Letters to the Editor
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@realname... that future is real, not imaginary
just fyi, realname, note that an apocalyptic future is far from a matter of sarcasm...it's a matter of time:
http://dieoff.org/page137.htm
Check it out. The hard numbers are just about impossible to argue with.
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You're right, it would change their business utterly
Instead of far flung operations with massive and expensive distibution systems and complicated refineries, and the added complication of dealing with 100's of millions of uneducated and unhappy customers, the oil companies would be able to radically streamline their operations, realize enormous economies of scale, and deal with only about 100 customers who know their business.
Or did you forget that there is no such thing as an electric car, only cars that run on oil, coal, or nuclear power? And before you bring up solar, remember that there is not enough real estate on the planet to support enough solar panels to meet our needs.
Every solution to the problem of energy used in transportation is still in the future. Lots of people love nuclear power, but nobody wants a fission reactor within 50 miles of them and fusion is years away. Solar could actually work, but not until we rebuild our space program, convert the energy into electricity outside the atmosphere, and figure out how to get it down here. Hydrogen is expensive and possibly dangerous. We need to start now, needed to start in the early 70's, but please don't think the solutions are at our fingertips.
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US Gallons Vs. European Gallons.
I see a lot of articles comparing european cars with those in american but they never seem to address the fact that a gallon in the US is less then a gallon in europe. 35mpg in US gallons equates to only 29mpg in europe-- It would be a tough job to find a car that can't meet that on the motorway/highway.
On the whole our mpg estimates are lower because we used averaged (both highway and city driving) totals. We gave up on just using highway mpg because it's incredibly inaccurate when dealing with how a car is actually used.
An average family car such as the Ford Mondeo hits around 50mpg on the motorway/highway that's a whopping 60mpg in the states.
So stop complaining about the high price of your ridiculously cheap fuel and get a car that's fit for purpose.
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Toyota's NOT holy, people
All you guys praising Holy Toyota and its Pretty Prius, you're kidding yourselves. You know what vehicle Toyota's spent the most money in the last three years developing and marketing?
That would be the Toyota Tundra. A full-size pickup that gets about 14 mpg. Also the Lexus IS 350 (18 mpg) and 250 (21 mpg). And the LX 400, 18 mpg.
Toyota's like every other automaker. It's in the business to make money. And Americans, with the joys of cheap gas, choose big vehicles with high horsepower. And small, fuel-efficient vehicles -- hybrid or not -- sit on the lot.
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@mattwa.... do your research
you wrote:
"Or did you forget that there is no such thing as an electric car, only cars that run on oil, coal, or nuclear power? And before you bring up solar, remember that there is not enough real estate on the planet to support enough solar panels to meet our needs"
No, I didn't forget this. Using fossil-fuel energy as stored electricity is still far more efficient than burning it up in individual ICEs at a less-than-50% energy-conversion rate.
Wide use of electric cars would cut waste heat, would eliminate greenhouse gas emission from tailpipes, and would provide more reliable transportation in the medium term.
We'll be using fossil-fuels for the foreseeable future, but the economies of scale that result from using that fuel as electricity in individual vehicles are far more efficient, and beneficial, than the way we use that fuel now. Just do the research, it's all out there in black and white.
And, while gasoline-supplies are subject to all manner of risks, with those risks growing daily, our electricity supplies, while hardly guaranteed, are more stable than our gasoline supplies in the medium term.
Look, in the long-term, most of us will die of starvation and disease as the lights go out. But if we can delay the day long enough, maybe not so many need die, and maybe the situation need not become apocalyptic. One way to delay the day is electric transportation.
A better way would be draconian limits on fuel consumption, including rationing. While we save the oil and gas in the ground. An even better way would be a police-state that controls the use of fuel at the point of a gun. Oh, and the most rigid possible immigration and population control.
The reason we're IN this mess in the first place is because cheap and easy fossil fuels--the most dense energy source on the planet, by FAR--allowed our world population to simply run out of control. We're now in overshoot, and we'll pay for that, sooner or later. How much we pay...that's the question.
Check world population growth against fossil-fuel use. They track precisely.
Because of our population overshoot, our future as a species is probably very grim... But, for now, more electric cars would be a relatively benign way to delay the inevitable day or reckoning..
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Who said Toyota was holy?!
Fact: I've driven my Prius 108,000 miles in three years.
Fact: Living near the Canadian border in a northern city, I've averaged slightly better than 50 mpg during that entire time, including driving in temperatures colder than 30 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Fact: I received my $1500 extended warranty back last week because my car had required ZERO in work except oil changes and tire rotations by the time we hit 100,000 miles.
Fact: I've camped in my car, which fits all my food, clothing, photography equipment, tent and camping materials for a week with room for my air mattress and sleeping bag for nights when it's too rainy to tent camp.
Fact: There is no other car in the world that would allow me to do all this while getting this kind of mileage and the amount of emissions the Prius has.
Fact: Sometimes companies like to make a profit.
Fact: Despite wanting to make a profit, Toyota has done a great deal, including subsidizing the cost of the Prius, to give this car the best chance it could in the wasteful American market.