# Electric Vehicles **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Tags:** electrical-wiring\ **Created:** [December 18, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910 "2009-12-18T04:31:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dagosa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/dagosa/32/9837_2.png) [@dagosa](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dagosa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/41 "2009-12-23T16:28:26Z")
“But why do we need to make that big a leap to a vehicle that is out of sync with our needs when we had the technology all along to make a far more efficient ICE?” Pollution…EVs for functional commuting have always been with us. No car company can make a profit selling them when they only make 26% on their sales and much of the rest on parts and maintenance.(Toyota 2008 profit reports) EVs have very little of that profit sustainability. Smaller companies are prohibited by the economics of the task in doing so in large scale economically. (Tesla) ---
**Author:** ![meanjoe75fan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/meanjoe75fan/32/552_2.png) [@meanjoe75fan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/meanjoe75fan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/42 "2009-12-23T19:50:31Z")
I don’t see how sourcing electricity from a non-coal source doesn’t cause coal to be consumed. First, e- cars cause an increase in demand for electricity. Second, supply-and-demands tells us the cost of electricity goes up. Third, the cost of energy sources (ALL of them) that can be made into electricity goes up. Fourth, higher prices for coal result in more coal being mined and burned. Thinking that “if my electricity isn’t made from coal, I can drive my electric car without ecological worry” is false in the same way that saying “I can buy an SUV and not worry about imported oil, if I fill up exclusively as gas stations that use domestic oil” is. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/43 "2009-12-23T22:15:20Z")
Let me take a wild stab - the OP is a troll. What happened to him? Where for art thou, thevalueofpie? ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/44 "2009-12-23T23:44:13Z")
> EVs for functional commuting have always been with us. …especially in cities where they have light rail and third rail mass transit. ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 11:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/45 "2009-12-23T23:52:50Z")
> Second, supply-and-demands tells us the cost of electricity goes up. Not necessarily. Supply and demand only tell us that if one is constant. The laws of supply and demand rely on all other factors being constant. In the real world, they are not constant. What you fail to realize is that new techniques for extracting natural gas have vastly expanded our supply of it. Also, investment in solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources is up. This affects all energy prices, not just natural gas prices. When the supply of energy sources increase at the same time as demand for energy, energy prices could stay constant, they could go down, or they could rise. It all depends on where the supply and demand curves intersect and the slopes of the supply and demand curves. meanjoe75fan, you need to look at the big picture, not just misapplied theories. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910/46 "2009-12-24T00:47:26Z")
I think that meanjoe75fan has a valid point. It will take quite a while longer to bring new power production methods on line. It seems to me that electric cars will be available before green electric production methods match their needs. You make good points Whitey, but timing plays a big part, too. [Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-vehicles/40910.md?page=2)