electric cars?

Question

I have been wondering about electric cars:
If you convert the petrol straight into movement (i.e. engine) you get a lot of kinetic energy. But say you use the mains. they burn the coal, gas, etc. to create heate to create movement to create electricity to charge your car wich is converted to movement. isn't just using a good diesel car better for the environment in general.

Hey paul
with methane when u burn it u get oxygen + co2 theese r better for the environment than methane

Answer 1

I'd have an electric car tomorrow. The problem is recharging the battery and distance available on a single charge.
The industry brought out some years ago the DC over AC system mainly aimed at the materials handling industry. This cuts down on wear & tear on the motors and extends battery life but also requires an exceedingly large traction battery pack in the region of 80 volts. Each cell of this pack is 2 volts and believe me they are not light you would therefore need a vehicle of massive proportions just to take the weight of the battery pack. Plus of course you would need facilities for changing the pack after about 100 miles - ok if just local use but for long distance??

My favourite alternative is methane gas powered. There is already a conversion pack for petrol vehicles and filling stations providing this facility are increasing. There is no smell and next to no pollution and the last I heard a grant was available for modifying your vehicle. Also from an environment point of view methane can be recycled from rubbish.

Answer 2

Its a bit of a catch 22 suituation if you have an electric car you use the mains to charge it up but this comes from power stations that mostly use gas or coal. If you use a diesel car you are still using oil but in a different form. The best thing to use is a fuel cell car where liquid hyrogen is converted to electricity with only water as a byproduct but you still need to use resouces to make the liquid hyroden. The best thing to do is cycle or walk.

Answer 3

The most environmental thing to do is not buy a car in the first place! Move to a city with good public transit or bike options.

However, if you MUST drive, drive an electric car! The pollution from electric cars is centralized near power plants which is much easier to control and mitigate than pollution spewing from millions of moving vehicles.

Answer 4

Maintaining your current car is the best environmental option.

It takes 20 years to overcome the environmental costs of building a new car before you see the environmental benefits of a more modern engine, at which point the car will be in the scrap heap.

The whole environmental equation is manipulated to suit manufacturers views and encourage us to buy more unnecessary products.

Answer 5

You're right. It's more efficient to burn the fuel in the car than to burn the fuel at a power plant and transmit it to the car .. you lose lots of electricity in transmission.

Answer 6

Not only are you still burning fossil fuels indirectly, you also have to dispose of bad batteries. The Lithium-Ion batteries will store large amounts of energy, but they only last about three years and are very expensive.

Answer 7

I think electric cars are great but they are quiet, and people might not know it's there, when in the street, and get run over.

Answer 8

I think that's the point that many proponents of electric vehicles are missing.

Answer 9

They're very ugly cars.