San Antonio, TX
I have a BSEE from UCONN and I worked at a Navy Science lab until leaving to work on alternative energy. I saw the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car" and within that year designed and built my first electric car. I continued converting cars for others and I am now focusing my efforts on open source electric kit cars.
Authored Comments
The energy required to refine gasoline can be looked at as Energy Return On Energy Invested (EROEI). The oil that was bubbling out of the ground in Texas 100 years ago was about 100:1, it averages 20:1 today and the tar sands will be about 4:1. The energy contained in a gallon of gasoline does not vary but the energy invested to get that energy out does. We can use that energy to power EV's directly and be much more efficient with our energy use. We still need gas and diesel for some vehicles and we still need oil for plastics and many other things. We should just be smarter about how we use it all. Over the past 50 years, most of the oil used in the U.S. was imported (and mostly from the middle east, creating a lot of "unrest"). Most of that oil is and was used for transportation. Most of that energy is wasted as heat since Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) are not very efficient. Only about 20% of the energy is used to move the vehicle, the rest of the energy goes out the exhaust and radiator as heat. Electric motors are about 90% efficient.
Exactly! It's easier to clean up power plants than all the cars. Another way of looking at it is that electric cars will only get cleaner as we improve our power plants and transition to clean energy. A good article here - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amory-lovins/climate-change-no-breakth_b_2654248.html