Sara
Could you please tell me the benefits and problems, and do electric cars reduce atmospheric pollution?
Answer
Benefits:
-Greatly reduced pollution. Arguments about "coal" are irrelevant because huge amounts of electricity are used to refine gasoline as well. Obviously petroleum AND electricity is much dirtier than just electricity.
-Reliability. Electric motors have just one moving part, and require no maintenance. Think about the electric motor in your refrigerator - how it just runs and runs - now imagine what replacing it with a gas engine would be like.
-Greatly reduced fuel cost. The cost of driving on electricity is just a couple cents per mile, many times cheaper than gasoline.
-Quiet, smooth ride. Electric motors, thanks to their wide powerbands, don't need multiple gears, clutches, or any transmissions at all really. An electric car ride is quieter and smoother than the best luxury car.
-Safety. EV batteries are far safer than tanks full of flammable gasoline.
-Energy security and self sufficiency. No imported oil or middle east involvement is needed to power electric cars.
Disadvantages:
-Cost of purchase -Short driving range -Long recharge times. All of these disadvantages have solutions that will be pursued in the next decade.
Benefits:
-Greatly reduced pollution. Arguments about "coal" are irrelevant because huge amounts of electricity are used to refine gasoline as well. Obviously petroleum AND electricity is much dirtier than just electricity.
-Reliability. Electric motors have just one moving part, and require no maintenance. Think about the electric motor in your refrigerator - how it just runs and runs - now imagine what replacing it with a gas engine would be like.
-Greatly reduced fuel cost. The cost of driving on electricity is just a couple cents per mile, many times cheaper than gasoline.
-Quiet, smooth ride. Electric motors, thanks to their wide powerbands, don't need multiple gears, clutches, or any transmissions at all really. An electric car ride is quieter and smoother than the best luxury car.
-Safety. EV batteries are far safer than tanks full of flammable gasoline.
-Energy security and self sufficiency. No imported oil or middle east involvement is needed to power electric cars.
Disadvantages:
-Cost of purchase -Short driving range -Long recharge times. All of these disadvantages have solutions that will be pursued in the next decade.
Electric vs. Gas Cars?
Buddy
Which is economically and environmentally better electric or gas cars?
1. Is it more efficient to charge a car battery through electricity or run a car off gas?
2. With the extra production of electricity is that less pollution than what a gas cars make?
3. Do we even have the capacity to produce enough electricity to operate a nation of electric cars?
Answer
Most electric vehicles used for personal transportation travel fewer than 40 miles in a day. These vehicles' batteries can be charged at night "off-peak" when generating stations are working below their capacity, so there is no significant impact on the generating capacity of the grid.
As for efficiency, in the worst case, a coal-fired power plant is about 1.75 times as efficient as an internal combustion engine in extracting the energy from its fuel. It is estimated that around 6% of the power they generate is lost to such things as voltage drop. An electric car such as the Tesla is around 90% efficient in transforming that electrical energy into forward motion.
So even with the Lord Voldemort of electrical generators, an electric car has a huge advantage (about 50% better) over a typical internal combustion engine, which struggles to squeeze out 20% of the energy from a gallon of fuel, blowing the rest out the exhaust as noise.
If the energy comes from a renewable resource (say solar powered recharging stations for exchangeable batteries), the advantage just multiplies.
The issue for electrics is that most people can't get out of the habit of thinking that they need one car to do everything. So while a battery-powered electric is a viable solution for a commuter car, it can't get them from LA to San Francisco on a single "tank" of electrons.
A Tesla (a car that goes from 0-60 in under 4 seconds and leaves a $400,000 Lamborghini sucking air in a high gear roll-on) can make a round trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara on a charge, but that's about the limit. If they could get recharge times into the range it takes to fill a gas tank, they'd have it solved.
Unless there are battery exchange stations as common as gas stations, the problem will be amps.
Recharge times have been improved to as little as 10 minutes for lithium iron phosphate laptop batteries through a process discovered at MIT.
When that technology reaches commercial application the limitation will be the electrical feed (typically less than 200 amps in your home). To get a Tesla's 53 kWh battery charged from flat to max in seven and a half minutes, a reasonable match for a gas fillup, you'd need 1,600 amps!
The test fleet of Mini-Es BMW has in the hands of a few intrepid consumers is thrilling the drivers - when they can get them charged. The problem is that Underwriters' Laboratories took forever to approve all the individual components of the charging system, and without their blessing, no electrical inspector is going to approve an installation. And the utilities aren't upgrading people's main feed for free.
As usual, the regulators and the utilities are behind the technology curve.
Most electric vehicles used for personal transportation travel fewer than 40 miles in a day. These vehicles' batteries can be charged at night "off-peak" when generating stations are working below their capacity, so there is no significant impact on the generating capacity of the grid.
As for efficiency, in the worst case, a coal-fired power plant is about 1.75 times as efficient as an internal combustion engine in extracting the energy from its fuel. It is estimated that around 6% of the power they generate is lost to such things as voltage drop. An electric car such as the Tesla is around 90% efficient in transforming that electrical energy into forward motion.
So even with the Lord Voldemort of electrical generators, an electric car has a huge advantage (about 50% better) over a typical internal combustion engine, which struggles to squeeze out 20% of the energy from a gallon of fuel, blowing the rest out the exhaust as noise.
If the energy comes from a renewable resource (say solar powered recharging stations for exchangeable batteries), the advantage just multiplies.
The issue for electrics is that most people can't get out of the habit of thinking that they need one car to do everything. So while a battery-powered electric is a viable solution for a commuter car, it can't get them from LA to San Francisco on a single "tank" of electrons.
A Tesla (a car that goes from 0-60 in under 4 seconds and leaves a $400,000 Lamborghini sucking air in a high gear roll-on) can make a round trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara on a charge, but that's about the limit. If they could get recharge times into the range it takes to fill a gas tank, they'd have it solved.
Unless there are battery exchange stations as common as gas stations, the problem will be amps.
Recharge times have been improved to as little as 10 minutes for lithium iron phosphate laptop batteries through a process discovered at MIT.
When that technology reaches commercial application the limitation will be the electrical feed (typically less than 200 amps in your home). To get a Tesla's 53 kWh battery charged from flat to max in seven and a half minutes, a reasonable match for a gas fillup, you'd need 1,600 amps!
The test fleet of Mini-Es BMW has in the hands of a few intrepid consumers is thrilling the drivers - when they can get them charged. The problem is that Underwriters' Laboratories took forever to approve all the individual components of the charging system, and without their blessing, no electrical inspector is going to approve an installation. And the utilities aren't upgrading people's main feed for free.
As usual, the regulators and the utilities are behind the technology curve.
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