The Volt

My old Ranger truck gets 30 mpg! It uses the " cheapest " 87octane I can find! I'll wait until we perfect the battery technology so we can have a real electric vehicle, not a half gas-half electric one! I feel we're on the verge of it, it's just going to be more research and tinkering and maybe some old fashioned luck!

 

There's going to be some loss of efficiency just by transferring power to the motor from the battery, and to the battery from the grid. And until we either get educated and stop thinking Chernobyl and Hiroshima when somebody mentions "nuclear," that power still comes from fossil fuels. And your local coal plaint ain't got no catalytic converter on that smoke stack, does it? I really believe that the amount of pollution going up for every mile driven is actually worse with an electric car using today's technology.

The whole idea that our tailpipes are ruining the planet is really sketchy to me in the first place. Think how much exhaust goes out a jet engine in a cross-country flight. My car's emissions over the course if its whole life probably don't equal one commuter trip in a regional jet. We don't see anyone demanding we switch back to prop planes though, do we? Why not?

 

Sorry if I sound like a conspiracy nut; I'm not. I'm not suggesting that. I'm only suggesting that people really, really want this stuff to work and they think if they just believe hard enough it will...

 

so do you guys think full electric cars will have a future at all?

 

Not really. Maybe salt water would be bettter. This is what they need to be looking in to.

 

Full electric with fuel cells. Solar and wind farms to produce the H2 and O2.

 

I think steam engines should make a comeback

 

In the long term maybe... We're decades away from having the infrastructure though.

What are we gonna burn to make the steam?

 

garbage

 

We continue to say that and use it as an excuse to do nothing. Five presidents have failed to create a sensible energy policy and move us in a good direction.

For transportation energy, how about short term increased oil production, compressed natural gas for the intermediate, and long term fuel cells/wind/solar? I'd rather we spent money in those directions than wasting it on ethanol, battery powered cars and hybirds.

BTW, ethanol seems OK as an octane booster rather than lead -- its just not a reasonable alternative to gasoline & diesel fuels That's my $0.02.

 

I think we pulled our two cents from the same piggybank.