However, as you point out, the Germans get increasing amounts of power from green sources… and so could we.

Ok, du bist richtig. Aber … mein Deutsch ist scheiss.

Anyway … for me at least, if I were living in a city, I would want a car not just for transportation around the city, but also/primarily to leave the city. An electric car would clearly not work for this. Of course, for families with more than one car that live on the outskirts of a city, an electric car would be convienent.

I’m with you on the “modern urban transportation system” and I’m not against electric cars or city cars in general. However, I could see people buying electric cars and driving the two miles (or kilometers …) to work instead of using their feet/bikes, or the public transport (if available). Perhaps this latter comment is more applicable to US cities and/or cities with poor public transport.

But the outskirts are beautiful and rather sparsely populated and are not so easy to access without a car. Even with the lowish range of contemporary electric cars, you could get around a lot if you had charging stations.

Personally, I believe that a modern urban transportation system should flexible and multi-mode. It should be possible to do a lot by foot, bicycle, subway, tramway, and train but for those willing to pay, cars should be an element too. This approach helps prevent transportation breakdowns, and makes life a bit more efficient and comfortable.

I both agree and disagree. Power is generated more efficiently in new power plants then ICE’s, but “current US grid+BEV < Diesels”. Wikipedia says:

“Overall average efficiency from US power plants (33% efficient) to point of use (transmission loss 9.5%), (US DOE figures) is 29.87% . Accepting 90% efficiency for the electric vehicle gives us a figure of only 26.88% overall efficiency. That is lower than the efficinecy of an internal combustion engine(Petrol/Gasoline 30% efficient, Diesel engines 45% efficient – Volvo figures)”

Efficiency of ICE’s are limited through the laws of thermodynamics, and we’re close to that limit. But US grid can be upgraded to be more efficient, and it’s possible to decrease carbon emissions of total electric generation system by simply adding more renewable sources such as wind, solar or biofuel energy.

Also German power grid is more efficient and “green” than US grid.

shaker: +1

Come on! Engrish is so great!

Not as bad as the Japanese (where you might encounger “Gangster #1 Super Champion League USA!” on a t-shirt), but still painful to read. Sure wish those Germans would forgoe the Germlish and just stick w/the spitting, grunting & throat clearing.

I recently saw a sketch, perhaps because of something I noticed on TTAC, of an arrangement that makes a great deal of sense… urban curbside carports with solar panel tops. They can directly charge any cars parked in front of them (a driver would feed his meter with an appropriate number of quarters) and put any excess electricity generated back on the grid. Or get electricity from the grid to feed the cars when it’s cloudy.