PBS tonight: Who Killed the Electric Car? (Sony pictures)

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

That NiMH battery patent Chevron Texaco is squatting on? ECD chairman Robert Stemple quoted them at $150/kWh for production volume of 20,000 cars per year. Cycle life is 1,750 to 100% discharge, shelf life not even a factor. Basically, a 50 kWh pack to give an aerodynamic midsize car 250 miles range would have been $7,500 in mass production and lasted well over 300,000 miles.

I wonder how old this patent is. Buying a patent and mothballing it only works for a short period of time, Once the patent expires the design is in the public domain, and anybody can build it.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I wonder how old this patent is. Buying a patent and mothballing it only works for a short period of time, Once the patent expires the design is in the public domain, and anybody can build it.

I suppose if you call 17 years a "short period of time", sure.

When I've brought up the battery patent issue in other threads, people have pointed out some decent data showing that it's not an issue after all.

[Jay2TheRescue]

My point is that an oil company buying patents... Be they for 300 MPG carburetors, or miracle battery packs, only keeps this technology off the market temporarily. Eventually the public will have access to it.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Here, in fact, is the link to the patent, drawings, etc. of the famed "200 MPG" carburetor: http://www.rexresearch.com/pogue/1pogue.htm

AFAIK, you can look up ANY patent online, even if "some oil company bought the rights to suppress it".

EDIT:

Originally, I had provided the link to the U.S. Pat. Off. website, but it was only giving me the first page of each patent. According to their website, they are supposed to be putting up a whole new system tomorrow. Maybe that's why I can't get more than one page (I used to be able to page through patents).

Anyway, these patents are reproduced various places on the web.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I watched that movie recently, it was OK but not that impressive. Pretty much a rehash of what I had read in the papers and on the web.

Remember the GM "Impact"? (Kind of an unfortunate name...) That was the prototype for the EV1. Several went around to people to try out for a short period of time. In 1995 or so, I was running a store in Newhall, CA. Someone brought one to my parking lot and was doing doughnuts. I was pretty impressed by the pickup the car had.

A few of the other EVs did find their way into private hands...one evening a couple years ago I found myself following Ed Begley, Jr. driving his Toyota RAV-4 (NiMH or Li-ION on the back window, don't remember now which it was) down Ventura Blvd in Studio City, CA.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by JoeBob

Remember the GM "Impact"? (Kind of an unfortunate name...)

GM manages to make bad names work...just consider the Avalanche.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Its hard to top AMC for bad car names. Yeah, I'll buy a Gremlin! How about a Matador station wagon for the family? Not many Americans realize that matador literally means "killer" in Spanish. Would you put your family in a car named "The Killer"?

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I think my all-time favorite is one from the mid '30s -- Studebaker Dictator.

[mochabuzz]

Great movie... but showed some obvious biases... I would still be leary about getting an electric car... (bc i could only charge it up at Costco!!)

[Jay2TheRescue]

An electric car could be perfect for me. On days I work I drive about 10 miles total, and I could run an extension cord out the back door of the store to charge the car.