The Student Room Group

Should we penalise those who drive electric cars?

Scroll to see replies

Original post by scrotgrot


However, electric cars should be encouraged because electricity can be produced in many ways, including green ways. Combustion engine cars can only be run on fossil fuels. Therefore, if electric cars and the associated infrastructure gain ground, the subsequent transition to green motoring will be seamless.


This ^

When we crack Fusion we want to have also cracked electric ran cars etc. This is something idiots like Clarkson always forget when they smugly point out that electricity comes from Coal stations.
Reply 41
Original post by Pegasus2
I'm going to run with troll, which i'm pretty sure is the case. There is no way anyone could possibly be arrogant and dense as you've just been without intention.

Half your replies reveal your lack of knowlege, because they don't even make sense. It would be pointless to debate with you because you don't know anything.


Obviously, you don't understand the environmental impacts of electric cars. They are worse than normal cars for our health.
Reply 42
[QUOTE="scrotgrot;62910185"]Because of your party, which removed the subsidies for them just as they have been getting almost as cheap as fossil fuels
Original post by scrotgrot
Because of your party, which removed the subsidies for them just as they have been getting almost as cheap as fossil fuels. At least the greenest government ever had the decency to change the colour of that tree first.

Now, I don't doubt that electric cars when the electricity is produced using fossil fuels are more polluting than using the fossil fuels in the engine directly. Even without knowing a thing about it, it's intuitive: the conversion into electricity is plainly going to be beset by inefficiency.

However, electric cars should be encouraged because electricity can be produced in many ways, including green ways.(BUT IT'S NOT. SO, FOR THE MOMENT, THEY ARE COAL-POWERED CARS) Combustion engine cars can only be run on fossil fuels. Therefore, if electric cars and the associated infrastructure gain ground, the subsequent transition to green motoring will be seamless.

A.They are not as cheap.
B.I'm not a conservative.
Original post by scrotgrot

Now, I don't doubt that electric cars when the electricity is produced using fossil fuels are more polluting than using the fossil fuels in the engine directly. Even without knowing a thing about it, it's intuitive: the conversion into electricity is plainly going to be beset by inefficiency.
.


This is not so. Electric cars are bastly more efficient at raw energy conversion to start with, so they're ahead already.

Don't forget, petrol needs to be refined. Petrol internal combustion engines are only about 20% efficient, with diesels being around 30% in converting chemical energy into kinetic energy. Petrol is a very energy dense substance, yet most of it is lost as heat.

Petrol is refined through distilation, which requires a lot of energy. I said earlier, each UK refinery, of which there are three has a direct dedicated feed (read: power lines directly from a coal fired power station for their sole use)

So all the fuel for a fossil fuel car, is refined by burning fossil fuels, which is then burnt by the car.

It's well known than an electic motor converts electricity to radial motion with an efficiency of ~90%. There is also the point that conventional internal combustion engines use reciprical motion, where pistons have to decerate and then accelerate in the opposite direction 4 times per cycle, which is just **** for efficiency.

So it's a poor arguement made up by anti-change idiots. Even if you sourced all your energy from a power station burning coal, it's still better than a fossil car.

There is another point that even though your electricity is generated from a coal station, it's much easier to fit state of the art scrubbers and filters, which can be any size, shape or cost to the top of a single chimney than it is to every car on the road.

For your electric car, you have a higher production energy intensity to start with, which is then repaid throughout the life of the car, which, given that it has only one moving component, compared to around 140 moving components in an internal combustion car is probably appreciably longer.

The list of why electric cars are better then internal combustion is almost endless. For one thing, you don't need a cooling system, so no radiator and water to carry around = less weight = more effeciency.

Regenative brakeing = ~40% of energy used to accelerate the car is recaptured through braking = more efficient use of energy.

No emissions at point of use/street level = less city pollution and NOx levels. Infact, if all vechles were electric, NOx and particulate pollution would be nearly zero in cities. So basically, you're not blowing carcinogens into people's faces anymore.

The list literally keeps going and going, even into things you woudn't think of. Way, way too much to list here, right down to powergrid infrastructure benefits, maintinance, cargo space, crash resistance, brake dust and the fact you never need to visit a petrol station to fill your car with carcinogenic, flammible, vaporising liquid ever again.

There is a guy who has a 10Kw solar array on his garage roof (not possible for most people I admit, 5Kw is usually possible and prodcing PV panels can be a nasty process) but he drove over 8,000 miles over the last summer using solely energy from the sun.

I'll also put forward I used to work with a guy that had an electric boat and it was sheerly amazing. Use it, charge it, use it charge it. He then got a petrol one for when the elec one was in use and it was one of the dirtiest, nosiest things ive ever seen. It also was followed by a big cloud of **** as well. Oh, he got sick of carrying petrol in jerry cans everywhere as well and running out of petrol.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Pegasus2
This is not so. Electric cars are bastly more efficient at raw energy conversion to start with, so they're ahead already.

Don't forget, petrol needs to be refined. Petrol internal combustion engines are only about 20% efficient, with diesels being around 30% in converting chemical energy into kinetic energy. Petrol is a very energy dense substance, yet most of it is lost as heat.

Petrol is refined through distilation, which requires a lot of energy. I said earlier, each UK refinery, of which there are three has a direct dedicated feed (read: power lines directly from a coal fired power station for their sole use)

So all the fuel for a fossil fuel car, is refined by burning fossil fuels, which is then burnt by the car.

It's well known than an electic motor converts electricity to radial motion with an efficiency of ~90%. There is also the point that conventional internal combustion engines use reciprical motion, where pistons have to decerate and then accelerate in the opposite direction 4 times per cycle, which is just **** for efficiency.

So it's a poor arguement made up by anti-change idiots. Even if you sourced all your energy from a power station burning coal, it's still better than a fossil car.

There is another point that even though your electricity is generated from a coal station, it's much easier to fit state of the art scrubbers and filters, which can be any size, shape or cost to the top of a single chimney than it is to every car on the road.

For your electric car, you have a higher production energy intensity to start with, which is then repaid throughout the life of the car, which, given that it has only one moving component, compared to around 140 moving components in an internal combustion car is probably appreciably longer.

The list of why electric cars are better then internal combustion is almost endless. For one thing, you don't need a cooling system, so no radiator and water to carry around = less weight = more effeciency.

Regenative brakeing = ~40% of energy used to accelerate the car is recaptured through braking = more efficient use of energy.

No emissions at point of use/street level = less city pollution and NOx levels. Infact, if all vechles were electric, NOx and particulate pollution would be nearly zero in cities. So basically, you're not blowing carcinogens into people's faces anymore.

The list literally keeps going and going, even into things you woudn't think of. Way, way too much to list here, right down to powergrid infrastructure benefits, maintinance, cargo space, crash resistance, brake dust and the fact you never need to visit a petrol station to fill your car with carcinogenic, flammible, vaporising liquid ever again.

There is a guy who has a 10Kw solar array on his garage roof (not possible for most people I admit, 5Kw is usually possible and prodcing PV panels can be a nasty process) but he drove over 8,000 miles over the last summer using solely energy from the sun.

I'll also put forward I used to work with a guy that had an electric boat and it was sheerly amazing. Use it, charge it, use it charge it. He then got a petrol one for when the elec one was in use and it was one of the dirtiest, nosiest things ive ever seen. It also was followed by a big cloud of **** as well. Oh, he got sick of carrying petrol in jerry cans everywhere as well and running out of petrol.


Thank you. More fuel to the fire - so to speak.

Quick Reply