That oughtta get some more recruits into the war on ignorance! One day I hope to be as cool as Monzy...
Funny thing is that split coconuts probably aren't too common unless people or animals split them.
I am always interested in the CO2 output of these pure electric vehicles. After all, right now we power most of the electric grid with coal and until that changes it dosen't make sense to wish or just assert what things out to be instead of just doing some simple research and high school physics calculations.
Let's look at the real data from the real sources...
According to Tesla motors official specifications [teslamotors.com] the motor has a output of 248 peak horsepower (185kW) and 276 ft/lbs (375 Nm) of torque. Also, for full charge it takes "3.5 hours using the Tesla Motors Home Connector at 240 Volts and 70 amps" which for simplicity and because they have neglected to disclose the actual kwh of full empty to full charge at room temperature (capacity will degrade with use) lets assume is 3.5hrs * (240V * 70A) = 58.8 kwh. Most likely this is an overly conservative estimate because of the constant current constant voltage nature of charging lithium batteries. This is more important than battery capacity because it is the load the power plant feels to charge your car and is the important quantity of interest. This will take you 244 miles on average (from same site) of course flat straight stretches will get better but it is the average that is most important. Total is 58.8 kwh/ 244 miles or about
Now go look at EPA official website for determining CO2 emissions [epa.gov] (in the US) and you can see that generating one kwh gives you 7.18x10^-4 metric tons of CO2. In addition, they also state on the same page you generate 8.81*10-3 metric tons of CO2 per gallon gasoline.
Lets do some simple math. At
Note that this is bested by emissions from diesel vehicles at this point. Untill fission or fusion or solar or whatever comes on line, and given the cost of these vehicles, it dosent make sense. Even if the battery were somehow cheap *now* it still wouldn't make much enviornental sense over a efficent chemical fuel based design. the best bang for the buck, since CO2 polluters aren't all rich, is to utilize efficent fossil fuel vehicles
Also, you may not be aware, but electric motors are well over a hundred years old and have had about the same gains as chemical engines. There haven't been any big changes in the last 20 years compared to batteries - which have had substantial change.
I did not say that enviornmentalsts did ban nuclear power, just that they 'wanted' to do it for enviornmental reasons we now know are not scientfically sound.
you want a quicker end to enviornmental change? Start the masses on efficent chemical power - it is the most cost effective solution for the next decade at least and this is easy to show scientifically.
We could solve so many of these problems if people used rationality, evidence and the scientific foundation provided to us through centuries of effort instead of emotion, hopefulness and 'good intent'. A good analogy is the 'enviornemntalists' who tried to get nuclear power banned, accelerating global climate change and radiological pollution (through coal byproducts).
Let's look at the real data from the real sources...
According to Tesla motors official specifications the motor has a output of 248 peak horsepower (185kW) and 276 ft/lbs (375 Nm) of torque. Also, for full charge it takes "3.5 hours using the Tesla Motors Home Connector at 240 Volts and 70 amps" which for simplicity and because they have neglected to disclose the actual kwh of full empty to full charge at room temperature (capacity will degrade with use) lets assume is 3.5hrs * (240V * 70A) = 58.8 kwh. Most likely this is an overly conservative estimate because of the constant current constant voltage nature of charging lithium batteries. This is more important than battery capacity because it is the load the power plant feels to charge your car and is the important quantity of interest. This will take you 244 miles on average (from same site) of course flat straight stretches will get better but it is the average that is most important. Total is 58.8 kwh/ 244 miles or about
Now go look at EPA official website for determining CO2 emissions (in the US) and you can see that generating one kwh gives you 7.18x10^-4 metric tons of CO2. In addition, they also state on the same page you generate 8.81*10-3 metric tons of CO2 per gallon gasoline.
Lets do some simple math. At
Note that this is bested by emissions from diesel vehicles at this point. Untill fission or fusion or solar or whatever comes on line, and given the cost of these vehicles, it dosent make sense. Even if the battery were somehow cheap *now* it still wouldn't make much enviornental sense over a efficent chemical fuel based design.
Courtesy of Melkor Publishing Inc...
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.