What's the big deal with electric cars? Isn't like 80% of our electricity from coal?

Question

I remember my teacher telling us about alternative energy and how about 80% of all electricity in the U.S. is coal power. And I remember hearing somewhere that coal is worse for the enviroment than gas, so wouldn't electric cars just hurt the enviroment?

Answer 1

You are mixing two issues - One is the environment and one is the remaining reserves of petroleum.  An electric car takes less energy to get from point A to point B.  Therefore, it will extend our remaining supply of petroleum.  See T. Boone Pickins' plan to replace all imported petroleum with wind farms, then replace gasoline cars with the natural gas that is being used to power all the electric generators in the west (where it is illegal to use coal).  Also, it may be economically possible to power electric cars with solar panels in the near future.

Answer 2

Hey you are on Internet is not just America.

I am Canadian living in Vancouver BC and all the electricity in BC are hydro powered and have a lot of extras exporting to America California recently 5billion USD in  BC's hyro industry.

unlike oil electricity can come from a variety of ways so America can change the way they power electricity by investing in solar, wind, nuclear, hydro and ocean current.

Answer 3

Actually as of feb, 2008 it was 50.7%, not that it matters, What is important is that Cars powered by electricity generate a lot less pollution that Gas or diesel powered cars.

Think about this, for the price of a midium sized car, you can buy a small electric car, and install enough solar panels to keep it charged, and be able to do all of your local commuting for free.

and with improved technology, in a few years be able to drive a couple of hundred miles on a single charge.

Answer 4

Just copy France and make it 80% nuclear, then the electric cars won't hurt the environment.

Although it should be noted that power plants are more efficient that car petrol engines and also have better pollution control devices fitted (well some of them anyway) so provided you don't lose too much energy in transmission, storage in the batteries and the motor of the car you can actually come out ahead even with a mostly coal power grid (electric cars do tend to be pretty efficient).

Also not having to run the engine when stopped along with regenerative braking will reduce waste of energy when an electric car is in start-stop peak hour driving.

Answer 5

There would be nothing wrong with charging your plug in car with your own solar or wind system, in fact that is the hope

Answer 6

No Mate, you've got that figure wrong. There are many others sources to generate electricity...eg: Wind, Sun etc.,

I guess u'd like to take a look at this site:

http://www.Greenoholic.com/earth4energy....

Answer 7

The thing about electric cars is that they are way more efficient than gasoline cars.

That means that almost all the energy in the electricity is used compared to gasoline where the majority of energy is wasted.

So it's much less polluting to use electric power from say natural gas than use gasoline from oil.

Answer 8

you are correct --- although i think it's down a bit from 80% now.

on the other hand, we don't pay Venezuela for the coal.

now that's not sufficient justification.

i think the country will more much faster, starting next year, toward other energy sources.

at which time, electric cars will be better.

one might also point out that electric cars tend to be lighter, and not require as much energy anyway.

also, as electricity becomes more green, keep in mind it takes many years to replace the automobile legacy in this country.

even if it's not right this year, it will be right long before the end of the life expectancy of cars manufactured this year.

Answer 9

No, it's about 50%.  However, because of the efficiencies of large power plants and electric motors, EVs produce lower emissions than gas cars even when most of their energy comes from coal.  See the link below for details.