electric cars - costs

[Raymond C Drouillard]

The only part of the equation you're missing is the efficiency.  The
efficiency of electric motors tend to run in the 90s (except for those
small household models).  The motor in the advanced vehicle at LTU runs
at 90%, and I consider it to be somewhat low.

Also, the vehicles that they choose to run electrically use considerablly
less than 20KW when cruising.  I think that 20KW would maintain a good
speed in my full-sized Jeep.

By the way, We (my wife and I) saw an EV1 in the parking lot at Oakland
mall a couple months ago.  It didn't look roomy.  It was, in fact, quite
the econobox.  Well... "box" isn't quite the word.  It had good
aerodynamics.

Ray Drouillard


On Tue, 5 May 1998 01:44:56 -0500 "Dave Balfour" <balfour at bushnell.net>
writes:
>well if it takes 28 hp to accellerate and run down the road that
>means that it takes 20 kw of power say you drive for an hour each day
>that is 20kw hours. assuming 40% effiency that means that it takes 50
>kwh of energy from the grid. that is about 7dollars around here. now
>once you figure in the tax that needs to be imposed to offset the tax
>loss for not having the gas tax to pay for roads etc. that would add
>another dollar. so it is 8 dollars. If there are a lot of people
>using electricity the price will go up so add another buck and we are
>up to 9 dollars That doesnt compare well to the 2 or 3 gallons of
>gas. Add in the price of new batteries every 2-3 years ouch. At some
>point when gas becomes 3-4 dollars per gallon then it begins to make
>sense but not until.
>dave balfour

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