A fool and their money

[Ray!]

And some will be parted:

Nissan has knocked back some customers interested in purchasing its first electric car, the Leaf, because they have been deemed “unsuitable” for ownership.

The plug-in electric vehicle officially hits the market on June 1, but interested customers need to pass a two-stage approval test before being issued with a certificate that will allow them to purchase the $51,500 car from one of Nissan’s special EV dealerships.

The test involves answering five questions about their intended usage for the car, followed by a visit from Nissan’s electrical supplier Origin Energy for an assessment of the suitability of the customer’s home electrical network.

For customers who pass the two “toll gates” of the selection process, the car will retail for $51,500 (plus on-road and dealer costs). That includes a recharging cable, but not a wall-mounted recharging station.

A package including the telephone book-sized station adds a minimum of $2700 to the price, or more depending on the logistics involved in its installation.

“The majority of customers we have declined have been because they don’t have off-street parking available to them, which we consider essential for a safe and convenient recharging environment.”

http://smh.drive.com...0523-1z3u0.html

Why would you even bother?

Cheers

Ray

[GU3Tray]

http://www.youtube.com/user/NissanAustralia/featured?v=HqnUVCmEiVo

[Ray!]

Excellent! I'd love to be able to make an equivalent that shows where the electricty comes from.

Cheers

Ray

[Brett]

If you go for a long drive you'll need to take a generator with you...

[Ray!]

If you go for a long drive you'll need to take a generator with you...

That's why anyone who responded with answers such as they drive from Melbourne to Sydney, were immediately refused ownership. I actually wonder whether it's legal to refuse the sale of a good, based on some preconceived ideal established by the seller. Either way, Nissan has got this completely fucked. The Nissan marketing knobs think that by making the Leaf exclusive, they'll have hoards of people banging on their doors to own one (what 200 applicants?). The only thing they'll find is Jim's Mowing with the Leaf blower cleaning up the detritus.

You can by a Tiida (who came up with that name?) for around $20,000 and with the $35,000 or so saved, that'll buy you around 23,0000 lt of fuel (at $1.50 current rate). That's going to drive the Tiida into the next century.

Cheers

Ray

[GU3Tray]

Or just drive real slow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRrrPr3H8LU&feature=related

[Ray!]

Or just drive real slow!

I think Top Gear made a better point about the Prious, without reference to a sunburnt neck and Jim Beam withdrawal.

Cheers

Ray

Edited May 24, 2012 by Ray!

[JNR]

The electricity still burns fossil fuels

[Glort]

Holden Has the Volt on pre order ATM.

At least with that thing you can drive from syd to Melb. If I remember right the first 80KM is electric and then the engine kicks in and you can drive till you need to fill it again and be on your way in 5 min not 8 hours.

The volt can also be charged from a 10A powerpoint where as the Leaf needs a 15A supply. I'm betting it would also use it all so filing pins and making adapter cords probably wouldn't be the best idea. Dunno what a volt will be going for, dosen't really matter. It will be completely overpriced for the sake of being trendy.

That said, I have seen people spend a lot of money to do that and save the environmnt etc With Veg fuel related things. almost without exception though, I have also noticed the people that spend the most to get the best equipment and are the most Gung Ho are alo the ones that get out of it the quickest.

GM is apparently having a hard time shifting these Volt things in the US ( there's a surprise!!) so maybe they are trying to foist the things off here to recoup some of their R&D and questionable marketing Initive?

It will be real interesting to see how long the things last. Those battery packs are going to cost a fortune so maybe they will be junked in years to come and the things just driven as anotehr petrol car.

Why the fark they didn't at least make them diesel is beyond me.

I have NO interest in being green, trendy or saving the planet. What amuses the hell out of me though is that my tank GQ leaves these other hippies for dead on emissions, running costs and cradel to grave enviromental impact.

If these green minded twits were really so concerned and not just hypocrits, they would have no interest in one of these electric/ hybrid things made form plastic with deadly poison in their battery packs. .

They would get off their arses and put the effort in and run their vehicles on veg oil.

My repeated experience has been these green bandwagon types don't mind spending money to look trendy and concened but when it comes to actually getting their hands dirty and doing something real, then the idea loses it's cocktail party discussion gloss real fast.

[oilrig6]

US amry has gone green on its all new state of art 4wd. Mainly for stealth reason in cqb operations. If we dont try we dont get anywhere and im looking forward to what this brings. All our equipment is going electric were as it use to be hydraulic. Instead spending hours plug in test gauges its now one plug and all the data is on one screen. Really alot has to do how much we can accept change and the problem is with the human race is we dont like it.

But for me I can see the plus side. Less mechanical parts, clean working enviroment, a reduction of health care insurrance claims due to oil and mechanical based accidents and infections, remote operations, reduce operating costs, reduced inport and export on parts, traceabilty, mass production with less faults and thats just a few.

These cars will last and they will continue to RD them to point were petrol and diesel drivers will be the odd ones. Maybe for older genration they are to long in the tooth to understand that we need this kind of transport. If read most major automakers long term plans for next ten years everything is electric. So for me to remain in position that I can add value to company I will have to start and soak up this new tech. It bad enough when we first started going electric over hydraulics but now with it been all electric i can really see a very intresting future for a changing world.

There is no future in veg oil glort its just somthing that will never happen. You not seeing were we need to be heading and slopping around with veg oil in 2040 is not somthing i would like to be doing and sure most of the world would agree. We want somthing thats clean, easy to recharge with very little onwer input. I just hope the youth of today see the big picture. Veg oil and use in any form of transport is just so out of date. Its smelly and best left for peopke who find working a multi meter a complex task.

I shall compare the new electric cars to very first mobile phone that had a car battery bolted to its back so you could make a ten min phone call. Yes it was trendy and people wanted in and now everyone has a phone around the size of atm card and thk of 10mm. This will be pretty much I see how the electric car will work its way into our lives. Thanks to nissan we are getting there just a little quicker.

Edited May 24, 2012 by oilrig6

[Ray!]

The problem is that I haven't seen one Green scheme yet that has delivered on its promise. Lots of hype, but no substance when it comes to producing the goods. Everything just seems to be feel good, rather than actually do good.

And to show exactly what has been spent on climate change programs (US only), here's a chart:

http://joannenova.co...ate-since-2008/

$70 billion in four years! For what?

And this is so typical of celebrities etc that push the green movement:

...Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am is invited to a climate change debate at Oxford University to deliver a stirring message about global warming:

Climate change should be the thing that we are all worried and concerned about as humans on this planet, how we affect the planet, our consumption, and how we treat the place that we live in.

How did he get there:

Cheers

Ray

Edited May 24, 2012 by Ray!

[Glort]

There is no future in veg oil glort its just somthing that will never happen. You not seeing were we need to be heading and slopping around with veg oil in 2040 is not somthing i would like to be doing and sure most of the world would agree. We want somthing thats clean, easy to recharge with very little onwer input. I just hope the youth of today see the big picture. Veg oil and use in any form of transport is just so out of date. Its smelly and best left for peopke who find working a multi meter a complex task.

Veg oil / Bio Diesel never has been a viable mass production fuel despite all the hype and the Millions Pissed up the wall in the green scams touting it could be.

The thing is though, cars like the leaf and the volt and the thing Renault are coming out with are no environmental soloution either and anyone that thinks they are is a fool. From cradle to grave, these 4 wheel green scams will do a lot more DAMAGE to the environment and use a lot more energy and resources than what a new equivelent diesel or petrol car would. While the drivers of these POS things would probably shake their heads and mutter disparaging comments about my tank, the reality it's 100 times greener than their things will ever be.

Veg fuel isn't a long term soloution the same as these things aren't actually doing anything to benifit the environment now of for the foreseeable future.

Right now, today, for the minority of people that do want to do something really green in the way of fueling their vehicle, my way in the winner, not these electric things.

Yeah, electric may be better in the future but today it's a detriment so why bother with them?

I really don't see the point and think it is gross stupidity to make something you know damn well falls short of it's intended purpose and actualy causes more damage than it saves. The most environmental thing the purchasers of these things could do is NOT buy one. It's not about what comes out the tail pipe, it's the whole ball of wax as to the impact they have on the big blue bag with the marble in the middle called earth.

As for electricity being so wonderful and clean, I'd love to see the numbers on the total emission created to get 1 Kw/H of electricity to the end user.

I'm betting the generation and transfer process is pretty inefficent over all. Just because there is no emissions at the wall socket don't mean there isn't any crap at the other end.

But the green do gooders will all cry out about renewable energy.

YA!.

Where does the power come from when the sun don't shine if your on solar?

Where does it come from in a drought or low rainfall if your on Hydro?

where does it come from when the winds not blowing if your on Wind power?

The fact is that alternative technoogies all need the same amount of fossil fueled power generation reserve as the total demand as backup.

They can produce less emissions but not eliminate them.

You also have the fact that right now, all these things are doing is transfering the use of one fossil fuel to another.

So the upshot is in 100 years we wil still have shiploads of oil but be out of coal. Brilliant.

How about waiting to produce these things till there is sufficent renewable energy input to support them? That would be the enviromentaly responsible thing to do.

At very least, sell them with a solar panel array to charge them up so they are eco friendly in the real sence instead of just paying marketing hype to it.

Of course, if the sun isn't shining, like at night and you want to recharge on an eco friendly renewable resource, what you going to do?

Apart from fire up your veg powered generator of course.

[Ray!]

If the tree huggers were serious, this is the only car they'd be driving:

Cheers

Ray

[GU3Tray]

Here is another option! It's possibly as "GREEN" as you will ever get!!!!!