[umgud]

Something I rarely see in all these true elec car stories is the cost of electricity to charge them. All the green proponents of elec cars want you to believe the juice is somehow free or cleaner or both.

[Bogey78O]

Just over a dollar IIRC for a full charge in the GM Volt.

[rottndog]

Something I rarely see in all these true elec car stories is the cost of electricity to charge them. All the green proponents of elec cars want you to believe the juice is somehow free or cleaner or both.

Something I've never seen is anyone taking into account the amount of energy lost by the car batteries discharging, even when not in use.

A battery has ONLY two states--charge and discharge. If the battery is not being charged, then it IS DISCHARGING, even when not performing it's intended function. Even the most sophisticated and efficient batteries discharge when not in use. And, as batteries age, they will discharge MORE when not in use.

Consider millions of electric car batteries, just sitting between uses, discharging. Gasoline does not simply evaporate out of a car's gas tank. This is one inefficiency that electric cars can never overcome, even with the best technology. The only mitigating factor would be if the cost of the lost electrical energy is ultimately less than the cost of the gasoline.