[ausev] ev survey for college research project

[tunafish at io.com]

Happy Wednesday!
     I am not as knowledgeable as many others in the group, but I am a
big fan of electric vehicles.  I will be happy to answer your first
question, "What do I like about EVs?"  I can also point you to a few
excellent resources I have found.  We are a very diverse group, so my
list will be different than others.  Some in our group are into racing,
while some (me) just want to get to work.  My list:

1.  Climate Change and pollution!!!  This is my first reason for trying
to get an all electric vehicle.  I'm saving my pennies.  If you look at
the science you will find many have figured out that it would be less
polluting for everyone to have an electric car (even if they plugged
into a place that gets its electricity from a coal plant), than for
everyone to have an internal combustion engine (ICE).  If you add to the
mix places like my house and others in Austin who get their electricity
from 100% wind power, it becomes much less polluting.
    A few people still don't believe climate change is happening and/or
that we have anything to do with it.  The head of General Motors is,
unfortunately, one of those people.  You might ask this question in your
paper, "How many people made an A in science in the US?"
    I believe a big part of the answer is mass transit.  A very
interesting thing happened in the 1950's.  Most cities of any size in
the US had a mass transit system in place before 1950.  In the 50's
National City Lines bought up most of these systems and promptly
destroyed them!  It turns out they were a front company for a
conglomerate of oil companies, etc...

2.  Asthma.  Doctors are seeing a large increase in asthma cases
especially in areas where pollution is worse.  Their studies have
concluded that pollution is a large factor.

3.  Efficiency.  Resources are dwindling and the human population is
exploding.  It does not make sense to continue to use vehicles which are
as inefficient as standard gasoline engines.  All-electric vehicles are
already ON THE ROAD.  General Motors made the EV1, Tesla is currently
making the Roadster, our Austin EV group has made... how many cars,
trucks, etc...??  It would be interesting to try to find out how many
all-electrics are in operation and use today.  The plug-in hybrid, such
as the Prius with the Cal-Cars module, should not be ignored either.  It
gets much better miles-per-gallon than the standard Prius.  I know some
have a top end of 100 MPG or better.

4.  Etc...  Henry Ford's wife put it best when she refused to give up
her electric car for the gasoline model, "...they smell and they're too
noisy"!

Resources:

Union of Concerned Scientists (I believe they have a good article on
electric cars):
http://www.ucsusa.org/

Austin Electric Vehicle Group (our website):
http://www.austinev.org

Electric Auto Association (national organization which we are a part)
http://www.eaaev.org/

Timeline of the electric car:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/electric-car-timeline.html

I also encourage you to view 2 videos (both available at Blockbuster):
"Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "An Inconvenient Truth".

There are many other excellent resources I will be happy to find if you
need more.

Have fun!
Tuna

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John Komp wrote:
Dear AustinEV members and readers,
I am a college freshman at Concordia University just north of Milwaukee,
WI.  Presently, I am working on a research project about electric
vehicles (EVs).  Iâ€ôm actually trying to answer the question, â€úWhy
donâ€ôt we have a practical EV on the market todayâ€*?
I came across this website from someone I interviewed who is thinking
about an EV conversion.  Mr. Franklyn Berry (Milwaukee) advised me that
there are a lot of knowledgeable, â€úhands-onâ€* people who frequent
this website.  I hope that a few of you can take the time to respond to
some of the questions below.  Any responses will be greatly appreciated.

  1. What do you like most about EVs?
  2. I gather from my reading that a homemade EV will cost in the
     neighborhood of: $2000-$5000 donor car, $5000-$10,000 parts, 500
     hrs labor.  Is this in the ballpark?
  3. Do you find it a problem to find places to charge your vehicle?
  4. I have seen estimates of about $0.05/mile operating cost, including
     periodic replacement batteries.
  5. Does this seem close to your experience?
  6. I see ranges of 40-80 miles.  Does this seem reasonable in your
     experience?
  7. Are repairs much of an issue?
  8. How many miles have you put on an EV?

     Thanks in advance for any information you can share.
     Emily Komp
     kompfamily at hotmail.com

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