re: Why do people think electric cars are somehow better for the environment?

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The plug, when installed to your house, is the same as a dryer or range plug.

I don't think those in every house have been draining this grid

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So you don’t think adding about 200 million extra “dryers or ranges” that have to be plugged in for hours every day would be a big deal on the overall power grid?

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Because they are?

LINK

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Just as with the YouTube video posted earlier, your link also has a fundamental problem. Namely it really only addressed the “emissions” portion of the environmental impact. But having the whole county switch to electric cars would have other environmental effects as well. Why are those factors being overlooked?

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believe in the free market which means, I trust a new battery tech will be developed to address the lithium issues.

Here are some I know coming down the pipeline soon.

SODIUM-ION
Solid State
Lithium-Sulfur

Li-S batteries are lighter weight, long lasting, and charge exponentially faster. Obviously it still uses Li but the demand won't be as great. We will see them in aircraft within our lifetimes.

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Honda recently had a news release on a breakthrough on fluoride-ion battery technology in conjunction with the NASA jet propulsion lab that may allow for 10x storage compared to Lithium ion technology and will last longer. You would only have to charge once a week with greatly increased range.

Next gen battery tech is going to eventually make electric vehicles commonplace.

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Honda recently had a news release on a breakthrough on fluoride-ion battery technology in conjunction with the NASA jet propulsion lab that may allow for 10x storage compared to Lithium ion technology and will last longer. You would only have to charge once a week with greatly increased range.

Next gen battery tech is going to eventually make electric vehicles commonplace.

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Here's the article

People in LA are in for one HELL of a wake up call if we stand pat on this. Our economy is heavily reliant on the oil industry. While it will never "go away", the demand will wane meaning job levels will reduce. We must position our economy NOW to grow with changing the times.

Im ok on the "it's cheaper" option route, than the "it's environmentally safer" route. No proof of it other than what the Al Gore's push.

Funny how the lefties pushing environmentally safe things let other things pass to get their end goal, but hey they arent the bad "oil man".

Ie...how wind power kills birds at alarming #s. I think they even got the "killing of Bald Eagles" removed for these wind mills.

I remember yrs ago when it was shown a prius battery was flown around the earth like 8 times to get finished. Also, where one area in asia or russia had an X mile dead zone radius around a crucial plant.

Dems/lefties are no different than the Repubs/Right they complain about. Just different stripes, and way to make their millions ala Al Gore style.

Even coal power plants that aren’t shutting down are getting cleaner with things like scrubber upgrades. Overall, energy made by the grid is less harmful than that of all the cars out there.

It’s a good goal to move things toward that path. Sticking with gasoline is a shite idea, we need to find other methods.

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He’s only looking at the emissions impact of electric cars

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Not really. He addresses many different aspects of traditional vs. electric, not just in this video. You can tell he prefers electric cars. But, if you watch his videos, you can tell he is not completely slanting everything for one view point.

Electric vehicles are coming for gasoline powered vehicles baw. Current expansion of renewable energy is at an unstoppable pace. The will.be major disruption in the energy market in the coming decade. And electric cars will be leading the way

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Help me understand how electric cars are better than traditional internal combustion powered vehicles? Sure you don’t have emissions coming out of the tailpipe. But the electricity used to charge the battery has to come from somewhere, namely a power plant. And if everyone switched to these electric vehicles then we’re going to need a whole lot more power plants, far more tham wind or solar could support. But the worst thing to come from electric cars is the batteries. Do people not understand what goes into making batteries? What’s required? Now imagine how many of these batteries would be required to meet the transportation needs of the country. And then there is the issue of disposal/recycling of old batteries. The more I think about it, the more the notion of electric cars being “better” for the environment looks absurd.

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The question then comes to efficiency...are both the power generation units, or the electric motors (with their storage batteries) more efficient than the internal combustion engine.

If you are in California, most of your electricity comes from Natural Gas or combined cycle power plants. Then to compare emissions, gas cars emit 157 pounds of CO2 per million BTUs of energy consumed, electric cars emit 65% of 117 pounds or about 76 pounds of CO2 per million BTUs of energy consumed (because the electric cars are powered 65% by CO2-emitting fuel). Therefore, even considering the emissions from the fossil fuels plants that generate electricity for their batteries, gas cars emit at least twice as much CO2 as electric cars (157 divided by 76).

So, in California...fueling electric cars is better for the environment. Coal plants are even more efficient...but the additional HAPS would have to be considered...so I will have to look at another model. I will say that emissions from power plants are much more highly monitored than those of ICE engines...so, you have to consider that people can remove emission controls easier from cars than you can from power plants.

You have a good point with disposal/recycling of the batteries...you also have to consider the amount of oil used to lubricate an internal combustion engine over the life of the vehicle. If your car takes 5 quarts of oil (assuming it never has any loss from burning oil), and you change your oil ever 5,000 miles...after 100,000 miles you have changed the oil 20 times...that is 25 gallons of used oil that will either be disposed of, or burned (additional emissions of a fuel much dirtier than gasoline or diesel fuel). Batteries can be reclaimed and precious metals recovered.

Not saying overall that electric cars are "better"...but the claim that the Power Plants make them significantly more harmful than automobiles isn't really cut and dry.