Well, I'm not going to flame you :-). I'd just like to bring up
something that doesn't seem to get much (if any) mention when talking
about electric cars: battery disposal. Yes, batteries and their parts
can be recycled, but only to a point, then you've got some really
nasty and persistent chemicals and materials to get rid of. So besides
the problem of simply moving pollution sources from one point to
another as Brian mentions below, there's the problem of battery
disposal which is already a bad problem as I write and getting worse.
I think hybrid cars are the way to go. Imagine a small engine, powered
by something like natural gas, running banks of alternators that power
small electric motors on each wheel. The engine could be optimized for
fuel consumption because it runs at one RPM all the time, its
emissions could be scrubbed 'til they squeeked, the whole system is
lightweight (especially when compared to a battery-only car), the
cruising range would be excellent, the recyclable content is high,
disposal problems low and best of all, the technology exists right
now. I know some companies (Volvo for one) is working on these, so why
don't we hear more about them? What's all this hypocritical bs about
zero emissions cars that aren't?
Now I'll put my head down and watch the tracers whizz by :-)
Jim
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Smog tests?
Author: BrianK@ttgwest.com (Brian Knopp) at SMTPCC3
Date: 7/9/96 2:58 PM
At 03:25 PM 7/9/96 -0400, McGaheyRx@aol.com wrote:
>if zero emmission [sic] new cars become the law of the land, I"ll probably
buy >one and plug it in;
There ain't no such thing as a zero emission car. Electric cars require
recharges at regular (and currently *frequent*) intervals. How is that
electricity generated? Currently, every industrial-scale source of
electricity of which I am aware causes pollution of one form or another.
And currently, so far as I know, one good volcanic eruption dumps more
"pollution" into the air than the entire industrialized world does in a good
year. And volcanoes have been around a lot longer than lbc's have.
>SO IS'NT iT STUPID TO HAVE TO DO ALL THIS FOR CARS WE HARDLY EVER DRIVE OR
ONLY >DRIVE ON CLEAR DAYS ANYWAY !!??!!??
IMHO, almost all government intervention into the lives of private
citizens is stupid. I have to breathe the same air that everyone else does,
so why doesn't Uncle Sam a.k.a. Big Brother trust me to make my car run as
clean as possible?
I now don my 5-layer reflectix armor, because I smell a flame war coming <g>.
Brian Knopp
Programmer
Travel Technologies Group
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