Where does electricity come from in the U.S. as well as the rest of the world? From burning coal, gas, or from nuclear reactors. Can somone explain to me the effect on the enviornment should say half the U.S. switch to driving electric vehicles? It would require more burning of fossil fuels than we currently are experiencing. Not to mention how are we going to transport millions or billions of pounds of goods around the world on electric? Let go of your trees you are smothering them!

That is a great question. When I talked with both the Ford and Nissan BEV engineers this was what they said. Certainly a pure electric car will likely be air cooled, but some components in pure EVs, in particular the motor, may need to be cooled with fluid. However, if you’re talking about a car like the Volt or a plug-in hybrid that still has a combustion engine in it, that engine will need to be liquid cooled. This whole list still applies to a car like that because for 90% of your driving it will be operating as an electric car. You will likely still need to get the fluid changed every 100,000 miles or so even if the engine is only used occasionally.

I thought the motors, electronics and batteries were air cooled.

I thought the motors, electronics and batteries were air cooled.

You have such a great blog.I think its time for people to understand that we should all take drastic measures in saving the environment and fight high oil prices which are manipulated by selfish oil companies,regardless of their strategic locations.I totally agree that EV’s are quite remarkable and should be the first revolutionary step in environmental awareness.

P.S.

To people who debate on the benefits of EV’s from an environmental standpoint,I suggest you take an hour of standing in the middle of a busy street congested with traffic and smog and let’s see how much toxin and carbon emissions you can take before you get sick and vomit, because that’s how Mother Nature feels this whole time.

Great post!!!!!I plan to get my own EV car before the year ends!

You have such a great blog.I think its time for people to understand that we should all take drastic measures in saving the environment and fight high oil prices which are manipulated by selfish oil companies,regardless of their strategic locations.I totally agree that EV’s are quite remarkable and should be the first revolutionary step in environmental awareness.

P.S.

To people who debate on the benefits of EV’s from an environmental standpoint,I suggest you take an hour of standing in the middle of a busy street congested with traffic and smog and let’s see how much toxin and carbon emissions you can take before you get sick and vomit, because that’s how Mother Nature feels this whole time.

Great post!!!!!I plan to get my own EV car before the year ends!

Surprise, Surprise! Look who crawled out of the woodwork to try and shoot holes in one of my posts You’re becoming too predictable. The only time you ever speak up anymore is to say something bad about something I wrote. C’est la vie, I suppose. I really don’t know why you have a personal vendetta against me, but it is getting a bit old on my end.

I gotta say, reading through your list of complaints it seems like you’re really stretching on some of them—you come across as simply shooting holes in my list just for the sake of trying to shoot holes in my list.

First off, I’d like to suggest that you—and other readers for that matter—take a big picture view of this list and remember that I didn’t include every possible point in my quick descriptions for brevity and readability’s sake.

Anyway, my rebuttal:

#1 & #2: I didn’t forget about any of those things. I purposely didn’t include them as they are, for the most part, minor service items that really don’t break that often. Compared to how often you’re in the shop for worn out engine, exhaust, and lubrication related things, items such as air filters, brake pads, tires, and the like really don’t cost that much over the life of a vehicle. Sure air conditioning and heating systems can cost some bucks to fix, but on a modern car they don’t fail that often and are therefore a small cost over the life of a vehicle… and bearings? Seriously? You think bearings are going to fail frequently? It’s *fairly* robust tech at this point.

Also, I challenge you to come up with a list of the “many other items, some of which are new” which will cost lots of money on EVs. I’ve talked with the head engineers of Ford’s EV program and Nissan’s EV program in detail about these things. I didn’t make any of it up on my own.

#3: Firstly, we’re talking about EVs here, not biofuel powered vehicles. Secondly, like I said in the post, eventually there will be charge points all over the place and you might use them occasionally when you’re shopping or while you’re parked at work, but they will certainly not take the place of gas stations. For the 85% of people who drive less than 50 miles a day, you will never need to use a charge point and charging at home in your garage will suffice for almost all of your travel.

#6: Why do you assume that they will? Electricity rates are a completely different animal than oil prices. There’s far less speculation and they are stable precisely because of government regulations. Again, I challenge you to come up with some thesis as to why and how the “government” would destabilize electricity rates.

#7: You are completely wrong on that one. Engine noise accounts for a large proportion of the noise coming from a car running at highway speeds. Modern cars are better insulated so that the occupants don’t hear the engine noise, but that doesn’t mean that everybody else around you doesn’t hear it. Also, all EVs will be equipped with low rolling resistance tires, which will greatly cut down on tire noise. Again, I challenge you to find the statistics to support your argument that combustion engines don’t contribute heavily to car noise at high speeds.

#8 & #9: What? Your logic is mind boggling on this one. “Energy security has nothing to do with the motive power source for our vehicles.” Ex squeeze me? Given that a huge amount of our energy requirements come from driving vehicles, I don’t see how you can possibly say that without going red in the face. No other energy source besides electricity can be made from such a diverse variety of things. Liquid fuel can only be made from petroleum, natural gas, and organisms (biofuels). Try making liquid fuel from wind geothermal, nuclear, etc. How is that not more secure? And, how is the fact that almost all of our electricity is made from domestically derived sources not more secure? Simply mind boggling.

#10: You’re backwards on this one. My point isn’t that electric vehicles create the change, my point is that by driving electric vehicles you help support the change. By driving gas powered vehicles you do nothing but perpetuate the status quo.

#11: So what? Eventually driving electric cars could be 100% emissions free. Driving cars with fossil fuels will never be 100% emissions free. Your point eludes me.

# 1 & 2_ You seem to have forgotten about wheel bearings, brake linings, air conditioning equipment, heating systems, steering gear, tires, motor bearings, (yes, electric motors do have bearings, I’ve changed many.) cabin air filters, those are now becoming common items, and many other little items, some of which are new.

# 3_ Gas Stations will be replaced with fuel stops for bio-fuel and charging stations for pure electric vehicles, if the range ever gets great enough for more than short trips.

# 6_ Why do you assume that the government will not make electricity rates unstable when they don’t have gasoline to mess with?

# 7_ The “Quiet Bliss” that you are promoting at higher speeds will not be caused by electric motor propulsion. The vast majority of noise in cars at higher speeds now is caused by “road noise”. This is noise caused by tires slapping over tar strips, and road irregularities. The benefits of aerodynamics is applicable to all without regard to type of propulsion and there are now many cars, and trucks, that are very quiet inside simply because of the sound insulation and the presence in some vehicles of active noise suppression, adapted from noise silencing headsets.

# 8 and 9_ Energy security has nothing to do with the motive power source for our vehicles. You also left out our own reserves of petroleum, not only those offshore, but those located in Montana and the Dakotas, which in addition to fuel is a raw material for many products.

# 10_ This is again giving credit to electric vehicles for a change in our energy sources that has noting to do with electric vehicles.

# 11_ Reduced usage of fossil fuels will in the short term result in cleaner air, but the reduced demand and therefore price will create an incentive to develop ways to clean the fossil fuels.

# 1 & 2_ You seem to have forgotten about wheel bearings, brake linings, air conditioning equipment, heating systems, steering gear, tires, motor bearings, (yes, electric motors do have bearings, I’ve changed many.) cabin air filters, those are now becoming common items, and many other little items, some of which are new.

# 3_ Gas Stations will be replaced with fuel stops for bio-fuel and charging stations for pure electric vehicles, if the range ever gets great enough for more than short trips.

# 6_ Why do you assume that the government will not make electricity rates unstable when they don’t have gasoline to mess with?

# 7_ The “Quiet Bliss” that you are promoting at higher speeds will not be caused by electric motor propulsion. The vast majority of noise in cars at higher speeds now is caused by “road noise”. This is noise caused by tires slapping over tar strips, and road irregularities. The benefits of aerodynamics is applicable to all without regard to type of propulsion and there are now many cars, and trucks, that are very quiet inside simply because of the sound insulation and the presence in some vehicles of active noise suppression, adapted from noise silencing headsets.

# 8 and 9_ Energy security has nothing to do with the motive power source for our vehicles. You also left out our own reserves of petroleum, not only those offshore, but those located in Montana and the Dakotas, which in addition to fuel is a raw material for many products.

# 10_ This is again giving credit to electric vehicles for a change in our energy sources that has noting to do with electric vehicles.

# 11_ Reduced usage of fossil fuels will in the short term result in cleaner air, but the reduced demand and therefore price will create an incentive to develop ways to clean the fossil fuels.