IF Gas Prices reach $4 a gallon or higher...

[Westfield 11]

Does anyone know if we have the electrical generation and transmission capacity for hundreds of thousands of electrical vehicles. What will the increased burning of coal to make the extra power do to our greenhouse gas emissions? Are powerplants cleaner than the new cars emission wise?

How much will the cost of electricty rise to meet demand?

[bottlerocket]

Originally Posted by gotta have a SMART

It's $4.03/ gallon for Unleaded now near Annapolis, MD

That's a downright deal here in L.A., where we're hovering in the $4.50 range...

Regarding the DTH exhaust, love it, recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind MORE attention due to the louder sound! The additional power and torque makes it even easier to maneuver around town and on the highway.

[cosmart]

Originally Posted by Westfield 11

Does anyone know if we have the electrical generation and transmission capacity for hundreds of thousands of electrical vehicles. What will the increased burning of coal to make the extra power do to our greenhouse gas emissions? Are powerplants cleaner than the new cars emission wise?

How much will the cost of electricty rise to meet demand?

Hundreds of thousands? Certainly we have the generating capacity for a mere couple hundred thousand electric vehicles. The problem is that we have hundreds of MILLIONS of autos. We have nowhere near the amount of electrical capacity needed to replace all our gasoline powered cars with electric cars. And 22% of electricity is generated by natural gas and oil. Natural gas is a non-renewable that is going down, too. It is clear we need to begin building many, many nuclear power plants immediately, even if only to replace the capacity we will lose when oil and natural gas go away. We can also build wind, hydro and solar, but it is clear the only two viable fuels in the 15-30 year time frame will be coal and nuclear, and to be totally coal isn't going to work.

The Oil Drum | Discussions about Energy and Our Future

[Smartdavis]

Agreed. It's going to take alot more nuclear power to keep our economy from going into the tank (literally).

[Westfield 11]

Originally Posted by cosmart

The problem is that we have hundreds of MILLIONS of autos.

If the "we" refers to planet earth that is correct. But I doubt that a nation of approx. 240M people have "hundreds of Millions" of cars, guns: maybe, but cars? I suspect not. That would be at least one car for every American man woman and child alive today, if so then things are much worse than I feared.

[rawlus®]

According to the US Bureau of Transit Statistics for 2004 there are 243,023,485 registered passenger vehicles in the US. Out of these roughly 243 million vehicles, 136,430,651 (56.13%) were classified as cars, while 91,845,327 (37.79%) were classified as "Other 2 axle, 4 tire vehicles," presumably SUVs and pick-up trucks. Yet another 6,161,028 (2.53%) were classified as vehicles with 2 axles and 6 tires and 2,010,335 (0.82%) were classified as "Truck, combination." There were approximately 5,780,870 motorcycles in the US in 2004, which accounts for 2.37% of all registered passenger vehicles.


According to cumulative data[1] by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) the number of motor vehicles has also increased steadily since 1960, only stagnating once in 1997 and declining from 1990 to 1991. Otherwise the number of motor vehicles has been rising by an estimated 3.69 million each year since 1960 with the largest annual growth between 1998 and 1999 as well as between 2000 and 2001 when the number of motor vehicles in the United States increased by eight million.[1] Since the study by the FHA the number of vehicles has increased by approximately eleven million, one of the largest recorded increases. The largest percentage increase was between the years of 1972 and 1973 when the number of cars increased by 5.88%.

[Smart Car Geek]

Originally Posted by rawlus®

The largest percentage increase was between the years of 1972 and 1973 when the number of cars increased by 5.88%.

Ironically that was when the last gas shortage was ;)

[paul c]

Originally Posted by Westfield 11

If the "we" refers to planet earth that is correct. But I doubt that a nation of approx. 240M people have "hundreds of Millions" of cars, guns: maybe, but cars? I suspect not. That would be at least one car for every American man woman and child alive today, if so then things are much worse than I feared.

Along with the 243 million passenger vehicles, add all the trucks and buses and you begin to approach 300 million, roughly the current population of the US. If my math is right, there's one smart on the road for every 30,000 other vehicles.

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by Westfield 11

Does anyone know if we have the electrical generation and transmission capacity for hundreds of thousands of electrical vehicles. What will the increased burning of coal to make the extra power do to our greenhouse gas emissions? Are powerplants cleaner than the new cars emission wise?

How much will the cost of electricty rise to meet demand?

Beyond the total generation capacity is the peak generation capacity. Plug in 100,000 cars in the middle of the day in L.A. and see the summer brownouts return. As long as the recharging is done overnight (incentives will help -- intelligent meters that measure when energy is used), the nighttime grid usage is really low. But if businesses offer to let workers plug in at the office, they'd better shut down the AC unit to compensate.

And then there's the argument that natural gas, coal, etc are in short supply or have a high cost of acquisition. Electric cars will just shift the problem to another resource unless we continue making cars smaller and really freaking efficient. I think electric wheel-mounted drive motors are about the most efficient we can find and offer a high % of energy efficiency compared to gasoline. It's not a total solution, though.

[rawlus®]

i think 50% of domestic electric production is via coal-fired plants. not super clean stuff there. and the mining of it is super destructive.