The Electric Car Joke... 

There's always some nut that actually believes all the hype over "Man Made" CO2 Global Warming and wants to save the planet.  Well actually if you ignore the governments own panel of scientists and listen to the others or the likes of the Japanese governments Scientists views then its very much NOT proven "science" at all.  There is still much debate over IF global warming is actually still happening, and much more over if any of it is caused by us! Its NOT a fact, yet.

But even if you do believe "we" cause it, or even a small part of it, the electric car just makes things worse!  Read...

So by the time the power stations already low 33 percent arrives at your home its actually lower still..

Now consider that to charge any battery requires a charger. Even the best switch mode charging systems are at best 90 percent efficient and more likely less. So if you had a whole 25 to 30 percent of your original fossil fuel electricity left you would be lucky! Lets call it 27 percent for the sake of this discussion. Less 10 percent so now its 24 percent...

But it gets worse... When you charge a typical battery you have put between 120 to 150 percent of what you removed back in to fully charge it depending on chemistries and temperatures.

For e.g. a NiCad or Nickel Metal Hydride battery should be typically charged for 14 hours at 1/10th of its capacity in amps.  So a further 40 percent wasted.  A lead acid is similarly inefficient. Lithium's (Lithium Polymer, Lithium Phosphate and Lithium Ion) are slightly better but not by enough to make much difference..

Compared to a conventional car with just one small starter battery and a normal fuel tank.

So the CAR itself is now wasting more power and is less efficient than a petrol/diesel one every time you move it.  Batteries are heavy. And you need as much capacity as possible just to get even sluggish performance and limited range. Almost all the spare space is packed with heavy batteries. Its quite possible to double the weight of a vehicle in this way. Which means double the amount of fossil fuel is in your power station.   But this bit we will also ignore.

But we also have the fact that the batteries internal resistance reduces power available and wastes it as heat every time you take power from it. And at high discharge rates its quite marked.  Yet more losses in efficiency.

E.G. typical 100ah lead acid batteries (that you just topped up with much MORE than 100 ah) are 100ah at the 20
hour discharge rate. They are actually more if you discharge them slower. And unfortunately much less if you do so quickly as an electric car does. So yet more very marked losses and yet more wasted fossil fuel at the power station...

And then before it can get to the 90 percent efficient motors (if you use very carefully designed brushless motors under the right conditions) it has to go through a similar 90 percent efficient "speed controller"! That's another 20 percent of the small amount we had left gone...

At the end of the day only about 20 percent in the very best systems or much less than that in most of the original fossil fuel burned by the power station gets to the cars wheels.  Think about what that means.

And then after a year or so we need to replace the batteries if used heavily. And that alone takes masses of energy in mining, and production and shipping and storage.  (Most deep cycle batteries are good for 300 to 500 cycles depending on type and usage only)

What exactly is the point of electric cars again?

I have an idea! Why don't we burn the fossil fuel directly in the car? It way more efficient and its lighter too with further gains! And its got many other advantages like speed and not damaging the planet so much (if you are daft enough to believe all that rubbish.  Oh. We do that already. Ever wondered why?

So how efficient is a normal modern petrol engine or diesel engine? Not much. Typically around 22 to 25 percent. But you don't have the extra weight to drag about that reduces the miles per lb of fuel burned. And it doesn't "leak" away while parked which is where most cars spend most of each day/night. And it doesn't have range issues, performance or speed issues and a warm heater doesn't cost you range or energy costs. And no really expensive battery to replace often (or the pollution and extra fuel costs that making them causes)

Also see WHY we don't cause global warming, although it is happening obviously!

Or a sensible use for electric power here T-Rex 500 Helicopter!