[Quietcars] Hybrid Versus Full electric power.

[michael townsend]

I am wondering what listers feel will be the end of this rainbow; hybrid v.
full electric?  

I have spoken to a radio host of a car show in New York today and had
expressed my concern with the passage of this quiet car bill, and he agrees
that everybody's got to have their due with this.  But, he feels that the
electric vehicle will win out in the end.  I do as well, but there are
certain things to be ironed out and a lot of room needs to be provided for
discussion.  

I have several observations that I would like to share.  I am not an
engineer or a developer, but a car enthusiast.  

I travel with a Seeing eye dog and don't much care for cane travel, though I
am fairly accurate with one.  

I think that a guide dog provides a safety net, if you will, when it comes
to working around hybrid or fully silent vehicles.  And that cannot be
disputed, because guide dogs work on alerting to motion and speed.  And,
with the discussion pertaining to silent vehicles or more quiet vehicles,
most of the guide dog schools have a hybrid on the training venture, and
this tool is and has been used successfully in one particular school, Seeing
eye, for nearly four years, and quite successfully has been used to train
dogs and then the matched team with regard to this hybrid.  

I have long advocated that cane travel instructors, and blindness
organizations get in step and work with their constituents concerning the
quieter car, but I'm not sure that this has taken place, for their has been
little discussion on lists about this, that are not guide dog related, the
NFB quietcar list being  one such list.  

So, with that in mind, setting the stage for discussion, I offer these
points, if I may.  

First of all, the bill mandates that there is to be a sound that cannot be
turned off by drivers, and as of yet, to my knowledge, that particular
sounder has not been proposed to be used by all manufacturers across the
board.  

Secondly, automobile manufacturers from all companies need to allow this
sounder to be installed on their vehicles, even though there are proprietary
hardware and software issues that are going have to be ironed out.

I believe that the bill does clearly state the decibel level at which these
sounders may operate, but have peole actually been in an environment to see
whether these are too loud or too soft or recognizable at all over traffic
noise.  And, the particular sounder noise may determine whether this
loudness or softness is recognizable at all.

My last point here is that battery technology is not currently good enough
to allow for full electric use, in that the Chevy Volt, for example, can
only go 35 miles on a full charge, and then has to be supplemented by a 1.4
four cylinder gasoline engine which provides propulsion.  The car has to be
charged at an overnight port, and when fully drained the battery takes ten
hours to charge at a 110 volt supply.  There are quicker charges available
from either a 220 or a 440 volt charge, but this shortens 5the life of the
very expensive battery pack, as will running the car down to its zero charge
point or having to bring the battery up to its 100 percent charge point.
These batteries are supposed to last eight years, though none of these
vehicles has been tested to equivalent numbers.

Batters are expensive and will have to be better developed for both longer
life and most cost effective implementation and installation in these
vehicles to keep things real.  $5000 for a replacement of a battery pack, in
a Chevy volt, and a much higher cost in a european or exotic Japanese
designed vehicle, sure isn't going to suit the average person's wallet or
checkbook; but these batteries are supposed to last eight years, with a
warranty.  None of them has thus far, per a discussion I had heard on
another radio show that discusses cars.  Go to the Jay's Garage web site and
look at the discussion of the ford Escape hybrid for discussion of this
point.

The Nissan Leaf has a designed sounder that cannot be shut off, and it is
fully electric and can go further on full electric than the Volt, but has no
gasoline engine to propel the car after the battery dies, and the Leaf costs
nearly ten grand less in its base form.

The Volt has some sparse interior treatment and cheap plastics, according to
the auto writers, but it has been deemed the "car of the year" by a couple
of magazines.

Pricing for the Volt starts at 40 grand, minus a tax credit, versus the
Leaf, which begins at a modest 32 grand, before tax credit.  

Though the passage of this silent car bill is a great thing, it's only t he
binning, because it was stated that it may take up to and over two years to
develop the sounder devices, do the testing and implement the results of the
studies.  But, let's keep involved and keep in touch with our particular
organizations who've crafted, lobbied for and then support the bill so that
we don't have something implemented that we truly cannot use.

Thanks.
Mike T in NJ with Brent



"I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself...but I think
I have
a right to resent, to object to, libelous statements about my dog."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mike Townsend and Seeing Eye dog Brent
Dunellen, New Jersey  08812
emails:  mrtownsend at optonline.net; 
michael.townsend54 at gmail.com
Home Phone:  732  200-5643
Cellular:  732  718-9480