The Inconvenient Truth About Electric Cars

[BHPSteel]

You only get energy out if you put it in. I was going to say that what you're proposing is effectively 'perpetual motion', and then you explicitly propose that might be one solution.

Hybrids use technologies such as regenerative braking already. If you gather energy from 'wind' when you're driving, unless a wind is blowing from the same direction the car is moving (and it'll have to be moving faster than the car) you won't gain any energy, and in order to catch the wind, you'll need to ADD to the wind resistance of the vehicle.

There is NO such thing as a free lunch. Especially with energy. If you want to move an object weighing several thousand pounds around, you need a reliable, energy-dense SOURCE. Batteries are not a source. They're a storage medium. They have to have energy put back into them (and quickly enough that the vehicle can get you to where you want to go in a relatively short timeframe).

Energy density and consistency of supply are vital, and all the woo-woo wind, solar, bacterial, unicorn-fart technologies being proposed to provide it are not able to do it.

Furthermore, when one form of energy (electrical, gasoline, gravity etc) is converted into another (kinetic - i.e. vehicle movement) - there are always energy losses. And always will be until someone manages to overthrow the law of conservation of energy. Some of those losses you WANT (i.e. you can't get traction to the road surface without friction. Friction creates heat - an energy loss from the car's "closed system").

Sorry to break it to you, but "Perpetual Motion" ain't going to be a solution. You'll have to find the energy somewhere else to drive that alternator.

 

[Porter Rockwell]

I know a guy that was filling up his Toyota 4x4 at a gas pump a few years back when he was accosted by a Prius driver. The driver of the Prius accused him of "killing the planet" in his gas guzzling, jacked up 4 wheel drive.

He calmly responded, "well, let's consider my truck compared to your Prius. Your Prius is new, so a few thousand pounds of steel had to be processed through an electric furnace and then formed in stamping presses lubricated with hydraulic fluids. Then components had to be machined using non environmentally friendly coolant. Then plastics had to be molded, using electric power to run presses and melt the plastic. All of that electrical power to run these things came from coal fired power plants."

"Then the whole thing had to be painted, with a liquid paint system and sealer, which used thousands of gallons of water. And we haven't even talked about the lithium for your batteries that had to be strip mined from the Earth using massive heavy oil diesel vehicles. In comparison, my truck has used NOTHING, except some gasoline, since 1985. Which do you think is more green?"

She flipped him off and drove away.

It’s not about the nail!

 

[fastfish66]

I know a guy that was filling up his Toyota 4x4 at a gas pump a few years back when he was accosted by a Prius driver. The driver of the Prius accused him of "killing the planet" in his gas guzzling, jacked up 4 wheel drive.

He calmly responded, "well, let's consider my truck compared to your Prius. Your Prius is new, so a few thousand pounds of steel had to be processed through an electric furnace and then formed in stamping presses lubricated with hydraulic fluids. Then components had to be machined using non environmentally friendly coolant. Then plastics had to be molded, using electric power to run presses and melt the plastic. All of that electrical power to run these things came from coal fired power plants."

"Then the whole thing had to be painted, with a liquid paint system and sealer, which used thousands of gallons of water. And we haven't even talked about the lithium for your batteries that had to be strip mined from the Earth using massive heavy oil diesel vehicles. In comparison, my truck has used NOTHING, except some gasoline, since 1985. Which do you think is more green?"

She flipped him off and drove away.

Good on him.I'm still laying rubber with my 1966 Formula S Barracuda.

 

[Porter Rockwell]

Facts dont matter anymore. Feelings, appearances, impressions, matter way more than facts.

 

[Porter Rockwell]

I would drive an electric car for one reason: to go bat crap fast. This technology is extraordinary and it’s getting better every day. Electric cars have put sub 4 and 3 second 0-60 runs into ordinary peoples hands. You don’t have to be a millionaire or a mechanic to go fast stupid quick with electric. I would miss the V-8 rumble though.

I’d by a hybrid car for one reason- to save money on gas

In either situation I’m under no illusion that I’m saving the planet.

 

[roydamnmercer]

Like everything, we reduce all arguments to a binary choice. Democrat or Republican, left or right, liberal or conservative, 9mm or 45acp, beans or no beans, Ford or Chevy.

EV or ICE is no different…but the truth is that both technologies can coexist and should. There is a place for both and each suit different people better. Many families today would be well served by having one of each if they’d think about it. I need my big 4x4 truck but an EV would serve my wife well.

But…this is a big but, you shouldn’t buy a new EV thinking it’s the cure to save the planet. And…this is a big and, you should not go “rolling coal” in your brodozer F250 thinking it ain’t going to hurt the air we breath either.

Common sense is usually found in the middle…maybe that’s why so few want to tread there.

 

[Barton72]

Keyword, advancements. I believe it will happen. Big brother politics and anyone with power who will lose money by it happening will have to step aside though.