“Any answers, ideas, references, etc. would be awesome! I’m not sure on the negatives … [of gasoline vehicles]…, I only know a bunch of positives about using an Electric car.”
Or in the alternative how do you respond to someone who asks after the negatives of an alternative fuel vehicle where questions about alternative fuel vehicles are aired? Is it especially troublesome when the questions are virtually anonymous by someone who has never asked any other question or given any answers? If it is intentionally to draw down interest or energy does this suggest conspiracy to you?
7 Responses
Carbon emissions.
Exxon Valdez.
BP
if cars didn’t use so much gasoline, these spills would not have happened.
drilling in difficult environments wouldn’t be needed if world oil demand, and oil price, were not so high.
The primary negative aspect of ALL cars is the number of nuts/idiots/untrained drivers behind the wheel!
loud.
Takes time to get any heat in the winter.
Engine has to run at high rpm’s to get the most power out of it.
On the upside they are helping to replenish much need carbon dioxide into the air. The earth is at record low levels in this area.
Air pollution
Carbon emissions (global warming)
Noise
Reliance on foreign energy source
Reliance on a limited resource (oil)
Addiction to oil leads to wars
Increased deficit due to paying for oil imports
Potential environmental catastrophe (i.e. Exxon Valdez, BP Gulf of Mexico)
Inefficient use of energy (electric cars are far more efficient)
Frequent maintenance requirements
Many moving parts which can break (unlike electric cars)
Negative aspects of electric cars are far more easily addressed:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Atxz686yCvsSR9RIE.PG.ZD95nNG;_ylv=3?qid=20100609051108AA9m2ow
It’s so much easier for people to shoot down new ideas than to come up with their own or make the change, even if it’s proven to be better. I’ve owned cars that run on natural gas for 2 1/2 years now, and although I have the emissions sheet that proves my cars have extrememly low emissions compared to gasoline cars, it doesn’t seem to make much difference to the naysayers. I can’t say anything to the electric cars since I don’t have one, but once one comes out that’s cheaper to drive and buy than what I have now, I’ll go for it. My natural gas cars have so many advantages, it’s truly sad they haven’t caught on, and likely won’t until gasoline goes over $4 or $5 a gallon (I’m paying 95 cents per gallon right now). Yes, it’s beyond annoying when these phantom naysayers appear and cut down good ideas then disappear. I suspect they create new names for themselves constantly, do their damage and move on. Why, I don’t know. Just fools with nothing better to do, I guess. All you can do is set the good example and take what comes…
I see the major negative aspect is the lack of efficiency.
Efficiency of an Otto cycle engine is limited by the compression ratio and spark ignition limits that compression. A typical gasoline engine is only 25% efficient.
Sure people will cite the CO2 emissions and the fact that the fuel is a fossil fuel but I must point out that the fuel is a hydrocarbon where energy has been stored. A battery is also chemically stored energy, the difference being that we charge and recharge batteries with energy generated by other means. With hydrocarbons we just open a tap in a hole in the ground and withdraw natures store of chemically stored solar energy. The energy in gasoline is solar energy, the problem is that we’re treating the hydrocarbons like disposable batteries and keep going to the well for more literally. This isn’t necessary, we are all familiar how bio-fuels technology can recharge the CO2 and H2O output of combustion back into hydrocarbon stores of energy but we also do it synthetically as well. We regularly gasify undesirable hydrocarbons into syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases) to synthesize the more desirable gasoline and diesel, that’s what we do to natural gas to make ultra low sulfur diesel and what we do with the heavy bitumen of the tar sands. We also gasify trash into syngas at our plasma torch waste incinerator facilities only we burn the syngas to generate electricity intead of synthesizing hydrocarbons. Sandia Labs has demonstrated directly transforming CO2 and H2O into syngas with solar power in their CR5 reactor.
Gasoline and diesel are fundamentally no different from batteries. What is different is that we’re getting the gasoline and diesel from the ground instead of synthesizing it ourselves despite having the commercial technology to do so and the fact that a gasoline vehicle is markedly less efficient than an electric vehicle. To counter that, energy stored as gasoline and diesel don’t “leak” out as much as with batteries and synthesizing hydrocarbon fuel from biomass gasification with biochar carbon sequestration is carbon negative. Gasoline powered cars may be inefficient but could undo the environmental damage that we have done, electric cars will only slow down the damage.