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Swingtrader wrote..

I'm glad that a TF poster has the bucks to do so. It may well be a quite simple purchase to Strider, and if he wants to blow his money on a Tesla, that's probably better than blowing it on hookers, coke and the horses.

+1. Just about every bit of automotive technology was first introduced in cars that were much too expensive for mass-consumption. New technology is always expensive at first, and without early adopters willing to pay a premium for it while also being "beta testers", new tech may never make it into more affordable cars.

Strider wrote..

an EV still pollutes less than an ICE because it doesn't waste over 40% of its energy as heat.

Yep, EVs themselves are pretty efficient, but plants producing the electricity to feed them are not.
The most efficient power plants right now are combined-cycle natgas fired ones. The're running at around 60%, so they do waste about 40% of the energy input as heat. For coal and nuke plants, the numbers are even worse; the best ones currently produce about 60% waste heat. Then there are transmission losses, and the losses going into and out of the EV's battery. By the time the power actually hits the road, I expect the cumulative losses are comparable to a vehicle using an ICE.

The point of EVs is not so much that they pollute less. Modern ICEs produce amazingly little pollution. The point of EVs is that they don't have to use petroleum-based fuels; they are effectively multi-fuel vehicles. You can feed them using NatGas, Coal, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Hydro, or whatever you care to make your electricity from, and because of this, they have the potential to reduce our dependence on imported oil substantially. I believe that's A Good Thing. IMO, EVs will make all kinds of sense when used as commuter vehicles, grocery getters, or kid shuttles, provided they are charged primarily at night when the demand on the grid is low.

-Uwe-

Last modified: 2012-02-26 12:56:37 by uwe

2012-02-26 12:56:22


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