By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… It’s back to the future. Electric Cars are coming. It is the eco-nuts latest gift to American society. You can be driving a Chevy Volt for a mere $41,000 or a Nissan Leaf for $33,000. However, not to worry if you decided to buy one of these toasters on wheels, the federal government may help you buy it with a $7,500 tax credit and some states are offering an additional $8,000 in subsidies. Another cash for clunkers deal?
In 1832, Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first electric carriage. In 1835, Professor Stratingh of Holland designed a small electric car. It was not until the 1890’s that the United States saw its first electric vehicles, a tricycle built by A.L. Ryker and William Morrison’s six passenger wagon, both built in 1891. Most of these early electric vehicles were merely buggies with electric motors. The 1902 Wood’s Phaeton was a horseless carriage with a range of 18 miles at a top speed of fourteen miles per hour. It cost $2000. In 1916, Woods invented a hybrid with both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.
In 1899 and 1900, the electric car outsold gas and steam power models. Electrics remained popular into the 1920’s, as they did not vibrate, smell of gas, or change gears. Electric cars did not require the hand crank to start.
For the most part electric cars were for the rich as they were fancy carriages that cost as much as $3000. Electric car production peaked in 1912.
The decline of the industry was due to a number of factors. The improvement of the road system created a need for a car with a longer range than the electric offered. The discovery of crude oil in Texas reduced the price of gasoline. Charles Kettering invented the electric starter for gas-powered vehicles. Henry Ford began to mass produce automobiles putting them in a price range the average American could afford. While the electric sold for $1750, Henry’s vehicles were on the market for $650.
Electric cars had all but disappeared by 1935. I do remember as a kid in the 1950’s, Des Moines had electric trolley cars and then electric buses. They were powered by long rods connected to overhead electrical lines down the middle of the street.
This modern move to the electric vehicle is designed to lower pollution and our dependence on foreign oil. I begin to wonder if these people who are saving us from ourselves ever stop to think of the residual effects of their efforts. The State of California hopes to have a million of these silent, no emission, creatures on the road by 2020. However, the State of California also has set a goal that by the year 2017, no electricity produced by fossil fuel will be consumed in the state.
If you purchase one, you might keep in mind that it will draw, over the year, the same amount of electricity as your home. If you have two autos, it will be two homes.
As I look around my neighborhood, I am under-privileged in the auto department, as I only own two. Most of my neighbors have more automobiles than that. If each American family had one electric car, it would be the same as if every American family had another home to supply with electricity. The demand on the electrical grid would double. Meanwhile, the same people who are championing the use of electric cars are also fighting the building of electrical facilities.
With the increase in consumption of electricity, there will be a need for an increase in production. Sorry, but wind, sun and thermo will not meet that need. Fossil fuel plants or nuclear plants will have to be built. The average cost for operating a gas power automobile in America is fifty-seven cents a mile. The average yearly cost per gas-powered car is $9,519 per year. The cost of operating the new electric cars is estimated at fifty-one cents a mile. However, the figure for electric cars is based on present day cost of electricity.
The increase in demand without an increase in supply would soon increase price of electricity to a point that the cost effectiveness of the electric car would soon disappear. One might want to check if burning coal and natural gas to produce electricity is really as efficient, and less polluting, than gasifying coal or converting vehicles to burn natural gas. The gasification of coal is economical as long as crude oil is over $40 a barrel. Both natural gas and coal are in great abundance and the use of these resources would end our dependence on foreign oil.
The major disadvantage of electric cars is that they aren’t practical for sustained use. Electric cars cannot hold a charge over a long distance. On average, it is possible for the car to run between 50 and 130 miles per charge. Charging time for a vehicle has been lowered to twenty minutes if done at a quick charge facility. However, having to stop every hundred miles for twenty minutes is less than desirable. While electric cars can run up to the same speeds as standard vehicles, the faster you run the more battery you use. If you want to heat or air condition your vehicle, the range of the automobile is cut. Electric cars tend to be on the small side, since a larger vehicle would require a larger battery and more frequent recharging.
Here are some questions that come to my mind. You decide to have a party and twenty guests drive a distance that requires a recharge to get home, what do you do? Set out extension cords with multiple plugs? Would twenty cars blow your house’s power? How would you like the utility bill for that one? How about when you drive your electric car to work, will the parking lots all have plugs? Instead of parking meters, will the streets have outlets that can be accessed by meters? What about cities that have passed ordinance against electric vehicles on the streets aimed at keeping seniors from driving their golf carts to the post office? All I can say is, I will miss the rumble of my big red pickup with its’ Mustang racing exhaust and glass packs.
Thought of the week…Before you go into a canyon, know how you’ll get out.
– Old cowboy saying.
