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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread
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To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (22532)7/28/2008 5:49:25 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (3) of 36921
 
Major power stations are so vastly more efficient than mobile little Otto cycle or Diesel engines in cars that even with line losses, which aren't great if the power stations are built by or in cities, it's a LOT more efficient to generate electricity centrally and ship it to vehicles than to generate it on-board.

The reason to do it on board is to get range and reduce battery weight and cost.

But for huge numbers of city vehicles, range isn't an issue and could be resolved by swapping batteries at service stations. Drive into a battery station, pull out one battery, push in another, drive away. It would be faster than filling a tank with gasoline or diesel.

At home, people could just plug their vehicle in or park it over an inductive coupling to recharge the battery to avoid the retail cost of electricity and battery management at a service station. They could use their own photovoltaics or other energy source and do their own battery swap.

When batteries and electricity are economic, then the hybrids will go extinct.

People need two vehicles = a little single seat or maybe two seat for around town and a larger one for motoring long distances at speed. Many people would only need the little one and they could rent a bigger one if they want one. Plenty of people in large cities don't have a car because the costs are so high, but a cute little electric one could make sense for them. Especially if it's GPS/SnapTrack and photonically and electronically controlled so they don't even have to drive it.

Hybrids are just a transient solution.

Mqurice
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