Only about 12%–30% of the energy from the fuel you put in a conventional vehicle is used to move it down the road, depending on the drive cycle. The rest of the energy is lost to engine and driveline inefficiencies or used to power accessories. Therefore, the potential to improve fuel efficiency with advanced technologies is enormous.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is confident New York will have 10,000 publicly accessible charging stations for electric vehicles by the end of 2021. The number of places drivers will be able to find those plugs, however, will be far more limited.
Cuomo announced his current 10,000 stations goal in 2018 — his administration aiming to “make ownership of gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete.” But the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is overseeing efforts to bring the stations online, says that number refers to individual plugs for electric vehicles, not discrete stations throughout the state — an important distinction if the state hopes to alleviate “range anxiety” associated with the vehicles.
I often wonder if when most cars go all electric, they’ll start including a gallon or two diesel tanks that you might fill once or twice a year, like your windshield washer fluid. Sounds odd that you would need to add diesel to a plug-in electric vehicle but actually makes a lot of sense when you consider the laws of thermodynamics – virtually all electric buses carry a small 5 gallon diesel tank to run the diesel heaters.
An all electric car in cold climates would have much longer range if it relied on a small, efficient diesel heater to provide warmth to the batteries when starting, heat the interior and provide defrost. Diesel is widely used to heat homes – although we call untaxed diesel – heating oil.
While it’s true that an electric car that burns diesel for heat isn’t 100% carbon free, adding a diesel heater to electric cars could reduce carbon emissions by reducing required battery sizes and electricity consumption due to cold battery losses. Diesel heater consumption in an all electric car would be tiny compared to fossil automobiles – as your just heating not moving the car with diesel.
Electric cars could also contain a reversing valve in the air conditioning system to pump heat into the car in cold weather – and that’s more efficient than resistance heating. The problem with heat pumps in a car is you are limited in where you can pump heat from on a cold day – even a large radiator and very high refrigerant compression might not be sufficient to raise temperatures sufficiently without generating heat from the electricity which is very energy intensive. Maybe you can recover waste heat from the motors and battery but there is less than you might think – and as electric cars improve waste heat will only decline.
So I’m thinking low sulfur diesel might be the way to go for heating electric cars in cold climates.
"Dog house" is a name applied to signals that had two columns of yellow and green signals below a single red head. Dog houses are most commonly used to indicate protected left turns.
The Stutz Blackhawk is an American ultra-luxury car manufactured from 1971 through 1987. Other than the name it bears no resemblance to the original Blackhawk (1929-1930). The Stutz Motor Company was revived in August 1968 by New York banker James O'Donnell. He joined forces with retired Chrysler stylist Virgil Exner who designed the new Blackhawk. Exner's design included a spare tire that protruded through the trunklid, a massive 'kidney' grille, and freestanding headlamps. The new Blackhawk was prototyped by Ghia in Italy at a cost of over US$300,000. To offer exclusivity and still allow easy servicing in the U.S. a custom built Italian body was added to a General Motors platform and engine. The Blackhawk debuted in January 1970 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Prices ranged from US$22,500 to US$75,000. All early Blackhawks were coupes, but rare sedans were produced later.
The study came out earlier this week conducted by PlugShare Research, the research division of the fee app that tells you where you can find charging stations in your area. One quarter of US-based EV drivers are taking on a big electrical project within their own home, which is generally something homeowners avoid. It’s possible to safely work with wires, but you really have to know what you’re doing to avoid messing things up in a big way.
Level 2 high-voltage chargers produce 208-240 volts. The same plugs are also used for powering ovens or stoves, central air conditioning systems, water heaters, and other appliances that take up a lot of power. To install a plug can require a person to modify electrical panels and even excavate. In a nutshell, it’s generally not something you’ll fiddle around with at home. The fact that a quarter of EV owners in the States have done it is really interesting.
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