Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Shanzhai Electric Cars in China










  1. I wonder what happens when the 10 lead acid batteries go dry? How long will they last? Does the owner get 10 new ones every couple of months?

  2. check out Wheego electric car potential to control global climate change

  3. @Stan, I think the batteries would last more than a couple of months. The concept is similar to that of a golf cart, except that the vehicle is heavier and requires more batteries. And, unfortunately, when the batteries do wear out, I suspect that they will end up in a landfill rather than being recycled. The car would work well for someone who just needs something to get around town in. Baoding isn't a big place, so they would probably run out of places to go before the batteries would run down. :)

    @amit thakur, thanks for the link. Whether these kinds of electric cars are actually helpful in slowing climate change depends on how the power is generated. If the power used to charge the batteries is generated by burning coal, then I'm afraid we are really no better off.

  4. We burn coal anyway, so powering the batteries isn't helping us much there, but it isnt creating another use to charge batteries which can be bad for us in the future. These car batteries arn't economical, so even though it's an electric car, it is no different to a normal gas car in its output. They might be made to nip in and out of town quickly, but there are always other trips we need to make that people will use this car for.

