High MPG

[Gary Derian]

Steve, when I said transmission losses, I meant electrical transmission from
the power plant to your house.  By the way, your cost calculations don't
include the cost of the vehicle, who knows what the non-subsidized cost
would be, or the cost of new batteries every year or two.

Gary Derian <gderian at cybergate.net>

From: steve ravet <steve at sun4c409.imes.com>

>Gary Derian wrote:
>
>> Electric is not very efficient if you consider the total scheme.  The
>> electric generators are no more efficient than the good old ICE (40%).
Then
>> you add the power loss in transmission, converting to chemical energy for
>> the battery, then reconverting to electric, then finally getting
mechanical
>> energy from the motor.  Add this up and the electric car is only 5%
>> efficient.  A GM EV1 with a gasoline engine would get 80+ mpg.
>
>Electric cars have transmission loss, but so do gas cars.  You have to
>burn diesel fuel to ship all that fuel around.
>
>Here's my question:  The GM EV web page (www.gmev.com) claims a full
>charge in 3 hours using a 220V (6.6kW) charger.  That's 19.8 kilowatt
>hours of energy.  They claim a maximum capacity of 16.2 KWh for the
>battery pack, so 19.8 includes charger inefficiencies.  If electricity
>costs 10 cents per KWh, it costs just under $2 to charge the EV-1.  They
>claim the range to be 50-90 miles, which puts the cost per mile between
>2 and 4 cents.  Just the gas for a gas car costs more than that, plus
>all the maintenance like tuneups, fluid changes, etc.  The electric car
>is simplicity by comparison.
>
>--steve
>
>>
>> Gary Derian <gderian at cybergate.net>