Bye, Bye General Motors, Welcome Tesla

The falling price of oil is about the fact that the oil inventories refuse to decline.

Ontario already sells electricity for a little less in "off hours", though it's not by all that much, and of course what constitutes "off hours" is subject to change if people all start banking up electrons between 11pm and 7am.

I think the question is "will these batteries last long enough for me to see a return on investment?"  That question includes not only the practical useful lifespan of these batteries, but also the possibility of someone marketing a battery that's twice as efficient for half the cost, two years from now.

Who Killed The Electric Car? (doco)

http://documentaryheaven.com/who-killed-the-electric-car/

GM's coming out with the Chevrolet Bolt next year. It apparently gets over 300 kms per charge, so it might be premature to say bye, bye GM. The Tesla bandwagon is one worth jumping on.

Batteries are not green. Batteries are about as brown as it's possible to get. Non-recycleable, short life-span, being charged by elecricity largely generated by fossil fuels.

montrealer58 wrote:

Chinese mining of lithium used for electric car batteries is done in Dickensian conditions.

Please define what you mean by Dickensian. My understanding is in China they mostly use salt flats not mines.

Quote:

Lake Zabuye is a landlocked salt lake located at an elevation of 4,400 metres (14,400 ft.) in the Shigatse Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, 1,050 km (650 mi) from Lhasa. The lake is surrounded by mountains with a height of 4,600–5,200 m above sea level. Itis fed by rain, underground water and melting ice. The lake gives its name to the mineral zabuyelite (lithium carbonate, Li2CO3), which was discovered here in 1987 and has been mined since 2004–2005. In 2008, the salt mine at the lake was regarded as the major source of lithium in China. Currently, Zhabuye Lithium owns 20-year exclusive mining rights for the Zhabuye salt lake.
The production of lithium from the salt lake water started in 2004–2005, after exploration work for the metal was initiated in 1982. In 1984, lithium was found in micro-fine sediments of the lake and considered amenable to refining in large quantities. The company involved with the extraction has a plant at the lake which had the total capacity of 5,000 tonnes and produced 1,556.5 tonnes of lithium carbonate in 2008. Its capacity was projected to increase to 20,000 tonnes in the near future. The company claims a reserve of 1.53 million tonnes Li (8.3 million tonnes of carbonate) but this estimate is considered as overly optimistic.

Quote:

Canada Lithium Corp., a "clean-tech" mine company is building an open-pit lithium carbonate mine and processing plant near Val d'Or, Quebec with intentions to meet the growing demand of the global market for electric and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as grid-storage solutions. It is anticipated that commissioning of the mine and plant operation, consisting of open pit mining to a depth of 150 metres below surface and utilising 150-tonne haul trucks and hydraulic excavators will occur in late 2012 and the full production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per annum will be commenced in Q3 2013. Mining will be carried out at a rate of 2,950 tonnes per day. Mined ore from the pit will be crushed and stockpiled for treatment in the lithium carbonate processing plant. Metallurgical tests have produced battery-grade lithium carbonate from deposit samples and the Company plans to market its products in North America, Europe and Asia.

Quote:

When lithium salts are extracted from the water of mineral springs, brine pools and brine deposits, the metal is separated from other elements by pumping the lithium-rich brine into solar evaporation ponds.
Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow man-made ponds or lakes designed to extract salts from the sea water or other brines. The sea water or brine contained in large ponds is naturally evaporated which allows the salt to be harvested.
Due to variable concentrations of algae, vivid colours – from pale green to bright red – are created in the evaporation ponds. The colour indicates the salinity of the ponds. Microorganisms change their hues as the salinity of the pond increases.
The ponds also provide a productive resting and feeding ground for many species of water birds, which may include endangered species.

http://www.lithiummine.com/lithium-mining

I've never owned a car, so can't give one up. But I also live in Montréal. We need different transport solutions for smaller communities. Electric minibuses? Could self-driving ones be made safe?

Mr. Magoo wrote:

The fun part of all of those pre-orders is that the public hasn't actually seen the car yet.  I think that in honour of the day, they should have unveiled this:

[IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/1252qup.jpg[/IMG]

Ta-da!!  Welcome to your shiny electric future!  Also available in bright orange.

Reminds me of the green hockey puck mouse from Mac G3s (1990s?)