Jed Rothwell
> If gasoline goes up to $4 or $5 per gallon, you will see this kind of thing implemented with lightning speed -- much faster than anyone has predicted or imagined lately. ....even as things stand now, one wonder how long it will take... In trying to equate battery recharge costs to a gasoline powered ICE, it is challenge to get figures which reflect an accurate cross-comparison. There should be an online site for this ..?? A figure of 30 kilowatts is often used as an adequate power for normal driving. It is easy to see that with electricity at $ .10 / kwh you could drive for an hour at top speed for not much over $3, using electricity, if you didn't experience too much heat loss in the recharge ... and if electricity doesn't go way up soon (let's hope not) and the motor/battery is ~95% efficient. With gasoline having an energy content of 114,000 btu/gallon and an ICE engine having an efficiency of ~25% you are getting about 28,000 btu equivalent or 8.2 kwh for your same $3. Therefore to get the same 30 kwh equivalent from a gasoline powered automobile, it would seem to cost over three times more with gas at $3 gallon, which it will be this summer, without some kind of voodoo economics at work. If I got the numbers right, that is. That comparison does seem high - does anyone have an accurate site for finding these comparison numbers? Jones
