Gas Pedal? What Gas Pedal? How about - How much Gas was saved?

Some people driving electric cars seem to get stuck on last century terminology - Gas Pedal! How about Accelerator Pedal? Or just Go pedal, the one beside the Stop pedal (The Brake Pedal)! Maybe we should color them Green for Go Pedals, and Red for Stop Pedals!

Also - some reports are coming in and say that Electric Car Sales have not exploded, so they must be dead!! Well - let's just compare - how many sales of other premium cars were there last year? (No - I don't have the answer - that's why it is a question!) Or - how about this - how many Extra Gallons (or Litres) of Gasoline were available for other drivers last year because of the electric Cars that did get sold?

Since an Electric car uses no Gasoline - ALL of the Gas it would have used if it were Gas Powered - is available for other cars! No Matter how many miles per gallon it would have gotten in a gas powered equivalent!

The Possibilities for an electric car to be fueled, if you will, by electrons moved by the sun, in your own properties space, via a Solar Photo-Voltaic panel (Solar PV, or Solar Electric), while likely a bit on the expensive side, generally have issues with creation, but cause so very little pollution with use as to be nearly non-existent, EV + PV = The True Green Solution!

Search EV + PV and you will find a number of sites on this subject! Like Jeff Chan's very descriptive pdf report by Sherry Boschert.

Beyond that - in My mind - Solar Power Production, in Work Parking Lots, that Feed the Grid, and as electric vehicles grow in numbers - charge them up - would do a lot to clean up local air conditions in Cities, and reduce the concentration of pollutants along road sides and in work site parking lots!

For those who want, but can't afford, an Electric Car, and want more than a 15 - 20 mph electric scooter, there are high powered electric scooters and Electric Motorcycles coming out now for 25% of the cost of an Electric Car, with - in some cases - even more range!

In all - the day of the Gas Pedal - is something your Grand Children might not even know about! Maybe even your children, if you are still young yet! Between Electric Vehicles, and Self-Drive Technology - either one or both of these items are likely to remove the terminology of the 'Gas' pedal from our vocabulary!

Enjoy your Gas Pedal While you can!

Coal is Better - when fed to Electric Cars? Yes!

Over at Gas2.org, Nick Chalmers just posted his report and included references on why Electric Cars are Better Even When "Fueled" with Coal.

The biggest problem seems to be - not the facts, but the argument itself!

Additional points not covered by Nick, include the facts that - with an internal Combustion Engine Vehicle - there is essentially no way for you go produce gas at your house, even if you have an oil well in your back yard, and - while many homes over the years have had coal stoves, I know of none that have had a coal powered generator 'on the farm', so to speak.

However - I do know of many solar powered, or solar assisted homes, that use Solar Energy in it's natural forms for heat - hot water and hot air, as well as in conversion systems, using PhotoVoltaic (PV) Panels, for their electrical needs. And - with Grid Tied Solar on your home, and an EV in your driveway - you are both replacing the electricity onto the grid during the day when it needs it most, and therefore reducing the need for coal powered Electricity, and using it from the Grid usually at night - to recharge your EV, when plants are otherwise poluting and the power is going to waste.

If your EV - had a 100 mile range only - and you reduced your commuting distance to 10 miles, you could charge up the car just once a week, yet putting Solar energy into the grid every day! As most homes are not designed primarily for energy efficiency - but for show - the option of a house built to be energy self supporting has not even occured to most buyers yet! Granite Counters, 'Satin Finish Hardwood Flooring' and Classy Carpet is more important! the Same $$ could be used to make the home not a load on the grid, but a supplier to the Grid, and reduce general living and operational costs of the home.

Of course - Nick mentions "An electric car runs off of a power source that can be made from a multitude of different things. From coal, to natural gas, to biomass, to wind, to solar, to wave, to nuclear, to hydro, to oil, to anything else that might come down the pipe in the future (fusion?). It’s “infinitely” dynamic. This does two things: it makes your energy supply more secure and it means your car just became infinitely more versatile. A gas car can only run off of gas or some other form of gas-like fuel." Which is the whole point of the Switch to EV's in the first place - versatility of energy sources!