Environmentally friendly Race Car, pretty interesting read........NPC Options

[TROJANMAN]

Electric car almost as fast as the bugatti

I lied, there is some Posche Content (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ewdysar]

I agree that racing will develop a better E-car, but drag racing isn't gonna help that much. Handling and range are the problems that need to be addressed.

As far as the environmental impact, electric generating companies are trying to move towards non fossil fuel sources, but it takes time. In the mean time, the advantage of moving to a single point of fossil fuel use means that you can control the emissions with huge and effective filter/trap as well as invest in raising the efficiency of a large, common generator, rather than trying to apply the improvements to each individual vehicle. Most e-car development is moving away from L/A batteries, I don't know about the recycling process of the newer battery technologies.

If you're going to to evaluate the total environmental impact of any alternatives to gas/diesel powered vehicles, don't just measure the vehicle emissions. I have never seen the proponents of the status quo include oil exploration, extraction, storage, refineries, transportation, distribution and other stages into the calcs, but they always talk about the complete energy chain for the alternatives.

The current (no pun intended) sticking point in e-car development is the energy density of batteries. Even the latest batteries fall short of average consumer expectations. Fossil fuels are so energy dense, we are spoiled as consumers. Very few people will make the necessary compromises to accomodate today's alternative energy storage.

It's a long debate, and I want to go electric, but the technology just hasn't made it to my personal requirements yet.

Eric

[KaptKaos]

I agree that racing will develop a better E-car, but drag racing isn't gonna help that much. Handling and range are the problems that need to be addressed.

Exactly! Head to head competition can bring that out. Until then, we won't get the real inspired genius that poeple are capable of and that competition seems to bring out.

If you're going to to evaluate the total environmental impact of any alternatives to gas/diesel powered vehicles, don't just measure the vehicle emissions. I have never seen the proponents of the status quo include oil exploration, extraction, storage, refineries, transportation, distribution and other stages into the calcs, but they always talk about the complete energy chain for the alternatives.

I agree, and that is part of my point. I have not seen any good information about the loss of energy on tranmission lines. People have told me its very small, less than 5%, but I find that hard to believe. Additionally, we have major power grid issues in the USA. I doubt that the grid, as it exists, could handle a lot of electric cars on it. No one seems to be talking about that, nor do they remember the blackouts that we caused by old grids and old equipment a few years back.