A Tesla In Your Future?

I think the only valid reason to purchase an electric car is because one doesn't know better. They cost too much, the battery replacement cost is rediculous, the environmental harm from battery disposal is still unknown. There are mid to full size vehicles with 4 cylinder engines that get over 30mpg, are roomy, drive and perform great and are affordable. Much of the public sneers at 4 cylinders because they haven't tried them, we all dislike change, but if we can convice them to try them they're in for a pleasant surprise. They'll find they have to give up very little or nothing to enjoy a pleasurable and affordable vehicle.
Don
Houston,Tx.

I understand that this wouldn't provide enough power to run the car, but the principle is already used to recapture energy lost through braking( regenerative braking), It's not just the energy created by moving air. You've already used energy from the battery to get the vehicle moving, most of which is wasted through mechanical inefficiency. In reply to LIKIETIS, the reason wind turbines sit on a tower is so that they have a constant source of wind. It might be possible to use this small amount of extra power to extend the range of the car . Lithium-ion batteries require a lot of cooling, so air will have to be ducted around them. Why not put this airflow, which would otherwise be lost, to good use.

we must do something in the next 10 years or we are doomed.

Thomas, Not a bad idea at all, it just isnt a solution. You definitely could capture energy in the way you are talking about, the problem is that it isnt a "net positive" source of energy. As in, you would expend more energy gathering it in this way then you would gain. That is the big hurdle to alot of potential solutions, which ultimately makes many of them not practical. This is why we typically look to sources with alot of stored energy in them which we can extract ultimately with little expenditure on ours.
And to help it make more sense, you will always lose energy in the process, we just look to harness energy from sources were we directly invested little energy into. For example, oil. It takes compartively little energy to get oil out of the ground, ship it, refine it, sell it, and ultimately burn/explode it, in order to get at the actual stored energy. But the energy thats actually released pales in comparison to the energy that was expended in the process of converting kerogen to oil. The same with solar, wind anything. The actual energy e capture from a given volume of moving air pales in comparison to what was expended in order to get the air currents moving in the first place, the same with solar, hydro, anything. It all boils down to what we have to directly expend ourselves.

Here's an idea, for free! Why not equip these vehicles with mini-turbines,built into scoops or fairings under the vehicle, that would charge the battery using the slipsteam created by moving through the air at highway speeds( yes, legal highway speeds) This would appear to be an overlooked source of energy.

Electirc cars are the way to go! Electiricty can and should be mostly produced by Nuclear Power, Wind, and Solar. All are clean and do not require OIL. We do not need a carbon tax! We already pay taxes on gasoline, crude oil, and diesel. The government makes more money in taxes on oil, gasonline and diesel than oil companies do in profits. Why don't people complain about excessive taxes on gasoline? Fix our tax system, 2nd worst in the corporte world, that exports American jobs and results in importing everthing from food to energy! If you like the mess we are in do nothing, it's working. If you want to fix it, replace the dipsticks in Washinton, and implement the FAIR TAX PLAN!

There is also a huge market for the recycling of guzzling SUV into all-electric vans. SUVs have a lot of space available for batteries, and therefore could have a better autonomy than other electric cars, if converted. Otherwise most SUVs will end as garbage in the countryside.