See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_electric_vehicle
QUOTE:
"The charging time is limited primarily by the capacity of the grid
connection. A normal household outlet is between 1.5kW in the US to 3kW in
countries with 240V supply. The main connection to a house might be able to
sustain 10kW, and special wiring can be installed to use this. At this
higher power level charging a even small 7kWh (14-28 mile) pack would
probably require one hour. Compare this to the effective power delivery
rate of an average petrol pump, about 5,000kW."
This sounds about right. 5 MW is a lot of power, just as Mike Carrell said.
The Japanese prototype electric vehicles shown on television recently were
small by American standards. They are sub-compacts, like the Mini Cooper.
They would only be practical for in-town use.
For in-town transportation, many people in Atlanta these days are riding
Vespa scooters. It is a fad. They are cute, and I would love to try one,
but they look kind of dangerous. I guess they are no worse than bicycles.
The European Smart car is a subcompact sold by Zap in the U.S. See:
http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,67405,00.html
It gets the same high gas mileage as a Prius: 59 highway, 39 city. However,
it looks like it is made out of tinfoil. I bet it is only marginally safer
than a Vespa, whereas the Prius is probably one of the safest cars around
despite its light weight (it gets a 5 star rating for the driver, and 4
star for the passenger).
- Jed
