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We had a debate over this topic. I have been getting very interested in tesla and actually feel as though this is a revolution of some kind. I told him it'd be great when we no longer depend on oil from Arab nations. Less politics, less hatred, better future.
His reply was "but where does the electricity come from?" It comes from coal which is an even worse fossil fuel than oil". So in a way you are using more energy than any fossil fuel run vehicle. I didn't say anything.
Coal accounts for about 7.8% of power in California. But basically all of it is produced in somebody else's backyard. And we don't really rely that much on oil from Arabs. Mostly we rely on Canadian oil.
The other week I saw a Nissan Leaf parked out in front of a house with on street parking and he had a long extension cord going from the house out to the car...
Apparently this fellow did not read the instruction manual. This is dangerous for several reasons.
The biggest problem with EVs that I see is they do not actually achieve the advertised range in real life driving conditions. Wind, hills, temperature, use of heat or cooling, number and weight of passengers, and other factors all significantly reduce the actual range in real life conditions. Further, the range indicators do not work well. They tend to drop rather suddenly once you get to about half the indicated range. If it is a pure EV and you run out of power, you cannot simply go get a can of electricity to fill it up, you have to call a lift truck. They also tend to lose a bit of the charge while parked, particularly in cold weather. It is not a lot of loss, but it does not take a lot to cause a problem. If your round trip commute is close to the range of the EV, you will likely not make it home even if you still had half a charge at time of arrival.
They need to make the batteries standard and exchangeable for the EV concept to work. Then you could pop into a fueling station, swap a low battery for a charged one and be on your way in a matter of minutes. If they do that, continue to improve the actual range, and get the price down, they will be very practical. To get the prices down, they need to increase production and sales. To increase sales, they need to make them more practical for a broader spectrum of potential buyers.
We had a debate over this topic. I have been getting very interested in tesla and actually feel as though this is a revolution of some kind. I told him it'd be great when we no longer depend on oil from Arab nations. Less politics, less hatred, better future.
His reply was "but where does the electricity come from?" It comes from coal which is an even worse fossil fuel than oil". So in a way you are using more energy than any fossil fuel run vehicle. I didn't say anything.
You have to keep in mind that to the mouth-breathers that take everything Fox "News" or Rush Limbaugh says as gospel, anything even remotely pro-environment (or pro-intelligence) is automatically some kind of Liberal lie or con. Let's just ignore the fact that I learned my environmentalism from my father who served as an appointee of a Republican president, or the fact that regardless of our political stance that we still all breathe the same air and drink the same water. I'm not a Liberal, I'm a Libertarian who votes in Republican primaries and then switches to the Libertarian candidate when my GOP choice inevitably loses because he's the most rational of the candidates.
While it is true that electric cars do potentially use dirty fuel to charge the batteries (not so if you have a solar-powered charging station or your home is a net-producer of power), it is also true that if our only necessary energy sources were coal and natural gas instead of oil, we would be far safer and it would benefit us financially as well.
Interesting link....so nationally 44.8% of electricity comes from coal.
Yup, although I guess the actual percentage varies as they bring auxiliary plants on and offline. According to Wikipedia's sources, the overall percentage of electricity generated from coal is declining. 175 coal powered plants in the US are being retired between 2012 and 2016.
Apparently this fellow did not read the instruction manual. This is dangerous for several reasons.
Oh, agreed, but just saying that people will find a way.
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The biggest problem with EVs that I see is they do not actually achieve the advertised range in real life driving conditions.
Many of them achieve more, especialy when regen is included in the mix. My Volt is rated at 38 miles of range, but it usually starts the day out with 43-44 miles of indicated range, and only uses 2 miles of that range to get to work 8 miles away. I've actually, without hypermiling, but using a lot of regen, gone 60 miles on my indicated 43 miles of range. I've found that I could easily live with a pure EV's range on a daily basis. Remember, hills have a down component as well, and you usually get range back going down the other side.
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Further, the range indicators do not work well. They tend to drop rather suddenly once you get to about half the indicated range.
I have not heard that on any of the forums.
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They also tend to lose a bit of the charge while parked, particularly in cold weather. It is not a lot of loss, but it does not take a lot to cause a problem. If your round trip commute is close to the range of the EV, you will likely not make it home even if you still had half a charge at time of arrival.
Also have not heard that on any of the forums. I've never losrt any range during the day while sitting at work. Even in sub freezing weather. But then the Volt has a thermally managed batrey pack, and "empty" is really only about 40% charge, not truly empty.
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They need to make the batteries standard and exchangeable for the EV concept to work. Then you could pop into a fueling station, swap a low battery for a charged one and be on your way in a matter of minutes.
I disagree, and phone and computer batteries are proof of that. Also, they'd need to make many times as many batteries as cars for that scenario to work. What's needed is for people to understand the paradigm shift in mentality about having a "full tank" every morning instead of dragging around a week or two's worth of explosives every day that you don't use.
Where I live, 44.8% of our electricity comes from coal followed by 39.9% from nuclear energy.
How many Teslas do you see parked on the front lawns of Appalachia? In theory it would be bad if coal burning regions were heavy adopters of electric cars, but most of those regions aren't early adopters of any technology.
Your landlord is more or less right. I don't think burning 1 gallon of oil in the power plant will give me enough electricity to run 30 miles.
I worked for e company that belongs to fierce liberals who also are fierce environmentalists. They used scratch paper, and if you accidentally use clean paper you are punished (with accusing glances). Everybody in this company was driving trucks. Except me who is not an environmentalist. And, we only have coal and oil plants here.
If the government passes a law knowingly favoring one industry, it is certainly a lobbied effort. It is common sense that Koch Industries has their tentacles in Oklahoma's government.
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Originally Posted by BusyMeAK
Your landlord is more or less right. I don't think burning 1 gallon of oil in the power plant will give me enough electricity to run 30 miles.
I worked for e company that belongs to fierce liberals who also are fierce environmentalists. They used scratch paper, and if you accidentally use clean paper you are punished (with accusing glances). Everybody in this company was driving trucks. Except me who is not an environmentalist. And, we only have coal and oil plants here.
Not as long as the oil lobby controls the government.
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