3. Would battery powered cars solve the problems of the possible future petrol shortage?

Question

3. Would battery powered cars solve the problems of the possible future petrol shortage?

Answer 1

Most of the answers you got are wrong.

Electric Cars can already go 250 miles on a charge

Lithium batteries and charging systems have been developed that allow charging in 10 minutes

Lithiium batteries have been developed that are much lighter than lead acid batteries

Lithium batteries are much more environmentally friendly than lead acid  Same is true for Nickel Hydride batteries.

Electric cars have much more torque, especially at low speeds,   and better acceleration than gasoline powered cars

Electric cars are already practical for in town delivery vehicles of all types and for job trucks on farms and industrial sites, where long range isn't important.

The problems of a dirty electric grid are totally solvable with mostly solar energy.  Scientific American magazine just published an article in Jan 2008 that details how this can happen, at less cost in public money than we now give in subsidies to oil companies, who are extremely profitable.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

here's some info from one company that builds solar thermal power plants. There are 7 or 8 of these companies working in the U.S. that I know of so far.

from the website of Ausra

"Solar thermal power plants such as Ausra's generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Ausra's solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, and produce electricity at prices directly competitive with gas- and coal-fired electric power."

"Solar is one the most land-efficient sources of clean power we have, using a fraction of the area needed by hydro or wind projects of comparable output. All of America's needs for electric power – the entire US grid, night and day – can be generated with Ausra's current technology using a square parcel of land 92 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 1% of America's deserts, less land than currently in use in the U.S. for coal mines."

Answer 2

Only for cars.

But not for industry.

When you think about all the things that petroleum and it's derivitives are used in, it's staggering.

All plastics for instance.  So much stuff is made from plastic.

Polythene.  Again, as above.

Industrial chemicals, like Methelethelketone, Acetone etc.

Oils and any number of other lubricants, like WD40 etc.

The list is endless...

So,  we couldn't really have battery powered cars after all the oil has been used up.

Because the industry that manufactures them wouldn't be able to operate because of their wouldn't be any lubricants for their machinery etc.

Answer 3

i think it probably would but generating the electricity to recharge is still not too friendly to the enviriment and buying replacement batteries is rather expensive ive heard your probably better off going with the car that is going to be on the market at the end of 2008 in france which runs on compressed air and will cost only 3700 euros roy the thicko

Answer 4

I do not worry about petrol because with other developments we will not need it anyway and the oil companies will just burn it off. Petrol is what used to be called a waste product and the companies have already made their profits on the other products extracted. So your car actually makes no difference  the petrol has to be produced anyway as an end product to be sold or burned off

Answer 5

This is a common mistake - no battery is not the answer until we can come up with a method of producing electricity that is truly green.  You also need to take into account the impact of producing the car and it's batteries in the first place.  For example my 1991 4x4 diesel Pajero is greener than any new hybrid or electric car.  Because in the time I have kept this car most people will have had four or more. And the energy and environmental impact of those four cars production is huge. My old thing has had much less impact because it is sustainable, it goes on and on and is not replaced. Greens condemn me for using an old 4x4 with out considering that sustainability issue. Fuel conservation and environmental impact are never as simple as what fuel a vehicle uses. (My Pajero is run on 50/50 vegetable oil to diesel)

Answer 6

Well standard rechargeable batteries are full of harmful nasties, and if we had to dispose of a few hundred thousand car-sized batteries every year, we would pretty quickly poison the earth. Plus you still need to generate the electricity that you would store in the battery through a coal/gas/nuclear power station.

Hydrogen fuel cells are basically a battery, using a different method and medium for storing the electricity though, hence they are not nearly as harmful to the environment. Once we have a clean source of electricity generation coupled with hydrogen fuel cells, and only then, will we have true zero emission cars.

Answer 7

Not with present technology!they are to  slow and the range or time between recharges is too short.Both Ford and General motors are experimenting with hydrogen gas fuelled engines which is more promising as the planet is awash with the stuff.

Answer 8

they would temporarily but the majority of people would still favor regular cars since they go faster and as someone else said, they wouldn't last as long before needing a recharge.

Answer 9

Possibly in the short term. I widnae fancy gettin' a huge bill frae the electric folk fur charging ma motur. As long as wee huv petrol, I wid rather dae "pay as ye go"!!!

Answer 10

Yes, but petrol is used from oil, and oil is used in many other things.

Scientists reckon we will go low on oil in the next 30 years.

By the Way Battery Cars would be a great idea, but they wouldn't go that far. You'd probably only get 10 miles down the road before a new battery charge up!

They may also not have the power to reach top speeds such as to days cars.

Answer 11

Sorry its a long way off....

A charged 11kg lead battery is the equivilant to 80g of petrol, at the moment they are simply too heavy.

Even lithium batterys are too heavy and unreliable.

Answer 12

Put 'hydrogen fuel' into either Google or Google News. There are very big sums of money being spent of trying to develop a viable, widely available form of this.

At its most basic the energy from the hydrogen is stored in a fuel cell, most major vehicle manufactures already have prototypes being tested.

Answer 13

Might help in the short term but I would prefer to see hydrogen powered cars being offered as reasonably cheap alternatives.

Answer 14

How do you generate the electricty for the battery?

Nuclear (many are aganist it)

Renewable - people are against the huge wind farms needed and it is not efficient enugh to meat our needs

Coal - that will run out too.

Best thing is to use up what we have or develope better hydrogen fueled cars

Answer 15

If you could keep all the wildlife and insects from being killed by the cars, then yes, I would agree to it.

Answer 16

You need power to charge the batteries. Coal power, gas power, nuclear power. If we all went around in battery cars we would need more power stations. The batteries also require quite a bit of space. Hybrid cars are quite a good idea . I believe when the car is driven below 30mph it runs on battery power. Above 30mph its run on petrol power. When its running on petrol power it recharges the batteries. There are some good hybrid cars on the market already & some more on the way.

Answer 17

Since they would not be dependent on petrol for energy, yes.  But electric vehicles [EVs] have their own set of problems.  As seen above,  to get the same miles on a charge the price gets ridiculous.  The ordinary person cannot afford an EV that has the same range as his petrol powered car.  EVs simply move the pollution to the electric generating plants, of which there would have to be twice as many.  When the plants are built do you choose nuclear or coal-fired?  Environmentalists oppose both.  Then name an alternative source of electricity that can be controlled at will and will produce power dependably whenever needed.  Not wind, waves or solar will qualify.  Ethanol, vegetable oils and other biofuels cannot completely replace petrol and require too much farmland.  For a few centuries coal could be made into synthetic petrol, which would give us time to work on fusion power and other energy sources.

What would work is a hybrid of an inexpensive short-range EV and a small steam-powered electric generator.  As this type of vehicle phased in it would recharge from the grid at night, off peak hours, so fewer new electric stations would be required.  These vehicles could use a variety of cheap liquid or gaseous fuels, each one being made for a specific one yet easily convertible to another.

Answer 18

I USED TO DRIVE AN OLD ELECTRIC MILK FLOAT 20 YRS AGO AND IT USED TO GO FOR ABOUT 7 HRS AT 30MPH TOP SPEED WAS ABOUT 55 MPH VERY QUIET AND GOOD FOR THE ENVIROMENT

Answer 19

What makes U think there will be a shortage???The earth has been recycling fossil fuels for millions of years. It is the fossil plants that produced the most of the fossil fuels. There is plenty to be had ,it is the Gov. that want let the co. drill for the fossil fuels.

Answer 20

Not really, coz they'd be d**n slow and just cause more congestion, bringing a domino effect of more and more problems. That's just my opinion anyway!

Answer 21

It would also aleviate the current petrol shortage (ie supply<demand), and leave petrol for users that depend on it like salesmen driving 500miles a day with no breaks, mothers on the 4x4 school run etc...

Electric cars are far more efficient well to wheel than infernal combustion.

modern batteries last 27 years at a charge a day; can be recharged in 10 minutes and give a range >200miles

and outperform a ferrari too - max torque from 0rpm, like the Tesla http://www.teslamotors.com built in Norfolk, but ignored by UK fossil headed media.

Also evs simpler to make & cheaper to maintain, refuel at home, quiet, smooth & smell free - just much more enjoyable & fun to drive

see UK Battery Vehicle Society http://www.batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk/...

Answer 22

Not at the moment I am sorry to say.  The electric car is an amazing solution if its environmentally well built and the materials its built from are also green.

The trouble with electric vehicles is that we need to charge them up and the electricity we use at the moment is largely made from fossil fuels, only a small percentage is renewable.

This means that despite the zero emissions from the car the overall emissions footprint is not that good.

The best way of improving the future fuel shortages is to driver slower, 70mph instead of 85mph can save 25% in cost and fuel/mpg.  Eco driving makes a huge difference and redcuing the weight in your car can help. Making sure your tyres are at the right level can improve your MPg by 5%

If everyone did these it would make a huge difference to the future resources of oil

Answer 23

Dismay

Of course not, as the energy to charge your batteries still comes from somewhere, most of it fossil fuels at power stations.

Petrol used to be a by-product of producing oils, tar etc., as it was too volatile !

The only advantage that I can see is that the heat & waste products can be focused on power stations, instead of petrol /deisel engines spreading it about.

There is also the disadvantage that for every Watt of juice produced, only about 70% of it reaches your garage to charge the thing up.

The losses in transmission of power go away mainly in heat

Plus a further 10% is lost in the vehicle, as the batteries are not that efficient.

So it is a no-win situation, and I am dismayed that folks think that driving around a battery-powered thing makes them eco-freindly. It is a fallacy, and uses more onergy than a petrol engine at the end of the day

Good fun to drive, but economically hopeless

Bob

Answer 24

They would certainly help solve the problem, yes.  In fact, electric vehicles are currently in development, and some very promising ones are just around the corner.

Available in California in October 2008, the Aptera typ-1e will cost about $27,000 with a top speed of 95 mph and range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Soon thereafter Aptera will introduce the typ-1h, a plug-in hybrid version of the typ-1e with a 40-60 mile range on purely electrical energy, and a range of over 600 miles total when in electric/gas hybrid mode, for around $30,000.  On a 120 mile trip, the typ-1h will get 300 miles per gallon.  The shorter the trip, the higher the efficiency.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Available in late 2009, the ZAP Alias will cost $30,000, have a top speed of 100 mph, and a range of 100 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Soon thereafter the ZAP-X will be available at a cost of $60,000 with a top speed of 155 mph and a range of 350 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Available in 2009, the Miles Javlon will cost $30,000 with a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.milesev.com/

Phoenix Motorcars will start selling their SUT to individuals in late 2008 or early 2009.  It will cost $45,000 and have a top speed of 100 mph with a range of 100+ miles per charge.

http://phoenixmotorcars.com/

Answer 25

Hello Raindrops,

                          would you go to the seaside in your Boyfriends 'Duracell Special'? could you imagine all the worlds Armies attacking in remote controlled toys driven by Batteries? my answer to you Honey is simply this, every day in this world there are people developing alternative methods of moving a car along the roads, Check out what Honda and others in the far east are developing, and How far behind the US of A are, no wonder Bushy is all fired up over the wars for PETROLEUM . He wants ALL the Worlds Oil for America, and to blazes with the rest of the world.

                No, my dear little Raindrops, there has got to be something else, better than Batteries, to power your car, and Natural Gas seems to be the way we are going to have to do it, as it has an infinitly purer footprint, and it is going top cost us all very dear indeed...Hope this helps reassure you..Tony M