Until you look at the actual numbers as was done here: http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/07/Carbonemissions.shtml

“In 1998, the State of California consumed 13.496 billion gallons of gasoline. A gallon of gasoline yields about 130 million joules. So when you do all the math, you end up with about 1.755 * 1018 joules, which is an impressively large number.

One anti-solar-power advocacy site gives the “yearly average” solar power density in Albuquerque as 240 watts per m2. (That appears to be a 24-hour average; another site says that it’s 700 watts in daylight.) Then presuming that southern California is similar, each square meter of mirrors would be struck by 7.573 billion joules per year.

So if you assume 100% conversion, you’d need 231.7 million square meters of collection mirrors to make this work. 231 square kilometers.

But it isn’t going to be 100% efficient. That’s impossible, and it isn’t going to be remotely close to that. The mirrors won’t reflect perfectly and some of the sunlight will heat the metal instead of reflecting. The conversion process into hydrogen will be extremely inefficient. If you get 10%, you’ll be doing really well.

So we’re talking about paving 2300 square kilometers of California desert with mirrors. That’s a strip 13 kilometers wide stretching from San Diego to Los Angeles. It’s an area twice the size of San Francisco.

That’s a hell of a lot of metal! It ain’t gonna be cheap. The capital expense involved would be mammoth. Just clearing an area that large would cost a fortune; paving it with manufactured goods will cost a fortune. And something that big would take decades to build.

Figure each mirror at 10 square meters, and you’re talking about 23 million motor mounts. If you figure an average 5 year lifespan, then you’re going to replace more than 4 million of them per year.

. . .
By the way, forget about photo-voltaics. They are also about 10% efficient, and they’re made of silicon. The idea of paving 2300 square kilometers of desert with solar cells is even more ludicrous; there isn’t any way that industry could approach that kind of volumes anytime soon. (If they’re producing a million square meters, one square kilometer, per year now I’d be very surprised. I bet they aren’t even producing ten thousand square meters.)

Hopefully this is a step in progress toward true efficiency in all areas – from manufacturing to usage. Over the past 10 years there has been great improvement in battery life, efficiency and alternate power sources (solar). If GM et.al. is able to put money into R&D and continue making improvements there maybe a future for electric cars.

The best way to make this work is not a rebate (money out from the government) but a significant gas tax increase (money to government – roads, R&D, …).and proven “green” benifits.

Rather, crude oil needs to be pumped out of the ground, pumped sometimes a couple hundred miles to the next port, put on big, polluting tankers, then it gets refined, and finally carried by truck to you neighborhood gas station. All this requires energy, similar to losses with electricity.

Now, of course fossil fuel power plants also need fuel, but I would dare say with 50% of electricity produced from coal, that the losses are not as great as for gasoline.

I believe that electricity is THE universal energy currency of the future, and obviously electric cars can use it. Rather than sticking with gasoline-fired engines based on 100 year old technology and doing tricks to produce bio fuels, it will be much, much easier to use electric cars and gradually shift electricity generation from fossil fuels to renewables, such as PV or wind.

The energy rating of this Volt battery got me to thinking. You have to be very careful when charging a Li-Ion battery. They can create some VERY nasty fires should they ignite. (Just ask Apple, Inc.) Thus, the charger requires some elaborate circuitry (called constant-current/constant-voltage, or CC/CV), which involves power losses during the charge cycle. If you get serious about the design, your charger might be 80% efficient. Thus, to charge my 16 kWH battery will consume 20 kWH of energy. (kWH is energy, kW is power, the derivative of energy.)

GM says that the battery can be charged in 3 hours @ 220V or 6 hours @ 110V. I am assuming most people who just want to plug ‘n go don’t want an electrician visit to rewire their garage/charging station for 220VAC, so the average bugger is going to go with the 110V charging option, and need 6 hours to fully charge his wheels. That’s 3.333 kW/hour. Or about 28 amps of power from your plug. Don’t try this at home with your 14 gauge extension cord, kids!

I looked up the electricity rates from my power company and see that they’re going to hit me for about $.14/kWH (no time-dependent rates where I live). So a “full tank of gas” in a Volt is going to cost me about $2.80, ±. $2.80/40 miles = 7¢/mile. My fully-loaded Toyota Camry V6 can gets about 25 MPG, or about 12¢/mile.

I fail to see where the win is in this math. As others are pointing out, that electrical energy has to come from somewhere; more than likely from some coal-powered plant in AZ, since CA won’t build any more power plants. How the hell is this going to reduce CO2 emissions?

Lastly, Li-Ion batteries have to be babied to get the most life out of them. Don’t charge them when they’re too hot or too cold; you even have to scale back charging when it’s just chilly to preserve the life of the battery. The Volt is also no doubt going to do the same thing that the Tesla folks do and NEVER fully drain the battery. Doing so is a very good way to significantly reduce the number of charge cycles you can get from the battery. So while your battery may be rated at X KWh, you can only extract X/2 KWh from it before the on-board computer says “that’s all, folks!”

Smart Li-Ion battery handling is how Apple (claims to) get 1000 charge cycles from their Macbook batteries. I can testify that it is true. Perhaps the Volt does the same thing. Brainless battery charging, as is routinely practiced in the PC world, is the reason for their crappy battery lifetimes. If those clowns had to actually DESIGN something, then they might end up with a better product.

Thanks for the information

IMN

really, why would any thinking person believe ANYthing they have to say? save time: just automatically assume every word they say and every stat they print is a lie. anyway, who the hell would be stupid enough to buy a chrysler/GM product nowadays?