If your Black Friday shopping has included an automobile, you might be interested in this discussion of how the new, all-electric Nissan Leaf has it's mileage calculated by the Federal Government..
Electric cars won't eliminate pollution, at least they can't yet. They just cause that pollution to come at a different point and through a different means (your local power plant). Whether THAT energy is more desirable than burning gas depends on many factors.
26 November 2010
Counting Cars
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2 comments:
Author makes the comment:
"Let's just ignore the fact that somewhat more than half of the BTUs in whatever fossil fuel were burned in the power plant to make that electricity are lost up the smokestack."
He needs to remember that a lot of energy is lost in the making of gasoline from crude oil that is also not reflected in the MPG of gas powered cars.
Still, you raise a good point that people always forget. Like with hydrogen buses that say "zero emissions." Sort of a misnomer. In this case, transmission losses are not taken into effect. However, I think electric cars will be a more dependable source of energy. If oil traders keep running up the price of a barrel of crude, they might screw themselves over and drive people (no pun intended) to electric cars.
I do love to rant about energy ...
I was expecting something!
I am glad to see the technology. I think high oil prices are the necessary catalyst for the market to use it. 77 miles per charge just isn't quite enough for me!
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