9 Responses

1. it could run out of power

2. Would u prefer having less comfort with an electric car, OR GLOBAL WARMING KILLING US!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. I agree with what you are saying but the biggest problem I have with all of the “green” cars is two fold. First of all “climate change” has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with slowing down developed nations for “global equity” and second they all focus on removing choices, i don’t care if you want to be green but I have every right to drive a v12 to the grocery store one block from my house if thats what I choose to do. You will notice all “green” change is focused on developed nations when if India would even do half of what the US would do we would cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than we could ever hope to in the US by doing everything the whacko liberals want us too.

4. I don’t fear all electric vehicles. I don’t plan to own one. I will laugh at them as I drive past in my internal combustion truck when they are stuck and in need of a charge. I also don’t fear the end of fossil fuels because I can make an internal engine run on anything from pig manure to wood chips

5. Completely forgoing internal combustion engines means being at best carbon neutral and never amortizing the carbon footprint of manufacturing the vehicles whereas if we continue to use our gas guzzlers while synthesizing gasoline and diesel from syngas produced by biomass gasification with the charcoal byproducts being used as biochar then we would be carbon negative and would actually be removing carbon from the atmosphere.

   Of course, there isn’t enough biomass to meet our energy needs but syngas can also be produced in a carbon neutral fashion directly from CO2 and H2O with the help of some energy such as solar power which is how Sandia Labs did it. Hence the albeit limited production of carbon negative fuels from biomass can be augmented with carbon neutral fuels directly from atmospheric gases.

   Hence go “ALL” electric and you’ll only slow down the problem, stay with current vehicles and focus on the fuel production and you’ll actually be addressing our environmental problems.

   Problem is, the majority of the people will sabotage any possibility of saving the environment by doing what they perceive to be environmentally friendly even though it removes the ability to address the problems that we face.

6. Well of course all electric vehicles AREN’T carbon neutral so long as we get electricity from coal and natural gas power plants. Also much of the plastics and carbon fiber and the asphalt in the roads are from oil – so these electric vehicles only reduce oil dependence.

   There are several fundamental problems w/ electric vehicles. The batteries have a low energy density, degrade within the life of the vehicle and have a low recharge rate. Even if you had an E-vehicle w/ a 300 mile range, you can’t drive it cross-country if you need to wait for a 5 hour recharge every 300 miles. Then there is the life cycle cost and disposal problem.

   At the current time you may be able to create a little commuter vehicle that would be effective for a large fraction of the vehicle-miles, however climate has a lot to do with this. Batteries become rather inefficient in cold, and running an electric heater or AC in an E-car can use more energy than the drive-train ! Again if you are getting your power from a coal fire plant you really need to consider the systemic efficiency and carbon output.

   In the future when coal fired plant are replaced with nuclear or others and when battery energy density is perhaps 5 times better, then a more practical vehicle could be made.

   Sadly I think the Volt and the Tesla will give E-vehicles a black-eye for the next decade. The surreptitious reviews show they don’t live up to expectations, and are basically expensive toys.

7. The issue wit hybrids is that you’re carrying around heavy batteries AND a heavy internal combustion engine. I’m not saying that hybrids are a bad thing, it’s just that all-electric improves on this issue by dropping the heavy engine. Hybrids also have two systems that need maintenance, while electrics only have one.

   I’m very sure that if we ever get to an all-electric world they’ll have solved the issue of short range. Consumers won’t let it get to that point if they don’t sort that out. Most likely this will be solved by having ‘swap-out’ batteries. Out of juice? go to the station and they’ll swap in a charged battery for your dead ones. It might even be faster than fueling up.

8. Gas stations

9. Lets stop talking and start doing.