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Disney to begin testing an electric bus this summer
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
No. This is the one exception to my all electric wishful thinking. There's no replacement to the thrill of hitting the gas pettle!
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Well, this won't necessarily lower the carbon footprint. The deciding factor is what they are doing to get that electricity. If it's nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, or hydro-electric, then yes. In Florida, we use coal and gas mostly, which is bad. However, I heard a report on the radio that this year Florida for the first time actually lowered its dependency on carbon-based electric sources.
WDWDad13
Well-Known Member
the problem is the cars barely go when you hit the gas pedal now... it's hard to believe a gas powered go-cart that reaks of gas all day is in TOMORROWland lol
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Yeah. What they need to do is replace it with HYDROGEN FUEL CELL cars. Now, that's futuristic and the accllerator on hydrogen fuel cells have more "umph" then gas even!
WDWDad13
Well-Known Member
C'mon...jet engines would be killer lol they can even theme it to planes then lol
choco choco
Well-Known Member
There is a nuclear fuel out there that won't meltdown, won't explode, produces more energy with less material, uses an element that is more common, safer and easier to handle, and whose byproducts are impossible to convert into nuclear weapons.
It's called Thorium. We've known about it since the earliest days of nuclear power, but ultimately chose uranium instead precisely because, at the height of the Cold War, the uranium byproducts could be made into nuclear weapons.
Of course, uranium's volatility is the cause for much of the nuclear disasters people are so scared about - and the cause of so much global politicking (developing countries claim energy generation, US claim nuclear weapons production). The ramifications of war has held back human progress for decades. Isn't it ironic...
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Well, it's as big a leap as the extension of the monorail. (Sorry I had to bring it up again) The gap between experimental trial runs and reality is decades in the future. First the cost has to go down, because no matter what lip service people give the green environment, it's the green in there wallets that actually push the realities. Second it's the reliable power source. Environmentalist do not want coal, oil or wood fired generation because of air pollution. Wind power is out of the question...it is sight pollution. Water power is detrimental to fish and other aquatic creatures and Nuclear power will fry us all and, at the very least, make us sterile. Which when I think about it would solve all the problems. No people, no problem!
Funny, when I was a high school student in the mid 60's that thought was already on the table. It was not just cars though it was also your house would have a fuel cell that ran everything independently of any outside need. Bet you can guess what or who put the cabash to that little research project. Oil and electric companies would be the correct answer.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
I'm getting 53.5 in a Prius, so that's pretty good, but not good enough when you don't want to keep feeding the beast. Our other vehicle gets a respectable 35.3, but I, too, look forward to electric only. I wanted a Volt because outside of a high-end vehicle like a Tesla, it's the most practical with the range system, but three kids and only four seats in the car didn't get it done. Chevy has a Spark (subcompact) EV coming out that will be below 20k and there is so much more on the way. I love cars, sorry to get our discussion off the rails.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Its electric.
Boogie-woogie-woogie-woogie-woogie-woogie.
Boogie-woogie-woogie-woogie-woogie-woogie.
I'm getting 53.5 in a Prius, so that's pretty good, but not good enough when you don't want to keep feeding the beast. Our other vehicle gets a respectable 35.3, but I, too, look forward to electric only. I wanted a Volt because outside of a high-end vehicle like a Tesla, it's the most practical with the range system, but three kids and only four seats in the car didn't get it done. Chevy has a Spark (subcompact) EV coming out that will be below 20k and there is so much more on the way. I love cars, sorry to get our discussion off the rails.
I currently have a minivan due to three kids, but I am now down to only 1 still at home. The Volt would be ideal, but the price tag is just too high. I keep hoping that we will see a Volt style car in the high $20k range in the next few years.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
That's just not true. As a matter of fact, there was a study published in the past few months that the hybrid car batteries are vastly outlasting their estimated life-cycle and when the batteries are taken out of commission and restored, 80% of the battery is still as good as new. 85% of Prius' are still on the road dating back to the first model, which vastly outnumbers a typical car. I was talking to one of the techs at our Toyota dealer, which is a massive shop, and he said in all their years, they had yet to have one hybrid battery system failure come into the shop. I then followed up with asking about shop that do hybrid battery restoration in the area and he said that they get a handful a year. I ended up talking to someone in the business elsewhere and he had the exact same information, so they are quite reliant. The truth is that the hybrid battery system outlasts the ownership the vehicle, time after time.
There has been some talk of some *electric* car batteries not lasting as long for travel duration as estimated such as the initial Leaf batteries, but not much of any talk about failure with any of those, though.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
The next-generation Volt will be priced 7k-10k less than today plus the federal and state incentives. Your dream should arrive in 2015... Possibly later 2014, depending on when they actually launch the 2nd generation of the vehicle.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Oh yeah. Heard from a friend that Transportation is flipping out over a rise in bus accidents over the past year.
Apparently, there are more bus vs bus accidents happen at night and in a load zone then anywhere else.
Apparently, there are more bus vs bus accidents happen at night and in a load zone then anywhere else.
IMS batteries in Hondas are failing at rapid rates. That does not even get into the large amounts of recalls on Honda Hybrids related to batteries. The topic of shorter than advertised driving range on Volts and Tesla products. Talking about safety in serious accidents with such large batteries containing those chemicals is an entirely other story. Electric cars. LOL. PR move by WDW and nothing more.
Biased reports are just that. Biased.
Honda's have had a problem with batteries. The other hybrid manufacturers have not. The first generation Prius has about a 1% failure rate. 2nd gen is around 1 in 40,000.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=542377&page=2