Do you believe in electric cars?

Question

like a viable alternetive to conventional engines?
http://www.articleated.com/Article/Electric-Cars--What-Are-They-Up-To-/552

Answer 1

You know, I think the battery operated car is a bunch of crap. There are so many engine designs that are more fuel efficient but you never see them make it to the market. I think big business controls everything and if they can't make profit (because some inventor owns the patent) they squash the idea.

The hydrogen car is the answer, but big business will not allow it to become viable until the planet is toast. Electric battery powered cars are stupid, and nothing more than a marketing distraction.

Answer 2

I believe there is a potential for electric cars to solve alot of the pollution problems....It would be nice to have electric cars that can go further than 30 or 40 miles. I have a hybrid electric and as the batteries run down the (gas) engine and braking charge them again. And when you are in traffic the gas engine doesn't run very much and when you stop at lights it runs hardly at all. So there is much less pollution. It doesn't take power from the "grid" but you still have to get gasoline. I think if they would improve on the efficency of hybrid cars, make a plug-in available too, lighten the batteries, so you are not using a lot of energy to haul around the batteries.. we could really cut down on pollution. Imagine if eveyone at every light and traffic jam didn't burn fuel. Just that savings alone would be tremendous.

Answer 3

Yes They are an alternative. They will do most of the day to day things that most people need. The Tesla roadster (article you have linked) is one of the best examples available. As far as pollution goes they are about on par with a hybrid if recharged from coal fired power(880-990g of co2/kWh unscrubbed). (zero from green sources)

I doubt the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) will be the end of it though. The cars can draw the energy from a grid connected system. Leaving the batteries at home (with a cleaner forms of recharging) will make the vehicles even more efficient.

I also doubt that electric motors will totally replace the combustion engine. There are limitations. Even if they just take a fair slice this will make a significant reduction in co2 emissions.

We still need more options than a $79 000 high performance two seat sports car to make an impact, but this is at least a start.

Answer 4

Yes, I believe in electric cars. It will be impossible to please everyone. Even if an electric vehicle could be produced to out perform their current gas powered vehicle when comparing tank to recharge. There will be some excuse as to why they wouldn't buy/drive one. So, let them have their combustion engine vehicles. Having a choice is what it is all about anyway.

With all the internal combustion cars on the road today, reducing those numbers by 1% is significant. Reducing those numbers by 10%+ will be great. Those numbers reaching 30-50%, the air just might become clear again in big cities.

With power companies regulated, and new cleaner burning coal technology coming online in regular intervals, a coal power plant produces way less polution than they use to produce. The cleaner the coal burning process gets, the less polluting electric cars become. It is also easier to regulate the 100 to 500 or however many power companies there are than to regulate the millions of cars there are on the road. How many irresponsible drivers are there on the road with cars that would fail an emissions test that proper maintenance would resolve? Power companies are fined severly when their emissions don't meet standards.

As for lack of power, I think it's Oklahoma that is building power plants to meet the needs of any state that can't handle its own power demands. if I am not mistaken, the power grid covers the US and most if not all of Canada. So, lack of power shouldn't be an issue. Running low on juice, call OK. Besides, most charging of electric cars will take place at night. Power demands go way down at night.

The point was made about batteries polluting the environment. The amount of pollution is no where near the level of pollution involved with a combustion engine car. We can readily see what exhaust from a combustion engine does to the environment. Think about engine oil, transmission oil, and anti-freeze. Batteries that are used in electric vehicles will last for years. Some will even outlast the car itself. As for the oils used in combustion engine cars, those have to be changed every 3 months to 3000 miles (engine oil). Looking at just the time alone, if a car holds 4 quarts of oil, thats more than 4 gallons of oil per car, per year. It more because some cars leak, others burn, and some people even spill oil while changing it...even the professionals. People won't even recycle newspaper and cans, so it's pretty much a given that they aren't recycling their oil either. Almost every auto parts store that sells oil also will accept the used oil for recycling. Now which type of vehicle is REALLY worse when it comes to polluting?

If a small electric motor could be connected to a high output generator, then the electric car would be almost self sustaining. A generator that can produce more electricity than the car is using, will extend the range of the car, allow for accessories to be added (heat, A/C, head banging sound system, etc) and run from one end of the country to the other. Just like with combustion engine cars, the generator will fail. At that point, the car can be plugged in to recharge the battery(s).

Electric cars have the ability to perform just as good and even better than a combustion engine car. When fuel expense, maintenance, and environmental impact are added, the electric car leaves the combustion engine in the dust. The acceleration and torque of an electric motor can not be matched by a comperable combustion engine. I think it was a group of college students in CA that converted a Ford Explorer to all electric. When matched to a gas powered Explorer, there was no contest. The electric Explorer was crammed full of students, and it was still able to spin the tires. The acceleration was like matching up a Porshe to Pinto.

So, you can keep your gas powered cars and trucks. I will gladly trade my car and truck in for an electric...as soon as they are available and can meet my needs. When I started cutting my own hair, I didn't miss going to the barber shop, and sure won't miss the gas pump when I can recharge at home.

Answer 5

I do, at the infancy of the automobile electric cars were quite popular but got phased out due to the higher performance of fossil fuel cars.

On an ecological point of view they aren't much of a gain, batteries are very polluting and the electricity needs to be created somehow (nuclear, coal, wood and the like are just another negative replacement for fossil fuels).

I think the closer we get to peak oil the more will be invested in electrical car R&D because of the gas prices, the more affordable and efficient they will get.

I the mean time you can always look for vegetable oil conversions for diesel cars and trucks, if you are willing to get your hands a little dirty a kit could pay for itself pretty fast!

Answer 6

Electric cars and plug-in electric hybrids will be the future of transportation. Because of the efficiency of electric engines, plug-in hybrids and electric cars produce far less greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engines even if the electric grid is powered mostly by fossil fuels like burning coal. Here are some numbers.

PHEV = plug-in electric hybrid vehicle
HEV = hybrid electric vehicle (like the Prius)
EV = electric vehicle
ICE = internal combustion engine

"PHEVs reduce CO2 emissions by 37%-67% compared with ICEs and by 19%-54% compared with HEVs in well-to-wheels (W2W) analyses assuming fueling with gasoline and electricity from the U.S. mix of power plants (and ignoring one or two outliers in the data). PHEVs reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions too.

EVs reduce CO2 by 11%-100% compared with ICEs and by 24%-54% compared with HEVs, and significantly reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions, using the U.S. grid
mix. If all U.S. cars were EVs, we’d reduce global warming emissions. Using electricity strictly from coal, EVs still would reduce CO2 by 0%-59% compared with ICEs (one analysis found 0% change; six others found reductions of 17%-59%) and might produce 30%-49% more CO2 than HEVs (based on only two analyses). On the other hand, if electricity comes from solar or wind power, EVs eliminate all emissions. Using natural gas to make electricity, emissions fall in between those from coal and renewable power."

http://www.pluginamerica.com/images/EmissionsSummary.pdf

The ZAP-X Crossover will have 2 models coming out in 2008. The first will go 100 miles/charge, over 100 mph, and cost $30,000. The second will go 350 miles/charge, 155 mph, and cost $60,000.

http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560

This shows that electric cars are becoming a viable alternative and will only become more affordable and perform better as the lithium ion battery technology improves. The same holds true for plug-in electric hybrids.

Answer 7

I like them for reducing pollution in the city, but feel they add to global warming because they use electrical power which is produced at power plants. Overall they will increase CO2 unless the power for them is from Nuclear, Wind, or Solar. They also are not very good for open highway driving because the range is limited by the size and number of batteries you can get into the car, and re-charging takes time.

Answer 8

Batteries are too heavy and do not store enough energy to compete with gasoline cars. I drive electric cars all the time, at the golf course. But golf courses with lots of hills use gas golf carts, because climbing the hills drains the batteries of an electric cart so quickly that they cannot even make it all the way around the course on one charge if there are too many hills. And forget about air conditioning. Batteries do not have nearly enough capacity to run an air conditioner for very long, especially if they also have to make the car go.

Answer 9

NO!

where is all the electricity going to come from?

we can't generate enough as it is. (i.e. rolling blackouts.)
also we buy electricity from canada because we don't produce enough domestically.

electric cars are not popular (then or now) because the free market says there are better options

Answer 10

They have several good points but for regular use they don't have the range and take too long to recharge.