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I'm sorry but wouldn't we be burning oil and coal to make the electricity for these cars? A solar panel on the roof of your garage (for those who have one) is not going to be sufficient for everyday driving.



I disagree with your assumptions, but even if I did agree with them, I don't agree with the underlying point.

I suspect that you are assuming that the energy equivalent of one mile of driving on electricity provided by coal or gas burning steam generator plants is equivalent to (or worse than) the energy needed to drive one mile on gasoline. Due to economy of scale, the energy is a small fraction. Also, when you are not providing thrust from the electric engine, it does not idle, it turns off. This saves significant energy, thereby decreasing substantially the amount of energy needed to drive a given distance (especially in city traffic). But the underlying assumption that the amount of coal or natural gas needed to create the electrical energy to drive an electrical drive car one mile is similar to the amount of gas needed to drive one mile in a gasoline car.

In addition, there are no emissions from combustion; decreasing smog and imroving the local environment (nevermind getting into the fight over global warming--not my battle or interest). The quieter drive is also smoother and better handling than the torque providing gasoline vehicles. Gasoline combustion engines must run at very high RPM creating significant wasted heat energy and needing a transmission to decrease the RPM to useable speeds to turn the wheels. All of this is a waste of energy that electrical motors don't create.

Not only can solar panels very, very easily provide all of the energy you need to charge the Karma (no matter what part of the country you live in). If you splurge for the larger solar panels, and live in the right part of the country, you can sell back your excess power to the electric company and make enough power during the summer months to pay for your electricity use during the winter months and essentially provide power for your entire house for the entire year AND get a tax credit back at the end of the year.

More importantly than all of that, this is modern technology that works better, lasts longer, needs less maintenance, has less moving parts, is easier to maintain, and is better designed and built than anything comming out of Detroit or Japan.

To me, this car has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with being a tree-hugging environmentalist. It is solely about somebody building a better product earning my business.


Edited by ohblah (04/07/09 03:57 PM)
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