Using coal to power our vehicles?

[spolic]

I drive a green Subaru.

[Pakhan]

I drive a green Subaru.

Mine is blue with an open exhaust, flowers wilt as I pass 

[lethe]

Mine is blue with an open exhaust, flowers wilt as I pass 

Natural selection at it's finest, the strong plants will survive your onslaught and thrive.

[NAKID]

An electric car still causes pollution at some point down the road (batteries, power from powergrid, etc...), but it's use of energy is much more efficient than the internal combustion engine, thus causing less green house gases in the long run.


I'd dig up numbers, but I'm at work...

The batteries I'll give you, but in AZ, there are quite a few houses that are almost completely self sufficient due to solar panels. The local power companies will even subsedize the installation if you have it installed to feed excess power into the power grid. But, a system with a battery storage system could store that power for when the panels aren't producing power (i.e. nighttime). Plugging an electric car into a system like this would be as close to zero emmissions as possible.

A 3kW system here costs about $15000 with another $500-$750 for the battery storage system...

[Le Pirate]

The batteries I'll give you, but in AZ, there are quite a few houses that are almost completely self sufficient due to solar panels. The local power companies will even subsedize the installation if you have it installed to feed excess power into the power grid. But, a system with a battery storage system could store that power for when the panels aren't producing power (i.e. nighttime). Plugging an electric car into a system like this would be as close to zero emmissions as possible.

A 3kW system here costs about $15000 with another $500-$750 for the battery storage system...

I'll agree with you there.

The point I was trying to make is that while yes, even if your electricity is coming from fossil fuels, an electric car is still more "carbon footprint" efficient than the ICE.


btw---I hate all this carbon footprint crap I've started hearing all the time..."lets give it a buzzword! do de do de do  "....but it was the best way to describe what i'm talking about.

[bdfinally]

How far is your job commute? How far to a grocery store? drug store? dry cleaners? movie theater? favorite restaurant? doctors/dentist office?

[Randimus Maximus]

There still seems to be as many vehicles on the road nowadays with gas prices where they are at. 

[NAKID]

btw---I hate all this carbon footprint crap I've started hearing all the time..."lets give it a buzzword! do de do de do  "....but it was the best way to describe what i'm talking about.

I hate that, as well as the "going green"...

[spolic]

put this on your car

https://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/13614/1/www.palmcoastd.com/ows-img/glennbeck/products/ecolarge.jpg

[Sinister]

There still seems to be as many vehicles on the road nowadays with gas prices where they are at. 

Really?  Traffic has gotten lighter on the commute.  It's great.  It improves the mileage of my Silverado.

[Pedro-bot]

The batteries used on hybrids create about 1,000,000 btu's to create. A gallon of gas creates about 1,000 btu's. This means that a hybrid car has to travel about 100,000 miles before reaching the starting point of non-hybrid vehicles. Buy a used tercel that gets 35 mi/ga and flick off that hybrid owner. You'll show them who's really thinking green!

BTW, I'm not really that smart, I read the above info on WIRED magazine.

[Ducatiloo]

The batteries used on hybrids create about 1,000,000 btu's to create. A gallon of gas creates about 1,000 btu's. This means that a hybrid car has to travel about 100,000 miles before reaching the starting point of non-hybrid vehicles. Buy a used tercel that gets 35 mi/ga and flick off that hybrid owner. You'll show them who's really thinking green!

GREAT POST 

[Triple J]

The batteries used on hybrids create about 1,000,000 btu's to create. A gallon of gas creates about 1,000 btu's. This means that a hybrid car has to travel about 100,000 miles before reaching the starting point of non-hybrid vehicles. Buy a used tercel that gets 35 mi/ga and flick off that hybrid owner. You'll show them who's really thinking green!

BTW, I'm not really that smart, I read the above info on WIRED magazine.

Your math appears to be a wee bit off.

What your saying is that 1,000 gallons of gas can be created with the energy needed to make a hybrid car battery (1,000,000/1,000 = 1,000)

Asuming the average American car gets 20 mpg, it could go 20,000 miles on that 1,000 gallons.  Therefore the hybrid would only have to drive that distance to reach the starting point.

35,000 miles if it's being compared to a "35mpg Tercel".

Still a valid point, but a bit overstated.

See below 

[Ducatiloo]

But vs a Geo Metro that gets the same MPG if would never catch up.
Both are good points though and helps us realize that no solution is perfect.

[Triple J]

I may have oversimplified it.  Lets see...equal starting points:

1) Car (20mpg)  with 1,000 gallons gas

2) Hybrid (40 mpg) with no gas

Car can go 20,000 miles on gas.  Hybrid needs 500 gallons to keep up.

Add that 500 (10,000 miles) gallons to the Car's original total, and you get 30,000 miles to break even (not 20,000 like I said before).

Keep doing that process until it equalizes and you get...bah, whatever!  100,000 seems high. 

edit...see below again.