Is an electric car like the Tesla roadster an environmentally friendly & useful car that others can build on?

Answer 1

The Tesla is practical, but expensive. But it is not a mass-produced car. Once electric cars become popular, they will become very inexpensive (just like DVD players did.) Proof is in China, where electric vehicles are beginning to catch on. Look at the prices on these Chinese electric cars (this company is looking for a distributor, the prices are in US dollars.) Prices start at $6500:
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http://www.fevehicle.com/services.html
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Also, electric cars are indeed eco-friendly, even when coal is burned at the plant. 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 new pollution at all, until EV usage grows to several million, at least. By some estimates, 30 to 50 million cars can charge at night before powerplant upgrades will be needed. By then, I hope most of us have solar cells on our roofs.

MY FACTS ARE DOCUMENTED. SEE MY SOURCES BELOW.

Answer 2

Yes, Electric cars are environmentally friendly.

A lot of people say that because they are charged using fossil power they are not as good as conventional vehicles. These people are simply speculating and have no basis for their assumptions. Electric cars (typically) save 75% of the emissions of petrol cars - more is saved if renewable electricity is used to recharge the batteries.

Additionally, by moving the emission source to power plant, there is less smog on the streets, which lead to all sorts of respitory illnesses. So yes, electric cars are better for the environment!

The Tesla is a great car (according to reports). But they have made a big splash for just 200 cars. I wish the impact was great enough to encourage other car makers to do the same.

As for Hydrogen (as someone else commented), Hydrogen is not an energy source, but a storage mechanism. It is also very difficult to store. Does anyone else see this as stupid?? While I'm not trying to hinder progress on an alternative energy system, I do not believe the hydrogen economy will work, because, it is based on using Hydrogen as a storage system, when it is so difficult to store hydrogen!!

I, personally am going to take the plunge and build myself an electric car and I encourage everyone who has the skills (or can learn the skills) to build one themselves and reduce their dependance on oil!

Answer 3

As Dave said, think about where that electricity comes from; Coal burning, which is the dirtiest of all energy production processes. Alternative fuels and hydrogen cells are where need to look.

Answer 4

I'm all for any Electric Cars. All we need to do is convince the Oil co. we need and want them.

Answer 5

depends on how much energy it takes to charge it.
electric companies make pollution also.

Answer 6

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