What would convince you to buy an electric car?

[AllGold]

Ted King wrote:
[quote=AllGold]
Even electricity generated from 100% coal on a large scale is more efficient and less polluting than burning gasoline.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything handy to cite on the subject and I don't expect or even want you to take my word for it any more than I want you to take someone's word for it who says otherwise.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...in-hybrids
Unfortunately, you have to pay for a subscription to see the whole article (I get the magazine every month - that's how I knew about this article). But I did find another link that goes has a bit more:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...in-hybrids


Also, according to Scientific American, it's cheaper to run a car on from plug-in electricity than gasoline:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...per-charge

When you compare battery to gasoline power, electricity wins hands down. A 2007 study by the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) calculated that powering a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) would cost the equivalent of roughly 75 cents per gallon of gasoline—a price not seen at the pump for 30 years.

The calculation was made using an average cost of electricity of 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour and the estimated distance the car would travel on one charge, versus a car that gets 25 miles per gallon and is powered by $3 per gallon gasoline. Change any of those variables and the relative costs change. For example, substituting a car that gets 50 miles per gallon doubles the comparative electrical cost (though it still works out much cheaper than gasoline). On the other hand, in some areas where wind or hydropower is wasted at night—just when the PHEV would be charging—the utility might drop the kilowatt hour cost to two to three cents, making the charge much less costly.

So from what I can see of those S.A. pages, if 100% of all cars were 100% electric it looks like the worst case would be 36% worse in Illinois and the surrounding upper midwest region because it's mostly coal. Not as bad but still negative is the mid-Atlantic and most of the southeast. But in other areas of the country (with less coal power) it would be an advantage. In Texas, for example, it would be 25.7% less carbon emissions and most of the west would be even better all-electric.