Very little electricity is generated from oil.
U.S. Electric Power Industry Net Generation
Electric Power Annual with data for 2005, EIA
Posted on 01/09/2007 10:06:35 PM PST by BlueSky194
Hybrid Technology Could Reduce Gas Fill-Ups, but Battery-Powered Engine Still Runs Expensive
Chevrolet's new Volt a concept hybrid that could conceivably get hundreds of miles to the gallon
Chevrolet's new hybrid car, called the Volt, has generated a lot of buzz this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
It's different from the hybrids currently on the market, making it the newest of the new technology in the car market.
Whereas other hybrid cars, such as Toyota's Prius or Ford's Explorer, use a mix of battery power and a conventional gasoline engine to move the wheels of the vehicle, the Volt runs only on electricity.
The electricity is provided by either plugging into a standard wall socket or by fuel which can be gasoline or some more environmentally friendly alternative that recharges the car's battery. General Motors said the Volt's technology could nearly eliminate the need to fuel up at the pump.
"When you get to the end of a range of the battery, which is 40 miles, you just continue to move along, and the only thing that you notice is the engine comes on and it generates more electricity," said John Lauckner, GM's vice president of global programs.
GM said research showed that almost 80 percent of American motorists drive less than 40 miles a day.
"Many, if not most, consumers in the United states would never need to buy gasoline, or buy gasoline very rarely," Lauckner said.
600 Miles on a Tank, but Engine's Expensive Using a full tank of fuel to power the motor, you could conceivably drive from Detroit to New York about 600 miles with no need to stop.
The only problem is that the battery needed to do all this is prohibitively expensive right now. If you wanted to buy this flashy concept version of the Volt today, it would set you back several hundred thousand dollars. So the success or failure of the Volt hinges on GM's ability to mass produce the battery and bring its cost down way down.
"Those batteries have to be developed, and the cost has to come down probably tenfold from where it is now," said Csaba Csere, editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine.
It remains to be seen whether it will ever be realistic to purchase one of these cars at a reasonable price.
GM says it's serious and not just trying to win public relations points.
"We really want to sell a lot of these," said Lauckner.
But the company becomes vague on exactly when you'll be able to buy a Volt.
"It's not as soon as some of us hope. But it's a lot sooner than a lot of people may think," Lauckner said.
That's likely to translate into four years at least
The whole idea behind this is that mos of the power of your IC engine is needed for acceleration. Electric motors are even better at acceleration. Having a set of "buffer" batteries means that a tiny IC engine, just enough for cruising with a little extra to keep the batteries charged, is all this car needs.
That's for sure. That would be more fun to drive than my gas-sipping Saturn. Hybrids really do provide "free energy," in that they harness braking energy that is usually dissipated as heat.
We have a winner! Drain the swamp.
You lost me on that one. Doesn't sound like you are factoring in the price of YOU getting to where the car is. And what if you are a family of four? According to what you posted it would be cheaper to have my car transported 600 miles and for me and my family of four to fly there than to just get in the car and go.
You must have meant something else.
I love how everyone thinks they are better engineers than actual engineers after "reading some stuff on the internet" and that so many people still believe that technology will never advance beyond what we have today. :p
Let's not forget that Osama and his crew were largely rich brats. They're the Arab equivalent of the kids who upon entering university in the 1960's, renamed themselves "Moonflower".
It's time to take away their cash and their toys. Without oil, most of the worst nations of the world have nothing.
Regards, Ivan
I got that kind of mileage from my Volkswagen Jetta diesel back in the 70's.
Now we're to have orgasms because an ultra expensive battery will push a lightweight car 40 miles and then the engine comes on to recharge the battery?
Something is missing from this scenario.
To GM: good luck selling these.
Clarification: The Jetta would go about 600 miles on a tankful of diesel (about 14 gal IIRC). It worked out to about 54 miles per gallon. I loved the ability to drive and drive and drive and drive. My wife and daughters brought me back to earth by pointing out that occasional stops are mandatory.
Not exactly. The engine only puts out the average power necessary to drive the car. The instantaneous power required can vary between a negative value when running downhill, or braking, to a very large value when accelerating, or going up hill. An engine that is optimized for maximum fuel economy (560 mile range) would not have enough power for the accelerations and hill climbing that customers expect. Hence, the batteries. The batteries fill in the gaps. The engine only has to provide slightly more power than required for average driving to add enough reserve in the batteries for hill climbing and accelerations.
Will, or even WILL, cannot overcome the second law of thermodynamics. If you could invent the "250 mpg" carburetor, or the "million KWh battery that can be recharged in 10 minutes", I guarantee you that you would become a billionaire.
That is only somewhat true. Brakes on even small cars can develop hundreds of horsepower for the few seconds they are used. The batteries cannot be recharged at that rate. This excessive energy that can't be put back into the batteries is still wasted. Unless the driver decelerates very slowly, a large percentage of the braking energy in a hybrid is still wasted.
Very little electricity is generated from oil.
U.S. Electric Power Industry Net Generation
Electric Power Annual with data for 2005, EIA
I would have thought gas and oil would be reversed. Thanks for the info.
Makes you wonder how their competition lets them get away with saying this.
Chevy claims the Volt will get 50 miles to the gallon if the batteries aren't re-charged while running on the E85 engine.
the engine that drives the generator that charges the battery is probably about the size of a lawnmower engine.
the battery is what supplies the power to move the vehicle.
600 Highway to a tank full of gas, isn't all that more efficient than an existing TDI Jetta.. which should get 450-550 on a tank full of diesel highway.
Its an improvement yes, but hardly something astronomical.
Ditto
Not unless they build in a Boston catheter.
What about performance? 0-60 in 30 seconds is not a winner regardless of what the thing looks like.
Don't you just love the morons who write these things? How much petrol is in a "tank" of gas? In my Honda, I can go almost 500 miles (though I'm moving on sheer willpower the last 20 miles or so).
If that is a 5-gallon "tank", then 600 miles is impressive. If it's a 15 or 20 gallon tank, the claim is somewhat less impressive. Making a claim of "600 Miles on a Tank" is a completely useless claim without specifying an actual standard volume of gasoline.
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