An All-Electric Porsche?

[tomonomics]

Moving to electric cars shifts the energy requirements away from oil and towards other resources, as well as where those resources are consumed. Oil is only burned for 1% of our electric...however coal/natural gas generate almost 70%. Do we really want to triple our coal consumption so that we can have 'cleaner' cars?

Also, getting all that power to the local level is not easy, and our current grid could not support even a modest increase in plug-in vehicles. Your average US house might only draw 2 to 3 kilowatts at peak usage. The new Tesla fast charger draws up to 20kw. Put two or three electric vehicles in one neighborhood, and you will need some new power lines in your backyards. That's a lot of expensive infrastructure cost that will be included in all of our utility bills. And while solar power is the big thing right now, you'll never have enough solar power to recharge a car each night. Unless you live in AZ, have a few acres of solar panels, and only drive 20 miles a day. That technology is just too far off in regards to the huge power demands of an EV.

I am a big proponent of clean/hybrid vehicles - a diesel/electric hybrid would be my ideal daily driver. But a large, short-term increase in plug-in cars just doesn't make sense right now on many levels. Unless you start raising the gas taxes, and put that money to good use in renewable energy R/D and mass transit...