Does anyone else think that electric cars are silly?

Question

1. They dont help the environment. They run on electicity which requires coal and therefore pollution. If the UN decided to do more renewable energy then I would be all for it. Also if the batteries aren't disposed of properly then they cause way more problems than a gas car will ever do.

2) They are inefficient for use. They require 20 hours of charging.

3) I believe that time and money would have better been spent on renewable energy and instead of making electric cars, just make current gas cars much more efficient. They could have made gas cars get 50-60+ mpg. They could then have more time to work on renewable energy and pollution control. Why start another project

Answer 1

Perhaps you have judged electric cars from what you have heard, and it seems some rather old articles at that. Now even die hard petrol heads will admit that the instant torque of an electric car gives an experience that can not be matched in a gasoline vehicle. That EV acceleration is not "silly."



There are people who claim that the EV is not "helpful" to the environment. I will not immediately dispute it. They do not somehow improve the environment. In this sense they do not make it "better." Rather, when compared to the alternative of a car that pollutes at the tailpipe, at the refinery, in its use of electricity and through its oil and filter changes you can come to see that they do make the environment "less worse" than a petrol vehicle. That makes them a better choice than the ICE vehicle and not at all "silly."



Some complain about potential disposal of EV batteries. Presently 97% of automotive batteries are recycled. We can expect at least the same for EV batteries. But petrol automobiles do, in fact, have another dirty little secret. The EPA reports that over 185 million gallons of drain oil is improperly disposed of into the US environment EACH YEAR. This is approximately equal to BP oil spill (yes... each year!) The EV does not require oil and filter changes and is virtually maintenance free. There is nothing about electric cars that will ever be as bad as the gasoline car.



If you can tear yourself away from the mindless talking points of EV detractors you will come to understand that electricity can be produced in many ways while the petrol engine essentially is designed to run only on petrol. Yes, slightly less than 40% of grid electricity in the US is made from Coal, but it is also true that this is the most "rapidly shrinking" way to make electricity. Off the top of my head I can tell you of perhaps 15 other ways to make electricity. Renewable and non polluting methods include solar panels, solar thermal generation, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind generation and to some nuclear energy.



But whatever kind of electricity is used for the EV is also being used for the gasoline car. So also is it then a "coal car" plus a gasoline polluting car as every gallon of gasoline requires about 4.5 plus KWh of electricity for the refinery. That electricity could run an EV but the petrol car uses that to give us even more pollution. (see the source below) That is not at all "silly."



People use the term "efficiency" for many things. The usual definition is the amount of useful work obtained over the total energy used. Battery to wheels efficiency of some electric cars are over 90% while typical tank to wheels efficiency of an ICE vehicle is around 15%. But you seem to be referring to "efficient use of your time." What you say might be true if I were to pull up a chair and watch my EV charge for the 20 minutes it took for an 80% charge. But in every state where pumping your own gas is allowed you are required by law to keep your hand on the gas nozzle. That fill up may take 10 minutes or more. When I compare that to 2 seconds to plug in the EV and 2 seconds to unplug it. Fueling the EV is a far more efficient use of my attention regardless of the total time it takes to recharge the vehicle. There are some people who actually hate going to a gas station. So fueling an EV is not "silly."



There is probably more that could be done to make ICE vehicles more efficient. But history has shown that US automakers are unwilling to make changes for efficiency or safety unless forced into it by government regulations. When Tesla motors came out with their Roadster it shook the industry to its foundations. GM which had been making diesel/electric hybrid locomotives for 75 years suddenly decided to come out with the "new" technology of the Volt hybrid. Nissan came out with the Leaf and several other manufacturers tested the waters with some leased models. Seeing the huge increase in fuel efficiency that electric drive allows the US Government was forced to raise EPA fuel efficiency standards. Now with over 100,000 plug-n cars on the roadways manufacturers are being forced to recognize that electric vehicles in some form are the automotive future. They don't think it is "silly" and neither should you.

Answer 2

1. False premise. As electrical generation does not require coal(try solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and even natural gas), and even if it did, the efficiency of a coal power plant is still greater than your average gasoline engine. By a considerable margin. And not disposing of the battery properly? Well, if you don't handle gasoline properly, it'll cause way more problems than a single battery ever will. A single battery will last eight years. How many tens of thousands of gasoline will you have to use in that time period? What are the odds of an accident at a gas station?



2. Again mistaken. Maybe if you were limited to using the 110-V standard in the US, but only a fool would do that. Using a standard 240-V charger, Tesla's full-charge time is 9.5 hours for a 300 mile range. Dual and Super-chargers can do even better. But still, with the average American driving day being less than 40 miles, you know what? Even 110-V is fine. The hour your average person spends on the road? Easily match with the car parked the rest of the day. Yeah, I know, you're going to sputter and say you need 300 mile range for some vacation or something, but face it, do you think every American needs that 365 days a year, and is the price of that WORTH what you're paying? You could easily save thousands a dollars a year, enough to rent a vehicle for the occasional long drive. You're just suffering from an illusory range anxiety problem.



3. You don't understand the mechanics of an internal combustion engine, or the problems of their usage. The Carnot limit is a real thing, and it takes a LOT more work to get cars to get more miles per gallon than you realize, doubling it? Would require miracles. And you'd not solve the pollution issues, or the political issues with extraction from overseas nations. But even that aside, hybrid electric motors are even more efficient, and would be worth doing. Then you'd also solve the range anxiety above.



4. I think your knowledge is woefully wrong and dreadfully incomplete to boot. Please take the time to learn more, and realize that your premises are in error, and that your concerns aren't entirely true, and that your proposed solution is actually impractical. It'd have been easier to phase-in electric cars in the eighties than your solution.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Technically the electric car concept is valid. But the real issue is that too much of the electric grid system needed to recharge them is based on coal fired steam turbine electric generators. In the worse case USA has over 600 coal generating facilities. But in the best case Canada has only 23 coal generating stations with the bulk of electrical generation by means of Hydro-Electric which is cleaner by far. While Oil fired is a bit cleaner than coal, natural gas is 50% cleaner than coal. These can provide the base load.... then comes sporadic temporary alternative energy sources.....

Answer 5

The general idea is that it's easier to change the production of electricity from coal to hydro, wind, geothermal, wave, solar or nuclear than it is to change all the vehicles when needed. However the same could be said of gasoline or diesel as we regularly synthesize linear hydrocarbons from syngas in our refineries. We can make syngas by gasification of natural gas, coal, wood, agricultural wastes, old tires, trash, dried sewage or with another energy source, from CO2 and H2O as shown by Sandia Labs CR-5 so all the environmental benefits of electric vehicles could be achieved with existing gasoline and diesel vehicles.



However, not replacing vehicles does not benefit the automobile manufacturers and replacing the fossil reserves with additional energy collection/generation to synthesize the syngas feedstock from CO2 and H2O would increase costs to the petroleum industry. Electric vehicles will happen because people can make a profit from them not because of their benefit to the environment.

Answer 6

Elon: People think of electric cars as receiving a subsidy, but what's really occurring is that every time you buy a .... Walt: Did anyone else in the IT area inspire you? .... So clearly people were doing something silly in building these rockets.

Answer 7

I don't own one but I don't think that they are silly. I think of the electric as reserve in case gas is too low. I don't think that the electric is worth a long range drive.

Answer 8

They save money, your electrical bill would still be plenty lower then your gas bills.

I couldn't see myself buying one realisticly, I am a fan of gas powered, hp cars.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

I don't think that electric cars are "silly".



Just look at the electric Delorean.



http://delorean.com/2011/10/electric-delorean/

Answer 11

I think they are good for city drivers who go a short distance.