A friend of mine sent me a URL about a Hybrid MINI that uses Lithium-based batteries. Technically I think this is actually considered an electric vehicle since it appears that the drivetrain has been replaced (hybird is usually a fuel/electrical combo). The interesting thing is that it retains a 5 speed. Looks like the range is around 120 miles with speeds up to 80mph.

Given that I mainly run errands around town and pick up the kids from school this would be a useable range for me. That said it would require a rewire of my garage to support the plug-in requirements

Mark

 

Wow! a rare thread created by our founder!

A MINI powered by electricity from coal burning power plants!

This kind of stuff would be great once we begin to use significant amounts of renewable energy. . . .

 

Yeah...I'm largely working behind the scenes on stuff these days. Thought I would scare everyone and post somewhere other than in Site Feedback or News

Or better yet...petro-based power plants

For the kind of driving I do now I would be interested in a bio-diesel MINI

Mark

 

Let's get a diesel mini and then convert them to run off of vegetable oil. There's your winner!

 

I would give an arm for a diesel MINI!

Wonder how much more weight the electric conversion added?

 

I hope its an auto then, otherwise it'd be quite hard to drive.

 

The link mentions that 600lbs of lithium cells were added. How much space are those batteries occupying? Seems to me cargo space will be very limited in this hybrid version.

 

Oh, no. You charge it using your Honda generator

The conversion can be cheap, just buy up all the lithium batteries Dell and Apple are recalling.

Seriously, lithium batteries have a good energy density, but they are tricky to charge.

 

Keep in mind Electric cars not only reduce oil reliance, but independence from any specific power source. Electric power can be generated from natural gas, coal, solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear sources — or a combination of all of them — without changing the design of the car. No matter how or when the world changes, the car adapts, making it immune from obsolescence. And you can't beat the torque curve of an electric motor .

 

if im not mistaken, this is the 4th topic about the electric MINI

 

Not this red herring again...
Even if all the power plants in the United States were coal fired (which is not the case), and even taking into the account additional power plants that would need to be constructed to provide additional electricity to electric vehicles, greenhouse gas emissions would still be significantly reduced. For a good summary of more than 20 studies and papers showing that this is so, I suggest you take a look at http://www.sherryboschert.com/Emissions%5B9%5D.pdf . Another good study is http://www.evadc.org/pwrplnt.pdf

You can dispute the scientific evidence, but the fact is that electric vehicles reduce emissions no matter what power source is used.

 

i saw a thread on here about an electric mini that is super fast. i dont think that it would be a good idea for the average person to have on of these. with a range of 120 miles and a charge time of 6-8 hours you would have to charge it every other night. and if you forget to charge it then you are out of luck. no one can bring you more gas to get to a gas station.

 

The only problem I see with hybrids is that EVERY SINGLE BATTERY I have had went bad over time, I'll bet those hybrid batteries will set you back several thousand dolllars at that time, probably as much as a completely new motor would cost in a regular car. I still think bio-diesel is the future that is within easy grasp.

 

Can't dispute you. However, there are other considerations concerning coal burning. One off the top of my head is mercury emissions and I'm sure there are others.

In coals defense, an argument could also be made for only charging your electric car at night, or off-peak generating times. I believe the boilers are still cooking away even thought the demand is much less at night, so then you wouldn't be contributing to a need for more power plants.

 

Yep, batteries go bad eventually. But with economies of scale, battery costs would drop dramatically. And with more demand we would see more competition, more R&D, and eventually newer/better technologies that last longer with better range. Look at the cost of a plasma tv initially ($10k) compared to now ($1.5k).

 

i hope Sony doesn't make the lithium ions.

 

I don't think there's been much major innovation with most electrical power generation techniques in this country in a long time. (Coal burning plants, nuclear plants, or even oil distilleries). I'm sure if we tried, clean burning coal plants could be a reality. But coal is just one small source of power in most parts. Look at California...

 

Generally, the one thing I hear from hybrid owners (informed ones, anyways) that they fear is their battery dying. One man I spoke with had it figured out to where his hybrid was actually costing him more than his previous gas-powered vehicle. He said the life span of his battery is supposed to be somewhere around 4-5 years, and that 5 years is about where the car would begin to break even for him cost-wise (price of car vs. gas savings), but that then he'd have to drop another $4k into a battery, thus rendering the entire thing pointless for someone who buys a hybrid strictly to save money on gas. Now this was a guy who bought it for strictly enviromental/political reasons, but it was an interesting analysis. I wonder how many people who buy a hybrid buy it because they think they'll save tons of money in gas.

I know plenty who bought theirs so they could freely drive in the carpool lane...

 

Forget hybrids. BMW is going w/ hydrogen...and eventually so will MINI? An article is here.

 

Current hybrids aren't cost efficient enough yet. We'll see what happens with the plug-in hybrids PHEVs coming, but then there's the added cost of the bigger batteries.

 

Alot of people could make due on 120 mile range a day, but there are electric vehicles with twice that range that would be more than enough for the vast majority of people. AFA forgetting to charge, I've heard there is technology that allows you to simply park over a charge plate and your done.

 

I'm not sure if this has been posted anywhere else in the forums before, but here is another electric Mini. This one was produced as more of a Proof of Technology I think, but the company's web site does indicate that they would build one to order...

http://digg.com/gadgets/Electric_Min..._In_Its_Wheels

There are some interesting conversations on the thread...

 

Yeah...that capacitor driven MINI sounds GREAT...except the $200,000 price is a bit too steep at the moment but who knows what the price might be if ever mass produced