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LOL. Amen, Brother. I did exactly the same thing, though we couldn't give up the truck. My daughter's horse (the hay burner) still needs to be trailered to all their shows. It would be interesting to calculate his mileage per bale... I guess he generates exactly one HP.

Well said. +1 on that!

sorry... but I have to disagree on this one. I don't think all-electric cars are going to be the answer because we're already pushing battery chemistry to the limit. Lithium makes a good battery because it's highly reactive. But since it's highly reactive, it also doesn't occur in nature by itself. It has to be refined from other compounds. I read recently that geologists suspect there are large deposits of lithium compounds in... Afganistan. Does that strike anyone else as a problem?

Solar generation and windmills are wonderful ideas, but they generate very little electricity. For the foreseeable future, the vast majority of electric cars will be coal powered.

The problem is a question of energy density. That is, the amount of energy contained in a given quantity of a fuel. Gasoline, diesel, natural gas, etc are all very energy dense, and this is what makes them good vehicle fuels. IMO, the real future has to be in Hydrogen. It's the only thing out there that compares to gasoline in energy density, and when you use it as a fuel the by-product is pure water vapor. The trouble is in building the infrastructure to store and transport hydrogen to the consumer.

 
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they do have quite a few massive solar charge facilities setup so im sure its possible to expand them into more states. i have also seen personal stations at home. i agree on the raw materials aspect, but the same applies to regular gas cars made today. where does all the metal and plastic come from? destructive and costly mining and oil drilling ofcourse. but at least once an electric car is built, the environmental impact stops. and you dont have to breathe in toxic fumes every time you want to drive somewhere. or make sure you drive around enough so the car warms up properly. electric cars dont care what the temp and elevation are, how long you drive, or any other problems that gas engines have like worrying about oil and coolant changes, trans fluid, etc. its all battery and electric motor. you just eliminated a huge chunk of maintenance costs and potential problems. geothermal is also a great alternative when solar doesnt work well for a given area. the sad part is, GM made a really good electric car way back in 1997 i believe, called the EV1. to this day, it is still the most advanced electric ever built. the only thing that could use improving is the lead acid battery pack. the car itself was a marvel of technology and had the lowest drag coefficient of any production car. there are just other vested interests keeping the electric car out of the picture or making it look like the technology will not work, when in fact history has shown us it works better than anything else. go watch the film "who killed the electric car" and report back lol.

 
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You are raising a very good point there. Something I've known for awhile. I live in British Columbia where we generate probably the cleanest most renewable energy in the world and the talk around the province for 5+ years is how the electric utility cannot keep up with the demand of electricity NOW. What happens when the 3 million people of this province alone have to plug their electric car in? Don't kid yourselves, alot of clean electricity is going to come from dirty sources if electric cars come to rule the world.

I understand that the hydrogen infrastructure and refining is going to be a hurdle that has to be overcome for it to truly reach the mainstream but the same was true for gasoline at one point. A large part of that infrastructure is already there in terms of gas stations and propane distribution systems so personally I don't think it's that much of a leap to make the hydrogen fuel cell car a reality.