Israel backs Palo Alto man's electric car plan

[spaz]

israel also has a pollution problem from all the eurodiesels sold there. for such a small country where commutes take a muh smaller amount of time than in the US this might just work

[dav305z]

When my Israeli cousins were in the United States, they wanted to know if we could drive to Yellow Stone national park for the day.

We were in Florida.

Israel is a tiny country with tons of cars - the perfect place to use electric cars. Israel was also one of the first countries where cell phones were popular because of the geography.

But I also can imagine a use for electric cars in the United States and around the world. What percentage of drivers in say, New York City drive more than 30-40 miles in one spurt.

Electric cars may not be the sole answer to our energy woes, but that doesn't mean it can't play some important role.

[geozinger]

Originally Posted by Smaart Aas Saabr

Don't forget it is Israel. What does Israel not have - oil. Who has oil - countries that Israel doesn't like

While I understand your geo-political gist, my point remains.

No one ever launches one of these electric cars during a snowstorm in Minneapolis or in the hills of West Virginia while touting their 'real-world' mileage.

That's because it ain't gonna happen...

[dav305z]

Originally Posted by geozinger

While I understand your geo-political gist, my point remains.

No one ever launches one of these electric cars during a snowstorm in Minneapolis or in the hills of West Virginia while touting their 'real-world' mileage.

That's because it ain't gonna happen...

But Israel has no snow storms - neither does most of the world.It might not work in many parts of the U.S., but imagine the global impact if drivers from Tel Aviv to Beijing, Calcutta, and Tokyo started driving these. That would account for pollution and oil use in much of the world. Don't forget a big factor in our rising oil prices is rising demand in China and India.

Perhaps more importantly, people need to move away from the 'silver bullet' test. A technology shouldn't be considered a total failure just because it won't solve all our energy problems. But imagine the combined impact if, someday, farmers all drove hybrid trucks (already on the market), U.S. commuters used more public transit (already happening), while some others drove plug-in hybrids (on sale 2010), and foreign drivers used electric cars (rather than the dirty deisels many drive today). I bet the price of oil would pummet, and better than that, we wouldn't need it.