Are electric engines good?

Question

why arent they in major use? I know power plants pollute. how much energy does one car need? can tractors have electric engines?

Answer 1

Just the other day I saw someone on YA talking about owning a Chinese electric car called a Flybo, which cost only $8500 new, had a 70-mile range, and could be recharged from any ordinary 110-volt outlet.  I searched for more information and what I found was a very sad story of an entrepeneur who was put out of business virtually overnight (see the link below).  We should all be outraged by this and should try to prevent the big auto companies from using strong-arm tactics to shut down the independent distributors of electric cars.

Answer 2

Electric engines are getting better and better right now I do not think they Are as good as people say.

Answer 3

My opinion is that electric engines are good and getting better all the time. They are not widely used in this country due to the influence of lobbyists in Washington who represent industries like Big Oil that don't want their profits to go down.

Electric cars are widely used in Great Britain, Europe, India, etc. There is even a pollution fee that drivers have to pay if they drive in downtown London. But, if they drive an electric car, they don't have to pay it. Interesting, huh?

There is some debate over the pollution produced by the electrical grid used to generate the electricity for electric cars but the countries that encourage their use feel that the net pollution from electric cars is much less. Of course, there are cars being developed that run on water and even air. If independent developers of these innovative engines don't reject the high pressure buyouts of their companies by the big corps. (usually the oil industry or existing gas engine auto co.s), then we just might have a real choice of non-polluting vehicles.

Answer 4

If you look up tractors on the internet you will find that not only are they measured in HP but in Kw because killowats are the amount of power the engine is cappable of producing,

Now calculate how many batteries you'd need to power a 30 kw tractor powertrain ( which is verry modest ) for a few hours and you'll realise that you'd be hauling around allot of heavy batteries and have no power left over to do work.

Batteries are impractical

Electric is good for short term use Ie a scooter ride across town (small town)

this here is probably the most practical EV ive ever seen on account that it doesn't try to be something its not,  Batteries motor, trans,  wheels handlebar it will get one person accros town to work

http://fourstar.en.alibaba.com/product/5...

If you try and make an EV out of a big wompin truck your going to fail big time on account of lost effieciency

A good acronym EROI

Energy

return

on

investment

Answer 5

Electric engines are highly efficient, The greatest problems are that it takes time to recharge the batteries and the energy storage capacity

of the batteries is mostly limited to about 100 miles. Also the life span of the batteries is limited and expensive to replace.

The charging process is not efficient, It takes a great deal more energy to charge a battery than you get back.

All energy must come from somewhere. If the energy is not created in the car by fuel, then it must be created by the utility company. That takes energy as well and must come from somewhere.

Personally I see little benefit in trsnsfering our energy needs from the oil companies to the utility companies unless we build Nukes to get the electricity and are willing to tolorate the disadvantages listed in the first paragraph.  

Answer 6

Electric engines are fine.  Batteries are not so good. A tractor sounds like a good idea, but it isn't.  Sure, it doesn't go far from its home base, but it does work all day long, and the batteries wont be able to power it.

Electric lawn mowers sound great, but my experience with them is they are poorly built.  Not a problem of electric motors, per se, but I have not found a good electric product.  They all start out fine for a season, but sometime in their second year something goes wrong and that is the end of the story.

Electricity is generated in very large fixed plants with lots of pollution controls.  They pollute much less than a gas engine in a car, plus some electricity comes from non-polluting sources, such as hydro, nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal.

Answer 7

Electric motors are great.  They're about 90% efficient whereas internal combustion engines are only about 25% efficient.

The only reason we're not using electric cars is the battery limitations.  We're just starting to develop batteries that can take a car over 100 miles per charge.

Tractors could have electric motors, but they require so much energy to move them (because they're so heavy) that they would need some massive batteries to store enough energy.  It wouldn't be practical.

Studies have shown that electric cars pollute less than gas cars even when most of their energy comes from coal power plants (because they're so much more efficient).  See the link below for details.

Answer 8

Electric cars have been around for quite some time, performing very well. Did you ever see the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car?"

The technology has been available for over ten years to make electric cars. Of course, when gas was still around $2 a gallon, the manufacturers didn't want the electric vehicles to compete with the more profitable trucks and SUVs.