Charles,
You may think electric cars are more efficient if you disregards several factors.
I think this maybe because you BELIEVE and you disparately want to believe.
Sure electricity looks cheap and viable when you are generating it from coal fired plants, but when you factor in real costs, especially the cost of buying,making and replacing expensive and very heavy, and ecologically unsound batteries is over looked in you equation.
Try to think of where energy comes from. Most all of our energy comes from the Sun.
Except for tidal and nuclear, every other source is a Sunlight derivative.
The energy that mines, smelts. brings to market the led, lithium etc. also comes from the Sun. Sure, it maybe energy that hit plankton 20 million years ago, but it was the same photosynthesis that we harness from ethanol as we glean from petroleum.
There is ongoing work on battery technology, and it well surely get better. I hope you will soon buy an electric car and it works for you.
On the bright side we are potentially heading for a global depression of the like never seen and soon oil maybe 15 dollars a barrel and gas will be 89 cents at the pump. That ain't bad considering almost half of that is taxes.
Smart money is in raising your own food crops, everything else will be consider BS.
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Thanks for the link Charles, I've now read it. I have to say that I'm made very uneasy by the lack of information in the article and I'd have to see a great deal more information before I felt I could strongly assert anything about what was learned there. The CO2 figures especially make no physical sense at all. I'm made pretty skeptical when it's asserted that a 600 cc micro car gets worse gas mileage than my Toyota Tacoma fully loaded, and it's compared to a EV that burns hardly any more electricity than my table saw. It doesn't add up, until one factors in the reality that there is a great deal of subsidies and grant money out there for alternative tech, and it's generally given away by political sorts who are technically illiterate.
I guess I'd say if state of the art EV is getting that good, there's really no point trying to promote it. You'll see EV formula 1 soon, and everyone will eagerly jump at the chance. The fact is, however, it just ain't so.
I'm not new to EV design. I raced EV kit cars in my teen years and knew the workings of all that stuff and it's limitations as well as any. Nothing has changed much in tech since then. I've also been involved in EV conversion for sailboat auxiliary. There are those who choose to do so, but rarely even in those cases is it a very sensible--in terms of efficiency, proposition. Storage is the key. Batteries are expensive, and there's a lot of non-renewables in those renewables.
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Good points, esnap.
A friend of mine actually ran Canada's state Alt Energy R@D department for about 5 years until 2005? I guess, when he retired. A mutual sailor we spent a very boozy evening over Chekhovian wine as he worked out in minutiae why the IC engine is the absolutely most efficient machine man has ever built. I was skeptical until I was introduced to 2 cycle, air cooled, rotary diesel motors. Pretty cool stuff there! Anyhow, these are issue that cannot be solved with quick off the cuff generalities and it does a real disservice to everyone to do so. What we do know for damn certain is less is always more. Smaller cars, driving less, and striving for not at all. Everything else is a sales pitch.
Jay,
Yep, the IC engine is phenomenally efficient especially if we recoup the wasted heat by co-generation.
I look forward to showing you my practical work in this field. However the information and subject matter would be too dry for this forum.
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Gas prices today fell below $2.00 a gallon in Hawaii for the first time in 5 years. Costco in Honolulu was selling gas today for $1.95 a gallon.
Esnap....I never thought I would have to say this but..... I owe you a beer!
Cool. I will be glad to drink it with ya, when we get out there.
I am sure the price difference will more than offset your loss.
Cheers
I saw it for $1.39 in Houston yesterday.
The sad thing is, it is indicative of a falling economy.
Here is another kicker, It is snowing out side my window right now with over 2 inches on the ground. This is the first time since 1895 that Houston has seen snow this early.
The lower fuel prices will surely help those poor slobs living up north with this impending ice age.
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Global warming..........
Transplanted Texan
"I am here to chew bubble gum and kick some *** ... and I'm all out of bubble gum"
-----------------------------------------------------------
I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
The Wilder Side Of Hawaii
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$2.38 for gasoline in Hilo this week. $2.14 at Costco in Kona as of Friday. Oil is down to $34.00 a barrel...and now Young Brothers is asking for 17.9% rate increase for shipping to the islands! They say it's needed for the rising cost for doing business in the islands!
There goes Safeways "cheaper prices next year" commitment!
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...00326/1071
As the economy winds down, they'll have to lower prices to get their volume back up.
