10
votes
Accepted
Is electricity used at night more likely to be renewable?
In Ireland, electricity is equally likely to be from renewable sources during the day as during the night
ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, provides a ...
- 11.7k
8
votes
Are EVs actually worse for ambient air quality than cars with combustion engines?
This totally depends on what you consider pollution and how you measure it.
If you measure pollution by weight, the vast majority of pollution is carbon dioxide. One liter of fuel produces 2.35 kg of ...
- 4,257
7
votes
Accepted
Which car is more sustainable, an all-electric Tesla Model 3 or a gas-powered Prius?
Operation
You can use AFLEET, the Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation tool, from Argonne National Laboratory, to quickly do this analysis.
Using the US average ...
- 11.7k
7
votes
How does cold weather affect electric vehicles?
The optimal temperature for a lithium-ion car battery is 20-25°C. When it's cold the battery can store less energy, so the range will go down. Additionally in winter people turn on the car's heater. ...
- 14.4k
5
votes
To what extent (if any) are electric vehicle batteries recyclable?
Li-Ion batteries are worth recycling just for the lithium in them. This material can be re-refined, and made into new batteries. In this use they should show similar cost savings to recycled vs new ...
- 7,127
5
votes
Accepted
Any electric vehicle that can be used as a home energy storage?
You would need an EV that supports bi-directional loading, so that means one that uses the CHAdeMO charging system of Nissan and Mitsubishi. The CCS charging system that's popular in Europe and the US ...
- 14.4k
5
votes
Do solar PV roofs make sense for semi trucks?
Taking a single semitrailer as the load you have approximately 12.5m long by 2.5m wide of top surface, or 31.25m². With 20% efficient panels you might get as much as 6kW from the semitrailer, or 6kWh ...
- 3,856
4
votes
Accepted
Electricity need to switch all cars from fossil fuel
By order of magnitude your approximation is reasonable. I compared it to a 2021 analysis performed by Mark Jacobson as part of his 100% Wind, Water, and Solar (WWS) All-Sector Energy Roadmaps for ...
- 11.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How much weight would a wireless charging system add to an electric bus?
TL;DR: On-board components of wireless charging are actually 342 kg lighter than for the on-board components of plug-in charging, and allows the total battery size to be reduced (given ability to ...
- 11.7k
3
votes
How much of a reduction of carbon emissions can be achieved if a diesel bus is switched out for electric?
To make a calculation you would need to know the fuel consumption of the current diesel buses and the efficiency of the electric buses that would replace them. That information is probably not ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Are solar powered cars sustainable and are they a good idea for future transportation?
A self-contained solar-powered car is not viable. There simply isn't enough area for the solar panels.
Take a Honda Civic as an example: it's got about eight square meters of top surface that solar ...
- 579
3
votes
To what extent (if any) are electric vehicle batteries recyclable?
Battery recycling today is handled by 3rd parties. This leads to issues of economic value on materials extracted since they must cover a large variety of battery types and cannot specialize on any one....
- 191
3
votes
To what extent (if any) are electric vehicle batteries recyclable?
It appears that currently (late December 2020), lithium from batteries is not recycled, because it is only worth 6 euro per kg (9 USD per kg). The only metals recovered from Li batteries are the ...
- 3,417
3
votes
Is there a total cost of ownership calculator for cars that will give me electric vehicle options?
Yes there is, but unfortunately the only calculator I know, which allows determining both the climate impact and the total cost of ownership at the same time, is only available in the Finnish language....
- 4,257
3
votes
Are EVs actually worse for ambient air quality than cars with combustion engines?
You need to ask are those numbers realistic:
Article says car emitted “5.8 grams per kilometer”.
We assume that car has 4 tyres.
Kwik-fit (A company that wants to sell tyres, so may be an under ...
- 133
2
votes
New electric vehicle: does the cost outweigh the benefits?
I've gone through the same dilemma recently, and what made my mind up was the relatively cheap cost of offsetting my emissions from driving - around US$100 for a whole year's worth or 15,000 miles.
...
- 377
2
votes
What are the pros and cons of electric motors vs. internal combustion engines?
What are the pros and cons of electric motors, compared to internal combustion engines, from a sustainability perspective?
The main comparison is between fuel energy density and energy efficiency, ...
- 4,257
2
votes
Electric cars and grid power capacity
National Grid supplies the energy for the UK, and also manages the high voltage power transmission system. Each year, they prepare a Future Energy Scenarios report looking at energy needs across the ...
- 11.7k
2
votes
Method of transport with decent speed/low cost without a driving license?
Since providing my older answer to this question, and since considering electric scooters, I have actually purchased an electric bike and have to not update my old answer but provide a new much better ...
- 4,257
2
votes
Method of transport with decent speed/low cost without a driving license?
An electric scooter would be ideal.
Bicycles suffer from a peculiar characteristic of humans, namely that they produce power at a ridiculously low RPM. Power is force times speed. If speed is low, to ...
- 4,257
2
votes
Accepted
How much of a reduction of carbon emissions can be achieved if a diesel bus is switched out for electric?
It depends entirely on where your city is and where it gets its energy.
The Electricity Map has live energy data for the Carbon Intensity of the electricity supply. Right now, the CO2 intensity of ...
- 1,230
2
votes
Are trains more sustainable than electric buses?
Electric is as sustainable as its sources today.
Smartville has 80% coal 20% large hydro (which lends itself to pumped storage). They are replacing 5% of their coal with renewables every year, ...
2
votes
Are electric cars as environmentally friendly as we think they are?
The answer to this depends on your assumed alternative. Electric vehicles are better than some traditional gas-fueled cars, but hybrids can have an even larger footprint than efficient combustion ...
2
votes
Why do most car manufacturers prefer electric batteries over hydrogen fuel cells?
Why do most car manufacturers prefer electric batteries over hydrogen fuel cells?
Because it's cheaper today, easy to pack the batteries under the floor, won't decrease the range much and won't have ...
- 4,257
2
votes
How exactly do the impacts of lithium mining compare to oil extraction over a vehicle's lifetime?
This is quite a difficult question to answer with precision, because the impacts of mining depend a lot on how you do it. I can offer a few references which give a guide to the scale of the problem.
...
- 1,001
2
votes
Electricity need to switch all cars from fossil fuel
In my country, a typical motorist drives 15000 km/year. With state of the art electric cars that consume less than 0.2 kWh / km, and taking into account charging losses (that bring the total ...
- 4,257
2
votes
How should EV drivers prepare for winter driving?
Keep the vehicle nearly fully charged during cold periods (if not using LiFePO4 batteries then at 95% charge to avoid full charge damage) at all times. Not only because of possible need for lots of ...
- 4,257
2
votes
Does battery state-of-charge affect regenerative braking in electric vehicles?
Yes it does, especially on the "1-pedal driving" cars that lack the proper hardware to use brake pedal for braking, but rather they automatically slow down when the gas pedal is released.
...
- 4,257
2
votes
Accepted
CHAdeMO to Type 2 connector for charging EV cars
That's nearly impossible, or at least so impractical it won't happen.
CHAdeMO is DC fast charging.
Type 2 is AC charging.
In theory, you could create a 11 kW inverter converting CHAdeMO DC signal into ...
- 4,257
2
votes
Accepted
Is it safe to use EV de-charging cables?
No way will this work with most EVs. (It seems to already mention that in the description -- needing V2L.)
EV battery is direct current. To create alternating current, you need an inverter. To create ...
- 4,257
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible