Re: Warren Brown "Thumbs Down" article

[Philippe Habib <phabib@us.oracle.com>]

Other than that factual error, I didn't find much to dissagree with.  In
fact, I wish my Ranger, even with its NiMH batteries could do the kind
of range he attributes to electrics.

His points:

Power plants pollute somewhere.  Can't argue with that fact.  Sure they
pollute less than cars and sure our off peak power is going to be
largely hydro, but the pollution is not 0.

Limited sales of EVs.  He's right.

Cost subsidized by various people.  My Ranger's window sticker has
$35,000 of subsidies and the special deal it took to get me into it
amounts to another $8000 or so.

The public doesn't want these cars for the most part.  Nearly everyone I
talk to about my EV feels the same way about them as they do about
public transit.  A great idea for someone else.  I am losing some
convienience for having it.  A couple of days ago I re-arranged my
schedule to do an errand before work instead of during lunch so that I
wouldn't waste miles of range getting off and on the freeway twice.
Even so, I made it home with nearly depleted batteries.  All day, I kept
it to below 65 and didn't run the air or heat.

Hybrids stand a better chance with customers.  Can't argue that.

Other than a small minority, people will pay for what they can see.
Higher mileage, better looks, etc.  The amount of pollution just doesn't
figure into a buying decision.  When he says electrics only have a
chance if they can match the competition on features, it isn't because
he hates electrics, its because he knows the marketplace.

Jon Mauney wrote:

> It's kind of hard to have much respect
> for an automotive writer who writes
> about Honda discontinuing the electric RAV-4.