Interesting That this guy can do this and Detroit Can't

[pitzerwm]

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/videos/view/56-Electric-Drag-Racing

 

[MEP001]

It's not about "Detroit can't," because it goes way beyond that. Detroit can and has, but consumers don't want a car that has half the range of a gas car and can't be just filled up to keep going. Purely electric cars fill a very, very small niche.

He says how nasty gas emissions are, but does he consider where his electricity comes from, or how cleanly it's produced? What about the manufacture and disposal of his batteries?

 

[MikeV]

Well, lets look at the possibilities...lets say we all drive electric cars. The current electrical grid is not capable of handling the demand for recharging all those cars. So where do we get enough electricity? wind mills? at best, there are 30% efficient, which means they need back up. Where does that come from? Coal fired plants?, gas fired plants?...maybe. Hydro electric plants?...not available everywhere. Nuclear plants?....sure, but not in my back yard. Solar energy?...again, only partially efficient, and how big would a solar panel have to be to drive a car? Hmmm..looks like not such a good idea to me. Maybe we should just stick with gasoline/diesel engines and work on improving their effeciency. Totally green energy is still a pipe dream in my opinion.

 

[ted mcmeekin]

The only good thing about the now dead Pickens plan was to divert gas from power generation to transportation. It is very clean and the long experience base is well tested. Then comes what to replace it with in power generation. The simple, well proven,cleanist, most economical answer is Nuclear Power--but we are not as smart as the French (did I really say that?) What ever the alternative fuel, it is always more efficient use it and clean it up at a central generating station--the economy of scale really works. Even with gasoline and diesel--it would be more efficient to burn at central generating stations rather than millions of cars. I agree these electric car wizards never do the necessary honest cradle to grave analysis.

Ted

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

I really like the the thinking of the way the chevy Volt works. Just using a small generator to recharge the batteries makes a lot of sense to me. You can go 40 miles before using any gas. Build the nuke plants and get on with it.