Oil company profits way up.....BP up 51% for 1st qtr

I know my numbers are off. I was just trying to make the my point that gasoline powered vehicles will be around for a long time and that I think we,I mean the US, should be investing in alternative power sources. I'm pretty sure that I'll never own an electric vehicle. Heck, I'll probably never even own an OBD 2 vehicle! My two newest vehicles are 1994's.

 

Did you delete my post that replied to someone complaining about the high price of electric cars? I suggested the common folk are looking at subways, scooters, cycles, and sneakers and thats political?

You are right. It is global but the problem has been created by humans. It is not cyclical or created by a lack of resources.

 

So this past week I drove out to Illinois and back (about 3k miles total). I drove my brother's Chevy Volt. The Volt has a very interesting drivetrain - I'll skip the tech details, but it's called "extended range electric" meaning that it's considered an electric car but has a gasoline powered backup (but it's a lot more complicated and ingenious than that).

Anyhow, the Volt has a very intriguing display of power usage / consumption. To keep 70-75MPH, it takes about 15kW or about 20HP. Obviously that's a long term average, with considerable ups and downs as I traveled the ups and downs.

It seems to me that a great compromise moving forward is twofold: 1) Electric cars which are purely electric (i.e. Tesla, Leaf, Bolt, etc.) but which are not suitable for long trips, and 2) Extended-range electric cars which have a base range of 30-40 miles, but also a 20HP Briggs & Stratton (well not really but you get the point) which is perfectly tuned & optimized for 20HP operation. This would enable virtually unlimited distance trips, and would be a very efficient usage of our gasoline resources.

Of course that assumes continued transition of electrical power from wind & solar, otherwise we're essentially trading one usage of fossil fuels for another. I used to be very pro-nuclear but I found out that there isn't really enough Uranium for that to be practical over the long term (maybe Thorium might help but I'm not sold). It also assumes availability and recyclability of lithium and other critical battery materials, and I haven't researched that to see if that's practical yet.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

-Bob C.

 

I think that hybrids are a great idea, but the vehicle cost is more than an ICE or electric. A buddy of mine rented one while on vacation a few years ago. He had it for almost two weeks and never put gas in it until he turned it back in to the rental company. IIRC, he said he put like 700+ miles on it. You are correct in saying that we will trading one usage of fossil fuels for another, but electric motors are way more efficient than gasoline. The same guy that rented the hybrid vehicle designed compressed air systems for businesses. He told me many years ago that a 10 HP gas air compressor is the same as a 5 HP electric compressor in power output. It doesn't matter if we use gas or electric. In the long run, the consumer will still pay the same whether they use gas or electric.

 

Might as well close this thread, it's impossible to have an intelligent discussion about this issue, without involving politics, because as the saying goes "elections have consequences".

JW

P.S. The real world hybrid experiences are interesting, let's start a new thread for that.