Quote:
Originally Posted by Slawomir
The future is in electric cars. No oil changes, filter replacements, periodic tune ups, exhaust system repairs, fixing water pump, fuel pump, alternator...
Only one moving part thus little maintenance. Just need to develop better batteries. Hopefully those carbon nanotubes will meet expectations.
As for environmental sustainability, we better buy less stuff and repair what we have instead of throwing things away as soon as they break down. How many toys amateur astronomers have nowadays?  |
Along the same lines, this "
Test drive of a petrol car" by Tesla Club Sweden is funny, and very close to the mark. Best read in a comedy Scandinavian accent:
The petrol engine consists of literally hundreds of moving parts that must have tolerance of hundredths of a millimeter to function. We begun to understand why it is car repair shops that sell the cars – they might hope for something to break in the car that they can mend?
...
The seller looked very puzzled at us and explained that it is not possible to refuel gasoline cars at home, and there are no free gas stations. We tried to explain our questions, in case he had misunderstood, but he insisted that you can not. Apparently you have to several times a month drive to the gas station to recharge your petrol car at extortionate prices – there are no alternatives!
I think good electric cars will change personal transportation, and I'm looking forward to the day I can get one! And networks of charging points are only going to grow, quite apart from home charging/power generation. If a significant chunk of the energy used in manufacture and recharging is renewable, then the environmental impact argument is easily lost by the fossil fuel companies. Bye bye dirty coal
Fred,
try this for size - EV cars produce fewer lifecycle emissions than internal combustion cars, even when the electricity source
is coal. If the electricity source is renewable (significantly in South Australia, for example), then EVs win by a large margin. Also try the
"State of Charge" report (2012)" which has an interesting map showing how well the cars rate depending on geographic areas of the USA (depending mainly on electricity generation mix).