WOW...that would be interesting to test drive. Does anyone know how much it would cost to recharge the battery? So there is a gasoline engine also to recharge the battery when it dies? Very interesting!

 

. . . but make sure you unplug it during next year's Earth Hour

 

I just wish they would say when.

 

I'd buy one of these in a nano-second. I think that this concept SUV kicks butt over all the Hybrid vechicles to date in so many ways. I'm waiting to see if I can get the new Rocky Mountain to have a similar look, 18" wheels/tires. Optic Green paint, fender trim, concept roof rack w/ light bar, european front bumper, etc, etc... This would make a killer commute car for here in SoCal!!!

 

That's not the Euro bumper, but it looks good.
Roof racks is a Chrysler's joke...they put them on every Patriot-concept car, everybody wants them, but they will never produce them...

 

why does chrysler consistently tease everyone with those awesome roof rails which are impossible to actually buy?????

 

It looks a really interesting concept, doesn't it? I saw in a newspaper that LandRover were working on a similar idea for the FreelanderII. I'm sure that we'll have to go through an extended period, perhaps several years, of these type of hybrid, dual-drive cars before we ever enter an all-electric age. There simply isn't the infrastructure in any country, despite efforts in California, London England and some German cities, to bring about a system of re-charging stations for battery-driven vehicles. The investment is both too vast and too risky. It's such a fast developing area of technology that the potential backers risk getting trapped with a transport version of Beta-Max.
The reported "green" advantages are not that clear either. it's been argued that, if all Europe's cars were to become battery powered then the only way forward in the interim would be to build another 150 to 200 coal or gas-fuelled power stations to provide the juice.
I suspect that, for both Chrysler and Land Rover, these "developments" are a bit of window-dressing. Unless they're seen to be giving some serious consideration to greener models then they won't be considered for any American or British government bail-out finance.

Rocal

 

Why couple this battery power to a Gas engine ?? When coupled to a 1.6 3 cyl Turbo Diesel engine you not only have the chargeing facility , but a car with a greater range.Insead of 380-400 mile range , you could have 450 500 range.There are a lot of high powered small diesels out there!! Just a thought.

 

wow,I hope I'll have to never drive an electric toy

 

I don't think I'd buy one unless it did have a small engine to recharge the batteries. Otherwise you will never be able to take it out of town.

How do you charge it at a hotel? How do you recharge it quickly? (same time it takes to refill with gas)

 

How do you recharge it quickly? (same time it takes to refill with gas)

That is a technology that does not exist yet but they (battery people) are working on it.
As rocal stated, no one wants to be invested in the wrong technology.

 

Squeaky, I just can't believe that you are the very first person to raise that issue! But, I think you are. I've never seen that in print in any of the newspapers or car magazines that I read and yet it's a whopping great, clodhopping, gargantuan, giga-question, isn't it? And you are the first to think of it!
How in all the seven hundred halls of hell is a city-dwelling guy with no garage, who has to park his car out on the street every night, ever going to be able to charge the thing up?
I can't see the city authorities taking kindly to a few yards of mains voltage (220 Volts over here in Europe!) snaking out through your living-room window, over the front lawn and across the pavement (sidewalk) overnight, can you?
And how about when you're out on the highway and you do run out? What's the sportsplan? Hitch-hike into town with a suitcase-battery in one hand instead of a jerrycan and see if someone'll sell you a few hundred kilowatt-hours?
I reckon there's a bit more brainstorming to be done before this particular kite flies.

Rocal

 

This is one of the main reasons that technology moves to a hybrid solution (battery + petrol). But there is another question here. Are these "green " cars really "green"? I know they have less consumption and less emitions, but there are some articles about the batteries. Their manufacture process needs more resources than their life-time economy and polute the enviroment more than their life-time emitions. So maybe - i just say maybe - those vehicles are not really enviromental friendly.

 

Their manufacture process needs more resources than their life-time economy and polute the enviroment more than their life-time emitions. So maybe - i just say maybe - those vehicles are not really enviromental friendly.

Bingo. Must tree huggin' Prius owners have no idea that they might actually be worse for the environment than a gas sipping ordinary car.

Along the lines of questions that need answers about electric only vehicles:
Will you have air conditioning? Running the compressor is a big electric drain.

How about heat? Right now the heating is done with "waste" heat from combustion. You take combustion out of the loop and now you have to use electricity - lots of electricity.

All the talk about the range of EVs does not take these two things into consideration (from what I can tell).

 

I didn't think about those two issues either. Certainly for those guys living up in places like Quebec and Alberta their batteries would be stone dead in minutes warming up a full metal jacket car with an outside temperature of minus forty-five! You'd have an environmental choice to make: warm up your immediate environment or go some place; one or t'other, you can't have both!

Rocal

 

hey it has the startech wheels on it... i want them but they are SUPER expensive

 

Rocal,
I thought of it while looking at concept cars to see if I wanted to try and hold out longer for something more fuel efficient. I looked at the plug in idea and wondered how the heck I would use it. I didn't even think about living in a larger city where you park along the street. That'd be a mess.

I'd be happy with a biodiesel. Only small SUV I saw going that direction was the VW Tiguan. Think that thing was about 10 grand more than a Pat.

 

see my new thread...i moved it