Gem

[tealracing16]

There was a story in Time magazine about the Chevy Volt and the "fact" that the neighborhoods in CA that can afford to buy one and will very well could crash the grid. They thought if you have enough of these type of vehicles pulling power every night/day the grid will not be able to support it. As with gas, the infrastructure will be built over time. Remember the grid crash was started with a squirrel.

You may not be tech savvy, but you do pay attention which sometimes is just as good-- (thats my smiley face 'cause I'm not computer savvy)

 

[skiroule]

There's that squirrel again - his butt's everywhere...

I forgot to mention that there must be 50 or 60 three wheeled electric carts running around in the building at work. It seems like everyone (except me) has one. There's even striped parking lots for them at various locations. It seems to kind of contradict the company's new "health" initiative.

I can't remember who makes these carts but they're heavy duty - made out of diamond plate steel. Also, I don't think the design has ever changed. There has to be some that are 25 years old and they look just like the new ones.

Hopefully, people at work won't get wind of these GEMs. If they do, look out! They go about twice as fast as the carts that are in use now.

 

[dcsnomo]

I remember hearing something on some radio show that electric utilities were matching the demographics of the Volt/Leaf consumer with the demos of their neighborhoods, thereby predicting where Volt/leaf purchases would occur/over index. Then, they were upgrading the grid in those areas to address anticipated demand. I would also not be surprised to see Chevy/Nissan release zip code level purchase data to the utilities for that purpose.

 

[windingtrailgal]

I guess what I mean by not being very tech saavy is it's not like I can do anything mechanically inclined except hand the tools to the person who's doing the work!?

dcsnomo - that's interesting... not to be a witch, but who exactly is gonna pay for the upgrades? I can't imagine our wonderful electric companies considering that an investment and not passing on the cost to the consumer - electric car hot spot or not.

Just sayin' (had to get at least ONE in?!) It bothers me that there was such a "chicken little" attitude about our electric grid in the not so distant past and yet electric cars seem to be an answer?? Electricity has to be generated somehow and we all know the tree huggers hate coal so what are we gonna use to produce the electricity? Nuclear?- those plants are expensive to build. Wind?-not a very efficient producer. Solar?- expensive and relatively inefficient at this point.

I think I'm getting farther off topic here?!

 

[misty_pines]

The article states, "GEM is the recognized leader within the low-speed vehicle market". Does this mean that Polaris will become the recognized leader in the low-speed vehicle market in addition to the low speed snowmobile market? Just kiddin'...hey it's Friday, just having a little fun!