time, rather then pay to be able to do it 'elsewhere'. Seems to me if you have to pay a monthly subscription to get your charge its just like saying you have to pay £100 a week for pertol at a garage.
Surely high initial outlay for electric cars is currently tempered by the low cost of 'refueling' them over night at home?
Better battery life/more efficient motors is the way ahead for electric vehicles, not conveniance of recharging, surely? If we make it easy to recharge and then let 'corporations' operate recharging stations then whats the incentive for manufacturers to improve the technology to levels where it actually becomes mature enough for people needs?
Surely high initial outlay for electric cars is currently tempered by the low cost of 'refueling' them over night at home?
Better battery life/more efficient motors is the way ahead for electric vehicles, not conveniance of recharging, surely? If we make it easy to recharge and then let 'corporations' operate recharging stations then whats the incentive for manufacturers to improve the technology to levels where it actually becomes mature enough for people needs?
Tony*T3 said:
I would have thought that most electric car owners would want to recharge their car at home 98% of the time, rather then pay to be able to do it 'elsewhere'. Seems to me if you have to pay a monthly subscription to get your charge its just like saying you have to pay £100 a week for pertol at a garage.
It would be very beneficial if you're on the road a lot, or have long journeys. Say you live in Glasgow and want to get the hell out, you could just start driving, and filling up with leccy on the way to somewhere nicer, or you're a salesrep doing 100000 miles a day. It would be like paying Shell £100 a wek to get petrol at any of their garages. Similar to a fuel card, no?TEKNOPUG said:
How is all this electricity going to be produced???? The majority of it in fossil fuel burning power stations that are less efficient and more polluting that internal combustion engines.
Now, now 
. This is about making money, not saving the planet this time. Riddle me this... If using all the oil we can get to econimcally is proved that it will kill off Human kind, do you think we'd stop using it? Nope? Thought not...
The whole point of contract phones is you give the customer a low value item for free (or at cost), but you tie them into using your profitable service for a period. Therefore your yearly profits are easy to predict.
To make this model work, surely you need the car to be relativly disposable (like the phone), but the battery pack to be a high value item (like the ability make calls) and not possible to charge at home. Then only allow users to swap out the battery for a fully charged one at a filling station in 2 mins flat.
however...
Some clever people would produce a way of home charging.
Producing 'disposable' cheap cars that only last a year would cunsume vast resources and carbon.
To make this model work, surely you need the car to be relativly disposable (like the phone), but the battery pack to be a high value item (like the ability make calls) and not possible to charge at home. Then only allow users to swap out the battery for a fully charged one at a filling station in 2 mins flat.
however...
Some clever people would produce a way of home charging.
Producing 'disposable' cheap cars that only last a year would cunsume vast resources and carbon.
TEKNOPUG said:
How is all this electricity going to be produced???? The majority of it in fossil fuel burning power stations that are less efficient and more polluting that internal combustion engines.
The internal combustion engine isn't good for the planet. We know that. We need to find better alternatives.But there are different ways of generating electricity, some less harmful than others, and the impact on the atmosphere can be contained much better at source in one power station rather hundreds of thousands of internal combustion engines.
Electric cars might not be THE answer to the planet's problems, but they are a step in the right direction, and if they help move interest, attention, money and resources into new innovations, then that's only ever a good thing. The status quo isn't the answer
So, the real value of a Prius isn't what that individual car is doing for the planet (the owner could be really green and leave it at home), it's that it's saying "we need to do something". It's a personal billboard. That's why it's selling despite a high price and some frankly dubious green credentials.
Dont see how a system of really high demand electric points will be cheap to produce (you will hardly refill your car for 8 hours at the pump) the electricity will all be at more expensive daytime rate.
The idea of battery exchange is fine if they last for ever, but how would you feel exchanging your brand new batteries for a 5 year old faulty pack
The idea of battery exchange is fine if they last for ever, but how would you feel exchanging your brand new batteries for a 5 year old faulty pack
geofflowe said:
Haven't General Motors committed $3bn for research into electric - alternative powered cars. Once Saudi oil runs out and the USA open the wells in Alaska they will be able to charge what they like for a barrel!!
That however won't matter a damn to most of us as we'll be dead by the time that happens.Enjoy it while you can
oagent said:
The whole point of contract phones is you give the customer a low value item for free (or at cost), but you tie them into using your profitable service for a period. Therefore your yearly profits are easy to predict.
To make this model work, surely you need the car to be relativly disposable (like the phone), but the battery pack to be a high value item (like the ability make calls) and not possible to charge at home. Then only allow users to swap out the battery for a fully charged one at a filling station in 2 mins flat.
however...
Some clever people would produce a way of home charging.
Producing 'disposable' cheap cars that only last a year would cunsume vast resources and carbon.
Contract phones aren't cheap. Mine would cost around £300 pounds if it wasn't on a contract. Where the companies make there money is on you paying up front and then not using you 'free' entitlement each month.To make this model work, surely you need the car to be relativly disposable (like the phone), but the battery pack to be a high value item (like the ability make calls) and not possible to charge at home. Then only allow users to swap out the battery for a fully charged one at a filling station in 2 mins flat.
however...
Some clever people would produce a way of home charging.
Producing 'disposable' cheap cars that only last a year would cunsume vast resources and carbon.
For this example, say you pay £100 for 1000 miles/100 charges a month. If you don't do 1000 miles/100 charages, they're making money. If you do more than you allowance, you get charged more. So you'd be have to be using your entire monthly allowance but no more to be getting the best value out of the package. If everyone did this the concept wouldn't work. But beacuse you never know exactly how far you're going to drive in the next month/year, they're always going to make money.
Might be more viable for a city communal car-share scheme than private ownership. You put your membership card into the charging point to release the car and leave it at any of a series of reserved spaces with charging points around the town. A fee is charged all the time the charging lead is disconnected so if you want to car-hog then you pay for it.
Having all these silent cars whizzing round isn't going to improve the collision with pedestrian statistics - but hey! we're saving the planet.
Having all these silent cars whizzing round isn't going to improve the collision with pedestrian statistics - but hey! we're saving the planet.
Listened to an interesting programme about Shai Agassi on the World Service yesterday (download the MP3 here).
Here is his site:
http://www.betterplace.com/
This seems viable although would need an anti-pikey theft deterrent for the UK.
I also thought that Israel was an interesting choice for a initial trial - a big flying V to the surrounding oil-rich countries.
Flamey flamey
Here is his site:
http://www.betterplace.com/
This seems viable although would need an anti-pikey theft deterrent for the UK.
I also thought that Israel was an interesting choice for a initial trial - a big flying V to the surrounding oil-rich countries.
Flamey flamey
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