On 29/08/2010 23:24, Roberts wrote:
Any electric vehicle will need electricity which has to be generated so you
are not gaining anything. Of course there is always nuclear generating
plant. With hybrids you are paying to transport two engines - one internal
combution and one electric. What these people do not understand is that
charging battieries gives off an explosive vapour which is also harmfull to
humans. Having worked with electric vehicles another danger is that for
many years people tend to listen for approaching vehicles first. This makes
the pedestrian step off in front of oncoming electric vehicles.
Robbie



Actually, the batteries in these things don't generate gas during
charging - that's a feature of lead-acid ones, as used in milk floats.
And the gas generated is hydrogen - which is harmless, unless it gets to
a 5% or so concentration whereupon the least spark removes the roof from
your house. The poison you've seen in the old war movies is chlorine,
which you get when you run a current through salt water - quite likely
in a sinking submarine, less likely in a Prius.

The rest of your points look perfectly valid though - and you've missed
out the cost of providing a widespread network of charging points,
upgrading the grid to cope, and building new power stations. Which it
looks like we're going to be short of anyway.

Andy