Electric cars
can be more energy efficient in the grand scheme then gas piston cars. It all depends on how the electricity is produced.
Remember that internal combustion engines are only 30-35% efficient at best. eg. 70% of the energy in a gallon of gas is just wasted as heat. Whereas some combined-cycle fossil fuel fired power plants are up to 50% efficient, most are the same as car engines though. Wind and solar are even less efficient, however their energy sources are not hydrocarbons, so they leave less air pollution if they are used long enough to recoup the initial energy cost of their manufacturing.
Problem with electric cars right now is that:
1) They are just not very practical, especially for people like me in rural areas. When you have to drive 100 miles to the grocery store, a car that only goes less then 200 miles on a charge, and takes several hours to recharge is completely worthless. Of course this will improve with better battery technology.
2) There is a significant environmental cost to the mining, extraction and refining, of the materials that go into every car. However with electric cars the initial cost is higher due to the batteries. The theory is that they will be more friendly in the long run because of their greater efficiency, but again, that all depends on how the electricity is generated.
3) The electrical infrastructure would need huge upgrades to handle the load if everybody started plugging their cars in.
***I know, I know according to the electric car lobby our current power grid "could" handle it if everybody only ever charged their car in the middle of the night. But I call BS on that.*** In reality our current power grid could not handle it. Not everyone is gonna be perfect about charging only during off peak hours. Remember rolling blackouts in CA and AZ from everyone running their air conditioner in the summer, guess what, people drive a lot in the summer too? Imagine the rolling blackouts busy holiday seasons when everyone is charging their car to go on vacation,
AND they have their AC going because it's 100°. So what kind of generators do we build to power our electric cars, Coal, Oil, Hydroelectric, Nuclear, Solar, Windfarm??? Every one of them has it's drawbacks and disadvantages, and remember NIMBY syndrome, there are few who want a power plant (or oil drill) in their back yard.
Also what about power outages, in some rural areas, they happen quite frequently. What do you do, call your boss. "Sorry I can't make it to work today because the power was out last night so my car is dead."
So no... I don't think pure electric cars are a good idea. A better solution IMO would be better hybrid technology, with diesels. I mean current diesel cars already get better mileage then gasoline hybrids, so why not make a diesel/electric hybrid. They've been doing it on trains for many years.
Hydrogen technology seems neat too, but it has a long way to go before it is practical as well.
Bottom line, there is no simple solution, there is no "free" energy, it all has advantages and drawbacks. I don't think electric cars are the great Satan like some do. Nor do I think they are the panacea to all our energy problems like others. There are gullible people, marketing gimmicks and ridiculous propaganda on both sides of the issue, although I think there is quite a bit more on one side....
