National Coalition Launches Campaign to Urge

This we should support. I want my familys next car (in a couple of years) to be a plug-in. I will buy the first good plug-in car that hits the market even if it's (gasp!) a GM. GM are you listening? You have amazing technology available in the EV1, dust it off, bring it back to market with updated batteries and throw in a small light weight 1.0 liter gas engine together with a CVT. This would ROCK the hybrid market! and you would become a cool car company again.

 

DAMN LIBERAL CITIES who do they think they are, cutting edge or something? This will never work till middle America has a say. Kansas are you listening?

 

Completely agree - imagine all that fuel saved for those people who have short distances to drive (like myself). The revolution has begun.

And wasn't it until recently we were getting upset when people asked "do you plug it in?"...our answer now would be "I wish".

Not to bring up the GM product issue again, but GM's situation would do a 180 with the automobile that SomervillePrius described. Bring back the EV1!!!!!...call it the EV2 with all the upgrades.

 

Of course, vehicles that you plug in only make the tailpipe longer. That is, you may be getting away with less gasoline but since most electric companies use natural gas (which is a by-product of petroleum) are you really reducing our dependence on foreign oil? It might be worth it, though, if you could plug it in to a solar array but you wouldn't be able to charge it at night. You'd have to have several batteries that could charge off of the solar panels during the day and then the plug-in hybrid could charge off of the batteries at night.

 

I read something interesting but worth considering (I'll try to dig it up) but to generate a gallon gasoline already requires a lot of electricity and that electriicity pumped into your EV car would propell it longer then that gallon you now need to buy so there seem to already be clear environmental reasons to switch

also, it's far easier to clean up or switch our main factories (we could spend millions and millions on them) compared to fixing each polluting car.

We also are mostly using coal and that we have plenty of at the moment

So yeah using an EV car MAKES SENSE and will make more and more sense.

Don't let the talk that EV cars are not environmental fool you, look a little closer at who are saying it.

 

the amount of resources it would require to make the electricity to charge an EV vehicle pales in comparison to the resources it would take to propel a vehicle using mono-fuel technology.

Would that be a correct assumption?

 

Except most of my electricity in NC is more coal and nuke. I don't have the numbers, but 45% coal, 45% nuke and maybe 10% natural gas. I think nationwide the #'s are more like 30% nuke (maybe lower), 50% coal (maybe higher), and the rest a mix of NG, and others. Anyway, my point is that this is a more diversified mix, and while still a majority fossil fuels, not even a majority of it is petroleum-based, but more coal based, which is largely domestic. Plus, you can always put some PV's on your roof, if you can afford it!

 

That's a good point. I'd like to see that thing you read. The thing about oil that lifeaftertheoilcrash.net points out is that oil has far more bang for the buck than any other form of evergy. From that perspective, it would seem that the electricity needed to produce gasoline and get it in to your tank is a small percentage of the evergy derived from oil. I'd love to see the actual numbers to know for sure.

The problem with coal is the pollution that it produces. If we switched over to coal, the air would become more polluted, creating more greenhouse gases which would accelerate global warming. The thing that I try to emphasize is that there is no easy fix. Every solution creates other problems. Plug-in cars might have a positive impact. I hope that they do. But, we have to be aware of the consequences. Fortune favors the prepared.

 

Yes, well I did say most, not all The problem with nuclear energy is that you'd have to have a lot of nuclear power plants in order to produce the amount of energy that is provided by oil. It also has environmental issues that can render entire areas uninhabitable (Chernobyl comes to mind).

 

Sommerville!!!!! Obviously you are OVERQUALIFIED to be GM's CEO. LOL

 

This is very true!

 

While I agree with the sentiment that plug-in hybrids would be great and would allow us to better diversify our energy consumption...

I have technical concerns about those batteries. The Prius and other hybrids work because the hybrid system determines how and when to charge the batteries. It conditions the battery on it's own and ensures the battery is never overcharged or undercharged. Allow the option for a plug-in... and now there's the implication that the *user* must manage the charging himself... potentially dramatically decreasing battery life, and giving weight to the claims that Hybrids are bunk because the batteries will die (with the smart charging systems in conventional hybrids, this is not true).

 

Well by making it a plug-in hybrid we can leave it to Toyota Engineers to figure it out. There will still be a hybrid engine in there and a gasoline so when the feel they really need to protect their battery they could spin it up. I don't think this would be that hard to do. They do need to allow for more battery drain then today though (I assume) but it seems like it can be managed.

This is one of the advatages I see of plug-in hybrids. You can protect the battery. I think it's evident from some posts at greenhybrid.com that the honda insight stick shift suffers from short battery life because it can't be protected as well as the automatic.

 

Yes. And producing less pollution as well.

 

Nope. An EV can drive more miles on just the electricity used to make gasoline for a gas car.

 

Maybe I worded that wrong. How bout this....from cradle to grave, which is more efficient?

 

If we switch from a gasoline-based economy to coal-based one? For many reasons, the air would not get dirtier. I'll point you all to the web cast of this launch (subject of this thread) when I have a moment - unless somebody beats me to it. That will answer some of these questions.

 

The major fossil fuel used in the US to generate electricity is coal, not natural gas.

AFAIK, not better in emissions or CO2 than petrol burned in a car. But there *are* advantages:

1. Coal is local, petrol purchase requires a $$ drain to regimes the US does not /really/ want to support.

2. Pollution is out of the cities.

3. Cleaning up the grid's energy sources are but a political decison away.

 

Fear not. Just like in the Prius, an EV charger is "smart" as well, and the secondary job beyond charging the batteries is to protect them. I've now driven 60k pure EV miles with NO gasoline support. And still no battery problems. These fears sound the same as "outsiders" have about the Prius, unfortunately.

The user does nothing more than plug it in. The electronics do the rest.