Why are electric cars so great, if the electricity used to recharge them is from fossil fuels?

Question

Why are electric cars so great, if the electricity used to recharge them is from fossil fuels?

Answer 1

It's kinda like eating cows, they eat veggies and then we eat the cows, so why not just eat the veggies!

Answer 2

With today's technology, and any new developments in the foreseeable future, electric vehicles are probably the best answer for the transportation needs of most of us. (Assuming we, as individuals, don't need high powered, heavy trucks.)

The answer is to IMMEDIATELY begin a crash program to build as nuclear power plants as possible to provide the power to recharge all those batteries. The infrastructure needed to distribute the power must be built also.

Nuclear power doesn't require fossil fuels.

Breeder reactors create more nuclear fuel.

Much of the nuclear "waste" around today can be reduced with current technology by refining it for use as additional fuel. Likewise, new power plants will not produce as much waste.

Nuclear power plants are the safest energy plants on earth.  

We must start immediately. It will take a long time to accomplish the task and excessive use of fossil fuels must be phased out over the next 30 years or so, or all civilization as we currently know it will come to a halt.

Answer 3

Good question and I'm sure you,ll get many Al Gore answers

Answer 4

now that is ironic, some Honda cars actually run on water, and produce water vapor in return as well, prob mad expensive

Answer 5

I've thought of the same question before.  But not all energy is from fossil fuels....

Answer 6

solar power, hydro electric aren't fossil fuels

Answer 7

Well, we could all be driving cars that run off water, which have been invented, but then oil would 'lose' too much money.

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Answer 8

As stated not all electricity is from fossil fuels. Much is generated via hydro-plants. But hey you weren't looking for a real answer were you?

Electric cars don't pollute like IC cars.

You make it too easy.

Answer 9

it is true that most electricity, produced in power stations, is made from fossil fuels, but power stations produce energy much more efficiently than cars, and of course, they use coal and gas, which are cheaper than gasoline.

But unlike cars, it is possible to produce electricity from non fossil fuels, including nuclear, hydro, hydrothermal, wind farms and other sources, so the total effect of converting cars to electricity, or hybrid, is some reduction in CO2 emissions and some cost reductions.

There is another feature in electric cars, though not common in the EVs that are in the market today, and that is regeneration - when the car brakes, instead of friction brakes the Electric motors act as generators, converting the velocity of the car to electricity, which is stored and reused, by that the car becomes even more efficient, such devices are used in electric buses.

Answer 10

For Dana - Fossil power plants are extremely inefficient. About 30%. Then there are more losses in Transmission, Then more loss in the charging unit, then more loss in the battery storage.

Add them all up and the Electric Car is a real polluter, and still costs more, has short range, and is small. Keep deaming, though. Maybe some day La La Land will really happen.

Answer 11

they aren't great because most of the electricity we use today is from fossle fuels.

Answer 12

it's a ploy...... just like Congress passed a law that passenger cars had to get such and such gas mileage. Auto makers fixed that! just rename them SUV's

During Carters administration in South Louisiana all kinds of government ethanol plants were built. When Carter got voted out they all were torn down..........Millions of dollars spent so, a few pumps had ethanol mixed in their gas.

1985 had a friend who got 50 mpg on his brand new hyundai. Technology must have gone backwards cause now they brag at getting 32MPG

Answer 13

Because EVs have much lower total emissions than gas cars for several reasons:

1) Only half the power in the US power grid (52% to be precise) comes from coal.  There's also nuclear and renewables.

2) Large power plants are fairly efficient at converting fuel to energy.

3) Electric motors are extremely efficient - close to 90% efficiency in converting electricity to the car's kinetic energy.

4) Internal combustion engines are quite inefficient - on the order of 30% efficiency in converting the gasoline's chemical energy to the car's kinetic energy.

As discussed in the link below, studies have shown that EVs produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engine cars, and even hybrids.

Answer 14

A significant amount of the electricity generated in the US (even more in many more progressive countries) comes from non-fossil fuels burning plants.  And electric cars, when not being driven, can actually feed electricity back into the system at peak demand times, creating more efficiency.

Answer 15

You are right, that wouldn't be so great if all the electricity used to charge them came from fossil fuels.  Although I must say it would be better to power them with coal that we extract from our country rather than to power them with oil that we buy from the Middle East.

But the best way would for electric cars to be powered by renewable energy, like solar, geothermal, or nuclear power plants.

Answer 16

not all electricity is from fossil fuels

Answer 17

The efficiency from electricity is greater.

With petrol/diesel cars, you don't always burn off the fuel 100%.