Sam’s Club to offer Electric MINI

Hmmm…….0-60 in under 5 seconds….imagine how quick it would be if they ditched the S-Heavies :/

@b4mmy

There are lots of viable options already for storage and containment. Unfortunately it is the US government and the Oil Companies that do not start the hydrogen revolution. Also the electricity needed and the costs of it would require a complete shift to Nuclear Power to make it possible.

You can drive from Berlin the Munich on Hydrogen and buy Hydrogen 3 and 7 series BMW’s in Germany from a dealer. There is even a Hydrogen high way beging build in Canada’s west.

http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca/

If you go to the Sam’s Club catalog, it lists the 0-60 time to be “Under 9 seconds”.

That is quite a bit different than the claimed 5 seconds… So, which one is right? DB or Gabe?

It’s a lot cheaper than the one Blunt trashed…

Because it’s from Sams club you can’t just buy one, you have to buy a 24-pack… :-)

if u understand the technologies, then u know h2 won’t work for many, many, many decades.

besides, unless you’re producing h2 from solar electrolysis, you’re breaking hydrocarbon chains at the refinery to get h2. so, all you’re doing is pushing pollutants from cars further up the chain, back to the refinery = still tons of co2 emitted at the refinery.

obviously, the major prob compared to plug-in electric cars is fuel distribution. we already have power lines everywhere for electric car charging. we don’t have an ‘h2 grid’ for fuel cell cars–and there won’t be one for a very long time. the problems for h2 distribution are immense.

not to mention the energy inefficiency of having to compress h2 to 10,000psi just to get 250-mi on a tank. might as well use that energy to charge more energy efficient plug-in cars.

sure there is h2 tech on the horizon, but much further off than the battery tech needed to make plug-in’s feasible. if we get super cap’s to work anytime soon, then there will be no point in going h2–but, that’s a ways down the road, as well. for now, at least we can trade in a used up pack of hundreds of laptop batteries for recycle/regeneration.

again, just way too energy inefficient to produce, distribute & store h2–esp, if u’r hoping to use renewables.

as far as hydrogen, honda is going to start leasing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle next year. it debuted at the la autoshow and will be leased to consumers at $600/month. but i agree, it’s not a viable alternative fuel for mass production/market yet for the same reasons zm cited

a good point, jon. garbage in, garbage out.

Then that solves it: gasoline is the wave of the future!

I know there was some sarcasm there, but here are some interesting numbers:

http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=16664

confirm at will…

OK, I’ll take electric. In electric Lime green!!

I didn’t know Sam’s Club was in the habit of selling cars… I thought they were mostly a grocery wholesaler. And who is this MINI waranteed under? Has this been done with MINI’s blessing? I would imagine this would nullify most of the MINI’s warranty. Also, it looks like they’re using the R53-model Cooper S…interesting.

short answer, bio-fuels are another lost cause (with one exception).

long answer, bio-fuels are something the bush admin is pushing for non-environmental reasons. mostly, to keep crop prices high–if you know all the ties b/n the gov, ag industry, farm bill, developing country subsidies, etc, then you know what i’m talking about. (and, in my opinion the reason they’re pushing h2 is just to give them some green cred even though they know it’s a pipe dream that doesn’t threaten their oil & gas buddies at this point.)

as far as their enviro impact, ethanol produces less tailpipe co2, but has been shown to have worse smog emissions = worse cases of asthma in inner-city children (which right now most of those cases come from the super dirty version of diesel we burn in the US).

then there’s where you’re getting the ethanol from… corn ethanol processing is very energy intensive & becomes a wash in overall co2 emissions. u’re just kicking them further up the chain from the tailpipe to the processing plant. not to mention, where are you going to find enough corn to satisfy our driving habits? plus, you’d starve half of the developing world as corn ethanol prices increased just so americans can drive their cars.

sugar ethanol processing (brazil) is a decent bit more efficient than corn ethanol processing, but still kicks out more co2 than elec cars running on coal electricity.

then there’s cellulosic ethanol–some real promise there. just google for details. but again, you’re still using a combustion engine so you’re still going to have a decent # of emissions as more & more cars come onto the road.

so, if you’re going to combust, all you can do is make engines more efficient. what’s laughable about that is most of the appreciable technologies that make them more efficient just turn them off & run other forms of power (hybrids, batteries, fuel cell apu’s, start/stop idling, etc). so, you’re making a very inefficient process as efficient as possible by using it as little as possible–seems stupid. a loosing game that can never be won.

then, why do we use hydrocarbons? HC’s are the only energy source that’s abundant and dense enough to satisfy our energy demands. if you want to stop the problems that come along w/ burning HC’s, you have to curtail use (which will never happen, unless gas hits $20/gal) or find another energy source.

the only other energy sources that are abundant enough to meet out demands are nuclear & solar (and possibly some new wind tech that’s in testing)–there is absolutely nothing else. in both cases you need electric cars. the only real hurdle to the electric car gets back to energy density. batteries can’t store enough energy to last 250mi (unless it’s a tiny tesla or mini)–impractical in the US. so, we have to wait for better battery tech or super capacitors or something else.

anyways, lots of pieces to the puzzle.

My brain hurts…

Anyone else wonder why they are starting with a MCS when they are just going to replace the motor anyway? The better suspension bits can be ordered a la carte…

Good question agranger!

Maybe is just for the go-fast mail slot

Walmart is not really a valuable part of the story. Think Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog: 2008 Gift Lexus
Interestingly, NM Lexus is about the same price.

When Hybrid Technologies choose to offer their first cars for sale this way, it gives them a simple way to test that price point without exposing themselves to an angry eco-mob due to an unfulfillable waitlist. These are undoubtedly extremely limited quantity. Frankly, there’s no proof that Hybrid Technologies is ready to sell a production car, but this is a novel way for them to test their metal. I wish them the best. I’m a firm believer that lithium ion powered electrics plus solar and wind clean home power generation will be the future of the motorcar. While $65 seems extreme, the LI battery technology is still relatively bleeding edge. It’ll be MUCH cheaper very soon.