Did you know that "electric" cars are actually "COAL" BURNING cars??

Question

Where do you think all that electricity comes from?

OK, there are some areas that are powered by nuclear (which produces really nasty waste) and hydroelectric. And there are those fringe outsiders that charge their car using solar panels. And, yes, burning American coal is always better than burning Middle Eastern oil, but the fact of the matter is that overall, the electric car doesn't save us from global warming yet, and wont for as long as we continue with our present infrastructure.

Answer 1

Yeah.  So?

Answer 2

The Tesla electric car can go 200 miles when its batteries are fully charged. The fully charged batteries hold an amount of energy equivalent to less than 2 gallons of gas. So it is as energy efficient as a gasoline car getting 135 MPG. That is good even if its power ultimately comes from coal. Only problem is the $98,000 base price.

Answer 3

bummer

Answer 4

Absolutely correct.

Electric cars won't work well to fight against global warming unless they are part of a system that includes alternative power plants; nuclear, solar, and wind.

That doesn't mean we should wait for a complete system to build parts of it.

Answer 5

I'm well aware. But the difference is that with electric cars, you have the option of using alternative energy to power them. With a typical gas powered car, you do not. Also, the efficiency that can be created in a large power plant is much higher than in a thousand individual engines. Also, it is much easier to monitor and control air pollution when it is in a centralized location as opposed to a thousand scattered car engines. Also, in an urban setting, electrical generation can be done outside of populous areas, and electric cars produces no emissions at the site of use, lowering the health risks of emissions exposure.

In the short run, electric cars, powered by coal, are still better than ICE engines. In the long run, the Electric cars that currently are powered by coal can eventually be powered by other sources of energy as they rise in availability without any modification to the vehicle itself.

Coal is a massive environmental problem. But not using electric cars isn't the answer to a transition away from coal.

Answer 6

Did you know that GAS cars are really WORSE?

Or do you want to power your house with a gas generator only and find out which is worse for the environment or more effecient?

I don't care if one thing doesn't solve global warming, the fact is we need change, and backwards thinking/doing nothing and spreading this ugliness is going to keep the nails in our coffin.  I HAVE a REAL muscle car - it's a beautiful, useless museum piece that I cherish and don't use often., Electric is the way to go - global warming or not, we all need to be able to generate our individual power needs by solar or wind (nuclear as a resort only in areas that can't do either).

You need to think bigger - we have to unplug from big corporations generally, not just worry about details stopping each change.  Unplug the gas as soon as you can, then unplug the coal as soon as you can.  Or do nothing and be darwined.

Answer 7

If France they're nuclear powered cars (with manageable waste instead of coal powered which has waste so unmanageable they just dump it into the atmosphere).

The electric car can save us from global warming because we can easily convert away from coal and towards nuclear power, provided of course that people are willing to accept the limitations of electric cars, I suspect it'll be plug in hybrids using synthetic fuels that are the cars of the future.

Answer 8

Even if the entire US power grid were based on coal burning power plants, electric vehicles would still reduce greenhouse gas emissions as compared to gas cars.  They're a very significant improvement considering that only 52% of the US power grid relies on coal, and this number can always be improved.  See this discussion for further details:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 9

It is much more efficient to have one huge coal burning power plant than to have every car burning gasoline. Total emissions are much lower.

Answer 10

Unless the car runs on water there will be emissions of noxious gases.

BTW--Global Warming is a MYTH just like Peak Oil.

Answer 11

Now step back and analyze the total emissions from a coal-burning plant large enough to power, say, 10,000 electric autos and compare them to the emissions from the same 10,000 autos only gasoline powered.

The most environmentally-friendly source of electricity is nuclear and will remain so until and unless fusion power is mastered.

Answer 12

large coal plants also have ways of extracting certain pollutants before emitting them into the enviroment, while individual cars do not.

Answer 13

I'm sorry to say that this is another example of a little knowledge being dangerous.

Yes, we in the USA use coal to generate 70% of our electricity and we use tons of it everyday. And everynight. All night. But the electric powerplants can not be turned off at night, it is too expensive and slow to respond when we need power again. What do they do with the electricity made but not used? They shunt it to the ground. It is destroyed.

So charging your EV at night is not only cheaper electricity but it turns out to be greener to use power that is otherwise destroyed. So until we use more solar, wind, tidal and solar/sterling engine driven generators we will use cheap, but dirty coal. And driving a car charged with energy that is otherwise wasted is greener than using the coal and not using the power.

And every car running on electricity is not running on gas or deisel, even though we are generating the same amount of electricity.

Answer 14

Electric cars are not the savior and provider of clean air....all by itself.  It is one step, one part/piece to a very big and complex puzzle.  

Coal burning technology gets better as time goes by.  In the last 2 decades, internal combustion engines haven't increased mileage significantly enough to mention.  During the oil/gas crisis in the 72, mileage for the average car was just below the average mileage for an SUV today (15-19 mpg).  Now cars are averaging 30-35 mpg.  This is GREAT, but cars are not the main means of transportation these days.  SUVs and trucks are filling that role, and they are gettng 1970s mileage.  There are no real mandates that fuel economy for these vehicles increase.  Isn't it strange that the vehicles that were designed to take you away from 'civilization', into the outback, into areas were you are the trailblazer actually get the worst mileage of any production vehicle designed to move people and goods on a personal/private level?  

The electric car only has ONE main pollution source, the power plant.  Trains, which burn diesel, transport coal to the power plant.  Power is generated, transferred via high power lines to distrubution stations, and on to the house or charging station.  At that point, the car is plugged in and 'refuels'.  

The internal combustion engine powered car has multiple pollution sources, one of which is the same power plant.  Oil is transported to the US via oil/diesel burning ships. The oil is processed into gasoline and diesel.  This process requires the burning of oil products and the use of electricity.  The process of refining oil into gas and diesel is a dirty and polluting process.  Trucks and trains are used to transport/distribute gas and diesel,  hich burn diesel delivering the product to your local gas station.  Then, there is pollution when the vehicle is operated normally.  

So, the most inefficient electric car is less polluting than the most efficient gas/diesel car.  Electric cars were put on the shelf for amost 100 years.  In the last 20 years, mileage has jumped by more than 2X.  The internal combustion engine has been heavily used and modified for over 100 years now, and mileage hasn't really budged worth noting in almost 30 years.  It still wastes almost 80% of the energy that it produces.  Only about 20% of the energy that an internal combustion engine produces actually make it to the rubber that meets the road.  

The true FACTS about internal combustion engines SHOULD p**s each of us off to the point of embrasing something new, more efficient, less expensive fuel, less polluting, less expensive to maintain and operate.

Answer 15

Actually most electric cars - like the Toyota Prius - generate their own electricity and charge their own batteries without ever being plugged into a power outlet.  (They don't have a power plug!)  So, you are basically wrong.

Answer 16

global warming a myth lol cmon...the way to go is with biofuel. thats the greenest way to travel. the "electric" car is just another drain on dwindeling natural resources. Even a hybrid car will continue to make an impact on our environment. With biofuel (recycled vegoil) cut with standard diesel 70/30, you are lowering the impact you make. Thats how we will slow global warming down.

That and punish the real problem regions that are three times the polluters we are...not to mention any names, cough cough ASIA! uh hem...

Answer 17

Electric cars aren't better for the environment because they produce LESS emissions--it is because the emissions produced by a single factory are concentrated in one region. A car will produce emissions wherever it goes, but a coal refinery will only pollute certain areas.

Answer 18

it's not like you plug it into the wall.  it runs off hydrogen fuel-cells

Answer 19

the coal and oil industry cares nothing about global warming. as long as they are as powerful as they are, nothing will change. ask george bush.

Answer 20

True, we have to look at the total equation, & cost factor.

But we have lots of coal;-} & it can be burned cleanly.

Or coal plants can be converted to gas, we have lots of gas.

Why not convert more cars/buses to run on gas too?

Answer 21

Sorry, but I am going to use your question to answer CF's numbnuts response that "global warming is a myth".

Have you not noticed that the winters keep getting warmer and warmer.  Did you know that they are now building cities and industrializing regions just 80 miles south of the Arctic circle which they never could before.  Why now?  Because they finally can now that all of the f**king ice is melting.

You think that our planet can just keep dumping garbage into the atmosphere for decade afer decade without having any ill-effect on the ionosphere, etc.?

Try to speak of what you know.  It might make you seem less ignorant in the future.

Answer 22

the electric car is one part of turning green its been clear for a long time  that we need to continue switching our energy source.

an electric car that runs on wind energy (there are several wind farm near my house) and solar energy would be just great

Its a idiots like you that look for a 1 step solution that cant understand global warming and

Answer 23

Excellent point.  In the US, about 60% of our power comes from fossil fuels.  However, that means that 40% of them operate on either nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and solar.

Answer 24

what if you live in buffalo NY or los vagas NV. then wouldn't it be a hydroelectric car or maybe Sonora ca. wouldn't it be wind powered or maybe phoenix AZ. or in new mexico wouldn't it be solar powered and don't forget about nuclear powered cars. they make electricity out of more than just coal.

Answer 25

As far as it goes, you are correct--for now.  Electric cars are one component of a general solution to the use of fossil fuels.

The other component is to produce the electricity in the first place by alternative methods.  And the technology for that is already on the way.  We can expand nuclear power (we also know enough now to design them so tha tyou won't get another Chernobyl type disaster even if there is a full meltdown).  Plus solar (which is going to be cheaper than anything else by the end of the next decade)--and so on.

The value of establishing electric cars as a part of the system now is that the details can be worked out--how to provide effecient recharging, etc.--and establish them in enough volume to make them competative in price.

That way--as the new energy systems become widely available, so will the electric cars.