Why are electric cars considered eco-freindly?

Question

They still need the combustion of fossil fuels or worse, nuclear power, in order to supply the required electricity.

The emissions/wastes are just displaced to the sites of the power plants. Therefore, why is it even considered as a viable option?

Nuclear power is used to create electricity and nuclear waste is already a problem.

Answer 1

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Because electric cars are indeed eco-friendly. To show exactly why, we need to examine the premises of this argument in greater detail.
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The efficiency of electric vehicles, as compared to gas vehicles, is the key.
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Internal combustion engines are 25% efficient at best. The practical efficiency is reduced further by idling, braking, and otherwise running the engine outside of its optimum powerband.
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Gasoline also requires energy to refine - large amounts of electricity is used in this process! Also reducing the efficiency of fuel is the wasted energy of fuel transportation - gasoline must be delivered by truck to your local gas station. After all this, we are lucky to get even 10% of gasoline's energy to the road.
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By contrast, large electric motors are 95% efficient. Battery storage systems are close to 90% efficient. And the power grid is 95% efficient (far more efficient than delivering fuel by truck.) Unlike gas engines, electric engines don't idle, they can recover braking energy to recharge the batteries, and have very wide powerbands - so nearly all the energy gets to the road. Fuel also burns far more efficiently in a large powerplant (nearly 85% in some plants) than it could ever burn in your car.
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The fact that electric vehicles are several times more efficient means that far less pollution-per-mile is generated, even when dirty fuel is burned at the plant. The story is even better than this, though, since a significant portion of electricity is now generated from clean sources.
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In fact, in the near term, EVs will create NO pollution from powerplants at all - there is currently excess power generated at night (off-peak), because most power plants can't be shut off overnight, even when their power isn't needed. So cars charged at night create no pollution at all, until EV usage grows to several million, at least. By some estimates, 30 to 50 million cas can charge at night before powerplant upgrades will be needed. By then, I hope most of us have solar cells on our roofs.

ALL MY FACTS ARE DOCUMENTED. SEE MY SOURCES BELOW.
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Answer 2

First, nuclear is green. You have been brain-washed into thinking that nuclear is bad. Even Greenpeace now endorses nuclear power because it does not give off greenhouse gases. Done correctly, nuclear energy can be very safe. But even with nuclear energy (and wind, solar, geothermal and biomass), we still need more energy sources.

The problem really is "fossil fuels" -- coal, oil and narural gas. These release carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It took nature several hundred million years to accumulate carbon, turning these into coal and petroleum, making our atmosphere habitable for animal like ourselves. In over a hundred or so years, we will release much of it back into the atmosphere.

Now to answer your question. Electric power plants are much more efficient that the engine of the best automobile. Even if both burn oil, a power plant can burning oil can achieve 36% to as much as 42% energy conversion. The rest is lost as heat.

The average internal combustion automobile engine only converts roughly 20% of its energy into useful motivational power. That is half the efficiency. The rest is lost as heat. So an electric car needs half as much fuel as the gas powered engine.

I am the happy owner of a Toyota Prius. It may not be 100% electric but it reclaims kinetic energy (motion) into electric energy (battery power), which is then used to assist locomotion. It has a tiny and very efficient gasoline engine; and an electric motor. It has lots of power because electric engines are very good at acceleration. The small gasoline engine is very good at maintaining highway speeds. It is very quiet and just very cool to drive. I get about 50 miles per gallon.

The holy grail of energy is economical solar power (the only source which is truly clean and renewable) followed by cellulosic butanol or ethanol (which combines solar with a clean form of biomass).

Answer 3

Electric power generation is more energy efficient per KW than gasoline prodution and use. The major problem with electric car is power storage. Deep cycle batteries can only do so much for so long. Electric car have a limited range and long recharge time. Initial cost are high, and battery replacement after a few years is quite expensive. For short range commuting, car/van pooling is a much better alternative. The life cycle cost and performance of an electric car cannot match a 30+ mpg gasoline powered car.

Answer 4

the finished factor approximately an electric engine over a gas engine is performance. the electrical powered motor is greater useful than a gas engine. additionally electricity is produced greater fee-effective that gas, so which you're actually not 'merely paying for and merchandising one fossil gas for yet another'. yet an electric vehicle that ran on renewable capability be greater eco-friendly. So if a guy or woman replaced into charging up with electricity they might desire to purpose to purchase the golf green decision from so the greater of the electrical powered energy is made from green supplies and not fossil fuels. i'm hoping to work out autos that run on centred photograph voltaic capability.

Answer 5

The relative efficiency of generating power and distributing it through the grid and you charging the battery's in your electric car is More efficient than burning fuel in a combustion engine and moving your car that way.
So if a process is more efficient then it is more Eco friendly.

Answer 6

Nuclear power produces no greenhouse gases. Increasingly renewable sources of energy will be used in power production (wind, biomass) and CO2 sequestration technology is emerging in power generation. Further the electric car removes damaging local pollution in busy cities.

Answer 7

I don't know where you've got nuclear from - but yes most are hybrids which have a combo of fuel & electricity but it means you get reduced emissions (always better than nothing)