rgrewal3 Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Hey so I was just wondering what does CDC think of electric cars? Have any of you ever driven an electric car? Obviously here in Canada we have the Chevrolet Volt but are there any other auto makers in North America that also produce electric vehicles? And what are some of the top electric vehicles worldwide? Sorry about sounding naive and clueless, thought I would throw up this thread on CDC while I research at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotdawg Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 http://www.teslamotors.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Right now they are the most impractical ways of powering a car. Although in the future, the technology will be improved but for now waiting 10+ hours for a charge and only having 100km's to drive (With the battery getting worse eventually that also means a lot less mileage) its just not worth it. Also they're absolutely overpriced. If anything you're better off with a diesel or most gas cars that can now get +50mpg like the Mazda skyactiv. Also I hate Hybrids but that's just my own preference/opinion and a different story... On a side note the Chevy Volt isn't exactly 100% electric, its kind of like a Hybrid but you use the electric motor until it dies and then the gas powered engine kicks in. The only true electric production car you can buy in North America is the Nissan Leaf which is $40,000. I'd way rather spend that money on a much better car with a lot more value. Like I said the Electric car will not be good until the technology is improved and I highly doubt we will run out of oil in our lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyzer Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 warmplate basicly said everything... not really feasible as of yet and to expensive. sure, you save some otters.. but so much $$$$$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 warmplate basicly said everything... not really feasible as of yet and to expensive. sure, you save some otters.. but so much $$$$$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 In some places, they pollute more than a non electric car. Why? There are still a lot of coal burning plants that provide electricity - even in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 The truth is nowadays, new cars barely create any emissions at all. I think that's the least of our worries. To compare 1 cow creates more emissions than 3 cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navyblue Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 What they need are solar panels on the roof of the cars. Every bit counts right? Plug it it, use the panels, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 What they need are solar panels on the roof of the cars. Every bit counts right? Plug it it, use the panels, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 In some places, they pollute more than a non electric car. Why? There are still a lot of coal burning plants that provide electricity - even in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 What they need are solar panels on the roof of the cars. Every bit counts right? Plug it it, use the panels, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Ba humbug. I've seen so many different statistic's on this topic that I no longer believe them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Regardless of what the exact numbers are, you can't see how it would be good for the environment to drive your car less? Don't know how people can just say the emissions coming from private vehicles don't matter. Look at how many are on the road at any given time. Each one of them is burning litres of gasoline. Obviously it's going to add up pretty quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Regardless of what the exact numbers are, you can't see how it would be good for the environment to drive your car less? Don't know how people can just say the emissions coming from private vehicles don't matter. Look at how many are on the road at any given time. Each one of them is burning litres of gasoline. Obviously it's going to add up pretty quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Global Warming isn't cause of us, its a natural cycle, we're barely causing any problems at all. I'll keep driving my V6. Like Ron^ just said there's no difference between driving a gas powered car or an electric, those batteries are filthy and in most cases the electricity is coming from a dirty electrical plant too. I mean we're fortunate to mainly be Hydro but a lot of places aren't. I see Hydrogen being the cleanest form of powering a car in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Oh it's a lot. But is it less than the lifecycle cost of everyone driving electric vehicles, including all those creating and disposal of all the batteries and what not? Never mind the extra power generation that would require. Energy has to come from somewhere. If there's an improvement in energy effecientcy using a hybrid rather than a conventional high milage vehicle it's going to be small IMO. If it doesn't meet a traditional cost benefit analysis to justify the massive extra cost for the small gain in milage it's a safe bet that the energy savings are insignificant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Disagree. Firstly, BC uses a lot of renewable power. Secondly, the non-renewable (coal) we use is produced on a much larger scale and is much more efficient than a million little motors all burning gasoline. Obviously electric cars aren't going to eliminate emissions over night, but they remain more efficient than even the most efficient hybrid vehicles. If you can find a way to reduce emissions from vehicles by as much as 50% that is huge. This study from Ohio state showed significantly less CO2 (although slightly more Sulfur Oxides) produced by the use of electric vehicles in California: http://www.physics.o...oytishlong.html Another major issue is air quality within populated areas. Combustion cars will emite the emissions within the city. Most coal power plants are located further away from cities. By the time the emissions reach populated areas, they're relatively diluted. Regardless of whether you agree with AGW theory, the beneifts of not burning millions upon millions of litres of gasoline in populated areas should be pretty obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 I don't think we disagree as much as you think. You will note for example I suspect that it's simply a matter of finding a better battery and then it won't matter what the regs are, as electric motors are far and away more efficient than any other kind of motor. It's simply the matter of finding a power source. Heck, on trains they use diesel generators to power electric motors. That should give an idea to how much better an electric engine is. However, right now, we don't have a good enough power source for them, but research is fixing that. Now lets look that the benefits/costs of operating an electric motor right now, right here. Sure we still get most of our power from hydro. Well, sort of. Keep in mind were net importers, but still sell a LOT of the hydro power we make. How else could we make money buying electricity? We have to be selling a lot of it at a higher price, enough to make up for something like a net 10% level of importing energy. Also keep in mind that the population is still growing, and the odds of another hydro power plant being built are still low even with rumblings of a site C which even if it gets built is easily a decade away. So if your using MORE electricity it's clear that your not using hydro power. That's already been accounted for. Any and all gains to the power grid are through fossil fuels. And while a small engine in each vehicle is inefficient those coal plants are still not exactly in the middle of nowhere. They need workers and it's cost ineffective to transmit further than you need to. I suppose you can say you're simply polluting someone else's town.... As well, the electric car has a lot of nasty things required to build them in the first place. And they are easily double the cost of a small, fuel efficient car. It would certainly be better to use the extra money to move to a location closer to work and minimize driving than to buy an electric car if your trying to be "green"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Not only that but utilize public transportation which saves not only driving cost but maintenance cost. My wife and I have been paying close attention to the electric cars being produced, I have no doubts other means of viably generating electricity will come about, but the main issue for us is having a family sized car, rather than the super small commuter cars. Hoping semi-decently priced electric vans come out soon. Certainly the biggest reason to switch to electric is political, certainly fail in an environmentalist sense given the pollution factor, but I'm not much of an environmentalist, I'm more into the cheapness of energy like the cost of plugging in a car versus fuel, aiding sustainability of gas, efficiency and maintenance on electric cars. Components aren't too dissimilar to a computer, and we know the efficiency they run at with numerous high speed parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
We Broke The Cup Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Honda seems to be closing in on the problem of availability. http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/home-energy-station.aspx Where you gonna get the hydrogen from? If you look up the work they are doing with nanotechnology and batteries I would bet there more hope of having some sort of vastly improved battery than relying in some sort of fuel cell technology. Like gas it's still limited by the physical properties of hydrogen so even if they do make it work much better it's still in a position to be passed. Oh, and don't listen to the hype. We're net importers of electricity despite selling a lot of our hydro power during peak periods. Basically during the day we're 100% hydro but at night 100% coal (or similar hard to shut off plants). So if you plug your car in overnight? Grats! You just bought a coal powered car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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