Huh? 1 kW is 1.36 HP. So 350 kWh would be 476 HPh.

This is besides the point, but it depends on the size and aerodynamics of the car, but 60 HP will get you right around 100 mph.

No, the power required to travel 50 mph is a fraction of the power required to travel 50 mph thanks to the exponential effects of aerodynamic drag. If we assume 60 HP to travel 100 mph, it takes less than 15 HP to travel 50 mph.

Let's assume it takes 15 HP or 11 kW to maintain 50 mph and you want to drive 1000 miles.

That will take 20 hours and use 220 kWh (20h * 11kW) over that period of time.

To drive your typical car 1000 miles you need about 250-350 kWh. Which is anywhere from one half to one quarter your typical household's monthly usage.

Never mind that 98% of the time you will charge your EV at night or whenever there is excess generation capacity because the utility company will happily charge you lower rates to do so. A very large portion of our vehicle fleet could be electrified without adding any additional generation capacity.

When on average about 2/3rds of the energy we use is thrown away as waste heat before we can actually use it (never mind that ultimately ALL energy we use ends up as heat), there's plenty of room for reductions in energy use through efficiency.

What does refining capacity have to do with energy independence?

Never mind that refineries are shutting down because of low utilization rates and cut-throat competition (IE big refineries buying out small refineries and shutting them down to raise profits). A significant portion of our refining capacity is currently used to export finished oil products.

There isn't anywhere close to enough oil in the USA that can be pulled out of the ground fast enough to satisfy our oil demands (oil is the biggest contributor to energy dependence on foreign countries).

The only way to achieve energy dependence is to cut oil demand in half through a combination of efficiency and moving oil powered transport onto other fuels through electrification of the motor vehicle fleet where it makes sense.

At which point we'll have an even bigger surplus of refining capacity.

Implying that SSDs are equal because they use the same controller is like saying a Apple iMac and a Dell are the same because they use the same CPU.

The firmware that runs on the SSD is highly unlikely to be the same on Intel branded drives compared to OCZ branded drives. And firmware is what is a leading cause of reliability issues on SSDs.

I don't believe that Coda has received any federal money.

You are correct. Nissan got a DOE grant to build a large battery manufacturing plant there in Tennessee. The 2013 LEAF will be produced there and will have a very high domestic content label. Probably not as good as the Camry which has had the highest domestic content for a number of years. But it will be a lot better than the basically 100% foreign LEAF now. It will probably be better than the Chevy Volt which gets it's batteries from Korea.

I'd wager that the LEAF will be the most "American" EV on the market for model year 2013 unless a domestic manufacturer builds an EV using A123 batteries (GM may be closest to doing this, I think).

Just how long is your commute and poorly timed are your traffic lights that you can cut 5 min/day from your commute by stomping the gas?

Unless on the freeway, I find that the majority of the time I catch up to the guy "stomping the gas" at the next light because he's had to stomp the brakes at the next red light.

And are you really finding that 5 minutes noticable?

Personally, I find that many people turn into arrogant, self-serving, aggressive douche-bags when behind the wheel of a 2-ton automobile. And they'll use any excuse to blame that behavior on something else when driving aggressively is clearly linked to increased accident risk. (and yes, scientific studies back this up)

Unless you can charge at work, there aren't any EVs on the market I would suggest for 70 miles of freeway driving. The LEAF is EPA rated at 73 miles / charge which would be cutting it a bit close unless you limit speed on the freeway. Charging at work would make this a non-issue.

The Volt will be available with AT-PZEV compliance soon (current models don't qualify) that will get you into the carpool line and should get you about half your daily commute on electricity and about 40 mpg on the other half.

The Plug-in Prius will also be shipping soon and will be eligible for the carpool stickers. This has 15 mi EV range (though is limited in EV power so acts like a regular Prius on steroids at high speeds and high load demands) and gets basically the same fuel economy as a regular Prius after that.

Both the Volt and Prius plug-in will benefit if you can charge at work, too - the Volt has a chance of making nearly your whole trip on electrons if you do so.

The only other EV coming soon that would have sufficient range for reliable 70mi / day freeway commuting is the Tesla Model S - but that will cost you quite a bit of money.

Disclaimer: I own a Nissan LEAF and a Prius

The updated EPA numbers (which are supposed to be more realistic) for the 2004-2009 Prius is 46 mpg. I would hardly consider 0.7 mpg (or 1.5%) significant.

FWIW - my 2008 Prius gets similar fuel economy - 45-46 mpg on average as measured from the gas pump and odometer readings.

Interesting, I typically do slightly better than EPA on the highway rating of 45 mpg unless there is a strong head or cross wind or pushing speeds over 75 mph. Typically pure city driving is worse than the EPA rating of 48 mpg where I typically get low 40s mpg. I blame the poorly timed lights and high surface street speed limits (45-55mpg) around here - regenerative braking can only do so much!

No, most of the gasoline cost is in the cost of crude with about 15% of the cost coming from taxes (in the USA)

No, the grid is much more efficient than you think. Only about 6.5% of the electricity generated at central plants is lost on the way to your plug. Quite amazing, really! I understand that pumping gas along pipelines might only lose a couple percent of energy along the way, but small gas turbines are definitely NOT the way to go.

A typical small gas turbine will only be about 30% efficient. Modern large combined cycle gas turbine plants are over 60% efficient. Do the math and it's pretty easy to see what's more efficient.

Better than small gas turbines are fuel cells - you can buy a 5 kW unit around 40-50% efficient today, but it's not cheap. And they don't like to quickly change production levels like a turbine can.

Sure - if you want to maximize production you need the highest efficiency possible - but for most people, that's not the issue - the issue is the cost - and as I stated at least now in the US, costs are close to half the price that you quoted, though I suspect that prices are higher in NSW as things down under tend to cost more in general.

Perhaps in NSW they do, but I doubt that an extra 20-30% production (comparing "typical" panels at ~15% overall efficiency with high efficiency panels at ~20% overall efficiency) really makes or breaks an install where the added cost of 20% efficient panels (only 2 available that I'm aware of, SunPower and Sanyo-HIT panels) adds 20-30% to the cost of the system at the same size.

A 9 kW system is very large - that will produce at least 10 MWh / year in most of the US and probably 30% more in most of NSW and sunnier parts of the USA - that more than covers typical household usage.

Solar panel efficiency is important, but at today's efficiencies it's good enough - it's more important to drive prices down further so they can compete with dirty coal prices better.

Ouch - that's really expensive - must have done it at least 3-4 years ago if not more. Current costs are as low as $4.50 / watt and up to $6 / watt for a residential install - that would be $54k maximum and as low as $40k. And that's before rebates. At a minimum you'll get 30% off as a federal tax credit so that would put the price under $40k or nearly half the cost of what your parents paid.

Should be easily done today. But prices still aren't cheap enough. In most cases it's still not worth rebuilding your roof to make it fit solar better - you're better off just adding more panels to make up for the less than optimal orientation as long as they aren't facing north (and you're in the northern hemisphere).

Panels are around $1 / watt wholesale now, inverters are $0.50-$1 / watt, racking is around $0.50 / watt and the rest is labor. Need to really cut prices in half one more time before we really start competing on a purely cost basis compared to fossil fuels without subsidies.

It should happen in another 10 years or so, and advances like this optical furnace are another step in this direction.

Not to mention all the money you'll save on gas. Equivalent gas car will get at best 30 mpg. At $3.50 / gallon that's 12c / mile. Average price of electricity is about $0.12 / kWh and the Telsa Model S will probably go about 3 miles on a kWh. Let's assume worst case and it only goes 2 miles / kWh - that's $0.06 / mile or half the cost of the gas car.

Over 100,000 miles you're saving $0.06 / mile or $6,000. And that's being conservative in my back-of-the-envelope numbers.

Or, it means that with the extra money they make on the drive (since it cost you more), they expect to be able to at least break even on warranty costs.

For example, take 2 otherwise identical appearing drives - one costs $100 with a 3 year warranty, the other costs $120 with a 5 year warranty.

Does the $120 necessarily mean that it's more likely to make it to 5 years before failing? Not at all - the two drives could be exactly the same. It just means that with the $20 they expect to be able to cover the extra warranty costs on those 5 year warranty drives on average.