Quote:
Originally Posted by buyadultblogposts
Where does the electricity come from the power the car.. from coal and gas burning refineries..
|
Lots of electricity comes from coal in the US, but this isn't true of some other countries. Here in Canada, most of it comes from rewable Hydro. In France most of it comes from Nuclear. In Germany, about 50% now comes from Wind and Solar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VRPdommy
I
Keep in mind, those of us in the wintery north could not drive these EV's with "HEAT" as doing so would discharge a battery before we went anywhere. Electric produced heat is the least efficient method available. Unless you were to use a "gas" heater like the old VW's had in the 60's or perhaps propane for heat ?
So those of us in the north will need to use a hydrogen fuel cell powered EV or equivalent to generate some heat with the electric.
|
No that's not exactly right.
I drive my Chevy Volt in the Winter (and its been -15 here lately). While range is reduced to heat the cabin, it still just just fine on all electric.
One thing that surprised me was that it is more efficient to heat the seat than to heat the air. When I was ordering the car I didn't really want electrically heated seats but it was a standard option. Confused by it, I looked it up and found out that they did this on purpose to save energy.
On the plus side, since its electric heating, I don't have to wait for the car to warm-up in the winter. It is warm and toasty within about 1 minute.
What's also cool is that if you set it to automatic and ECO, it balances fresh air with recirculated air, and speeds up and slow down the fan, turns the heat up and down, and heats the seat automatically etc, to warm you up. It somehow is more efficient than manual controls in that it uses less energy according to the energy usage display. I don't know how it works but its pretty neat.