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Electric Car Conversion Companies: Alternatives To Gas Powered Cars
On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:12:51 -0500, "Roger (K8RI)" wrote:
Blah blah blah, now why is it your entire dissertation is all about the negatives of driving an electric car. The obvious is that you worry if electric car use becomes more widespread, you might have to pay more for your electricity. Too bad. I live in an area where the cost is 7cents a kwh, and is generated by a nuke plant. So goes your coal fired worries. And why do you think anyone else is so concerned about which fuel makes a certian amount of polution. You think whether or not it makes you happy or not is going to have any bearing on the decision to use an electric car? I'm going to get one anyway, strain the power grid charging it up, don't care how much the power company polutes making the juice to charge it up either. Not everyone is so big picture minded about the whole affair as you are. I would love to be able to get around my local area and never pull into the gas station and pay the current price of gas. Before we jump from the frying pan into the fire how about some analysis on rather an electric car is really efficient. Somehow I can't believe it is more efficient and less poluting to generate the electricity, transmit it long distances, store it and convert it back to energy to drive a car than use direct conversion of gasoline to energy. That doesn't even consider the long term enviromental impact of dealing with the chemicals and heavy metals used in batteries. Electric cars are more efficient than the regular variety, but... and it's a big but. The all electrics are short range and not practical for most of us, but for those with short drives they do have sufficient range. So far, they are Expensive compared to regular cars. Very expensive. Although they are efficient. The motors are more like 95% which is great and even taking into account all the losses in power generation and transmission they are more efficient than the gas powered car, BUT (there's another one of those buts) even with that increased efficiency they probably create considerably more pollution than gas powered cars as most electricity is generated by coal fired plants. Those plants release a lot of particulates, sulphur, CO2, and Mercury through tall stacks that send the results to cities and states down wind. In the end that power to power the electric car is more polluting than the gas powered cars, or more so than most of them. OTOH if most of the cars in our major cities were electric we'd see a marked increase of air quality in those cities. OTOH if those cars were small hybrids we'd also see an increase in the air quality. Then there is the problem of getting electricity to the end user as well as cost. Simply stated; we currently do not have the grid capacity even in off hours to handle a substantial number of all electric cars. So what happens if a lot of people go for the electric car and we are short on grid capacity. Distributed power generation using solar, wind, or what ever can help in many geographic areas, but without more grid capacity those too are limited. Real time metering and control of demand is on its way. Some areas already have it, but with a continuing high demand you can expect to see rates get much higher. Her in Michigan they run about 10 cents per KWh with all charges while in California they peak around 38 cents. At 38 cents per KWh it would be difficult to save money over the cost of running an efficient hybrid. On top of this are the batteries needed. Enough lead acid batteries to give a reasonable range (just from the suburbs into town to shop) would be expensive, very heavy, take up a lot of space, and are a hazard on the roads due to transporting sulphuric acid. How long will one heavy duty, deep cycle marine battery run a starter? Now kick that up to moving the car and it's going to take a lot of batteries. Even good high capacity battery packs such as Nickel Metal Hydride (which also makes a good Hydrogen sponge) is expensive and no light weight. Typical MiMH packs used in hybrids today run on the order of $4,000 plus and they are sufficient only when used in conjunction with a small gas engine. It's possible, but doubtful two packs ($8,000) would manage 40 miles even in city driving. Then there is the new Lithium family of batteries. They are powerful, compact and lighter weight with reasonable life, but they are *really* expensive. BUT (had to say it again) the new technology batteries present a disposal and/or recycling problem in addition to all the pollution from the coal fired power plants.. They are not environmental friendly but they haven't been around long enough to really see how this is going to fly. Also as soon as the technology becomes widespread the price of electricity will raise enough for the all electric car to lose any cost advantage. First in and First out (FIFO to borrow a computer term) could save a lot if they weren't so expensive to implement. Unfortunately when they drive up the price it will be a higher price we all have to pay just to turn on the lights. The side effects of many going to all electric would probably have a greater effect on the cost of living then using a lot of corn to make alcohol will on the food chain. Hydrogen takes even more energy to produce. All-in-all there is no one technology that can have much more than a small effect as far as helping the economy and environment. Like the energy efficient home that uses a mix of active and passive solar energy along with the power mains/natural gas and even uses the gray water instead of dumping it down the sewer, we are going to have to combine technologies along with learning how to conserve. Currently the best answer by far is the hybrid and learning how to conserve. Roger (K8RI) Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services ---------------------------------------------------------- ** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY ** ---------------------------------------------------------- http://www.usenet.com |
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