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Old 25th-February-2008, 05:30 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kev67 View Post
I wonder how fuel efficient these electric cars actually are. The GWiz is reported to have a tiny fuel consumption, but that is probably largely due to it being small and very slow. The batteries have to recharged by electricity from the grid and much of that energy is produced by coal and gas power stations. There are efficiency losses during generation, transmission and charging up the battery. I suppose if they were recharged at night then more of that electricity would come from nuclear power stations, in this country anyway. I suppose the other thing is electric engines have fewer moving parts and no optimum RPM.
They are more efficient by CO2 output even when they are charged up by coal fired power stations. I can name various reasons but one is an electric motor has maximum torque at 0 rpm, obviously a petrol motor can't beat that.
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