AHHHHHh!!!!?

Question

WE NEED TO SWICH TO ELECTIRICITY, NOT GAS IN CARS
anyone agree?
i mean look at the facts, gas is overpriced right now, and electricty is much cheaper(hybrids).
yet i know it is not that simple. milliuons of people have cars and it would be hard for them ro leave there cars, but being rational, i think that we should slowly move into electric cars or even hybrids. is this absurd or a good idea???

even if it was a good idea, the gas companies would freak!!! haha

Answer 1

I'm allfor switching to alternative fuels, but do you really think it'll ever happen? Not everyone will switch, and by making all cars electric or other-wise fuelled, nthat would putn a lot of people out of wotk. think about all of the people in places like Texas or Alaska, who's income relies on you buying their fuel? Alternative fuels are cool, but i'd never do a total, world-wide switch.

Answer 2

Electric cars are zero emission individually.

But in a global view, we are just transferring the problem elsewhere. While an electric motor has better than 86% efficiency, the charge discharge efficiency of the currently used lead acid batteries is only about 60 to 65%.

There is a collateral issue of toxic battery waste, and chemical waste from spent power packs.

We have to add to this the fact that much of the electricity is from thermal stations, which of course burn fossil fuel and generate pollution. There is the matter of transmission losses in transferring the energy from the generating station to the user.

The problem is rather more complex than appears on a first look.

Perhaps ongoing work on high energy primary cells may prove successful. With better designed lighter vehicles and a non-thermal electric power, electric vehicles will be the best solution. Not just yet though.

Answer 3

Ideally, we would be using all-electric cars.
Zero emissions from the car, and when producing the electricity we could use efficient methods to reduce the pollution, as compared to trying to reduce emissions from every car.

GM experimented with the EV1, all electric.
But the problem with it, was that the batteries would need replacement every 2 years.
That is why they only leased the vehicles, and retrieved all vehicles, to avoid later maintenance/warranty nightmares and customer complaints.

The battery technology has significantly improved since then, but it is still a long way from becoming a practical choice.
The main challenges are battery weight and life expectancy when being used as the sole power source in a vehicle.

A much better alternative at this moment is the Hybrid vehicle, where the batteries only need to be large enough to support acceleration and to optimize the fuel consumption.

Eventually, the all-electric car will be a reality, but I don't expect that to happen within 15 years.

Answer 4

I agree.

And so does General Motors.

They already built a series hybrid out of an EV1 and a Williams jet turbine.

They're on a huge EV project called the Chevy Volt, which will be a strong hybrid, i.e. an electric car that could function entirely plug-in for ordinary commuting, and then with a small APU for long-haul cruising.

Others below are saying that generating power at the power plant produces more emissions than a gasoline engine. That is not true. [PDF] page 12:
http://www.pnl.gov/energy/eed/etd/pdfs/phev_feasibility_analysis_combined.pdf
27% reduction for use of plug-in hybrids. Reduction for electrics would be greater.

Additionally, the EV owner could always purchase "green power" credits which finance the construction of new windmills. Depending on location, windmills can run at night, supplying base load for EV charging.

Answer 5

Were does the electricity come from and how is it made that you would use to charge the car. Most power plants in the US are using gas. So just how would the electric car help?

One more thing it take 3 to 4 times the gas to charge a car from your home than it takes to run the car on gas.
Why?
The electricity must be made transmitted and stepped down so the charger can use it. Then charging the batteries. Each step cost power.

Answer 6

agree.

electric vehicles are just more pleasent to drive, smooth, quiet, smell free, cheap to run & maintain, simple transmission
refuel at home or work just by plugging in to a renewable energy grid supplier, or own micro-generator.

in UK £0 road tax, £0 london congestion charge, and free parking in some cities like westminster.

the UK "top gear" magazine, notorious tree hating (clarkson has deliberatly driven into trees for the TV) fossil-headed lads mag, just ran 6 pages on the Tesla!! total shock!!! . www.teslamotors.com, with a range of 250 miles per charge, potential 10 minute recharge time www.phoenixmotors.com. the technology is available now, we need the cars on the road now.

we should have evs now, but GM et al have literally crushed them www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com, presumably because, as you say, the gas companies freaked.

evs are far more efficeint well to wheel even if the electric comes from fossil fuel, because infernal combustion ralely run at optimum temperature & load, require refined fuel to be trucked to filling stations etc compared to constantly monitored & maintained large generators sited by the raw fuel.
plus electric motors are more efficient motive source, eg max torque at 0 rpm, hence diesel electric locamotives, no warm up required, no problem with altitude etc.

Answer 7

The time of the electric car is coming. Many advancements in battery technology have recently been made. Take a look at this electric vehicle which will be on the market soon:
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http://zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560
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The ZAP-X sports 644 horsepower - 155mph top speed. It travels 350 miles on a charge - its batteries charge in only 10 minutes. And the batteries will last 10 to 20 years. All the technology to build this car exists right now.
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But it will be expensive. If you'd like to get your 'feet wet' in electric cars, it is possible to buy an EV conversion - an ordinary car converted to electricity using older battery technology - for as little as $5000. A car of this type does freeway speeds, looks and handles like an ordinary car, and is inexpensive to maintain. The best part is that it only costs a penny or two in electricity per mile to drive it. More details here:
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http://squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car
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Answer 8

All I know is that my next car will not be gasoline powered. I belong to the future, not the past. I'd rather hop into the future than crawl there. And this is somthing I would do, even if we discovered unlimited fossil fuel resources. Gas is on it's way out. I can feel it. I love my old Chevy Impala, but I'm selling it to the idiot who is fool enough to buy it, before anyone realizes it's obsolete. Then I can go and make myself a cool fuel vehicle. I think the cool fuel revolution is exciting, will revolutionize the way we build vehicle, and all kinds of things and technical advances will spring out of this, as a result. Isn't it cool, all kinds of free renewable energy. I guess the power greeedy people will have to find some other way...... Cause alternative fuel is her to stay. It will revolutionize the world. It's the next step, can't you see. We will finally be taken out of the dark ages. I don't choose to be a dynosaur, a thing of the past. People everywhere are working on alternative fuel sources. Some of them are BOUND to make a break.

Answer 9

electric cars or hybrids are a good idea but don't forget that there must be a fuel source to generate the electricity and today that is mostly burning oil, coal or natural gas. obviously the efficiency of better miles per gallon is better in hybrids because less gallons are needed to produce the same number of miles.

when you can generate the electricity to run your car from wind or solar - technologies that are becoming cheaper as oil and gas become more costly - then you combine a cost savings with less pollution, a win-win situation.

Answer 10

Actually, electric cars use more fossil fuels than gasoline cars. From a previous answer, you already know that most electricity in the US is produced by burning coal or oil. And, there's a lot of energy loss in trasmitting electricity over power lines. It's more efficient, usually, to burn the oil right in the car. Now, if we produce electricity in the US from nuclear power plants, I would agree completely, but environmentalists put a stop to nuclear power plants more than 20 years ago.