Remember, electric cars really run on coal.
Exactly. Changing one form of energy to another is never as efficient as direct use. I have my suspicions about all hybrid vehicles for that reason. Maybe it's somewhat efficient to run a small gas engine at a constant rpm and store that energy in a battery as opposed to an engine subject to the whims of the operator...... but I'd have to crunch the numbers myself to believe it. All because of a rule in energy conversion..... there is always some loss.
I think the final truth will be that electric, as currently produced, is at greater cost and polution.
The difference is that gas and diesel come from oil, but electricity can come from coal and NG, stuff the U.S. has in abundance. For those worried about carbon, then electricity can come from nuclear, wind and solar.
I see in the April 2012 issue of Motor Trend on page 32 that SunPower is working with Nissan and Ford while SunLogic is working with GM to produce affordable home solar charging units that can provide enough power for 12,000 miles of driving a year in most locations. Honda is developing their own home solar charging units using a thin-film copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) technology that Honda says has real world performance close to that of the more expensive silicon technology. Amortizing the cost of a $10,000 solar charging unit over 5 years at 12,000 miles a year comes out to 17 cents per mile, but over the 25 year warranty the cost could be as low as 3 cents per mile.
With affordable home solar charging units, we could soon be at a tipping point where the total cost (purchase price + maintenance + fuel) of electric passenger vehicles will be less than similar gas vehicles.
Long gas lines due to an oil shortage from a war with Iran would really boost the sale of electric vehicles, and even without such a war, the long term price of oil is on an upward trajectory as the demand from China and India grows.
Even if Republicans take both houses of Congress and the Presidency in November, environmentalists will use liberal state governments and the courts to obstruct and delay expanded drilling and development. Even if that were not the case, then unless there's an export tax on oil and refined products, more U.S. supply will be swallowed up by China and India with minimal impact on domestic prices at the pump.
