That car companies deceive their customers on actual fuel efficiency standards, and that governments all over have looked the other way, should come as no surprise to anyone. That Volkswagen has gone the extra mile to deliberately cheat with illigal software shows a degree of stupid arrogance that is decidedly Teutonic in character. Whenever the Germans screw up, they are prone to do it big time.
One of the German engineering arguments in favor of combustion engines in general, and diesel in particular, is "It makes no sense building clean electric cars when the power they consume come from a coal-fired electricity plant."
Well, it actually makes sense, even then. The Fuel-to-Wheels power efficiency of electric cars are more than four times greater than that of diesel-driven cars. This means that the CO2 emissions from a coal-fired power plant propelling an electric car is only about half the emissions caused by a car's diesel engine.
However, a more intriguing question to ask is how to solve the lengthy recharging dilemma when the use of electric cars eventually becomes widespread. Recent news stories from California describe nascent plug-in warfare and associated shenanigans around too scarce recharging outlets in relation to the as of yet relatively small number of electric cars in circulation.
Keep tuned in on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment