If you're dreaming of always plugging your future
AC-friendly hybrid in during the wee hours of the morning in order to juice up for the lowest price, you're certainly using your noodle. But what about instances where you can't choose when exactly you'll be plugging in? Fret not, as Bill
Ford and Company has you covered. The automaker, in collaboration with a slew of utility partners, has today introduced an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications system that would theoretically enable vehicle owners to plug their ride in and tell it precisely when to begin and / or end charging via the navigation screen. Users could also define the completion time for charging or the desired rates in order to better control spending, though all that planning could be ruined by some random prankster who decides to yank your cable when you're not looking. And really, who cares about saving a penny or two on charging when you can get
two hundred and thirty miles per gallon? Oh, wait...
[Via
HotHardware]
posted August 19th 2009 2:32PM
If only Ford would integrate this with the Fiesta...
ford =
f'er
only
rolls
downhill
woops wrong person...
Blue LED's mean the product is high tech futuristic, and not the TAT that we have come to known of american cars made by
Four
Old
Rusty
Doors.
FORD
First
On
Race
Day!
Fiat
Fix
It
Again
Tony
courtesy from Dale Gribble
The idea is to reduce the load on the system not to save money. The current electrical infrastructure is already at max capacity and it cannot support all of us using electircal power to run vehicles. As such people need to charge when no one is using the system.
nice, like torrents, and we know what happened to that web site~
Well, I think the purpose with different rates is to discourage such use during peak hours, and encourage people to charge only during off-peak hours, when there is excess capacity. It's better to balance the system during such times with additional load, since otherwise the excess electricity basically gets pumped into the ground.
Good analogy meat_juice. Both where at some point killed off by giant multinational corporations looking to cover their dinosaur-like asses and stop the forward trend of progress in their respective markets.
I realize this is gonna be unpopular to the dreamers, but we need to get real and consider how to reach our indended goal, which is (I assume) no more oil use. Well, bs is right. "Revewable" energy sources only make up ~1.5% of our electrical grid, and if you add in total energy use (+cars), renewable shrinks to ~>0.2%. Now, we need (Really, we do) an "always on" energy source, with a high enough energy density. Most rivers are near fully dammed already. Tidal is a costal option. Geothermal only where the earths crust is thin enough (yellowstone?). Without more development in Nuclear, we are lost. FACT: Nuclear accounts for 80% of US emission-free energy. FACT: Columbia River Generating Station (fairly small 25 year old reactor) generates as much energy as over 600 of those monstrosities in Belgium, the 600 footers. Im totally for getting off oil. Id love to. But we need to come up with real solutions. And unless you build photovoltaic cells in space, its unlikely we can do that with "renewable"
accidents happen, fact. screw nuclear, solar in sahara
No, the goal is to keep people dependent of gas-station like companies and find new ways for us to pay taxes. 'because we would be killing electricity if we would just charge at home on the regular grid on whatever moment"
This tech is so advanced...my sprinklers are jealous.
HAHAHA. you stole my thoughts. :)
Still have to hand it to Ford for at least trying to do something so logical.
This will be useful though. Its a little embarrassing that nobody else thought of it first, seeing how there are other companies with PEVs and PHEVs on the road. *cough nissan gm tesla subaru bmw... oh forget it. thats too long a cough...
dirty car that takes way too much energy to produce...
This post isnt about a car... FAIL!!!
No, but it is about the SYSTEM that is being built just to charge these dirty loser cars.
You think electric cars are going to fuel the future?
AHAHAHAH you are sad.
Amerca is use to "fill and go" mentality.
What happend to the Cash 4 Clunkers?
Obamer and crew scared that the TaTa Nano is gonna rape all that bail-out-hand-out?
there is only one way to curb oil energy costs and that is to drive smaller cars, seriously you Fat Americans need an SUV to make your hourly trips to McDonalds?
AHAHAHHAH!!
Obama "I dropped a bomb on you.... because your mine!"
dum dum dum dum... dum dum....
contrary to popular belief ... some of use use our trucks for what they are meant for, such as towing and using the 4x4...
although i hate soccer moms driving suburbans while talking on their cell phone just as much as the next person.
*blink....blink* ........wtf?
I make my hourly drives to McDonald's in my Prius.
Just hope they dont use BPL to do it... Else the power grid wont be the only thing overloaded.
Umm...
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/5A688
The big problem with plug-in hybrids, and electric cars, in my opinion, is lack of a universal charging connector. Currently each automaker has their own plug, which is going to make "charging stations" a problem.
Maybe the charging stations can come with a universal connector and each car can come with an adapter.
I believe IEEE has already proposed and will soon finalize and approve a standard charging plug that integrates not only power, but also communication and other data abilities. Most of the automakers have thrown their support behind it. They know that without the standard, EVs will never have a chance.
Newer homes will probably also have to start putting in a 240V outlet in their garages. While not required, it would speed up the charging process.
I think the Volt is already being designed with that universal plug in mind as well. Either the plug the volt is using will be the design the standard uses, or vice versa. I forget which one came first.
Too bad that battery technology is not where it needs to be for EV's to work. Think 800 dollar laptop batteries if these things catch on. Not so excited anymore are you? We would be out of Lithium before we could replace the worlds vehicles. http://www.etcgreen.com/biofuels
On the contrary new lithium air cells promise 10x the battery capacity of a traditional lithium ion cell. Think about a tesla model s that could go 3000 miles with the same ammount of lithium, or 600 with 1/5 of it reducing costs weight and overall operating costs. I think you are very wrong...
Biofuels. Right. Want 8$ cans of corn instead?
Is anyone else waiting for the day we see a car going down the highway with a frayed extension cord hanging off of it?
I'm still pissed I didn't buy Ford when it was at $2 :-(
I can't wait until we have more all-electric cars. Anybody remember the EV-1? Yeah, that was 13 years ago. So why are we still waiting? I'm not spending $100,000 on a tesla (or $50k on a tesla S), nor will I fork over a penny for a P.O.S. volt, that crap is bullsh*t. It's practically a hybrid, it's electric yet uses gasoline. These big oil companies only want to keep selling us this crap, I can't wait until we can all start buying normal sized EV's from big companies like Ford and GM for affordable prices (like a $25,000 Fusion EV!), but we're only left with these Hybrids that cost an arm and a leg and still consumer a considerable amount of gas. My mom's hybrid highlander only gets 30 mpg, but the fusion hyrbid gets 41. Totally different cars (years and size, including class are totally different), but if these were EV's, we wouldn't have to spend a dime on gas. Well, except for our lawnmowers, and other outdoor equipment, until one day everything will be electric. That'll be what, 50 years? Or will the flying car be here first? let's see who wins, big oil or the inventors.
Now, there is one thing I don't understand about the smart grid. If everyone has these smart appliances that only consume energy in off peak hours, won't the off peak hours turn into peak hours? It seems like with this technology everything would just simply be evenly distributed. Am I over simplifying this?
Tesla (the real one) invented all the tech to store electricity in a compact way...he was 200 years ahead of everybody, but you guess it, emerging car companies and oil companies with the help of the government tuck all that away when he die.
He was running an entire city with wireless power in the late 1800's where are all his papers.....
He also killed in infant who stuck a screwdriver to a fire hydrant... The kid was electrocuted to death. The truth of the matter is that at high enough voltages the earth becomes a decent enough conductor and you can transmit power through it. The problem is, how, at that point, do you keep the electricity and the people separate.
Why did they put a way to "control your costs" in the system? All I hear from big elctro-tards is that it will only cost 45 cents to drive an electric car for a year. Is Ford betting on a huge increase in electricity costs?
Costs will probably go up. Coal is what the majority of our power comes from. Nobody in power wants more coal plants, but there is nothing there to take it's place. Well, nukes could, but nobody in power wants to build more nuke plants. So here we sit with an overloaded grid while Europe is building nuke and coal plants left and right. And now we want to start plugging cars into the grid? :)
I see it landing on the individual in the future to produce as much of his own energy as possible. There are a lot of startup companies that are trying to make solar and wind energy a viable source for the average homeowner. This would take heavily off of the grid, and even if it couldn't power your home, you probably would be able to power most or all of your driving habits.
45 cents a year??? Either they were lying to you, or you're lying about what they said.
I think with current prices, a mile driven on electricity from the grid will cost you about half of that same mile using gasoline.
So, yeah, there's still room to cut your costs if you can get cheaper electricity.
Why does the renewable energy source power plant have smoke coming out of its chimney? :(
I am in the business...and do not want to talk above your level...keep pumpin' buddy
FORD:
Fixed
Or
Repaired
Daily
or...
FORD:
F*ckd
On a
Raw
Deal
FORD:
Found
On a
Road,
Dead
Big oil need not worry...electricity can still be produced by burning their shit and driving turbines.So the whole of us will run on electricity which in turn is produced by oil!
Not in every state. Some states generate most of their energy with nuclear. And in Canada, 45% of their energy comes from Nuclear. There's also Project Better Place, a company building charge stations in the US that get 100% of their power from renewable solar and wind farms.
Vandals will cut block heater cords in the winter. I would hate to find a damaged plug on my hybrid.
If power companies have off peak rates they generally post them somewhere, why not use a simple $5 outlet timer? Why risk communications troubles keeping your car from charging and the added expense, plus higher risk of failure. No doubt it won't be a modular plug in that is universal, so then you're talking paying at least 50 bucks at an auto parts store when it goes out, or 100 at the dealership.