What are the problems with electric cars?

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I'm wondering about fully battery powered vehicles. Why aren't they better than internal combustion engine vehicles?

In terms of: economics, science, psychology, philosophy, personal preferance, anything!

Thanks in advance!
Mike

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Type: Question • Score: 12 • Views: 6,532 • Replies: 82

[+3] - hibbitus - 09/06/2017The problem is one of temperature. A power plant operates a LOT hotter than any heat engine you could possibly drive (around 4000 deg F compared to 600 deg f). There is something called theoretic...
[+3] - TomTomBinks - 09/11/2017As soon as I can afford an electric, I'll be getting one. Either the price will go down or I'll earn more money, maybe both!

@mike94,

Mike I think it's range, one of the reasons the hybrid is so pop

The Industry should spend more time and resource on the better batt

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

Agree. Range and the time involved in charging the battery. It's more than a five minute stop at the gas station.

0 Replies

Getting a jump might be a problem.

1 Reply

@Ponderer,

Yeah, especially if you can't find a charging station between towns. Like, I drove from Farmington to Albuquerque, and was really counting on getting a charge in the town of Cuba. It wasn't working, and McDonald's was out of coffee. The last statement is true.

0 Replies

@mike94,

What generates the electricity? If battery powered vehicles have their charging electricity generated by a coal-burning power plant, and that electricity is then inefficiently transmitted to the vehicle over power lines, that's an awful lot of carbon dumped into the air just to power a vehicle.

Of course, the electricity doesn't necessarily have to come from coal, but it is more likely than you think. Most electric cars are charged at night when loads on the power grid are the lowest, and that means baseline generating stations like coal and nuclear.

I know environmentalists dream of all of our power coming from renewable sources, but a lot of renewable sources are not currently capable of being a baseline power source. Also renewables alone may not be enough to satisfy our entire electrical demand. Keep in mind that if we all start fueling our cars with electricity, electrical demand will skyrocket.

4 Replies

@oralloy,

If they really tried, they could have an on-board, football-size, efficient combination gas turbine/alternator.

2 Replies

@Ponderer,

I can't deny that, but I sure can't confirm it. For that level of output, the pressures and temperatures involved seem completely unreasonable, and they would also have to be able to dump a lot of heat.

1 Reply

@roger,

Well.......How 'bout pulling the electric motor and battery ( too heavy) and using a gas-fired, closed-loop steam engine?

1 Reply

@Ponderer,

I think Bill Lear had that idea decades ago. He bragged that it would fit in a hat box - and proved it. He neglected to include the steam condenser, pumps, and valves that made it all work. Again, there's a fair amount of heat to dump, though that is also true of a conventional IC engine.

Maybe I'm too negative on all this, but keep working on it. Maybe someday I'll be able to tell people I knew old Ponderer back when he was just one of the guys.

2 Replies

@roger,

I've always heard how inefficient IC engines are, but I never heard the numbers. I just read that the average is 20% thermal efficiency. Too bad car makers have to put their money into nonsense like "lane departure warnings".

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@roger,

Back to problems w/ electric cars. I'm pretty sure that if one shorted out from a wreck it would total it.

2 Replies

@oralloy,

You must understand that generating electricity from even a coal power plant and using that to drive a vehicle is more efficient than that vehicle using an internal combustion engine (ICE) to propel itself. The CO2 released by the powerplant is less than that of the car, per mile.

Not to mention the fact that over the lifetime of a car, the CO2 output of an ICE only gets worse while the % of electricity coming from renewable resources is growing year over year. 10 years from now, that ICE car is spewing more CO2 than year 1 while the electric car has more of it's energy coming from renewable.

I'm sure you understand all that though, with your IQ and all.

2 Replies

Thanks everyone! this is great feedback!

0 Replies

@oralloy,

Quote:

electricity generated by a coal-burning power plant

Indeed Ora. Clearly besides bett batts we need more sol sta's

However, the sun'ray requires lotsa land, a concern. Basic prob, too many of us

1 Reply

@Ponderer,

Quote:

shorted out from a wreck

Yea, a real mess, fire at the top with acid pouring out the bot. Thogh some of the newer kinds of batt don't use it

0 Replies

@maporsche,

https://www.carcreditcenter.net/blog/what-is-an-ice-car/

1 Reply

@Ponderer,

Good point. There have been such problems with cell phones and laptops that use those various lithium batteries. Still, I think we've shown we're willing to assume that particular risk.

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

About solar stations requiring land. - Imagine this. ( and remember you heard it here first,folks) What if every light pole along highways had solar panels? What if the poles for wind turbines had solar panels? What if skyscrapers were at least partially covered with panels? I have an idea for much more efficient wind turbine, but not giving that one away.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

oralloy wrote:

What generates the electricity? If battery powered vehicles have their charging electricity generated by a coal-burning power plant, and that electricity is then inefficiently transmitted to the vehicle over power lines, that's an awful lot of carbon dumped into the air just to power a vehicle.

Of course, the electricity doesn't necessarily have to come from coal, but it is more likely than you think. Most electric cars are charged at night when loads on the power grid are the lowest, and that means baseline generating stations like coal and nuclear.

I know environmentalists dream of all of our power coming from renewable sources, but a lot of renewable sources are not currently capable of being a baseline power source. Also renewables alone may not be enough to satisfy our entire electrical demand. Keep in mind that if we all start fueling our cars with electricity, electrical demand will skyrocket.

Bump up for Oralloy. Why is anyone downthumbing this? You might not agree with this (actually he makes a couple of good points). But there is nothing offensive here. And it is a scientific fact that if electric cars are using electricity generated by fossil fuels, they are a source of carbon.

Do you people really want to live in an ideological bubble where nothing that questions the official narrative gets past your filters?

The narrow mindedness here is ridiculous.

2 Replies

What are the problems with electric cars?

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