Electric Cars Aren't So Green

[Moxie]

It seems the world has gone gaga over electric vehicles. Practically every car manufacturer is featuring some sort of battery-powered vehicle, from the lowly Nissan Leaf (which holds barely enough voltage to make it from one charging station to the next) to Porsche's GT3R Hybrid (which can run 24-hour races). Governments subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles and private companies are installing charging stations. All in the name of environmentalism.

As an auto enthusiast, I've never been keen about battery power. Electric cars, including hybrids, tend to be slow and heavy, due in part to their ballast of batteries. In every hybrid vehicle I've driven, the controls were utterly without feel, which really takes the fun out of driving. And because I know that manufacturing batteries is a very energy-intensive process, I've always suspected that the electric vehicles aren't nearly as environmentally friendly as they are touted to be.

Now the London Times has confirmed my suspicions. In its June 10 issue, the Times reported that a study commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the UK government and car industry, has concluded that the process of manufacturing an electric vehicle produces more than twice the carbon pollution as building a normal petrol-engined car. Disposal of an electric vehicle at the end of its life also creates double the carbon pollution. You would have to drive an electric car more than 80,000 miles before you reach break-even on its full life cycle carbon emissions.

And that doesn't count the other kinds of incremental toxic waste created by battery production.

Don't get me wrong -- the world has very serious and urgent environmental problems. The automobile is a big contributor of greenhouse gases and something must be done. It's just that electric cars aren't it. They're bad cars and bad environmental citizens.

So next time you hear someone say they're buying a Prius to help save the planet, call them on it. Educate them. Otherwise, they're part of the problem, not the solution.

[cdh]

Long Live Internal Combustion

Once again the unintended consequences were never given a single thought by the do-gooders. How many examples of this type of misguided ‘saving us from ourselves’ do we need to digest before getting ill? I’ll stop now...(calm down ____, I understand the advantages of scale gained from a power plant, this is satire, and a lot more is needed aimed squarely at the tragicomedy playing out in DC before it's too late).

Did this one about 6 months ago. Full image here (oversized RR and trailer couplers used for added ridicule).

see, that wasn't so bad
OOiXII

[cdh]

Just realized a good opportunity missed - should have called it the Nissan Spliff -
would really appeal to one of the targeted demographics

[oldredracer]

Is this a bad time to mention that I paid $800 for a 1991 Mazda MX6 with 76,000 original miles last August ? It gets 29 mpg. Sure I had to throw in tires, a half-shaft and tie rod ends but with all that, I have 104,000 miles on it now. I think I broke even last December. How much does one of them Volt's from Government Motors cost? The one they've sold 2 or 3 hundred of so far.
Thank you, Travis Washay's girlfriend's neighbor's mother, whoever you are.

[cdh]

I'd say it's a perfect time to bring it up ORR. Driver Gooder

[oldredracer]

Originally Posted by cdh

I'd say it's a perfect time to bring it up ORR. Driver Gooder

Well! In THAT case I should hasten to mention that, unlike some batteries, disposal is not at all complicated. I believe it will simply crumble to dust when it's alloted time on earth is over. Any time now, actually.

[oldredracer]

Wasn't it a couple of weeks ago that the new big O appointed gm of GM announce that there should be a dollar a gallon increase in gas taxes so people would spend $45k on his rather poorly selling Volt? That's what happens when the revenooers run the asylum.

[cdh]

Nissan Leaf race car - some of the comments on article are funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Medhb_wL8