From: John Dickson (johnd@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 09 1997 - 10:50:42 MST
>I've always wondered if people that favored electric cars so much
>realize how toxic batteries are, and that the electric plant burns
>coal to generate the electricity to power them.
This statement could not be more true. However, one has to speculate
as to where battery technology would be today if companies had spent
even one percent of the money they have spent on improving IC engines
or oilfield techniques. Likewise on solar power. No one
will argue that electric motors are far better at converting
electricity into kinetic energy than IC engines are at converting
gasoline into KE. (I wouldn't mind having a 75KW motor on each
wheel.)
I truly don't think it is a matter of expense, but one of
inertia. Manufacturing electric motors is far cheaper than the
complex IC engines they have today, and solar cells wouldn't be so
expensive in mass production. Humanity has a habit of not budging
the status quo until life really starts to stink. Pain and fear are
great motivators. Oh well.
Cheers,
John Dickson
University of Texas at Austin
johnd@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
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