What type of electric car would you buy?

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irishinven

Now that many of the big manufacturers are planning plug-in electric cars for 2010, what type of electric car would you buy?

Consider that and electric SUV would be powered by lithium ion batteries like a sedan.

I would probably stick with a sedan as I wouldn't need anything bigger.

Answer
I'd go with the future plug-in Ford Escape because it is different than any other plug-in that is coming. You get quality and style that is completely different from a Volt or whatever Dodge is rumored to have created.

If all cars were electric, would the CO2 released by power plants be less than from all gas powered cars?

Dcntamcn

Electric cars have to be charged through the power grid. And there's more "chemistry" involved in manufacturing toxic batteries for them. With the manufacturing process as well as lifetime charging, is CO2 production decreased by a significant amount?

Answer
Gasoline Cars:
Gasoline powered engines = 35% efficiency (25% in the 1970s)
Refinery production of gasoline = 70 % efficiency (guessing)
Overall = 25% efficiency (roughly)

Electric Cars:
Electric Motors = 90% efficiency (considering the need to do different torques and speeds.)
Loss in Battery due to being parked = 90% efficiency (highly variable depending on how much you want to spend to buy and maintain your batteries.)
Loss in charging = 95% efficiency (highly variable)
loss in grid = 75% efficiency (depends on where you live)
Power Station Generator = 95% efficiency
Power Station Turbine = 95% efficiency
Power Station Boiler = 80% efficiency
Power Station Leaks, degassification, and Blowdown = 95% efficiency
Handling coal (as opposed to refining gasoline) = 95% efficiency

Efficiency = (0.95^5)(0.9^2)(0.7)(0.8) = 35% roughly

Going from 25% to 35% is a 40% savings that could easily be wiped out by some of my assumptions on the type and quality of batteries used, the location on the grid, and the technology being used at the power plant.

However, unless you believe:

1) Man Made CO2 is the primary source of CO2 in the atmosphere.
2) CO2 is the primary cause of Global Warming.
3) Global Warming is occuring.
4) Global Warming would be a bad thing.

this would hardly be a reasonable design consideration. All of the 4 beliefs above are highly controversial. There really are better justifications for electric cars than this nonsense.

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