Instead, let’s get the full facts and bear them in mind when deciding our transport options. Little wonder that those in the oil and car industries, who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo trot out these shibboleths, but there is no excuse for anybody else. It joins other myths, such as the supposed difficulties involved in recycling batteries or generating the electricity required to recharge electric vehicles. In short, the long tailpipe theory is a myth used by those who, for whatever reason, oppose change.

When measuring so-called well-to-wheel emissions, in the case of the United States, the efficiency of electric vehicles is consistently well above that obtained even by the best and most modern internal combustion vehicles, regardless of how the electricity is obtained. Motorboats range in size from miniature craft designed to. In a large power plant, the possibilities of reusing that heat are obviously much greater than in the small engine of a vehicle. motorboat, a relatively small watercraft propelled by an internal-combustion or electric engine. An internal combustion engine in a car is at best 25%, efficient, with most energy simply lost as heat. Even the best combined cycle natural gas plants are about 60%, which still implies that 40% of the energy obtained from the fuel used is lost in the process of producing electricity. The average coal plant about 35% efficient, with the very best ultra super critical coal plants at about 42% efficient. The reason is as simple as it is obvious: energy produced in a power plant is much more efficient than in the small engine of a vehicle, no matter how much technology has improved the efficiency of these vehicles. In fossil fuel vehicles, this is not the case: everything it produces comes from where it comes from, and anybody with a minimum of environmental awareness should be ashamed every time they get behind the wheel.Ī recent study of electric buses, but applicable to any type of vehicle, shows that electric vehicles are less contaminating than their internal combustion equivalents, regardless of the source of the electricity, and even in places where most power plants are coal fired.

Therefore, even if all we were doing was transferring pollution from one point to another, in the vast majority of countries a certain part of that electricity would come from clean sources. More and more countries are using sustainable generation such as hydroelectric, wind, solar or other renewables, while at the same time, we are seeing an increase in distributed generation infrastructures such as solar panels in homes. The first reason is obvious: not all electricity is produced by coal and diesel power plants.

Since many countries still generate electricity in this way, the argument goes that electric vehicles are simply transferring the pollution from our exhaust pipe to the chimney of a power station. Where does it come from? The two main sources of air pollution are vehicles with diesel or gasoline engines and electricity generated by coal or diesel oil.

Kens miniature ic engines