Dong Energy?
Truly, a inspired company name. Better even than 'Smeg'
Denmark has become the second country to sign up to Shai Agassi's ambitious plan to wean the world off petrol-driven transportation, with the announcement of a deal between Agassi's Project Better Place and Danish utility Dong Energy. As with the Israeli deal announced in January, the latest venture will involve mass production …
So there's roughly no incentive not to floor it and drive like an uneconomic maniac. I know that one of the few things that keeps me driving reasonably is just the price of fuel - if 100 miles at 30 mph costs as much as 100 miles at 100mph (Right, like the electric cars will go that fast... just for argument.) then I'll damn well be tempted to go as fast as possible, decreased efficiency and all.
all the "it'll never work, electric cars sux0r!!!" comments but fortunately the energy company's name is "Dong" and that's taken the conversation down a different track.
Good - the "I fill my car up at the refinery so I can safely ignore the energy and pollution costs of the petroleum distribution network and slag off electric vehicles based on the energy losses in the grid" brigade were getting repetitive and boring.
As were my rebuttals.
Nexox: Electric cars, even battery-powered ones, *can* do 160mph and better - the Eliica can do 230mph (too bad about the US$250K price tag, though)
As the battery technology improves and infrastructure is put in place, there's no reason not to have personal EVs capable of decent speeds - you'll just have to charge up (Altair's NanoSafe (nano-titanide) batteries can burst-charge in 10 minutes while you have a coffee at the outlet) or replace batteries more frequently - and there's your incentive: do you really want to stop at a battery-change station (in Denmark's proposed case) or at a burst charge outlet every few kms? Do you really want to go so fast on the open road that you deplete your batteries before you get to the next charge/swap point?
Also, I've have more than a little experience with pulse-width-modulated battery electrics and I can delightedy inform you that as your batteries start to get low, your vehicle's top speed drops. That means you may well set off at 100mph but wind up crawling to the nearest battery swap at 10mph with a stream of irate drivers behind you who, not wishing to waste their batteries by blasting their horns, are gesturing obscenely and frequently at you.
Once people learn that you can't just fill up and fang off at 120mph for 200 miles, you'll get people driving to minimise the time they spend at "enforced" reduced speed or waiting at burst-charge stations.
The Danes need to resurrect a tram system in their towns and cities and have lighter electric buses (no batteries) as public transport. Then, they could have the electric cars fitted out to pick up electricity from the tram system's power lines and they could drive in the cities (well, on any tram route) without using the on-board batteries, reserving their charge for venturing off the grid or between towns.
i like the electric car idea, and PH likes the name, because it combines two of her favorite things: dong and energy.
imagine, "Dong", "Energy", and PH. bring a videocamera, and your commercial opportunities are endless...until the energy runs out, the dong is worn to a nub, or Paris gets bored (place your bets).
mine is the rain slicker on the back of the Director's chair...
1) Decide on new 'pronounceable in english' name to make CEO and board seem competent.
2) Yell at employees for laughing out loud or crying when told the new name.
3) Watch in astonishment as the emails from almost 3000 employees go straight into spam folders. (Profit?).
Anyway, the due to the taxation of cars in denmark (150%), these electric ones would be cheapish as the tax on them is 0%.
Recharging would be done by swapping out the batteries (which are leased), it seems like an interesting idea.