Featured Forbes pits EV's against .... Everything?

We don't have to burn fossil fuels in ICEs though, and plenty of electricity is still made from fossil fuels.

There are already many renewable options; ethanol, biodiesels, biobutanols, biomethane, syn-methane, methanol from that methane, and syn-petroleum for diesel. That list is just the stuff being made commercially, or in pilot plants.

Get the population into plug ins for their local commuting, and we can switch the fossil fuels for long trips to renewables.

 

Well, get used to the idea because some things such as aircraft is still not feasible on today's batteries. Laws of physics are a bitch. Batteries need to get a lot lighter for air travel to go electric. And air travel burns a lot of fossil fuel.

On the other hand you may adopt a more realistic view of using the right tool for the job at THIS TIME. Hoping and perhaps helping (by being a good battery researcher) the battery and charging technology to advance enough to create tools that make it possible for those other jobs to be done using batteries instead of fossil fuel. Oh, and BTW, think of electricity generation burning all that fossil fuel before copping the righteous attitude of "only drive EV". We are in transition and the tech is evolving and in that state of early evolution the batteries do not work for every job. Get over it and stop pestering people who choose the better fitting tool. Earth is not going to be helped by cars going EV, not that much, anyway, in today's reality. It's commercial aviation, diesel transport (truck, train and ship) and yes, our all time favorite: electricity generation. Cars are a drop in a bucket of this and the percentage of EV in the pool of cars is even a smaller drop in the bucket. So relax and let people who want to take a gasser or a hybrid on a road trip be.

 

I think the major problem with burning fossil fuels is not that they are non-renewable, but rather that they produce green house gasses. Burning renewable fuels does not solve that problem.

 

Well that's probably happening anyway, but I'm still happy to try the difficult task of finding a better ending.

Scaring people with the thought that there's no charger network or that there's a bad one with broken terminals isn't productive. If anything, that's going to scare people into staying with a gas car forever.

That. That right there. Drive your plug-in electric car for 13,500 miles per year, then rent something big and fun for the 1500-mile trip to the family reunion or national park tour or whatever. If your electric car replaced a 35mpg commuter car and your idea of "big and fun" only gets 18mpg, you save 344 gallons of fuel per year.

All without standing around waiting for a battery charger.

 

Burning renewable fuels does not add to the CO2 balance; burning fossil fuels increases it. The carbon for all the renewable fuels I listed started out as atmospheric carbon dioxide(well, the carbon source for biomethane is biomass, so it is one step removed from that CO2). The synthetic methane and petroleum is literally made with water, CO2, and electricity. When the electric is renewable, the diesel from such is treated as carbon negative under the EPA's GREET model, if I IIRC. It reduces the CO2 total in the air.

 

I've said that 90%+ of my trips I could do with a 150 mile EV. Today 50 miles and back as an example. But maybe 80% of my miles I'd have to go public chargers. Mid NC to DC in two weeks, NC to Orlando in a month are examples. Hybrid gets me fuel in 10 minutes at any of 100 exits and within 1/2 mile with no detour. Generally with 8 to 20 stalls. And a stall is generally vacated within 5 minutes. I have rented once in the last 12 years not counting at the end of an airline flight and then I needed a van duee to the passenger load.

 

I never thought I'd see the need for it, but now I want a bumper sticker that says "Burn less coal- run your car on gas!"

...seriously though I do wish I knew a good way to get my local/regional electric supplier to generate or buy cleaner power.

 

Common on over to CA. We do that, but we also have one of the highest electric billing rates. Hehehe.

 

But that would be, in general, a lie.
In the US, driving the average EV powered by the grid, is cleaner than the average car.
In the US, driving the average EV powered by a make believe grid that uses 100% coal is still cleaner than the average car.
In the US, driving one of the most efficient EVs is cleaner than a Prius hybrid virtually everywhere.


New Data Show Electric Vehicles Continue to Get Cleaner - Union of Concerned Scientists

 

Come over to Minnesota, we do that as well and have a cost for electricity below the average.

 

I'll accept the claim that it's cleaner overall... but that doesn't make the sticker message a lie.

If I plug something into my household outlets, it's going to be about 18% coal powered according to the EPA power profiler. Therefore anything I don't plug in will burn less coal than anything I do plug in.

 

You should! Just don't look at the EIA metrics for your area. Indeed, make a statement:

Yes please! Show you insights and exception skills and understanding. . . . Show us your brilliant understanding of the facts and data.

Bob Wilson

 

I stand corrected. The words would not be a lie.
Did you intend for them to imply a gas car would be 'cleaner'? There are many that have made exactly that argument in the past.
You probably didn't mean to imply that. If that was indeed not implied, I apologize for reading into that.

 

No, I wanted something factually true and a bit snappy sounding, because I was trying to write a fun bumper sticker to inspire people to think a little. It may have already worked, though I was hoping for less negativity in the overall response.

Not at all trying to imply that the gas burner would be cleaner overall. Besides, legal disclaimers are a drag to read and might be a safety issue on a bumper sticker.

Apology accepted- and thanks for reading!

 

It looks like there's still a lot of coal burning to get electricity in Ohio. And with the high cost of electricity in this area and until I can afford to generate my own solar power, I'm pretty happy with my current hybrid choice.

 

Not quite sure where you were going with that, but you sound upset about it.

 

This is 3 years old and based on what cost of gas? That aside, it's nice to know that I live in one of the best places in the country for an EV.

 

Unless you are in a township that is exempt, the electric market was opened up in Pa a few years ago, and you can choose your own electric supplier.

It isn't based on prices, but effective levels of CO2 emissions of an EV compared to a gasoline powered car.

It is dated. There is likely less coal in many regions, and the EVs are more efficient.