Right Lane Cruiser
11-18-2008, 12:33 PM
The well-to-wheel efficiency of the Tesla electric is 3.56-times better than a Honda CNG running directly on compressed natural gas. (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=54046)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/GM_EV1_on_the_road.jpgThomas Blakeslee - Renewable Energy World (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/home) - November 17, 2008
More EVs, please! -- Ed.
Internal combustion engines are inherently inefficient due to friction and pumping losses. After a century of evolution gasoline engines in cars are still typically only 21% efficient! Electric motors have no such limitations and are actually capable of 98% efficiency including electronic control losses! Why do we keep wasting our precious fuel on such an inefficient system? The answer is energy storage.
Gasoline, diesel and ethanol fuels are all amazingly compact ways deliver and store energy. Fuel has dominated our transportation sector because batteries are large, heavy and expensive compared to a simple gas tank. Classic lead-acid batteries, for example, need about 388 times as much volume to store energy as gasoline. Electric cars only need to carry about ¼ as much energy because of this efficiency advantage but that still means a lead-acid battery must be 388/4= 97 times larger than a gas tank. It's no wonder gasoline has dominated for a century. Gas tanks are cheap and gas used to be cheap, so why bother?
Lithium batteries have now evolved to a point where they are safe, quickly rechargeable and capable of outlasting a car. They still take up about ten times as much space as a gas tank, but the big remaining problem is... http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=54046
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/GM_EV1_on_the_road.jpgThomas Blakeslee - Renewable Energy World (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/home) - November 17, 2008
More EVs, please! -- Ed.
Internal combustion engines are inherently inefficient due to friction and pumping losses. After a century of evolution gasoline engines in cars are still typically only 21% efficient! Electric motors have no such limitations and are actually capable of 98% efficiency including electronic control losses! Why do we keep wasting our precious fuel on such an inefficient system? The answer is energy storage.
Gasoline, diesel and ethanol fuels are all amazingly compact ways deliver and store energy. Fuel has dominated our transportation sector because batteries are large, heavy and expensive compared to a simple gas tank. Classic lead-acid batteries, for example, need about 388 times as much volume to store energy as gasoline. Electric cars only need to carry about ¼ as much energy because of this efficiency advantage but that still means a lead-acid battery must be 388/4= 97 times larger than a gas tank. It's no wonder gasoline has dominated for a century. Gas tanks are cheap and gas used to be cheap, so why bother?
Lithium batteries have now evolved to a point where they are safe, quickly rechargeable and capable of outlasting a car. They still take up about ten times as much space as a gas tank, but the big remaining problem is... http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=54046