Electric Cars, Please!

[fisherman]

Here in the freeway/sprawl heartlands of America where mass transit is virtually nonexistent, a car is almost a necessity. I'm lucky enough to have inherited a car from my family: a 1998 Buick Century. But with 106,000 miles, it's getting to that point in its life where things are going to start breaking, and eventually the cost of repairs will be

Comments

[anonymous]

I totally agree with you. Another problem with ethanol fuel is that if tomorrow even 50% of world's car switch to ethanol, we won't have enough sources for producing ethanol. Just imagine the amount of farmland required to grow ethanol-rich crops... Unless of course all the brewers in the world start selling every drop alcohol they distill as fuel ;-)

[anonymous]

I totally agree with you. Another problem with ethanol fuel is that if tomorrow even 50% of world's car switch to ethanol, we won't have enough sources for producing ethanol. Just imagine the amount of farmland required to grow ethanol-rich crops... Unless of course all the brewers in the world start selling every drop of alcohol they distill as fuel ;-)

Alok

[divo326]

More than anything else, it's batteries that are holding back electric vehicles. Today's batteries are large, heavy, inefficient, and expensive. Routinely fully charging and discharging them also significantly decreases their lifetime, so you would probably have to replace yours several times during the life of your car. Hybrids get around this by not letting their batteries vary outside of 40%-60% of their total charge. Long term, I agree that electric is the way to go, but we aren't there yet

Mmm, substantiated arguments.

[fisherman]

I was surprised to read that the Chevy Volt is only a couple years away from being put on the market, since the configuration seems ideal: all-electric drivetrain that can be recharged through the grid, with an onboard non-electric recharging system for extended trips that will be gasoline in that car but could easily be switched out for some other source. Only a couple years away! Even though the initial purchase price of vehicles like that might be more expensive now, it's a no-brainer to me: with gas quickly approaching $4/gal. even in Michigan, and the state of the environment rapidly deteriorating (I forget sometimes that most people still don't understand how severe an ecological impact traditional industrialization has been having), the investment would be worthwhile, economically and ecologically.

There are different kinds of batteries, and the EV1--the focus of the documentary I mentioned--used NiMH ones, while the current generation of cars seems to be switching to Li-ion batteries, which should improve performance. Plus,

Re: Mmm, substantiated arguments.

[thecrazedhermit]

Biofuels are really not the answer. The investment we'd have to make as a society to produce them (cultivation, harvest, transportation, refinement) are almost prohibitive and the results, lower emissions at the tailpipe and less land dedicated to food production, don't offset those costs; ask all those suffering from this food crisis what ethanol's done for them. For me, ultimately, the answer is much more along the lines of the Chevy Volt and, eventually, straight-electric cars, which will only really take off once the battery technology gets to a point where you can take your car on a 700 mile/day road trip and charge it overnight. I have to think that day is coming.

Re: Mmm, substantiated arguments.

[divo326]

I've been going to a lot of energy seminars sponsered by the MSU physics department this semester, which is where this all comes from. Of course everyone presenting had their own agenda; people who work on biofuels or internal combustion engines had a vested interest in that route, solar guys want everything run electrically, etc

thank you

[anonymous]

thanks much, dude