Electric cars.....no real solution?

[R1Geezer]

Are they more damaging to the environment that the petrol/diesel ones? I mean the electricity has to be generated from fossil fuels mainly (in our case anyway) so surely lots of energy is lost in generating the electricity, so is it not better to have the cars powered directly by fossil fuels? Is the whole electric car thing a false remedy? I think electric cars would be excellent when power is generated from Fission and hopefully one day from fusion.

[rojash]

I think it's to do with efficiency. A typical petrol engine has an efficiency of 20-30%. Brushless DC motors can be 90% efficient.

[Andyvon]

I think they are a false promise geezer. I think electric vehicles today are to the motoring world what airships were to the aviation world in the early decades of the last century. Although they seem to offer future solutions to major problems, no one can really see or understand how to achieve those goals. As with airships, designers are working with no real idea of where their work is going, but it will be quite some time before that is realised.

There are several basic problems with electric vehicles. Firstly, you have to burn or otherwise use conventional fuels in order to generate electric power for the vehicle. Once a certain number of electric vehicles have been sold we will start to see demand peaks as more and more people recharge their cars in the evenings, weekends and overnight. Electricity is currently cheap at those times, but that will change.

The main problem with electric vehicles is electric storage. Battery technology has barely advanced since Victorian times and today's lead/acid battery is the same as Henry Ford used with no changes in sight. Fuel cells might be an improvement but they are expensive and complicated with vehicles needing large pressurised tanks. Imagine that in an accident!

The motor industry is currently driving up a dead end with electric vehicles. As with many other effects of unchecked human population explosion (global warming, extinctions etc), I think we have gone past the point of recovery. There are no answers for us and the next generations will have to deal with them the best they can.

[rojash]

"The main problem with electric vehicles is electric storage. Battery technology has barely advanced since Victorian times and today's lead/acid battery is the same as Henry Ford used with no changes in sight. "
I think you need to bring yourself up to date. The Tesla was the first commercial vehicle to use Li-Ion batteries, and many others have followed suit.

[promo]

I consider electric cars a good solution to solve the problem of environmental pollution. The important thing is that the electricity they use comes only from renewable sources (solar and wind). Some electric vehicles available on the market (such those of this company http://www.alke.com/electric-truck.html)
for example exploit solar panels to feed.

[Sunk]

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