If everyone drove a hybrid or fully electric car?

Question

What levels of coal burning are we talking about, just to produce the electric to charge these cars with? Would it be that much less than other fossil fuels we use now? Wouldn't the utility companies be fighting more for this? Are they that much better for the environment?

Answer 1

If everyone drove Hybrid car then the world will be destroyed by Smug... See South Park for further details.

Answer 2

Ride a bike if you are so concerned. Live Green! A car is bad for the environment no matter what!

Answer 3

DO RC's count?

Answer 4

electric cars actually are worse for the environment ,because of the chemicals and waste produced in making the batteries.

my coworker is a hard core enviormnetalist and is rabidly opposed to electric cars,which destroy the environment

Answer 5

Hybrids don't plug into the power grid, but plug-in hybrids will when they're introduced in the next few years.

The US power grid is only about half coal at the moment, and we're moving toward more renewable energy.  Plus it's much easier to clean up emissions from a few coal power plants than from hundreds of millions of individual cars.

Plus studies have shown that with the current US power grid mix (and even with power coming mostly from coal), because large power plants and electric motors are more efficient than internal combustion engines, EVs and plug-in hybrids still reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly from gas cars and regular hybrids.  See a summary of the studies here:

http://www.pluginamerica.com/images/Emis...

And a discussion of the pros and cons of plug-in hybrids here:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1424...

"gasoline hybrids will always remain as dirty as they are today, while plug-ins will continue to get greener as the renewable energy economy matures.

Of course, this assumes that the renewable energy economy will mature. But with 42 gigawatts of renewables planned for the US already, I think that's a fairly safe bet."

Answer 6

the secret in charging a hybrid vehicle rests in the fact that the hybrid sistem charges while the car is breaking. hybris are more effective in the city than highway driving. this is because the hybrid cars charge their electricity while they are braking. bringing a few thousand pounds to a complete stop lets say from 35 mph in a few seconds, generates a great amount of energy absorbed by the brakes. this is then turned into energy.

Answer 7

Ditto to everything Dana1981 said. Electric motor efficiency is much, much higher than that of internal combustion engines (and higher than fuel cells as well), and so based on that alone, using electric vehicles would better for the environment. Also, by centralising CO2 emissions at power plants, the emissions are much easier to control than out of an individual automobiles tailpipe. And if the electricity comes from nuclear or renewable energy sources, than GHG emissions are reduced to almost zero.

Answer 8

Electric  cars will not work on the power grid we currently have in this country.   3 renewable energy projects nearby had to be cancelled because the power lines wouldn't carry all the power that would have been produced.   It would take about six years to install the new lines at a cost of $200 million.    There go hundreds of high paying jobs in our depressed area of the country.   This would be true for any type of power, not just renewable.

Answer 9

ummm there's no coal burning in hybrids or fully electric car.  hence the name...electric.  it runs off battery power for fully electric car's and for a hybrid its half gas and half electric or something like that.  you have to charge the battery i know that....so you when you get home you plug your car in lol....so you'll be paying more in electric and most electric is Nuclear power still.  and nuclear doesn't run off of fossil fuels.