Recent Comments:
Tesla Roadster takes 30 hours to charge from a standard wall socket {Engadget}
Jul 7th 2008 4:42AM OK, gentlemen, let's clarify some things here:
1. Electric car is NOT your common electrical appliance. It draws a LOT of power, therefore it warrants it's own electric supply. Appropriate plugs, and other materials alongside electricians who will offer their services to install everything you need to charge your car will come. (including pop-up high capacity outlets on your driveway for charging the cars of your visitors)
2. Considering that most owners will charge their cars at night, this won't be a huge undesired load on the grid. Remember why electricity is cheaper at night? Because electrical companies have excess capacity!
3. Even if your electricity comes from a dirty coal-burning plant - pre used KW that power is still cleaner and can be made cleaner still. Because it is produced centrally it is easier to made clean through sulphur and fine particles scrubbers, and even by using algae-growing plant that uses all the CO2 that coal plant produces (pilot plants are already in operation)
4. There is already technology that can charge Li-Ion batteries within 10-15 minutes. Dutch company http://www.epyon.nl/ is already delivering this technology for forklifts. It is easy to adopt it for electric car, and tesla 2.0 might be designed with that in mind. After all gas-stations would still like to be able to sell you "the juice" whatever that juice might be - and charging cars quickly will demand some industrial level power (alongside with ultracapacitors for load-balancing)
To conclude: Tesla is just a first step - charging facilities will come just as quickly as hotspots came once laptops were on the market with WiFi built in. I for once can't wait as electric cars will also eliminate CO2 alongside all other junk that comes out of the tail-pipe as well as NOISE!
J Allard, CXO, surfaces at Microsoft C-level {Engadget}
Jul 1st 2008 8:40AM After Bill's exit and (hopefully) pending departure of the "dancing monkey" aka Steve Ballmer - it is really nice to see someone in Micro$$oft who at least have personal style and has been boss of the department that was making good, usable products. (Brown Zune was a beginner's mistake).
So how about we all give CXO a chance and see what he will bring gadget wise. OK, guyz?
Lenovo gets official with IdeaCentre K210 desktop {Engadget}
Jun 30th 2008 11:18AM dear god - that thing is UGLY!
Mercedes-Benz aiming to ditch petroleum by 2015? {Engadget}
Jun 29th 2008 4:37AM Dubai is actually engineering their own conversion towards being petroleum independent already. And interestingly their deadline is 2016. They want to have economy not dependent anymore on oil exports for income. And after visiting there last January I can say that they are well on the way to earn their money on tourism (Dubai = LasVegas 2.0). Oh yes, they are also building state of the art public transport system based on fully automatic light rail.
One more thing = being petroleum free does not mean Hydrogen or EV cars. It could be (and it probably will) Ethanol, Biofuels and depending on their definition of "petroleum" even Compressed Natural Gas.
Nanosolar solar film rolls off the presses at 100 feet-per-minute {Engadget}
Jun 19th 2008 8:38AM Congratulations to Nanosolar! Well done!
Honda FCX Clarity set to enter limited production and sale {Engadget}
Jun 16th 2008 11:24AM First a big round of APPLAUSE for Honda! WELL DONE!!!
Second, I suggest to US engadget readers to DEMAND hydrogen fuel-stations that are powered by carbon-less source (wind, solar) from their policy-makers (local, state and federal)
Third, we all should write Honda and DEMAND 200 million of such cars.
This is a great first step - Honda have proven that such car can be made - not a concept - actual working rolling car normal people can drive in real world.
It is on us to show that there is demand and to tell our politicians what we want them to do (fueling stations, subsidies, free parking for zero emission cars, opening priority lanes, etc etc)
Last but not the least - lets boo the companies that are still bullshitting us and showing us concepts and prototypes: starting with Germans: Audi, Daimler, Porsche, VW, Opel, etc, Swedes: Volvo and Saab continuing with US ones: GM, Ford, Chrysler (what's left of it), and the rest of the lemmings.
Green Plug starts small, signs on Westinghouse {Engadget}
Jun 14th 2008 12:00PM Why don't we tell the companies we buy products from that we really, really want this technology.
So come on Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Canon, Philips - get off your lazy butts and adopt this!
You remember those 2 guys who started the movement and brought us original Coke taste back? We can do the same. Power to the people!
Mercedes CEO worries about impact of global CO2 and MPG rules {Autoblog Green}
May 19th 2008 3:40PM Perhaps Mercedes Benz shareholders should vote out the entire executive board (with their whining CEO being kicked out first) and look for executives who do understand current situation and have leadership qualities to make powerful and desirable zero-carbon cars come to marketin the best tradition of Mercedes Benz.
Renault / Project Better Place shows off new electric sedan prototype {Engadget}
May 12th 2008 3:29AM Mark,
This morning in the fair little Kingdom of The Netherlands I paid 1.55 euro per liter which is 9.04 dollars per gallon! So I do what Ignatius suggested: I drive my bicycle more often. Good for the health and good for my wallet.
Audi chief: Electric car in 5 - 10 years {Autoblog Green}
May 5th 2008 5:22PM Message to Audi shareholders: sell Audi - buy Tesla
Message to Audi owners: see previous line
Message to CEO of Audi, Rupert Stadler: Get a more fitting job like baking strudels or serving beer.
