Electric Pickups?

Hi Ron!

How's everything up in Powell Riviera? :D

Thanks for the post, I geeked right out on the articles!

Chris
 
Chris,
Things are very well up here. Just saw a pod of 6 or so Orca go by. Water is nice and calm for a change.
When I saw the article on the pickups I had to check to see it wasn't April 1st. lol
We certainly are living in "interesting times"

Cheers
Ron
 
Sorry, Not a pick up but I recently talked to a fellow C-BRAT who drives a Tesla from AZ to the San Juans ---- for free. I didn't know that electric cars get recharges for free. And they pay no road tax because that comes out of the gasoline price when I fill at the pump.

A pickup that could tow my CD-22 400 miles for free* :shock: bring it on :!:

*How long do you think that will last? (Just like the $1.50 toll fee on the Tacoma Narrows bridge did. (For those out of the area it is now $6.50 even for a motorcycle.)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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hardee":2tsg8s88 said:
Sorry, Not a pick up but I recently talked to a fellow C-BRAT who drives a Tesla from AZ to the San Juans ---- for free. I didn't know that electric cars get recharges for free. And they pay no road tax because that comes out of the gasoline price when I fill at the pump.

A pickup that could tow my CD-22 400 miles for free* :shock: bring it on :!:

*How long do you think that will last?...
SleepyC :moon

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Not long, apparently. I'm not a Tesla owner, but I know this was only available for certain Tesla models and you had to use a Tesla supercharge facility, which was not available to "ordinary" electric cars. I believe the program ended last fall, meaning you can no longer get the free lifetime charge plan.
 
We looked into driving a Tesla coast to Coast via I 10--even today not possible. We didn't see one electric charging station after leaving Los Angeles this week.

But boats and electric drive are not that far off. I just got an E-mail form the owner of Maine Cats, and he linked to an outfit in Europe he visited (and is the US distributor for)-- They are using electric outboards on the MaineCat 38 LS-E . E-tech electric drives.
Perhaps even more important, in the e-mail and an article, he described using the drive props, thru the motors to charge batteries:

Spinning our 4.3 kW motor at 400 rpms we saw 250 watts produced. With twin motors down on the new MC 38 LS-E - sailing at 9 knots - we calculated we can hydro-generate over 1,000 watts per hour to add back into our 10,240 Wh Li-ion battery bank. We are making our own fuel.
Click to expand...
Trojan has come out with Lithium ion (Li Fe PO4) batteries to compete with Battle Born (the brand I am experimenting with) and Smart Battery. Prices are coming down. Some RV are now available with Li ion batteries as a factory option.

I almost put Li Ion in my "new-used" RV. One of the major reasons I didn't was that the diesel engine start battery was AGM and so I went with AGM golf carts. I was not aware of an adaptor to allow a 200 amp alternator to charge both AGM start and Li Ion high capacity house batteries. Then a few weeks ago, I became aware of Precision Circuits battery guard, battery isolation etc. These allow having both AGM, or flooded lead acid batteries, and Lithium ion batteries charging off the same alternator.

Battle Born is selling all of the parts to make a complete system, using Victron charger/inverter, monitoring and Precision Circuits items. This makes it pretty much plug and play. Add in solar or wind and maybe it is free! (after initial investment)...
 
Probably electric on boats will take off when they have a 75 mile range, although some of us would settle for 50. And then a kicker for back up. Obviously NOT for a trip up the inner passage!
 
Thanks Larry--I had not seen that Tesla map. I had relied on other sources.

Think of the possibilities of the having a boat which will generate power when the boat is anchored in a current. Lets say that current is 4.5 knots--and you can generate 500 watts ;per hour at anchor. (It may be less since I suspect the power generation is not linear with velocity of water.) So perhaps the inland passage would be more doable than one thinks. Very light, efficient hulls are easily driven--I suspect with the right number of dollars it is possible to do either now or in a couple of years--combining solar, wind and water generation.

Already a boat has circumnavigated using only solar, a plane has circumnavigated using only solar.
 
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