I'm sitting here reading about Motor Trend's car of the year which is the Tesla's model S. it goes 0-60 in 4 seconds and. Looks like really nice and sporty then it it hit me. The car runs on DC and its called a Tesla?...

"Edison" is not as marketable.

Is that the $105K version of the "S" (85), I didn't see it as COTY, just a test in the Dec 12 issue of MT. The ride they tested was Elon Musk's personal ride.

Yes, I agree, 'Edison' would not be a catchy car brand name. To close to Edsel?

It was just an observation that gave me a chuckle. Electrician humor

GE may still own "Edison" but Tesla was dumb enough to sign away all of his rights to anything.
Tesla was a brilliant scientist but a horrible business man. Edison was just the opposite. Edison's biggest invention was the concept of intellectual property. Most of "his" inventions were actually the work of the people who worked for him.

I ordered a Prius 'C' last month after a fantastic test drive around Mayenne city and a $3000 bribe from the French Gummint and the Salesman. Can't wait! It's due first week in December. The electric motor[s] appear to be sychronous 3 phase, 500+volt with variable frequency, coupled to a 4-pot gas engine. It has an auto box, [ never had one before! ] based on a simple one-ring epicyclic gear, driven by electic motors from both sides for a true, non-slip, infinite ratio trans with hardly any parts. That's not a new idea, I think it appeared in US tanks in WWII. Engineers are always borrowing others' good ideas, but Edison simply stole them blind.

Alan:
For what its worth, my township vehicle is a '08 Prius, hybrid, electric/gas engine. It has 29k miles, 98% city and the dash computer reads 38.7 MPG lifetime. There are 20+ in the fleet, along with 10 Ford Escape Hybrid, 2WD SWUVs.

Take care & good luck, & enjoy!!

I think those hybrids are perfect for a city mix of driving. I am not sure how well it translates to driving on the interstate when the engine will have to run pretty much all the time and there is not much dynamic braking going on.

Its a good thing you Are European other wise you would be asked to hand over you "MAN" card.

All kidding aside, gas prices are much worse in Europe then they are in the US and anyway we can save a buck, we do. My wife has a Smart car. Although I would not buy one for myself, they are a blast to drive, rather comfortable, and gets 40mpg in town and 50 on the interstate. It gets up and goes over 100 mph it a short distance. Granted its a detour of the OP but its good info

Can you carry a 10' stick of 2" conduit. (all doors closed, windows rolled up) That is my test for a car.

My Prelude can.

Ah, the 'man card'. French drivers are known for machismo, the problem is they can't drive a car with verve to save their lives - come to that they can't steer a supermarket trolley without ramming old ladies in the butt. Pointing a vehicle in the approximate direction desired is not driving as we anglosaxon/americans understand the term. Nor is disappearing into the scenery while attempting a curve! Fact is they have twice the fatalities per head of pop than us rosbifs - even their President implored the frogs to drive like us limeys to stem the tide of road kill. The prius c is a subcompact, but packs a hidden punch, for the 75hp gas engine is in addition to the 60hp electric motor running off the battery and you are always in the 'perfect' gear. It is 'detuned' by the computer, but will still lay down 100hp for 2 miles.
In town it will scorch up to 30mph in less than 3 secs, 60 takes about 10. Top speed is 103, all day long, as its aerdynamic drag is minimal. That's wot the salesman says, and i swoollerd it HL&S! Vrooom!

As a matter of fact, yes you can. It's a convertible

I did bring home a 1"x6"x 8' the other day and it was less then 3 feet off from the tailgate. No need for a red flag

Alan:
You talking 103 KPHr, or 103 MPH??

If its MPH, you are a brave man.

Prius complaint I have is touchy anti-lock brakes, and sensitive traction control.

I was really talking about closed up, A/C on.
Convertibles are just broiler trays here until it rains, then they are above ground pools.

That's why we are keeping our turbocharged diesel Opel 7-seater as a second car able to lug big stuff. Here, due to Gummint bureaucratic nonsense, the C is rated at 3 horsepower [!] for it's insurance bracket, so with mileage restrictions I can insure both for less than one. All other motoring tax is on fuel, currently $7.50 per gallon for regular. That's a heap cheaper than Blighty- there it's going up again with 3% more tax in January- and diesel, which is little more than strained crude, now costs more than 98 octane! The C is smaller than the standard Prius and you can't tow anything. I'm told it's because the regenerative braking system can get overloaded by trailer mass and reduce battery life. The Toyota system only charges the nimh cells between 40% & 75% capacity - resulting in battery life of 300,000 miles/ 10 years plus, at 100% original efficiency it says here.

As an aside, if portable power tool makers introduced that derating idea in their chargers, one of the bugbears of good tools getting scrapped because of high replacement battery costs would be solved! I currently have 3 Makitas on the edge of extinction!

OK, off topic but Alan brought it up. Replacement 14.4 DeWalt battery, $60-$80 price spread. Drill, circ saw, recip saw & flashlight w/2 batteries, 18 Volt lith...$<200

Yes, it's HO grade, but well enough for me around the house!

They are in the business of selling tools, have a Milwaukee 18V ni cad tool kit out of service due to failed batteries, cost of replacing them is $90 each or about $140 for 2, the ni cads are obsolete but the tools are still good so going to bite the bullet as I miss the cordless Sawzall®.

I breathed life into my 2 Makitas about 5 years ago with some no name $30 batteries from the internet (had better than stock MAH ratings). They are still going but getting a little tired.
I may do the $30 thing again.
I bought a junk 18v (Northern Tool brand) in a garage sale for $5 and it is just that. The drill is powerful but the battery/charger is junk.

I have never replaced my batteries. I have run the tool into the ground first. What I do to keep my ni-cad up is run the batteries down as far as the job let me. When I have the time to charge them, I run them dead dead. It's easy to do if you have a flash light for them. I run then til the is no light what so ever and let them sit on the charger even if they indicator says its charged. Throw the battery in the drill and be ready to snap a wrist. I have one yellow battery that is around six years old and a couple around 4.

I just picked up a 9 piece set of tools for the home and I'll likely burn them up before the batteries. Out of the dozen or so batteries I owned or used, I have had only 2 that has given up its ghost. Both tools that those batteries were on, were on their last leg. When the battery developes a memory and short cycles, I do the same thing. Problem solved.

I have several ni-cad devices and I treat them the same way. They all still run like a top. Least with lithium batteries, you won't have to do all that. It will be intesting to see how they hold up over the long hall. They don't like heat and sensitive to charge. To this day, I have not been on a single construction site that is temperate and power is top notch. Do they heat up under heavy use?

Al.,

Speaking in your area did any chance you see or heard a bleu loud Renault Sevicemaster van went by your area ?

About 2 weeks ago ?

If so c'est moi driving that one I did repowered that one with Americaine engine in it.

Merci,
Marc

Was that part of the convoy of WWII US military vehicles doing the rounds of shows this summer?

That one of my few runs I did made there. I was about 3 KM behind of them.

Merci,
Marc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgEOSIDwraY&feature=related

This car looks good to me too, [putting aside the tax bribes - which everyone is doing worldwide anyway]; just one more way of putting range on an ev, but Greg's gripe about loss of ooomph when the battery is used up still applies. At least with this there'll be some home charging station work. Note the claimed long battery life.

I still like the idea of electric cars but they are certainly a goldilocks type of thing if they are not hybrids.

I used to drive too far in a day for one, now that I am retired, I don't drive enough to justify the initial expense.
I use a tank of gas a month in a car that gets 25 MPG or so. It would take a long time to get the money back for an electric conversion for my car or buying a new car.

Besides, this is my truck



When I do drive outside of the little circuit I live in, it is 150 miles one way on the interstate, not the best situation for a plug in electric.

The Volt has gone out of production, temporarily and planned, in order to build a batch of Impalas. They use the same line apparently. Sales have been lower than projected, as have those of the Leaf. In France at least, the new Valenciennes, Paris, plant is running flat out making the EU version of the Prius 'C', with 6 months waiting lists - could be a reflection of sky high fuel tax here- but French buyers are fiercly patriotic and will buy the most awful cans of nails as long as there's a PSA badge on it, or it's made in France. This week my Doc and I spent more time talking new cars than on my blood pressure and chlolesterol level, so it is a hot topic. Toyota have indicated that they intend to put hybrid electric-auto transmissions with regen. brakes in most of their cars in the next few years. In theory, it's a simpler more economic transmission that has now proved its long life and there is no reason why sport and ute vehicles can't benefit. This has all happened just as cheap fracked fuel is coming on line that may prove the undoing of 'green' autos.

Here's some interesting insights on Thomas Edison's 100 year old nickel-iron battery technology, now mostly forgotten. These cells were made commercially between 1903 and c.1975, when 'Exide' closed the East Orange, New Jersey manufactuary that they had aquired 3 years earlier.
http://www.nickel-iron-battery.com/

This technology is seeing a possible new lease of life with Stanford U. research, using new forms of engineered carbon nanostructures in the cells to improve the charge/discharge rates. The main use of these cells may be in regenerative-brake storage rather than full traction.
http://www.gizmag.com/scientists-give-new-life-to-thomas-edisons-nickel-iron-battery/23102/

The US Gummint recently awarded several research grants of a total of $120m with the aim of developing batteries with 5 times the present power to weight & timescale years ratio as targets specifically aimed at electric-car use and off grid storage.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/12/03/research.to.boost.power.five.times.in.five.years/

And here, Edison's boast that his batteries were capable of lasting 100 years even if abused to the limit, are tested and found to be largely true, as some venerable 85 year old cells are bought back to life!
http://www.nickel-iron-battery.com/Edison%20Cell%20Rejuvenation%2085%20yr-old%2013.%20DeMar.pdf

Interesting stuff Alan.
We have a battery research small 'lab' in town. Some of the 'stuff' in there looked freightning.

It's not East Orange, I didn't see any nick or iron, but it is NJ.

There's are two companies that still make the Edison battery. One is in China and the other is here in the US believe it or not

John,

Its funny, but one of my old customers, lived in Lewelyn Park, NJ which also had one of Thomas Edison had a big summer(?) home. I would see it every time I worked for this one customer. It is now a historic site.

Harold:

Walk me down memory lane with LLewelyn Park.

John,
Lewelyn Park is an exclusive area between West Orange and Orange, NJ. It is a gated community and a nice wooded section with large homes. When you first drive into it after passing through the gate, you will see a very large red sided home that belonged to Thomas Edison. You might be able to find the image on the internet.

Here is one spot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digifigi/7020632431/