It's the same boondoggle as with ethanol: consumes more energy than it saves.
And with electric cars, it's often the dirtiest kind of energy production that
recharges those batteries: coal-fired powerplants that now seem to have been
exempted from environmental regulations under our wonderful "Clear Skies
Initiative."
Walt, driving a 6L 480HP supercharged V-8 @ 16.3MPG and lovin' it, particularly
when the need arises to go from 0-60MPH in 4.6 sec.
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from
the car just isn't photogenic." --
Edward Weston
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Unfortunately they just seem to be aiming at emissions. The
> production of hydrogen takes energy which is primarily based on
> fossil fuels currently. A cheaper hydrogen production method uses
> natural gas and the Honda statement I saw promised that it would not
> take more energy for the natural gas method than gained by the use of
> hydrogen.
>
> I am reminded of a question posed by someone once that went something
> like this: You mean to say that you are going to take my gallon of
> gas that will take me 40 miles in my comfortable little car and you
> are going to carry it, using fossil fuels, to a fossil fuel power
> plant hundreds of miles away, burn it to generate electricity with
> the losses in that process, transport the electricity over electrical
> lines with those losses back to where it will be used, convert the
> electricity to chemical energy by charging a battery with those
> attendant losses, converting the chemical energy back to electricity
> with those losses, turning an electric dynamo in the the car with
> those efficiency losses to accelerate a heavier car designed to carry
> a thousand pounds of batteries with those losses and improve on my
> efficiency? How much energy to recycle the batteries? It is difficult
> not to be skeptical of everything when electric automobiles have
> already failed. The whole system has to be engineered.
>
> Yesterday Honda announced a diesel engine design they say is as clean
> as gasoline engine.
>
>
> Winsor
> Long Beach, CA
> USA
>
>
> On Sep 26, 2006, at 8:59 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
>
> >
> > I listened to reps from Toyota and Honda, yesterday on the radio,
> > discussing the use of electric motors in cars. Their view, and
> > presumably that of the companies' management, was that it won't be
> > long before we are relying less and less on fossil fuels for personal
> > transportation. Their line was that electric cars are here to stave
> > off use of fossil fuels while they develop fuel cell technology.
> >
> > Chris
> > On 26 Sep 2006, at 14:10, John Hermanson wrote:
> >
> >> it's got a 250 mile range. Meet you halfway. There are drawbacks
> >> sure,
> >> but this kind of car really pisses off the oil companies and that's a
> >> good thing.
> >>
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