Its only zero emissions locally. The emissions have just been moved to wherever the energy-conversion process that charges the batteries is taking place. This will only be zero emissions if it uses a solar/wind/tidal etc form of energy conversion.

Twofivepie:

Here in Washington, nearly all of our electricity comes from hydroelectric power. The only reason it doesn't is because we sell to California during the summer, so we have to buy some back from them in the winter. Making the problem a utility issue instead of a personal issue does make for easier solutions - like the wind farms being built along the Columbia River Gorge, and the upgrades we make to our hydro turbines.

The tiny percentage of the population adopting electric vehicles aren't creating any new problems, however, they are educating their peers about the issues we're talking about here - something very valuable.

Ben,

Yes you are right, I don't mean to demean the efforts and yes, when you have access to non-fossil based energy sources like hydro, then you do indeed get to a zero-emission situation. However, for a substantial portion of the world - today - the utility power is fossil-based. For these people, this kind of development - in itself - makes no improvement to emissions. It is like saying that by switching to an electric water heater in one's house, that one is now zero-emissions vs someone using an oil-fired boiler.

The real concern I have is that by hiving off the issue to the utility companies (and by implication therefore needing additional output from them) that emission issues are forgotten, or, worse still, replaced by increases in nuclear power and its associated problems.

The challenge is to a) find ways of reducing travel and b) increasing efficiency of the transport in terms of CO2 per mile travelled, whether the CO2 is generated by the vehicle or the utility.

corect me if I'm wrong but an electric vehicle is more efficient and therefore polutes less,and the emissions can be more effectively cleaned up at the source rather than trying to monitor every vehicle on the road,electric vehicles last much longer and can be recycled so less resources are ultimately used.
Use less,Conserve,Recycle,Use Alternates,Use renewable resourses
I think it is a step in the right direction

I was under the understanding that the production of electricity at a power plant is more efficient (less CO2) because they capture a greater ammount of the heat from a fuel source. Also, it is much easier to upgrade the power plants (to cleaner standards) then it is the millions of cars we have.

the best future is one where all aspects of society are zero emission.

this one just happens to go from the consumer up rather then the other way round.

one piece of the pie at a time.

I reckon electric cars in conjunction with more decentralised power generation is a good idea. Imagine everyone having solar panels on their garage roof, or plugging into a solar panel-roofed car park.

No matter how efficient power stations are, electricity will be lost on the lines transporting it from A to B, so making and using power in the same place is the the way forward if you ask me. That's why I like the Whispergen boiler so much, and why I reckon electric cars are still quite a good idea.

Well, i think that volvo3cc is the best electric car in the world but it is far away of the electric car that i got, so i want to inform you that there is new technical solution (mechanism) which is pendant (match) to the fuel engine. That is device (force transformer of rotation moment) for mobility of elektromobile (electro car) which has all characteristics as standard fuel engine.
The 2.5kw electromotor acts like input force on the mechanism which makes 50kw power on the output of mechanism.
This device has crankshaft, rods and flywheel like fuel engine, but has no pistons, instead of them there are fists which drive mechanically, and also there are some favorable moments than the fuel engine has.
At the fuel engines driving force is caused by the fuel, but at this mechanism driving force is caused mechanically and can be even bigger, and it’s caused by electromotor.
This mechanism produce power, and every tact is working tact in 120 degrees size.
The consumption of energy measured quantitative at existing cars with fuel engines and the consumption of energy measured quantitative at this car is quantitative equal.
With two batteries which are 120ah (amper hours) per each battery, car can be driven 750km (kilometers). Volvo3cc 1kw cost 42 dollars, mine 1kw cost same as fuel engine 1kw costs and it’s even cheaper. So the conclusion is that volvo3cc is really pretty and fancy car, but i dont think it is serious enough for me. Volvo and other companies which developes hybrid, concept, electrically drived cars only worked on improving the electromotors, but i just made mechanism which stands between transmission and simple small electromotor which is 2.5kw, and through the mechanism makes on the output 50kw. Volvo3cc has 80kw electromotor which is heavy and needs a lot of energy. If i put 80kw electromotor on the input of this mechanism i would probably get around 1000 kw on the output and maybe much more which is too much.
So that would be it, give my best regards to volvo i wish them luck in improving their electromotor, and i wish them much more batteries to mobilize their car.

On Saturday, June 25th in Santa Monica, we were protesting against Toyota for recalling all Toyota Rav4 electrics (on lease to Cities, Townships and Municipalities) and crushing them. While owners want to purchase the cars, Toyota will not allow it. They want the electric car forgotten. New laws passed in Congress allow Automakers to make electric hybrids as to suffice for Clinton-Gore's Clean Air Act.

If we can put up solar panels or wind turbines and recharge our electtric cars, who needs oil, or much of it? They want to control us. We use 70% of our oil from foreign sources, not domestic. We loose hundreds of billions of dollars because we import energy. make energy home grown. Tell GM, Toyota and the lot to stop crushing electric cars. Let's see Volvo win the race.

www.DontCrush.com

A couple of points:

First, like you, Twofivepie, I am from the Pacific Northwest (Oregon in fact) and we DO get MUCH of our power from hydro (around 2/3rhds) it is hardly "nearly all". It is important to point out a fact that most Northwesterners are unaware. Likely included in the mix of power you purchase from your utility (unless you purchase green tags/100% wind options as I encourge you to do) is power from the single largest polluting source in the NW, the 1460 megawatt (mW) Centralia Coal-fired plant, nuclear power from the Columbia Generating Station near Hanford, more power from the 560 mW Coal plant in Boardman OR as well as a growing number of natural gas-fired plants throughout the NW. See a chart from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council at http://www.nwcouncil.org/energy/powersupply/source.htm (note these charts include Idaho and Montana as well as OR and WA but give a good snapshot of the NW's hydro-dominated but not entirely clean energy mix)

While our co2-emissions/kilowatt hour are some of the lowest in the country, it is good to keep in mind that our power still has its environmental costs (and Im not even talking about the damage to river ecosystems from hydro dams). This raises the importance of conserving energy whenever posssible as well as pushing for a continued growth in Wind and other renewables in the NW so as to keep the beauty and livability of this region - the reason we're all probably here in the first place - intact.

Second, I want to draw everyones attention to the MASSIVE scale of our transportation-sectors energy addiction. If we are to transition all of our transportation fleet from fossil-fuels to hydrogen/plug-in hybrid/electric/etc. vehicles, this is going to create a HUGE increase in demand for electricity. This means that a crucial side of the challenge of converting to a zero-/ultra-low-emissions transport sector involves finding ways to build very large-scale additions to our energy-production infrastructure that are also zero-/ultra-low emissions. This is not a small challenge (does anyone have numbers for the total energy consumed by the transport industry?) and must be considered alongside moves towards encouraging consumers to purchase electric cars etc. It CAN (and probably must) be done, its just going to be hard.

I have just begun to educate myself with regards to converting/building an electric car. I've read of some situations where the range has reached 3digits (miles) with relatively high top speeds. Can anybody please direct me to a source that might help further my ambitions - A guide, or manuel of sorts to help me understand more the process.

Much appreciated.

I tried some quick math and figured about the equivalent of 25 to 30 miles to the gallon. That is not very good if you figure that someone's coal fired turbine is to be used to recharge the batteries! Please correct me if my math is in error.

Even worse equivalent gasoline results can result for a present day hydrogen/oxygen electric conversion type engine if you consider the energy required to separate water to obtain and store liquid hydrogen. I am thinking of the times that some autos are often found sitting for long periods of time without any usage and the liquid hydrogen in the tank is slowly warming, being released into the atmosphere due to the safety pressure valve having bled of the excess pressure that was built up during this period of inactivity. Comments, if you please.

We need a fantastic amount of research and we need it now!