FWIW
Recently there was a lot of discussion about unrealistic claims about
electric drives
giving newcomers false information and ultimately discouraging them from
purchasing
or keeping electric drive systems. While this may tick off some of the most
avid
electric proponents on this forum, I think the almost cult like allegiance
to everything
electric and an open disdain for anything ICE turns off more people than
misrepresented
performance claims.
I sincerely doubt Mr. Benz called over Mr. Mercedes and said, "Hey check
this out. This
thing burns gas and can be put in a carriage to carry people. We'll put the
horse people
out of business and the best part is, in a hundred years, the polar ice cap
will melt and
the people won't be able to breathe the air". It's much more likely that
Fred Farmer said
to his wife, "Wife. If we bought one of them trucks from Henry Ford, we
could take our
crops into the city and make more money than we make selling at the Grange."
Or
the mayor of Podunk, Nebraska said to the town council, "If we had one of
those new fangled fire
engines we probably would have gotten out to Fred Farmer's place before it
burned to
the ground and if we had one of those motorized ambulances his wife might
have made
it to the hospital before she died." Or Wilbur said to Orville, "You know
we may just have
something here if we use this engine instead of the big rubber band."
Build an electric vehicle that the average person can afford to purchase,
that will
perform as well as the base model Ford, Honda Chevy, Mazda etc. etc. and
people will
consider it as a viable option to the standard ICE powered vehicle. Tell
people that it
only gets 70 to 100 miles on a charge, that it takes three to six hours to
charge it, that
you have to have a special charging station and oh by the way it's going to
cost $45K to
$70K and you will have people continuing to buy standard ICE powered
vehicles. The same
thing applies to boats. Develop an electric system that is as cheap and
dependable as the
current crop of ICEs and people will buy it. But tell people that they have
to monitor the
charging rates of the batteries or that the batteries can give off corrosive
gases or you can
only run for an hour at full throttle, or that you need a generator to motor
sail etc. etc. and
people will opt for the turn the key, start the motor and go ICE option
nearly every time.
John Green says, "The popularity of electric will increase naturally as the
cost of not
having electric goes up." Think about that for a minute. Right now, the
industrialized
world runs on fossil fuel. Every time the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of
everything else
goes up too. Food is more expensive, heating and cooling your home is more
expensive,
every petroleum based product from pharmaceuticals to plastics becomes more
expensive. Unfortunately most peoples income does not go up in relation to
the oil market
so they are squeezed into rationing the income they have. If people can't
afford the fossil
fuel how are they supposed to afford the cost of the electric conversion of
their car, their
house or their boat? Driving the cost of fossil fuel up does not advance
the performance
or reduce the cost of electric vehicle propulsion, it just makes the ICE
systems more
expensive to operate and reduces the number of people that can afford either
one.
I have a 1977 O'Day 27 with an Atomic 4 inboard and a Honda 9.9 as a backup
when
the 30 year old motor acts up. I'd love to lose the inboard and outboard
and go with
electric drive but frankly I can't justify it either practically or
financially. To me, it's not the
cost of fuel and maintenance it's the cost of the electric system. At 20 to
30 gallons of
gas per season there is no way I can justify the change even if the cost of
gas quadrupled.
Of course if the cost of gas quadrupled I would have to move my boat closer
to home
because I couldn't afford the round trip to Chesapeake Bay. Income
priorities, food,
shelter (heat and air), clothes ... boat.
With that being said, I sincerely hope someone, maybe someone here, comes up
with the
breakthrough idea that creates the electric equivalent of the Model T Ford.
Not only will
he or she become exceedingly rich (I still think making a profit is a good
thing) but he or
she will completely transform transportation as we know it.
John Bortner
O'Day 27 "Circe"
--------------------------------------------------
From: "John Green" <v_2jgree@operamail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 9:40 AM
To: <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Electric Boats] re ICE versus Electric
>
> Dave, this is a good point, and crucial to the amount that I care about
> what others think about electric, or gas, or whatever, or whether they
> have reverted back to diesel. They have the right to make their own
> choices.
> The popularity of electric will increase naturally as the cost of not
> having electric goes up.
> Short term thinking is the way the world runs right now, from the egos
> of politicians who plan to look good, to the bank balances of company
> honchos who want quick profits, personal bonuses, then can quit.
> I have no doubt that in the early 1900's, there were people who 'went
> back' to horses or electric cars because they found ICE engines
> unacceptable to them. But the reliability and range of ICE got developed
> to be more reliable, despite those people.
> Right now, the benchmark for all boat and vehicle propulsion is the ICE.
> One way that electric will become more popular is by advancing the
> technology to bring electric up towards that ICE performance.
> Another way is to wait until the ICE performance changes downwards,
> especially in terms of running cost.
> Try a comparison if fossil fuel cost is 4 times what it is now.
> Suddenly, human greed will look at that small electric unit
> particularly, (with solar and wind charging sufficient to not ever need
> plugging in), or, even a plug-in larger unit, both to start to look a
> lot sweeter.
>
> John
>
>
>
> 3. ICE versus Electric
> Posted by: "Dave Kellogg S/E/V" inganear1@yahoo.com inganear1
> Date: Mon Jun 6, 2011 9:29 am ((PDT))
>
> I've had this question in my mind for a long time and I've going to post
> it for comment from the group. The Question is what would our mod of
> transportation be like if the ICE were more expensive at the beginning
> of the transportation era. Would we have the storage for electricity
> that we are missing now? What refinements would have been invented
> using electric power instead of gas/diesel? We have almost always
> leaned to cost as the controlling factor in our lives instead of
> searching for the best alternatives for our needs. Could we now have
> conquered many other aspects and needs in our lives if we had not gone
> to the cheaper fuel? I don't know, but it's good food for thought in
> the future, and we are the future, all of us..
>
> Dave K
> S/V Redeemed (electric) 30ft Mono sloop
> S/v Eastern Star Clipper (going electric 37ft Island Trader Ketch
> S/v Cheetah (going electric) 26 Catamarran
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