[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Ford also said ahead of the Washington Auto Show that seven utilities, including Consolidated Edison Inc, American Electric Power Co and Michigan's DTE Energy Co, will join its ongoing research effort to test rechargeable plug-ins and assess their impact on the electrical grid.

I'm curious of how much energy will be lost in the conversion process from fossil fuel energy (heating value) to electrical energy (kwatt-hours) to mechanical energy (joules).

There will be huge conversion losses along the way. Not to mention transsmission line losses. It may turn out that the net effect is a much larger net "carbon footprint" per electric vehicle than a conventional vehicle.

[thackney]

I'm curious of how much energy will be lost in the conversion process from fossil fuel energy (heating value) to electrical energy (kwatt-hours) to mechanical energy (joules).

There will be huge conversion losses along the way. Not to mention transsmission line losses. It may turn out that the net effect is a much larger net "carbon footprint" per electric vehicle than a conventional vehicle.

The power plant losses are much greater than the line losses.

About 32% of the energy that goes into making electricity is delivered to the customers. Now multiply by the efficiency of the charger, batter, inverter, motor and controls.