"Doctor Drivel" wrote in message
reenews.net...

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"tony sayer" wrote in message
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Yes I suppose the electric car does it crapping elsewhere.. at the power
station?....

Indeed. There are some advantages to that, in that it is easier to treat
a lot of pollution in one place, than it is to treat small amounts of
pollution in lots of places.

Yep.

However, the inefficiencies in the systems mean that, a couple of years
ago, it was demonstrated that an electric car produced three times as
much pollution as a modern internal combustion engine powered car.

Nonsense. That was probably a worse case scenario.

It was based on an average IC saloon car compared to an average electric car
which, as electric cars were then squarely aimed at the small car market,
probably produced a bias in favour of the electric car.

Modern generating equipment, transmissions, localised power stations,
modern batteries in cars etc, proves that is total balls.

You appear to be talking about efficiency of energy conversion, which is not
the same as the type or amount of pollution produced in converting that
energy.

OTOH, car manufacturers are also continually improving their products

They are? That's new to me.

Perhaps you should read more.

so that driving a modern five litre vehicle I am producing far less
pollution than I was when driving around in my average saloon car in the
1960s.

It still wastes 75% of the energy in the tank. No change there.

Current petrol engine efficiency averages 32%, not the 25% you seem to
think. If compression ratios were raised to around 12:1, the efficiency
could exceed 50%. OTOH best power station efficiency today is about 60%,
although most generating plant in use is nearer 40% efficient. Transmission
losses in the UK average around 7.4% and the non-zero charge recharging
efficiency of traction batteries is around 80-85%, although that can drop
off dramatically as the charge level approaches 90%. Thus, assuming that
people do not fully charge their batteries, but only top up to around 90%
(i.e the best case), the energy efficiency of an electric vehicle is around
30% with current equipment, but could rise to 45% if all generating
equipment were brought up to the best standards.

Colin Bignell