Where are the electric cars at?

[Pingdong]

So the first couple years I was here I saw various electric cars (made and done). they looked mor eor less like thos elittle march crs. small compact anyway. they told me 3-4 years before market. well I have been waiting and waiting, and that time frame is past.

These were taiwan made.

Did they get bought out and shut down? whats the scoop, can we buy electric cars here yet?

[sulavaca]

There is not going to be strong support for electric plugins in Taiwan for quite a long time to come. It requires a change in infrastructure or a change in technology first. Presently cars in Taiwan would take too long to charge from a 110voltage point, and would require parking spaces which offer free electricity, or is metered.
Other options are a standardized interchangeable battery pack for the vehicle itself and which can easily be swapped.

[Ducked]

Toujours la change.......Check the flares and hairs. 30 years ago

[Pingdong]

yes, i understand that quite well. But everyone has juice at home, and I think most electric cars will be using 220 at first anyway, maybe high once the infrastructure happens.

for now, taiwan is dense and compact and you can buy almost anything within a 50km radius, this makes electric cars incredibly suitable, and exactly why im interested. charge at home and use it for doing stuff around the house. use a gas tank for travelling.

all that said and done, still wondering when they will be for sale here as they were planned for a few years ago....

[sulavaca]

Well I might suggest that if only travelling short distances then even an electric bike might suffice for some people. An electric car for short distances and a petrol powered car for longer distances would require two parking spaces instead of one, and a socket for the electricity with either free or metered electricity available.
This won't work for most people and so the car companies are not going to provide these cars willingly.
I expect moves like Toyota with it's small hybrid will become increasingly more common in Taiwan until the infrastructure catches up, and these are cars which I might recommend to those interested in saving fuel. These purchases must be calculated carefully however if its money, not fuel that one is interested in saving as saving money with one of these cars will only be done after accounting for the additional cost of the car to begin with.
Savings in emissions (not that I care) must offset the production and transportation of the car and its service components . Toyota has made great improvements in this area recently.

[finley]

What Sulavaca said. Electric cars are really not that environmentally friendly, and you're unlikely to save any money given the high initial cost. If you really want one, just buy a Prius. Taiwanese car companies are not good at making cars or new technology, so cars with new technology is a recipe for disaster.

OTOH I was at the cycle show the other day and came across this:

http://www.e-moving.com.tw/

90% of the electric scooters on show were utter garbage, except this one. They had all the components out on display and it was top-quality, well-engineered stuff. The battery is LiFePO4, which is good for about 1000-2000 recharges, depending on how much abuse it gets. The bigger model has a nice powerful motor in it (1.6kW, I think) which is also quite unusual. I'm planning to try one myself when I have the time/money.

But you are quite right of course - Taiwan has ideal geography and demographics for advanced electric-powered transport. The economic impact (apart from anything else) would be phenomenal. Now, if only we could convince all the politicians to undergo a brain transplant ..

[headhonchoII]

Start with promoting electric scooters properly , that would help people get familiar with driving electric vehicles and give electric cars and infrastructure time to mature. There are incentives (or were) for purchasing electric scooters but it seems that Taiwanese are not convinced , probably due to the cheap and reliable options they already have.

[sulavaca]

Start with promoting electric scooters properly , that would help people get familiar with driving electric vehicles and give electric cars and infrastructure time to mature. There are incentives (or were) for purchasing electric scooters but it seems that Taiwanese are not convinced , probably due to the cheap and reliable options they already have.

I would agree that this would be good promotion to encourage lower city polluting vehicles. Shanghai's scooters I'm estimating from what I see day to day, must be around 90% electric and although they don't use them as safely as they could, a big improvement in Taiwan when building new roads, would be to widen them where possible, such as in Shanghai, and provide light scooter/motorcycle lanes, specifically for these vehicles, keeping them away from cars and thus making the roads a little more predictable for everyone. This of course won't be at all easy in Taiwan sadly, as you can't easily raze an entire block at a time, in order to improve the infrastructure in one swoop.
One thing I am concerned about with battery technology is the pollution and production side of it however. This has still some way to go too yet.

[Pingdong]

for sure, batteries are dirty little buggers. and electricity in Taiwan isnt all that clean either.

They were giving away free electric scooters a little while ago her eif you turne din your blue smokers.

We went shopping a while ago, cash in hand, to get 2 electric scooters. But damn, i kid you not the sales people thought we were some kind of spy. we asked far too complicated questions like how far on a charge? how many KWh per charge roughly? all they wanted to tell us is you can go xx km per xx$ which really told us nothing and here we are still driving a gas scooter.

You guys know of a good scooter shop, preferably down south, that have people who actually know something about the things? or have at least browsed the manual?

For me though, the scooters just don't quite go far enough. the best one was 50km per charge roughly. if I want to go to the nearest city, its 45+. so i wanted to ask them about buying additional batteries so i can swap them out if i run dead while out, the looks i got were priceless. but before I think they are dumb, is that idea dumb?



and about the cars. I saw them at a car show at taipei 101 maybe 4-6 years ago? they were outside and the size of a March. all cute and pretty for everyone cellphone to get a shot. they had built them, these cars were done and they were telling me they are just getting production taken care of and in a few years they will hit the market. My dumb ass forgot the name of the company though.

[sulavaca]

http://www.alibaba.com/member/jiangjing ... tlist.html

Was the car you saw any of those?