If batteries can’t get much better (I believe they will get a lot better) then swapping could be a way to make EVs into long distance vehicles.

Design them to hold an extra battery pack. When you get to the highway rent a battery. Drive it until you need another and pull in for a quick swap.

100 miles and pause, 100 miles and pause, etc. It might add a half hour to a full day of driving.

Not ideal, but if you were taking one of these trips 3-4 times a year and saving a bundle the rest of the time….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place

http://www.betterplace.com/

A little over the top?

These days it’s hard to drive a lot of miles per day on SoCal highways. Easy to spend a lot of time getting almost nowhere….

I don’t mind, just let them do what they want and we’ll have a good laugh once in a while.

And we’ll be laughing even harder when they pay their ever more expensive gasoline bill at ever growing distance because most gas stations will rapidly have become charger stations…!

“At the end of 2012, when the combined projects are complete, the West Coast will have the nation’s longest and most robust charging network with thousands of Level 2 charging pedestals and more than 100 DC fast chargers.”

http://www.westcoastgreenhighway.com/electrichighways.htm

There are other systems being built. One is along I-95 in the Northeast. There’s another in Texas.

I’m pretty sure that the nav systems in EVs know where the charging stations are. There are web sites which show thousands of places to charge.

EVs aren’t yet long distance cars.

The first Model Ts would not drive up steep hills in forward, you had to back up. And you had to start them with a crank. And they didn’t have windshield wipers, electric lights or roll up windows.

The first personal computers stored data on cassette tapes and displayed in only black and white.

Stuff evolves.

Now lets talk about the average Southern Californian. We routinely make trips from San Diego to Orange County to Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. It’s insane. A typical family day can rack up hundreds of miles. So much so an EV must have charging stations that should be no more than 20 miles apart. And all charging stations should be clearly marked in the navigation console so you know how far and when these charging times would optimally fit your schedule.

I’m sure we’ll probably have these charging stations, here in Southern California, every 20 miles or less soon. I’m guessing in the first five years. And they will certainly be needed!

That’s the other great reason for PHEVs – people get then, and then realize just how little they actually use the gasoline engine. Hopefully they’ll remember that when they trade it in for something new.

Btw – Transportation funding crisis. I’ll have something on that in a bit.

http://evobsession.com/comparing-electric-cars-to-gas-cars/

but yes, the second issue is a bigger one. there’s already a transportation funding crisis.

Watch this space when governments realise that they are going to loose fuel tax.