OK... enough!!! forget flex fuels and hybrids. What is wrong with and electric vehicle??? ?

Question

Electricity is a renewable source of energy!! Not even fuel cell (hydrogen) cars can claim that. If car companies would focus on electic vehicles we could create batteries that would last for hundreds of miles. One day cars could renew their own energy source using solar panels, regenerative breaking, magnetic generators, mini- turbines! What is wrong with Electric cars?????

Answer 1

Only good for urban driving! No range, no performance,too expensive, they don't permit recharge at home or away from home! Batteries require replacement during normal life span of vehicle and they will become a recycle issue and are very expensive to replace!  The combined generating capacity of the entire US cannot supply sufficient power if everyone used an electric!

Answer 2

The Chevy Volt is coming in 2010. It will go 40 miles on battery. It will also cost a lot of money.

Answer 3

Basically just two things currently, cost and range.  The batteries required to power a car are very expensive, and even with regenerative braking, they have to be recharged frequently.  We need more efficient and cost-effective batteries and more efficient solar cells.  If those problems can be solved, electric cars are an excellent solution.  I hope somewhere there are engineers working day and night on it.

Answer 4

Electricity isn't necessarily renewable (i.e. coal burning power plants).  And hydrogen can be obtained by using electricity to split water molecules (electrolysis), so hydrogen can be just as renewable as electricity (although currently 96% of our hydrogen comes from fossil fuels).

Electric cars are advancing rapidly right now.  Really it just boils down to developing a battery with sufficient range and preferably one which can be recharged rapidly enough to satisfy drivers.  Progress is being made quickly to address these issues, and a number of EVs are already on the market and others will be in the next couple of years (see link below).

Answer 5

Weight.

Answer 6

I have two words for you AIR CAR.

Now before you say, "OMG, what a whack-a-doo!!", go on the internet and check it out.

Answer 7

The above answers are right. Plus, can you go out and buy one today? I bought 2 cars that run on natural gas (methane), which is cheap ($10 to fill up in Utah) and clean for the environment. They exist NOW. I haven't bought gasoline in months and it's truly a great feeling. Don't wait for hopes and dreams - do what you can now. Check my sources below and see if one would work for you.

Answer 8

The big oil companies and car maufacturers work together to promote each others products ....Why would they want us to use something else and leave them holding the...gas can. The Chevy volt is nothing but a publicity stunt. If they wnated it on the market it would be there now.

Watch the movie "Who stole the electric car" you WILL be enlighted!!!

Answer 9

First the national grid does not have enough capacity to handle very many cars being charged on a hot day. Here in California we have rolling blackouts fairly regular in hot weather. We have been very lucky a lot of people have gone flex where the electric company can shut them off if power gets tight. To me electric cars are the way to go once we have enough nuclear generating capacity to support them. Just stop and think most commuter travel is within the 80-mile charge range of decent electric’s. Put in charge stations at work and longer commutes are practical once the grid capacity problem is solved. I like the idea a lot but after talking with a friend of mines father who was part of the Saturn program for GM 20 years ago it is best to design from the ground up rather than try and convert an existing car. For instance a basic conversion on my car using quality components and me doing all the work would be about 12,000 dollars. Way more than I can currently or in the foreseeable future afford.

Answer 10

In India we have both electric cars and scooters. These vehicles do not use solar energy, instead are using electricity.

Electricty from solar/ wind energy can be called Renewable. electricity in general is not renewable as we burn fossil fuels to produce electricity.

Answer 11

Electricity is from the grid, you can put up solar panels, but the electricity is the average from all the electricity generate.  What this means each electric car today burns mostly coal as their energy source.  So by definition, an electric car is NOT a renewable energy user.  

We are on the flat side of a hyperbolic curve on battery development. It may be centuries before we can discover dilithium crystals.

You could put enough solar panels on the car its self to run it.  We know that the sun shine has 1000 to 1400 watts per square meter and that's not enough to run a car. Regenerative braking recycles energy in stop and go traffic and at a loss.  Yes going down hill you can make electricity, but for every down hill there is an up hill and the energy loss is huge.

Magnets ARE not a power source, they are a different kind of energy storage, just like a flywheel spinning.

Turbines as in wind. You would only get energy from them when the car is stopped, so they are no different than solar panels, all the power is from the grid.

Finally, electric cars are good in some cases. Short trips, limited cargo, and no need for speed trips.

Answer 12

Go study more ... The energy is many times what your sugestions . The power must come frome some place ,and if it is a power generator system will produce much more CO2.  

Answer 13

The answer is nothing is wrong with them.  Electric cars and ethanol can both substantially reduce our dependence on foreign oil and they are both super ideas.

Answer 14

Batteries-- more electric power generation would be needed-- cost---  unknown environmental effects from MASS production and disposal of the battery pack--

The Chevy Volt will be out soon-- let's see what happens after about 7 years and get real numbers for electric costs to charge the battery.