Did you know that "electric" cars are actually "COAL" BURNING cars??

Question

Where do you think all that electricity comes from?

OK, there are some areas that are powered by nuclear (which produces really nasty waste) and hydroelectric. And there are those fringe outsiders that charge their car using solar panels. And, yes, burning American coal is always better than burning Middle Eastern oil, but the fact of the matter is that overall, the electric car doesn't save us from global warming yet, and wont for as long as we continue with our present infrastructure.

Answer 1

It is much more efficient to have one huge coal burning power plant than to have every car burning gasoline. Total emissions are much lower.

Answer 2

I'm sorry to say that this is another example of a little knowledge being dangerous.

Yes, we in the USA use coal to generate 70% of our electricity and we use tons of it everyday. And everynight. All night. But the electric powerplants can not be turned off at night, it is too expensive and slow to respond when we need power again. What do they do with the electricity made but not used? They shunt it to the ground. It is destroyed.

So charging your EV at night is not only cheaper electricity but it turns out to be greener to use power that is otherwise destroyed. So until we use more solar, wind, tidal and solar/sterling engine driven generators we will use cheap, but dirty coal. And driving a car charged with energy that is otherwise wasted is greener than using the coal and not using the power.

And every car running on electricity is not running on gas or deisel, even though we are generating the same amount of electricity.

Answer 3

Did you know that GAS cars are really WORSE?

Or do you want to power your house with a gas generator only and find out which is worse for the environment or more effecient?

I don't care if one thing doesn't solve global warming, the fact is we need change, and backwards thinking/doing nothing and spreading this ugliness is going to keep the nails in our coffin. I HAVE a REAL muscle car - it's a beautiful, useless museum piece that I cherish and don't use often., Electric is the way to go - global warming or not, we all need to be able to generate our individual power needs by solar or wind (nuclear as a resort only in areas that can't do either).

You need to think bigger - we have to unplug from big corporations generally, not just worry about details stopping each change. Unplug the gas as soon as you can, then unplug the coal as soon as you can. Or do nothing and be darwined.

Answer 4

Electric cars are not the savior and provider of clean air....all by itself. It is one step, one part/piece to a very big and complex puzzle.

Coal burning technology gets better as time goes by. In the last 2 decades, internal combustion engines haven't increased mileage significantly enough to mention. During the oil/gas crisis in the 72, mileage for the average car was just below the average mileage for an SUV today (15-19 mpg). Now cars are averaging 30-35 mpg. This is GREAT, but cars are not the main means of transportation these days. SUVs and trucks are filling that role, and they are gettng 1970s mileage. There are no real mandates that fuel economy for these vehicles increase. Isn't it strange that the vehicles that were designed to take you away from 'civilization', into the outback, into areas were you are the trailblazer actually get the worst mileage of any production vehicle designed to move people and goods on a personal/private level?

The electric car only has ONE main pollution source, the power plant. Trains, which burn diesel, transport coal to the power plant. Power is generated, transferred via high power lines to distrubution stations, and on to the house or charging station. At that point, the car is plugged in and 'refuels'.

The internal combustion engine powered car has multiple pollution sources, one of which is the same power plant. Oil is transported to the US via oil/diesel burning ships. The oil is processed into gasoline and diesel. This process requires the burning of oil products and the use of electricity. The process of refining oil into gas and diesel is a dirty and polluting process. Trucks and trains are used to transport/distribute gas and diesel, hich burn diesel delivering the product to your local gas station. Then, there is pollution when the vehicle is operated normally.

So, the most inefficient electric car is less polluting than the most efficient gas/diesel car. Electric cars were put on the shelf for amost 100 years. In the last 20 years, mileage has jumped by more than 2X. The internal combustion engine has been heavily used and modified for over 100 years now, and mileage hasn't really budged worth noting in almost 30 years. It still wastes almost 80% of the energy that it produces. Only about 20% of the energy that an internal combustion engine produces actually make it to the rubber that meets the road.

The true FACTS about internal combustion engines SHOULD piss each of us off to the point of embrasing something new, more efficient, less expensive fuel, less polluting, less expensive to maintain and operate.

Answer 5

I'm well aware. But the difference is that with electric cars, you have the option of using alternative energy to power them. With a typical gas powered car, you do not. Also, the efficiency that can be created in a large power plant is much higher than in a thousand individual engines. Also, it is much easier to monitor and control air pollution when it is in a centralized location as opposed to a thousand scattered car engines. Also, in an urban setting, electrical generation can be done outside of populous areas, and electric cars produces no emissions at the site of use, lowering the health risks of emissions exposure.

In the short run, electric cars, powered by coal, are still better than ICE engines. In the long run, the Electric cars that currently are powered by coal can eventually be powered by other sources of energy as they rise in availability without any modification to the vehicle itself.

Coal is a massive environmental problem. But not using electric cars isn't the answer to a transition away from coal.

Answer 6

the electric car is one part of turning green its been clear for a long time that we need to continue switching our energy source.
an electric car that runs on wind energy (there are several wind farm near my house) and solar energy would be just great
Its a idiots like you that look for a 1 step solution that cant understand global warming and

Answer 7

If France they're nuclear powered cars (with manageable waste instead of coal powered which has waste so unmanageable they just dump it into the atmosphere).

The electric car can save us from global warming because we can easily convert away from coal and towards nuclear power, provided of course that people are willing to accept the limitations of electric cars, I suspect it'll be plug in hybrids using synthetic fuels that are the cars of the future.

Answer 8

You know what??? You might have driven over some plastic (a bag, some wrapping of sorts, etc) and not have noticed it. It could be stuck to your muffler -- and when you drive, with the heat it melts away the plastic, making it smell like burning/melting plastic. Check under you car -- and see if you see what appears to be melted, and dried plastic (it's really hard at normal temp). This happened to me not too long ago -- and it's annoying b/c it smells all the time......It won't really damage your car, but you will just have to wait for it to finally burn off.

Answer 9

Even if the entire US power grid were based on coal burning power plants, electric vehicles would still reduce greenhouse gas emissions as compared to gas cars. They're a very significant improvement considering that only 52% of the US power grid relies on coal, and this number can always be improved. See this discussion for further details:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Am2pWOxnFjdvlJ7qKN05Uwzty6IX?qid=20070827141524AAc0HaA

Answer 10

The Tesla electric car can go 200 miles when its batteries are fully charged. The fully charged batteries hold an amount of energy equivalent to less than 2 gallons of gas. So it is as energy efficient as a gasoline car getting 135 MPG. That is good even if its power ultimately comes from coal. Only problem is the $98,000 base price.

Answer 11

Actually most electric cars - like the Toyota Prius - generate their own electricity and charge their own batteries without ever being plugged into a power outlet. (They don't have a power plug!) So, you are basically wrong.