Roy J. Tellason wrote in a message to Jim Dunmyer:
RJT> Jim Dunmyer wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
 > Another consideration,  and one that I don't often see addressed 
 > with regard to electric vehicles,  is the power grid.  I can't 
 > remember where it was exactly,  but somewhere in my collection of 
 > Analog magazines there's an article that looked at that issue and 
 > came to the conclusion that in order to move to electric vehicles in 
 > this country we'd need to *double* the power grid,  in order to 
 > support current levels of usage.
 JD> That is something that's not often addressed by the electric
 JD> car evangelists. 
RJT> Yep!  I see mention of electric cars from time to time,  and
RJT> every time I bring up this point no one has any answer for
RJT> it...
 JD> The [daytime] charging stations could have flywheels or huge 
 JD> batteries so they'd draw most of their power during off-peak 
 JD> times, and home chargers could have timers, but you can only go 
 JD> so far.
 JD> Most folks don't think about how much energy can be easily 
 JD> stored/transported in a single tank of petroleum-based fuel.
 JD> :-)
   It seems to me that the biggest problem of running petroleum engines
   in cars is that the engines, if they are to produce enough power for
   the high-demand times, can't really be built to run efficiently at
   the low-demand times, such as idling in traffic (0 mph ideally would
   require 0 gal per mile), running downhill at any speed, or even
   maintaining a steady cruise on level ground.
   Ideally, a fossil-fuel engine wants to be pulling around the middle of
   its power band for max economy.  This problem, to me, suggests, using
   small engines in conjuntion with battery power, in a gas-electric
   or diesel-electric car.  A small motor pumping hard (and therefore
   efficiently) all the time, keeping batteries charged at a rate which
   will keep them up between heavy and light-duty cycling.  Accelerating
   from lights, onto freeways, up hills would be provided for by the
   batteries supplementing the power of the motor, and the bats would then
   "catch up" during the low-demand times such as level cruise.  And of
   course, the electric motors would also serve as generators, pumping
   into the battery load on deceleration and downhills, further saving the
   environment from brake dust - hey!, maybe we could even go back to Real
   Brake Linings.
   So, just imagine - a '70's-style "boat" running on a Chevy Sprint
   genset and a mess of batteries.  Presumably, battery technology has
   improved to the point where this is possible.  Better yet, how about
   replacing all those smelly diesel busses, which spend so much of their
   time with the Jimmy belching black smoke as they inch their way along
   through the gridlock, with diesel-electrics, an little 2-71 efficiently
   pumping away, keeping the batteries up for whenever it actually has to
   climb a hill or hit the freeway for a few miles.  Just thinking about the
   fuel saving and the maintenance costs gives me a warm fuzzy feeling all
   over.
Best, ps
--- timEd-B10
---------------