Premium Members RonBaldwin Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 I think Eric and I will just stay in line for the diesel VW Dakar Toureg's. Might be nice to have...if they ever double-book, you'll be there first! http://www.autobloggreen.com/photos/la-200...areg-2/1172169/ rb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 I think Eric and I will just stay in line for the diesel VW Dakar Toureg's. Might be nice to have...if they ever double-book, you'll be there first! http://www.autobloggreen.com/photos/la-200...areg-2/1172169/ rb Works for me. I drove a Dakar T-Reg Last year at VIR You would have loved it Ron, It was Awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members RonBaldwin Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 I'm jealous! Those things kicked arse in the Baja 1000. Had to refuel half as much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jess Haas SOC Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 Trouble with electric cars is they produce the same amount of CO2, it just comes out of some power station somewhere rather than the exhaust. You sure about that? Even coal powered power plants are more efficient than your cars engine and more and more power is coming from renewable sources. Check out http://www.slate.com/id/2179609/ for one comparison that proves you wrong. Even if it simply moved the emissions somewhere else it would be great for places like LA. One cool thing about the Tesla is that under the hood serves as a second trunk. ~Jess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Ed Moore Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 Yep you're right Jess, I should have said "the problem is... they STILL produce CO2", not that they produce the same amount. As you say, the amount they produce is highly dependent on a number of factors. But even in the case of the Tesla it's still about 75%, plus you have a large battery that needs replacing every so often. As for the emissions, it's definitely nicer in the short term (this is one of the reasons London makes zero-emission vehicles exempt from the congestion charge that's levied on all other traffic in the centre of the city) but in the medium to long term the atmosphere doesn't care where the greenhouse gases are originating, only that they are. The 'safe level' is now considered to be 350 parts of CO2 per million (http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126). Many estimates already put us past this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jess Haas SOC Posted May 30, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 While the estimates in the article didn't really take into account the whole battery thing they also didn't take into account the amount of energy required to drill, refine and transport gas. I have a feeling that our electric grid is a much more efficient means of distribution than that used to distribute gas. As far as short vs long term the nice thing about electric vehicles is that as we move to cleaner and cleaner energy sources for electricity they become cleaner and cleaner. In the US there have been a lot of windmills going up lately and the way things are going I would expect at lot more of such things. ~Jess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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