"Dave Plowman (News)" through a haze of senile
flatulence wrote in message ...
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Predicting the future is risky. And we've been promised cheap electric
cars since I was a kid. But for every development of these we get
similar improvements with IC engines.

No you do not. Electric motirs have wlayws been vastly more efficient
than IC engines for sound theoretical reasons.

I'm not disagreeing with that, but you've got to look at the whole
picture.

Has Richard Cranium had a brainwave? We shall see

The efficiency of the actual motor makes little difference if the
generation/storage of the power needed is wasteful.

IC engines waste 70% of the energy stored in the tank. I wonder if he knew
that. Nah, he never.

IC engines have got beter by tuning te fuel air mixtures, and increasing
peak pressures, but you cannot escape the laws of phsyics. Only if you
go to extremely high temperatures with e.g. a gas turbine can you get
efficenices even approaching 40-50%. Or fit condenser to the exhaust..

You can do all that in a generating set, but its TOO HEAVY in a car.

Trouble is that with 50% generator efficiency and then storing that
electricity to drive a 90% efficient motor you're getting dangerously
close to even the 30% of an IC engine using the same fuel.

Nope. And no pollution at point of use.

Add in the
heating required for much of the year for the inside of the car and it can
become worse in practice.


The issues are safety, cost, and recharge times.

And, of course, how you generate the electricity to charge them. That
is the big fly in the ointment since charging any battery is an
inefficient process.

Its not. Abou 90% efficient. If you do it right

Again, the most efficient way of charging a battery may not be the best
way for long life.

Batteries have changed and the New Toshiba is different again.

And these type of batteries will always be expensive -
perhaps half the total cost of the car.

Nope, mass production brings the price down. Boy is he dumb!

Ther are batteries in existence that will enable electroic cars to
compete in performance and range with a comparable wieght of petrol
powertrains...lets leave it at that..

I'd be willing to bet there aren't.

Richard Cranium is now telling us of his extensive knowledge of this topic.
Duh!

They'll fiddle all sorts of things to
get this result.

Do they fiddle the gas meter as well?

Extra low friction tyres and bearings etc.

Yes, they way all cars should be made. And he thinks that is fiddling. Boy
is he dumb.

Low vehicle CD and weight.

Good engineering.

Then compare
it to a bog standard car - the worst they can
find, probably too.

Yes, a standard car. What else? Duh!

However you need to do an overall
analsyis of the whole vehicle power
train- looking at one or another compnonet
leaves a false impression.
You are as guilty of that as Drivel.

I'm trying to analyse the whole use of energy for a vehicle, likely
running costs and life. You should try that too. ;-)

You tried? And of course failed miserably.