Some years back I wanted an electric car. One of the electric cars made in the early to mid 1970’s was a Citicar. I found a used one that needed the batteries, but finally took a pass on it. The original plan was to try to obtain an electric meter and find out how much it cost to supply the electrical energy to keep the batteries charged. I have a commuting distance to work of roughly 2 miles, and the Citicar should be good for this commute. The disadvantages were:
The car had a propane heater for winter use. According to the Consumer Reports’ test, this heater fogged up the windows pretty badly.
There would be no air conditioning if I decided to take a longer drive.
For my 2 mile commute, a bicycle makes more sense.
I’m certain that the Tesla is far superior to the Citicar. At the time period when I was thinking about buying the Citicar I would have had $1500-2000 in the car after I replaced the batteries. I decided that this was an expensive toy. At $100,000, the Tesla is an even more expensive toy.
Dagosa is right about the BTU use; there is a defintie advantage in driving an electric car. The cost is also considerably less.
However, gasoline is a light hydrocarbon and produces about half the GREENHOUSE GASSES per BTU that coal does. So the advantage is considerably less than presumed. If the power station was fired with NATURAL GAS (CH4), there would be a very much greater advantage.
I agree. I’m sure shortly, EVs will make terrific commuter cars, but it’s a cold day in you know what before many will buy it as a performance car that can’t accommodate trips with the occasional high speed diversion that comes with them for the price of a Tesler. Will not ready for prime time in that respect for a while regardless of the price and primarily used as second/third vehicle. Having said that, for many, that’s 3/4 of their use as a commuter. So why not ?
We all (me included) seem to be overlooking the fact that there are entire communities that allow and even encourage the use of electric cars. There are others, such as an elderly neighbor of mine, that only travel to and from the local grocerie store a few blocks away that use electric cars. There’s actually a significant market for them, and a large number of them exist. Yes, they work with lead-acid battery packs, but they’re better equipped than a simple golf cart.
It’s entirely possible that this is what the OP was asking about and we misread the question. Since I don’t know anything about these vehicles I’ll defer to others. Hopefully the OP hasn’t long since disappeared.
The Tesla uses 900 pounds of AA lithium ion cells, 6800 of them wired into a 375 volt pack…These cells have a design life of 400-500 charge-discharge cycles. So in 2 or 3 years of “normal” driving, that battery pack will fail, just like the one in your laptop. Gasoline will have to be $10/gallon before this makes any sense…
Early adopters are critical to making new technologies commercially viable for the mass-market. If he wants to take on the inconveniences of an electric car, I say he should be encouraged. Just so long as he knows what he is getting himself into.
Whitey; there is a difference between air pollution (nasty stuff we breathe in) and CO2, a greenhouse gas. An electric car powered by coal generated electricity produces less air pollution than a gas powered car. The central plant is both more efficient in producing the power and cleaning up the stack, and the pollution does not hit downtown.
On the other hand, coal generates much more CO2 per unit of energy, the greenhouse gas that Al Gore loves to hate, and as such a coal fired plant would have to be twice as efficient at producing power as a good gasoline car.
However, if OP gets his electric power from nuclear, hydro-electric, wind or biomass, or natural gas, he will be a winner.
The economics are very personal and use specific. The high capital cost of an electric car will make it less viable, unles you do an inordinate amount of city driving.
One of my brothers borrowed a hardbound 1917 car catalogue from a friend.It was sure interesting.There were a good many electric cars and delivery trucks availible then(with ranges not so far off of what you can get today) And a good ICE car was very expensive in real dollars-Kevin
Agree; we need EARLY ADOPTERS to get a product off the ground. I used to have a neighbor who had to have the latest in everything. Like a $900 CD player which only played 1 disc. Or the $1000 video Beta Max recorder. These folks don’t care about initial quality problems or teething problems with the technology.
Any marketing professional will tell you that during this early adopter phase the user is essentially a guinea pig and product improvements result from user feedback. My mother in law was the unfortunate customer of the GM early model ABS or anti-lock braking system. In a salt and snow areas around the Great Lakes these mechanisms were quite troublesome.
Agree dag; the conversion process is more efficient in a large plant. The line losses in general are 15-20% from station to your house.
In my area, with electric rates at 15 cent/kwhr, I can run an electric car for 1/2 the cost of a gasoline car. In Washington state that would be about 20-25% of gasoline fueled power.
The greenhouse gas advantage is considerbly less since 1 mole of coal gives 1 mole of CO2. The quivalent conversion for gasoline with more than twice as much Hydrogen atoms as carbon atoms, generates water and CO2, and needs only half the carbon, thus half the CO2 generated.
If Boone Pickens has his way, of course we will generate electriclty with wind and with gas (HIS gas), and propel cars with gas (HIS gas)as well.
All in all the future really looks bright for the gas industry, as the Climate Change regulations get implemented!
I read just today that the feds are offering a %6800+ tax credit (not a deduction, a CREDIT) for anyone buying a totally electric vehicle…and becaue they rammed the legislation through without satisfactory review golf carts qualify. And people are using the credit to buy new golf carts.
“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)