Re: four elements for EV acceptance - or one alternative

["Darryl McMahon" <darryl@econogics.com>]

PETER VANDERWAL" wrote:
> Here in the US most of the EVs are on the west coast (I would be suprised
> if there are more EVs on the west coast than the rest of the country
> combined). On the west coast electricity tends to be very cheap (under
> $0.10 / kw, sometimes as low as $0.04 / kw)  and gas is very expensive
> (frequently over $1.50 / gal on my last trip through CA I saw it up to
> $1.80 ).  
I choose to disagree.  To my way of thinking, gasoline is very 
cheap and electricity expensive, in relative terms.  Here's the way I 
see it.
Using Peter's numbers, one kWh of electricity (at US$0.07 - "under
$0.10 / kw, sometimes as low as $0.04 / kw" ) is the equivalent of 
3,412 BTUs (per Robert & Brenda Vale in "The Autonomous 
House").  So its cost per 1,000 BTUs is about US$0.02. (7 cents / 
3.412)

Now for that gallon of gasoline.  A gallon of gasoline has about  
125,000 BTUs (per Bob Brant in "Build Your Own Electric 
Vehicle").  At US$1.50 per gallon, that's $0.0015 per 1,000 BTUs.  
(1.5 / 125)

It is 13 times more expensive to buy a BTU as electricity than as 
gasoline.  Put another way, gasoline would have to cost US$20.00 
per gallon to be the same cost per BTU as electricity at US$0.07 
per kWh.  

Gasoline is so much cheaper that we happily burn it in a device 
that is about 15% efficient.

By my calculations, one gallon of gasoline at 125,000 BTUs is the 
equivalent of 37 kWh. 



Darryl McMahon             http://www.econogics.com
1973 Elec-Trak E12 electric tractor
1974 Auranthetic Charger electric motorcycle
1975 EVA Metro (Renault 12 conversion) electric car
1986 Pontiac Fiero (conversion) electric car
1997 SpinCraft Explorer electric boat
current project - B&D Model 8080 electric reel mower
next project - 1973 Porsche 914 conversion