Friam - Re: FW: Math (On Electric Car)

Friam

Re: FW: Math (On Electric Car)

Posted by Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/FW-Math-On-Electric-Car-tp7585305p7585311.html

I'm a member of an EV group in Northern NM and I find the discussions about EV viability always to be pretty much religious ones.

I don't believe EVs are practical alternatives to ICE vehicles for anything but the most specific, short range uses.   Most of the time, the answer to ICE vs EV is *walk* or *take the bus* or *stay home*!

That said, there is always a transition time when early adopters, enthusiasts and niche operators naturally emerge to open a niche that will eventually admit a whole new game.   In a totalitarian environment that might not be necessary, but in a relatively open political and economic system, it is the only way it will happen.

Unfortunately, I'm not that proud of our current Electricity generation/distribution grid either.   So that takes the fun out of it.

REC sed:

Your ranter should be forced to breath nothing but car exhaust until he changes his mind.

Google says the average cost of electricity to US customers is $0.12/kwh. The most expensive state is Hawaii at $0.37/kwh. So it's $1.92 to charge the battery and $0.0768/mile cost on electricity.

The http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car.html page says the MSRP is $34,185 before tax credits.

Garbage in, garbage out, axe to grind, axe gets ground.

Rather than breathe nothing but car exhaust for while, go to the 4 corners area and watch/smell/listen to the Kaipowaritz plant suck the water table down to sluice coal 100 miles from Kayenta while spewing sulfurous CO2/CO/NOx/??? etc, or down the road to the Glen Canyon Damn and Lake Foul, "destroying the ecosystem of the Colorado". Or drop in at Chernobyl or TMI or Fukashima and consider whether the price of refrigerating food you are going to throw out anyway is "worth it". And all this to keep Las Vegas slot machines dinging and flashing lights and/or Phoenix and/or Los Angeles lights burning bright night and day! Or keep my laptop charged and my router powered so I can blather on here.

I'm actually in the process of "balancing" about 70lbs of NiMH batteries from my 13 year old Honda Insight hybrid. I can't say that there is anything *economic* about any of this... it really does require some "spiritual" skin in the game to be worthwhile. Fortunately the *first owner* ate the majority of the depreciation for a semi-custom aluminum/polymer ultra-light, aerodynamic, nearly experimental hybrid-drive train, grossly-underpowered-if-not-for-the-Electric-Boost car that retailed about the same as small SUV or a sporty conventional car. I picked it up at 130K miles right after Honda replaced the batteries (with reconditioned, not new) ones. 40K later, I'm "reconditioning" them again rather than throwing them into the landfill and sucking another 50 lbs of precious metals out of the ground to go again.

For these reasons, I just want to carry a roll of duct tape around for anti EV wankers to wrap their faces in when they start yapping their axe-grinding tripe (to mix metaphors).

Grinding my own Adze!
- Sleaze

-- rec --

On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 11:55 AM, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, Folks,

I am on the list of a right-wing ranter. Every once in a while he sends me something that is specific enough to be refuted. Or confirmed, for that matter. I wonder what folks on this list thought of this.

See below,

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Rusty [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 11:20 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Math (On Electric Car)

This sounds like a normal way our government saves us......................

Math (On Electric Car)

Eric Bolling (Fox Business Channel's Follow the Money) test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors. For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip, your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.

16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery. $18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.20 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile. The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

So the Government wants us to pay 3 times as much, for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country.

REALLY?

"GOD BLESS AMERICA"

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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