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McCain, Obama Promise Plug-in Cars
popularmechanics.com — PM's Geek the Vote series takes an in-depth look at the presidential candidates' policies and positions on science and technology. In this installment, car-tech experts evaluate the stances of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on America's future electric vehicles, including funding for battery research, tax credits and loan guarantees ...
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- BlindingDawn, on 08/19/2008, -0/+5Plug-in cars will come regardless of them. Its called supply and demand.
- dballagh, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2I like new eco-friendly technologies and I think its great when the free market (consumers and businesses) decide which ones are beneficial. What I don't like is when the government tries to make the decision for everyone which technology must be used or succeed. Who declared politicians experts on technology?
- likuid435, on 08/21/2008, -0/+0what people are forgetting here is that all electric plug-in cars are by no means "zero-emissions." yes, the concept of an all electric vehicle is wonderful, and yes, in and of itself the car is zero emissions. However, what people forget is that nearly 50% of electricity in the USA is generated from coal, which is not clean at all! And since plug-cars will be using this coal-generated electricity to power the car--NOT ZERO EMISSIONS!!I read a comparison study between electric and gas, and this is what they found.
A Corolla gets 30-35 mpg (i forget what the average number was for their study). Which means for 100 miles of driving, they burned 3.23 gallons of gasoline, which equates to about 60 pounds (yes, pounds) of carbon dioxide.
On an all electric car, 100 miles can be driven with about 31 kW-hours. I read 1.5 pounds of co2 are created per kWh, which equates to nearly 50 pounds of CO2 from an all electric, "zero-emissions" car. Conclusion: all electrics are not as good for the environment as people claim!!
Now, keep in mind, this study was done with a Toyota Corolla, a non-hybrid car. Let's say it's compared to a prius, which gets 50 mpg. Since 50 mpg is 5/3 times the 30mpg that a corolla gets, that means the prius uses 3/5 the gas to go 100 miles, which also means it generates 3/5 the CO2 that the corolla does, which is about 36pounds of CO2 per 100 miles of driving. Therefore, a prius generates about 14pounds less (28% less) CO2 than a "zero emissions" car!!! So from the current energy situation, the electric cars are almost as bad as some normal gas cars, but they just pollute thru different means (normal cars burn the gasoline and create CO2 right from the engine, while 'zero emissions' cars pollute by burning coal to generate the electricity to begin with). - likuid435, on 08/21/2008, -0/+0Now, if the USA goes all nuclear for electricity and not coal, then electric cars are definitely zero emissions. That would be a dream combination. All nuclear electricity with all electric vehicles. THAT IS WHAT AMERICA SHOULD BE GOING FOR!!
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