Did you know that Prius does more environmental damage than Hummers?

dlil asked:

“Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles…
All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery.”

Inconvenient Truth!

http://forums.motortrend.com/70/6259344/the-general-forum/prius-outdoes-hummer-in-environmental-damage-so-go/index.html

Would you buy the Aptera? The new hybrid with approximately 300mpg? Why or why not?

socrates.lancealot asked:

You can find the details at www.aptera.com.
Click Vehicle Details, then click Performance.

- 300 mpg
- 120 miles on one charge
- $30,000 price tag
- Fits into standard parking spaces
That’s $30,000 USD
Flash Man, I checked my facts. It looks like 300mpg is the correct number, not 240, so I deleted the erroneous question. Also, you should read all of the information under vehicle details. The engineers originally planned for an electric vehicle, then expanded and created another version. There is the Aptera typ-1e (all electric) and the typ-1h (hybrid). Thanks.

“Just over 100 miles we’re just over 300 MPG, and just beyond 120 miles, we’re around 300 MPG.

So why pick a number at 120 miles? Well, it’s more than double of most available plug-in hybrid ranges that achieve over 100 MPG. It’s three times the distance of the typical American daily commute. It’s a meaningful distance that represents the driving needs of 99% of Americans on a daily basis.”

An essay on electric Semi-Trucks. What do you think?

marnold34 asked:

I think that it is possible to make an electric Semi-Truck. This is a idea that is thrown out by many. People argue that the power is there, from the engine, to move the truck, so in that aspect it is possible. But they always point out one thing: The power supply. The batteries are not large enough to power the engine for very long. So there is not enough of a range of travel before you have to recharge the batteries. It would take a lot of time to recharge them also, so it would take a long time to deliver the product.

But what if each axle was, or had, a generator? The engine only has to power one axle in order to move the truck. Why not use the three to five other axles as generators? Why is this not possible? So in theory, wouldn’t you be producing three times as much, or more, of the power that is being used to move the truck?

This would be very effective when you are driving on the freeways, as the wheels are turning a lot. Also, once you reach a high speed, the engine doesn’t have to do so much work. Thus, you wouldn’t need all of the energy being produced, and you could easily recharge your batteries and listen to some music at the same time.

Also, in hybrid cars there is a device that charges the batteries as you brake. Now, I don’t know exactly how that works, but I am sure that the harder you brake, the more energy you produce. Also, the more weight that you are stopping might contribute to the amount of energy produced.

In trucks, there are brakes on several axles, including the trailer. So, if you are stopping over forty tons of goods, with more than one axle, you can also produce a lot of energy there. So this would be an effective way of driving if you are in the city.

So all that seems to be the problem with creating this product is that nobody wants to put the money into it, right? Well, this seems to prove that the electric Semi-Truck is a very possible thing.