Does it come with a sidecar?
| By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Last night at the Light Rail Community Input forum I had a chance to chat with Mark Huffer of the KCATA. As usual I was pitching one of my wild ideas which I will write about at a later date. Mark and I were talking about new technologies and I was heartened to hear we share similar beliefs that transit technology is advancing at such a rapid pace it staggers (or in my case excites) the imagination to think what will be available ten, or even five years from now. I watch EV (Electric Vehicle) technology very closely. I monitor press releases from startup firms like A123Systems and Altair Technologies. Despite what the lumbering automotive manufacturers would have you believe, the day is fast approaching when we will all have the means to own a plug-in vehicle. To the "I have to see it to believe it" crowd? Check out this bad boy. The KillaCycle. The current world record holder for the quarter mile by an EV. 8.168 seconds @ 155.78MPH. This is not your kid's electric scooter. And the really cool part? One quarter mile run costs about ten cents, including the two mile drive back to the pit area! As I've said before, racing brings about a lot of innovation. If only the transit industry would be so bold. Or maybe they are. Stay tuned gentle readers... |
posted by Mark at 9:09 AM
Comments on "Does it come with a sidecar?"
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Jeff said ... (9:58 AM) :
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Mark said ... (10:10 AM) :
post a commentSo what happens to electricity prices as folks move from using oil to move their Expeditions and Suburbans around to electricity?
It makes me kind of scared. We're already see pricing changes for corn with Ethanol--agave farmers (tequila) are plowing under to plant corn making tequila more expensive, and barley is seeing fewer fields making beer more expensive (gasp!). And we can also expect corn prices to increase--that's used in heaps of foods. Food prices going up is bad.
Will we see the same with electricity once everyone starts pulling power for their cars?
Jeff,
I share your concerns. It's no secret I think moonshine, er I mean E85 ethanol and the like is pure folly. I hadn't heard about the blue agave thing. I like my tequila. Now these corn subsidy boys are hitting a little too close to home!
My hope is along with the advancements in EV and battery will come equal quantum leaps in solar. Google has solar carports that charge employees plug-ins at work.
My belief is we'll see commercial fast charge technology that dumps tons of current from the grid into a battery cell in a matter of minutes, and then consumer trickle charge solar installations that charge while a vehicle is parked either at home or work.
But then again I could be wrong. The cynic in me thinks our government is quite capable of screwing this all up.