"Embargo On"
Posted on 04/09/2012 7:42:32 AM PDT by thackney
Converting thermal energy to motive power directly beats thermal to motive to electricity to the the grid to storage to motive power any day, and it always will for the passenger car as we know it.
The only way electric vehicles will make economic sense is if we relocate the entire U.S. population to large cities serviced by combined heat and power generating plants. The catch 22 is that if everyone lives in giant cities, who would need cars?
Yes, but it might ruin what is left of the Hollywood movie industry.
Back in the 1980s Lada marketed a line of “dual fuel” vehicles in Canada- you could switch between gasoline and propane by throwing a lever. It was a good idea here because most urban gas stations sell propane (most taxis in Toronto run on propane) while in rural areas propane was hard to find.
The home refuelling devices aren’t that simple as a compressor is required. Tapping into a different line would require an effort similar to what you’d need to bypass your existing gas meter.
"Embargo On"
In mixed rural/urban areas such as where I live, you will occasionally see stations advertising that they sell off road gasoline. It is marked by a red dye. The fine is very hefty if you get caught driving a standard vehicle on a public road without the marked fuel.
I'm sure it still happens occasionally, but the incentives to snitch are so good, you will get caught if it happens consistently.
Ditto for natural gas. The rotten egg smell from traditional natural gas piped into your home is a marker or additive for safety reasons. Unmarked natural gas is odorless and colorless. If you have a road approved natural gas, it is easy enough to add a new odor or color at the pump. A consumable filter which treats x cubic feet of natural gas would probably be the way to go. Once the filter needs changing, you have to replace it to maintain the marker.
I think it would also be possible to keep the pump from operating once the filter was no longer adding the marker. A lot of this stuff can be controlled with a 70 cent microchip.
The Japanese are into their second decade of doing exactly this. They started putting natural gas in buses, taxis and other forms of public transportation when we lived there in the late 1990's. Now, it is ubiquitous and working its way into the consumer market.
Electricity requires energy to make it, and with our present technology, it isn’t practical. We still have plenty of oil to exploit from deep wells and shale, and then we have natural gas and an endless supply of methanol. Who knows, by the time there is nothing left but solar and wind power to charge batteries, we could develop anti gravitic shoes. The best way to get there is to quit trying to control the outcome. Let free people compete.
Not so here. I live rural in WV and unless you have "free gas" due to a well on your property, everyone has a propane tank in their yard. There are no gas mains out here.
The Tesla high-power, fast-recharger takes 4 hours, not 30 minutes.
http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric/charging
None of the above. Electric cars have no range, and I ain’t sticking flammable gas under pressure in my car.
So.... 2 cars, at most, can be tied up to a recharging station, in a BANK parking lot, for up to 8 hours.
I clearly see the efficiency and convenience. Well... at least for bank employees who own an electric car.
Tap from the after meter line into a compressor. No meter by-pass. It was explained as if you were adding another stove, furnace or water heater.
How did the Canadians collect road taxes on such propane sales?
Yet over a hundred thousand vehicles on the road, and decades of proven use won't convince some people. These are not built with thin-wall weak tanks.
“An estimated 112,000 natural gas vehicles are on U.S. roads today and over 13 million are being driven worldwide”
Which is why we have global warming. It’s not the CO2, it’s the LNG cars blowing up.
You won't, they don't.
Their fast charger is 4 hours.
I live in a NG producing area. Marker odor is all over as we have vast underground storage fields also, but whatever...you’re right. I’m wrong. Have a nice day.
I think the issue in question was that the gov’t would resist a switch over to a system which they couldn’t tax separately like they do with gasoline currently.
If you’re tapping off you house, even after the house meter, they would probably require a separate “car meter” in order to tax you for the gasoline tax equivalent (to maintain the roads).
Per mile road tax woulkd be my bet.
Anyway, FR is intollerably slow and I’ve got chores.
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