Seattle is latest lucky winner of an electric car partnership with Nissan
By Tim Stevens 
posted April 29th 2009 10:26AM
posted April 29th 2009 10:26AM
posted April 29th 2009 10:26AM
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I saw the the words 'lucky winner' and the picture of the car and thought it was one of those daily contests. I clicked on the comment button quicker than a college humor member posts 'first'.
*shifty eyes*
i see what you did there
UGLY!!!
Well, if it wasn't ugly people would want it, but thats part of the conspiracy, they don't actually want people to buy these things, you dont see some hot super model draped across its hood saying "hey you really need to go green, do it for me...........yeah"
@Konstantin
Fugly is the word I would probably prefer to use...
Ireland signed a deal on the charging outlets:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/03/ireland-goes-electric-with-renault-nissan-alliance/
Well, the über-greenies would disagree with the assessment that hydroelectric is green, but then they want to live in mud huts and eat only fruit that's dead (i.e. already fallen off the plant).
This is way cool. But spark hydrant is not terribly alliterative. How about Plug and Pay?
How do they manage to be against hydro-power?
Ask the Salmon or the folks who's livelyhood depends on the Salmon and they can explain to you why hydro-electric is not so green.
Some "experts" in my country say that wind turbines aren't green because they disturb birds.
I'm stunned. Greens love hydro. Fish ladders solved the fish issue back in the 1960s. And we already know how to minimize bird strikes on wind power. All ancient history.
My gripe: It's ugly. Just like that 100mpg hybrid H3.
@Mark
You couldn't be more wrong. Fish ladders improved situations at dams that were built after their introduction or were retrofitted, but a great deal of dams have no such features. Moreover, fish ladders are expensive and reduce hydroelectric generation, so dam operators are reluctant and slow to install them, even in the face of court orders. Often times they'll opt to abandon the dam instead.
In the end, like everything, this comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. A lot of dams in this country are relatively small and producing small amounts of electricity, but reaking large amounts of damage to ecosystems and local economies. It's simply not a correct analysis to overlook these costs, as they were overlooked when the majority of dams were built in the US during the middle of the last century. Obviously a lot of dams are very useful for irrigation and electricity and should stay, but there are a great deal that are serving very little purpose and have larger costs than benefits, and those should be removed when feasible.
@jollyllama:
Of course I could be more wrong, just ask my wife! But seriously, I think you miss my point, and we are in more agreement than you think.
We HAVE the technology and know how to make hydropower clean AND fish friendly. You stated that yourself in your post. What we lack is the WILL to make it so, which you also skirt around in your post.
Do I prefer wind, solar and geothermal to hydro? Sure! But I prefer hydro to killer coal and nuclear any day. I think if you remove ALL government subsidies for killer coal and nuclear, hydro, is pretty cost effective.
Call the stations, "Charge it to the Game" and have Silkk the Shocker as the Spokesman. ;)
Call them EPower stations
+100 for spark hydrant
i was rofl for like 3 minutes, no lie.
but.. but... think about the dogs peeing on the spark hydrant!
wont someone think of the puppies!!!
I would assume they would be against it because of the disruption to the river's ecosystem, but I dunno...
You get Gasoline at Gas Stations, thus you get Electricity At Electric Stations or Elec Stations if you're bored, or Gas Stations if the owner is smart.
One Question how much will they charge us to charge our cars?
Know what you're paying for gas right now? That.
The accomplishments cited in the release sound like those of Better Place. Is Nissan-Renault now becoming the face of Better Place rather than just being one hardware supplier?
its obviously the new spark plug. or a juice up.
"Spark plugs" already exist.
Instead of Sprak Hydrant...How about Ion Outlet?
Electron Pump
I'll vote for Electric Charging Outlet Stations, or ECO Stations.
This isn't Nissan making this deal, it's Better Place;
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi?currentPage=all
And the key here is battery swapping, which would be included with a monthly service plan, kind of like a mobile service contract. I highly recommend the article above.
Blatant design ripoff of the xB?
Haven't you notice all their cars look the same just like their people?
am i the only one that thinks the graphics on these things suck?!?!
has nissan not seen an electric test mule before?
heres a hint: they dont look like they belong to the Geek Squad.
lets get some obligatory lightnig bolts, power plugs and green paint on these puppies!!!
I can't believe no one came up with Wire Hydrant yet.
I vote to call the recharge sites "Coulomb Stations".
Also, I love the Nissan Cube and would buy it. (Currently driving an Scion xB.)
I don't care what they call it. It seems that there are a number of good alternatives. I thought the question was what would the outlets look like. I don't now why it has to be different than a standard 120v outlet.
"Spark Spigot" or "Funk'hahn" in German. Could you see a buch of people driving around in circles looking for a "Funk'hahn Parking Space"
woot 206!!!!
They could call them Car Charging Station - after similar mouse/remote/phone charging stations.
They could be designed so you have to park just exactly right in order to get the charge to work. Sometimes you will have to back in and out 20 or 30 times before it makes the connection...
Tesla Plug (no relation to the automaker)
Lightning Bolt
Spark Stations
seattle sucks.
Power is cheap in WA. So assuming they do it Costco style where you pay an annual fee + usage, it could be as cheap as 3cents a KWH. Of couse in CA where power ain't so cheap, it will probably be more like 10cents a KWH. If you figure it takes 8 hours to charge at 4KWH for a 100mi range you are looking at 3.25cents per mile (in CA, 1cent per mile in WA) vs 7cents per mile in a 35mpg car at $2.50/gal.
why do they make all electric cars look like toys? make a regular looking car