On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:23:29 -0400, Joseph Gwinn
wrote:


In your analysis, you need to cover the full lifecycle cost, which
includes making the car in the first place. Cars only last on average
seven years, so making them is a major component of both cost and carbon
impact. Batteries in particular are expensive to make, don't have a
very large capacity compared to a gas tank, and don't last all that long.


What is the AVERAGE age of the north american automotive fleet?? As of
June, 2012, the average age of an automobile is 11 years

As others have pointed out, gasoline engines in cars are maybe 20%
efficient, whereas coal fired power plants are more like 40%, coalpile
to bussbar, but transmission and battery inefficiency eat much of that
advantage up. Batteries are not all that efficient at storing energy.

The basic advantage of a hybrid is that the battery handles the pulse
loads, like accelerating into traffic, so the gas engine can be sized
for cruise, and so can be smaller (about one half) and operates nearer
to its optimum rpm and load.

Joe Gwinn