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Originally Posted by ads_green
Most of the inefficiencies of an IC engine is the way it's used with fixed gear ratios. You can improve the efficiency alot by running the engine at it's optimum throttle and rpm.
My view is that a 100% electric car is going to struggle as there isn't a really effective portable way of reliably storing electricity with reasonable running costs (replacement cell for example). This may change as technology advances however right now I can't see anything thats going to take the place of liquid fuel.
Given that we already have a reliable distribution and refueling infrastrcuture in place for petrol and diesel the obvious transition to electric cars would be a sequential hybrid - a small conventional IC engine burning liquid fuel (doesn't have to be petrol so can be more environmentally friendly) operating at it's optimum efficiency point driving an all electric drivetrain. Add in a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (say flywheel or small battery/capacitor) then you can incorporate regenerative braking.
It's not perfect but you get the range and refuelling speed of a current car, no massive change to the infrastructure and can be used with existing technology.
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From Wikipedia:
Most steel engines have a thermodynamic limit of 37%. Even when aided with turbochargers and stock efficiency aids, most engines retain an average efficiency of about 18%-20%.[6][7]
Internal combustion engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An electic motor efficiency is far better than that. And an electric car already has the energy regeneration that you speak of built in without added complexity.
Lithium Ion batteries are recyclable and like other electronics will surely come down in price as demand increases.
Bosch and Samsung joint venture for lithium-ion batteries starts operations
No massive changes to the infrastructure are needed for electric plug ins. The power grid is already at your home. As for demand in the future this will be a slow ramp up process as the cost of EVs will be high at first slowing the rate at which we will see them connect to the power grid.
The argument of more natural gas and coal consumption to supply energy to Evs is a valid one. However why does it have to be these fuels? We have one of the most abundant supply of wind energy (
NJ plans to become a world leader in wind power - BusinessWeek) in the world. Let's harness that first then go nuclear and then natural gas.