Car and Driver

[ericy]

I agree and would include wind with that. There are many times when the solar production is dismal at best in these parts, so small turbines would be a welcome addition. Conversely in Alberta solar would definitely be in line, given the amount of sunshine throughout the province. The best wind generation of course produced by the "chinook winds" in the foothills area and has come a long way since its inception, but needs to grow as well.

Even in January, the 10kW system on our roof generates 30-40kWh per day.

 

[Recoil45]

Perspective friends, these are EVs and not "Caesar's Wife." If nothing else, 2-3,000 lbs of glass, metals, tires, and plastics are going to have both a CO{2} and other manufacture and disposal footprint. One of my pet peeves is calling everything "pollution" when we're really dealing with:

• CO{2} - a green house gas that continues to accumulate
• O{3}, hydrocarbons, CO - these are pollutants with direct, local effects, on lungs
• mercury - by product of coal burning that has made some fresh water fish inedible

We'll always communicate better when using more accurate terms. For me, "pollution" is imprecise.

Bob Wilson

Agree with this. It’s also why you cannot group nuclear in the “good” category. It’s clean from an emissions aspect, but accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima caused as much harm to humans as XX of years of burning fossil fuels.


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[elecconnec]

They are cleaner than combustion cars for sure. But if 83% of their energy is from non renewables, which is a fact, they are still somewhat dirty. It’s not a lie. Claiming they are perfectly clean is part of the reason why we have this battle between EV and combustion car owners. Honesty helps.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php


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They are cleaner than combustion cars for sure. But if 83% of their energy is from non renewables, which is a fact, they are still somewhat dirty. It’s not a lie. Claiming they are perfectly clean is part of the reason why we have this battle between EV and combustion car owners. Honesty helps.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php


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Right. But keep in mind a few things: first, "somewhat dirty" EVs are *vastly* cleaner than gas engines, due to both the efficiencies of electric motors (so even if the source electric generation is "dirtier" than gas itself, the EV uses about 1/3 to 1/4 of the equivalent "fuel" of a gas car), and the fact that these comparisons rarely account for the pollution/energy used to source, refine, and transport the gasoline from the well to your tank (or, frankly, the coal/NG/etc. to the electric plant, but that's usually less due to economies of scale. Delivering fuel to 1000 power plants takes less energy and infrastructure than delivering it to 200,000 gas stations.) The comparison is usually "x amount of pollution generated at the power plant vs the amount of pollution from burning the equivalent amount of gas", as if the gas was just laying around everywhere in puddles ready to siphon onto your tank!

Second, as public pressure and/or smarter government regulation forces electric generation to become cleaner, *all* EVs using the grid become cleaner *automatically* without any effort from the EV owner. Existing gas cars will *never* pollute less than they currently do as long as they burn gas.

Thirdly, too many of us EV owners think only of the long term climate change angle in terms of clean energy, etc. A shorter term but also very important goal is smog reduction. Air quality in big cities like London is improving due to EVs. Central London has a ultra low emissions zone - any gas or diesel car that enters the zone pays a £15/day fee (about $20US). Most hybrids don't even qualify as low emissions enough to escape the fee. Since most power plants are built far enough from population zones for the pollution to disperse, they have a lower effect on air quality (per capita, at least!) than thousands of gas vehicles idling in traffic jams in cities. When a significant number of vehicles in big cities go electric, smog in those cities will virtually disappear, long before we see and feel any long term climate change benefits.



TL/DR, "somewhat dirty" still beats f***ing filthy any day!

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