Re: EV/Hybrid Survey

["Peter VanDerWal" <peter_v@primenet.com>]

>        An EV is nuisance free, clean, simple, silent and fun. It needs no
>maintanence and can't leak or pollute. A hybrid is just like any other
>gas-powered car.


Rubish!  Quick show of hands, how many people have an EV that is truely
nuisance free and never needs maintenance.  Nobody?  that's what I thought.

Lower maintenance perhaps, as long as you use sealed batteries that never
need to be watered.  Not to mention brakes, bearings, suspention, tires,
brushes and periodically replacing 1/2 ton of batteries.   Also a lot of
ICEs are being built that don't need maintenance for 100,000 miles, how
many EVs can go that far without replacing the batteries a few times?

While EVs can be pretty quite, I've heard several EVs that make more noise
than my ICE Escort does.

Also some EVs DO pollute, they just don't do it in the same neiborhood as
they drive in (powerplant smoke stacks).

I'm not knocking EVs, I love them, I just wish folks would state the facts
as they ARE not as they'd like them to be.

>> 4)  Do hybrid vehicles stop all pollution eminating from exhaust?
>
>        If they are fuel cell based, or some other non-combustion
>power source then yes.
>>


FWIW fuel cells emit water.  As I recall there are some combustion type
fuels/engines that also only produce water.

P.S.  With the way hybrids are going it looks likely that they will produce
LESS total pollution than an EV drawing power from a electric company
burning fossil fuels.