Dying for a Chevy Volt, but....

[Ed Huntress]

Here are two places for you to start:

The first one is a report from Doble, in which he talks about achieving 14% efficiency at 25 mph, and 16% peak.

Dobles were the most advanced steam cars of all time. In the late '20s, whcn a Ford cost $260, a Doble cost $10,000 or more.

Steam technology on a small scale hasn't progressed very much since. The Doble was a work of genius and very advanced. Turbines are out for cars. You need positive-displacement engines, like IC piston engines. Workable steam engines are complex; boilers are maintenance headaches; and so on.

If you want to see what has developed since, there is plenty on the Web. But watch out for the enthusiasts' sites. They usually don't tell you things like how you'll spend the weekend descaling your boiler, or the fact that it takes three or four times as much fuel as an IC engine.

[gfretwell]

How many steam locomotives do you see?

It was cost and maintenance that doomed them.

You also have the "water" problem. A steam engine uses more water than fuel, that needs to be replaced and it needs to be pretty clean water if you don't want to be de-scaling your boiler all the time.

The only advantage to steam as you can burn anything that gets hot but these days you will need stack scrubbers of some sort.

[Existential Angst]

First, most of what you just said is lying bullshit. I already said the Volt design IS the right design. It just should not be $45K. And yeah, lightweight would help, 2 airbags would suffice, etc.

He COULD

Apparently neither of you have taken apart an ICE or a transmission. When you do, post back.

Dudes: Electric car = battery + motor....... WTF part of battery+motor don't you get??

Sure, you can MAKE shit as complicated as you want.... dat dudn't mean it actually has to BE that complicated. YOU think so, because you can't tell up from down, but that dudn't make it so.

If the gummint were serious about going green, the Volt subsidy should have the car net out to no more than $20K. It would then FLY off the shelves, and eventually support itself.... like, uh, the Prius C, at $18.9K.

[Neill Massello]

Two rungs don't make a route.

[trader4]

It's you who doesn't get it. You keep claiming that building an electric car is trivial. All the world's auto manufacturers, who actually are doing it, don't seem to think so. For example, what part of a big honking battery suitable to power a car being, large, heavy and expensive, don't you get? Yeah, it's just a battery, but so far no one knows how to make one that stores a lot of energy and is cheap. That includes not only the auto makers, but all the battery makers out there.

Also, to try to get mileage that is barely acceptable requires more than a simple motor and battery. Regenerative braking technology being an example. If you don't recover that energy, then the car isn't going to go nearly as far. And then folks have this funny thing about thinking that a car should have A/C, heat, stereo, etc, basicly the standard feature set that you'd find in similar cars today. And for cars that cost $45K, that's a lot of stuff. No one is going to buy a stripped down, barebones car at even 25K, let alone that price. Then there are the govt mandates, like airbags, crash resistant bumpers, etc.

Take the last part up with Obama.

[Kurt Ullman]

GROOOOAAAAAANNNNN! Well played, old boy, well played.

[krw]

I kinda think NY and MA were settled a bit before, though they're still pretty unsettling places to live.

[bob haller]

nope we import the stuff directly from the slave labor of china

[krw]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:44:49 -0800, Spam?uster

Wow, the little moron knows how to look at a header. Who would have thunk?

wrote:

[krw]

If there was any oil in it, at least it would have some flavor.

[krw]

Hell no. He's so far left he wouldn't know what being right is.

[Stormin Mormon]

I think this is awful. How awful? Tell you ladder.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Two rungs don't make a route.

[Jim Wilkins]

They actually did have one, which somehow survived long enough to leave drawings like this that Harry can color in crayon while making motor noises.

[tulsarealty]

Some people are charging their cars by generating their own green energy an d are even taking themselves off the grid. There are some great guides out there on how to do this, some of which are listed on this site www.diyenerg yreview.com if you?re interested?

[Michael A. Terrell]

Today's Brits wouldn't have lasted a day in W.W. II.

[Michael A. Terrell]

Used 90 weight gear oil would be appropriate for that garbage.

[Michael A. Terrell]

I think that he's Dimmie's Limey cousin.

[Jim Wilkins]

Development work on small steam turbines at Doble led to an American jet engine proposal contemporary with the British, German and Italian efforts, but not as well supported:

[Gunner]

Actually..not true. But they are indeed pretty unsettling places to live.

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

[Gunner]

Does CNG work in a diesel engine? Or does it require spark plugs?

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie