Make your own plug in hybrid

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by MikeM

Yes...what is the payback exactly??
I heard a radio interview with a guy who is an expert on this technology the other day. He was talking about what a dismal failure Toronto has going with their hybrid buses. He says the technology simply does not work.
His conclusion is that once you manufacture and recycle all those batteries,from an environmental footprint perspective,you might as well have been driving a Hummer the whole time.
Seems there is alot of work still to be done with Hybrids....

I agree. The diesel advances in Europe would seem to make the Hybrid kind useless.

[jhandy]

Funny how these people think sometimes. Where do they think electricity comes from in America?
Coal, and to a lesser extent natural gas. Wind and hydro are almost noncontributory in the electric grid.

I would venture to say that the increase in electric usage then translated into more coal burned is more pollutant that the CO2 and H2O that comes from a properly functioning car.

For that matter ethanol is less energy dense than gasoline, so it is less efficient, and also all of that fertilizer and diesel fuel required to grow and harvest the corn is more pollutant than gasoline.

Dont get me started on all of theose spend batteries........

just my thoughts

[tamarsha]

I saw a presentation on plug in electrics. According to presenter, the tail pipe emissions from a gas engine are as bad as the dirtiest, nastiest coal fire plant. So if the power used to charge the battery comes from renewables, nuke, or cleaner coal, you are better off with a plug in electric. Go ahead and call your power company and ask them exactly what plant your power comes from. I am sure the will be able to tell you right away.

There wasn’t much discussion about the pollution involved in battery manufacturing or the fact that the batteries are expected to last less than 10 years. When asked about the pay back period, all the presenter could say was “what is the pay back on leather seats”. Right now it is just a feel good option.

The big advancement is going to come with smart meters and what not when you can charge your car during off peak times and then use the batteries to power your house during peak when the car is parked in the garage. Energy storage is the future.

[Brucelee]

I saw a presentation on plug in electrics. According to presenter, the tail pipe emissions from a gas engine are as bad as the dirtiest, nastiest coal fire plant. So if the power used to charge the battery comes from renewables, nuke, or cleaner coal, you are better off with a plug in electric. Go ahead and call your power company and ask them exactly what plant your power comes from. I am sure the will be able to tell you right away.


No offense but your presented was either ignorant or lying. Current tail pipe emissions in the US are WAY cleaner than a traditional coal plant.

Renewal power plants? Where am I finding them? I love nukes but try finding a green advocate to back them.

[tamarsha]

The example given was a Prius with a 5 kWh battery that would allow the car to go about 40 miles on battery only. So he was saying that approximately 1 gallon of gas would emit the same pollution as 5 kWh of the nastiest coal power. Most power companies have cleaned up their coal by adding scrubbers and what not making the plants much cleaner.

As far as renewable power goes, the power company here has a couple of gas turbines sitting on the land fill right up the road and few others around the state. It isn’t much, but it is a start.

The power company is also trying to get two nukes permitted which I agree is the way to go unless renews can perform a miracle. They also have a coal plant they are fighting to get permitted for the immediate future.

[jhandy]

What do you think comes out of the "gas" smoke stacks at your power plant? oxygen?
Nuke, wind, solar, or hydro is the way to go. Heck look at france, almost the entire country is run off of nuke power.

By the way, a properly functioning cat converter puts out water, co2, and no. Not much more than that.

Look around and read.....you will see that to make and dispose of a prius is more damaging to the enviornment than a fuel efficiant car.


You cant get away from it, energy comes from somewhere and it makes people feel good about themselves to drive a prius - they think they are doing something for the world. but its all marketing. An electric car charged from your home solar or wind turbine would be the way to go.

[fragdude]

The whole hydrogen fuel thing is also very similar. Most of our hydrogen comes from fossil fuels and coal. Water electrolysis only accounts for 4% of hydrogen production in the u.s. at the moment and we would need to significantly increase power production (in a clean way) to produce enough to create enough hydrogen to fuel the nation.