What's the big deal with electric cars? Isn't like 80% of our electricity from coal?

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jeffpatter

I remember my teacher telling us about alternative energy and how about 80% of all electricity in the U.S. is coal power. And I remember hearing somewhere that coal is worse for the enviroment than gas, so wouldn't electric cars just hurt the enviroment?

Answer
Just copy France and make it 80% nuclear, then the electric cars won't hurt the environment.

Although it should be noted that power plants are more efficient that car petrol engines and also have better pollution control devices fitted (well some of them anyway) so provided you don't lose too much energy in transmission, storage in the batteries and the motor of the car you can actually come out ahead even with a mostly coal power grid (electric cars do tend to be pretty efficient).

Also not having to run the engine when stopped along with regenerative braking will reduce waste of energy when an electric car is in start-stop peak hour driving.

How do I get involved with developing electric car technology?

Q. I have recently watched the movie,"Who killed the electric car" It was great. Now I want to work in this field. I have my degree in BA. I'm not really interesting in going back to school, but wonder what company could I work at to get started?

Answer
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This is a tough one, because a job in a startup electric vehicle company could be risky. On the other hand, I couldn't think of a better time to take a chance on the future of electric vehicles. There's a lot of activity in battery research, and prototype electric vehicles.
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Some exciting battery companies to work for:
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EEstor makes a revolutionary battery replacement - the ultracapacitor:

http://www.eestor.us/
(This webpage is under contruction because they haven't launched their product yet. Read about EEstor here:)

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141599010468&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist971715454851
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123 Systems makes an improved Lithium Ion battery:
http://www.a123systems.com/html/news/articles/051102_news.html
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Firefly Energy has invented an improved lead-acid battery. This is exciting because they will be light, cheap to make, can drop right into existing lead-acid applications, and will have greatly improved performance.

http://www.fireflyenergy.com/ffy.html
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Here's another improved Li-Ion battery, using nanotechnology:

http://www.altairnano.com/
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Next, here's a few companies building electric cars:
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http://www.teslamotors.com (California)
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http://electrovaya.com/innovation/zev_tech.html
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http://www.feelgoodcars.com/ (Canada)
This company has made a deal for the EEstor ultracapacitors.
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http://phoenixmotorcars.com (California)
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There's more, too, I keep finding new stuff every day.
Best of luck!
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