[UNGN]

And will a huge electric bill, like several hundred dollars, be a great path. Is there a breakdown on a cost comparison, on a cents per mile basis, for electric from the grid vs gasoline?

You must not be from Texas.

An electric car wouldn't mean a few hundred dollar electric bill, but at least a $1000 one during the summer (Since A/C alone was $600/month last summer).

I'm all for electric cars and will probably build one myself when my son gets older, but saying stuff like wind energy is stronger at night and 500 mpg throws up huge red flags for me, too.

That's is the kind of hype marketeers spew and not the engineers that actually have to make it work.

[Uncledave]

The cost of overnight electricity from wind energy isn't hype -- it's easy for a producer to calculate. We know what a wind turbine costs and how much power it can generate at a given hour.

As far as making a cost-competitive electric vehicle, well sure, that's another story. But I welcome the developments.

[Alberta's Child]

That's is the kind of hype marketeers spew and not the engineers that actually have to make it work.

Right. Ten bucks says this Woolsey guy is a paid shill for a company that manufactures these batteries.

[Eaker]

An electric car wouldn't mean a few hundred dollar electric bill, but at least a $1000 one during the summer (Since A/C alone was $600/month last summer).

We have the same bill and they don't charge less at night.

That concept is BS.

[mc6809e]

You must not be from Texas. An electric car wouldn't mean a few hundred dollar electric bill, but at least a $1000 one during the summer.

How the hell do you figure that? You're just guessing, aren't you?

Electric will most likely beat gasoline for very obvious reasons.

The first is due to the poor efficiencies of gasoline engines. About 25% of the energy in the gasoline is used to move the car. The rest is wasted as heat. An electric car is about 85% efficient. A power plant could literally burn gasoline in a 40% efficient turbine to make electricity for electric cars and it would still be cheaper per gallon to run electric than it would direct gasoline.

The second reason is that power plants don't burn gasoline. They burn cheaper fuels like coal. Electric cars use can make use of this even cheaper source of energy.

So what ever you pay for gasoline, you'll probably pay less in electricity to go the same distance.

The only thing that causes problems for electric is the mass of the batteries which hurts milage. That's much less of a problem now than in the past due to great improvements in battery technology.

Here's a site that shows gasoline versus electric. The yearly cost in electricity for 8000 miles of travel is estimated to be just $265.75 at $0.08/kWH.