Re: Rival Technologies Vie for 'Green' Car of Tomorrow

From: Alex Terrell (alexterrell_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/06/04 

Date: 6 Oct 2004 02:53:42 -0700

marcus@myrealbox.com wrote in message news:<mo19l01dsrvs8e3ns62jn12orf99h3n7j4@4ax.com>...

No mention of hybrid cars? These are here now, and I expect a big
improvement soon:

Most cars do less than 1 hour of driving and 30 miles per day. That
currently requires a gallon of fuel. In an efficient electric hybrid
vehicle, that could be provided by batteries providing about 10 KWhrs
of electricity. (My estimate - is that about right?)

So, most of the time, you do the school run, go to work, come home
entirely on electric power. At night, the car tops up its 10 KWhrs.

10 KWhrs costs about 25p in the UK. It can be provided from a normal
plug over 3 hours. 1 Gallon costs about £3.50. It seems a no-brainer.

For longer distance, a high efficiency diesel or fuel cell or whatever
kicks in. But on average, the car is now mostly powered by off-peak
electricity.

This requires no new technology. The biggest take-up issue is the fact
that most cars (in Europe) are street parked.

A question: What happens to surplus off-peak electricity? Is it mostly
used by night time applications? Or is it wasted somehow? Large scale
take up would of course increase the price of night time electricity.

Relevant Pages

  • Is America Ready to Drive Electric?
    ... Lindland said that when she met with GM executives not long ago to talk about the Volt, she reminded them of one vexing question: The plug-in makers' assumption is that drivers will recharge their cars in the garage at home, where it shouldn't be too hard to find an electrical outlet. ... "Electricity is everywhere and it is extremely low cost," says Mark Duvall, program manager for electric transport at the Electric Power Research Institute. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Is America Ready to Drive Electric?
    ... Lindland said that when she met with GM executives not long ago to talk about the Volt, she reminded them of one vexing question: The plug-in makers' assumption is that drivers will recharge their cars in the garage at home, where it shouldn't be too hard to find an electrical outlet. ... "Electricity is everywhere and it is extremely low cost," says Mark Duvall, program manager for electric transport at the Electric Power Research Institute. ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: The future of hybrid cars
    ... >> Hybrid cars seem a good start for hybrid cars, ... > The action at the momment is in turbo-diesel direct injection engines ... >> electricity, and do all day's runs on electric power only. ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: Is America Ready to Drive Electric?
    ... Lindland said that when she met with GM executives not long ago to talk about the Volt, she reminded them of one vexing question: The plug-in makers' assumption is that drivers will recharge their cars in the garage at home, where it shouldn't be too hard to find an electrical outlet. ... "Electricity is everywhere and it is extremely low cost," says Mark Duvall, program manager for electric transport at the Electric Power Research Institute. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Electric cars
    ... Are electric cars the answer to Britain's ... Britain's total CO2, with passenger cars alone accounting for nearly ... part of the worldwide move to cut greenhouse gas emissions. ... electricity if Britain is going to adopt these plans. ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
Quantcast