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Noticing that in the USA and also the UK the discussion about electric
vehicles so often mentions the production of electrcity by burning
natural gas, oil, or god forbid, coal definitely being the most
polluting, as witnessed by the UK getting rid of much of it's coal
burning by the 1960s, after several hundred years of industrial
production based on coal.
Only recently, heard once again, that old Yorkshire (England)
expression which use the slang word "brass" for money! Which says
"Where there's muck (industrial dirt, smoke, smog etc.) there's brass
(money)"!
But there are many parts of the world that use hydro generated and or
more locally generated electrcity from wind power, solar etc. There
are for example some individual homes, in one part of Germany (that
country being presumably not as sunny as say the southern USA?) that
produce more electrcity from solar etc. than they consume. And by law,
there, it can be sold back into the public electric system. This does
mean, by the way, that there will not be times, when the roast is in
oven and the clothes dryer and/or clothes washer are operating they
will 'draw electricity from the grid'. But on an overall net basis
they put more energy from their built features such as solar cells,
back into the system, than they draw!
In this particular part of Canada we use about 95%, soon to be 100%,
electrcity generated by hydro. Which then gets into discussion about
whether hydro generation IS truly 'green', or not!
But trying to knock down the electric car argument by always
'assuming' that generating electricity involves some sort of 'muck' is
incorrect. Electrcity from hydro generation in north eastern Canada,
e.g. 'Churchill Falls', the planned 'Lower Churchill River Project' in
Newfoundland - Labrador, 'James Bay' in northern Quebec etc. already
powers New York via connecting high voltage transmission lines.
Certain types of transmission line can also be run under the sea.
However having said that; the OP seems to be a link to some very
expensive plugs and cords?
Looking at the third example in the link, $600 for what appears to be
a plug, a special socket and a length of possibly 10 AWG flex seems
very expensive!!!!!!! The plug in the $600 kit for, example, looks
identical to the 30/50 amp plug on the 230 volt 4800 watt garage
heater that we bought recently, complete with plug and cord for less
than $70, including sales tax! And which we plug into the 230 volt
welder outlet in our garage to provide auxiliary heat in cold weather
while working on a vehicle. Even to 'make up' that plug/wire/socket
combination, even allowing that the special plug into the vehicle
might cost say $30, could probably be done for around $60 or less?
Some of the preliminary calculations seem to indicate that even in
this cold climate, where batteries do not function as well as in
warmer climes, an electric vehicle, for the mileage and distances that
this retiree drives could be highly practical!
And here where gasoline, for example, now costs, more than a dollar
litre (Roughly 3.8 litres to a US gallon) so we are talking at least
$4 per gallon, for regular; and where a 20 mile per gallon vehicle
costs say 20 cents per mile, for gasoline alone, the electric
equivalent, seeing that our domestic electricity cost is around 10
cents per kilowatt hour it could cost us 80 cents to one dollar to
completely recharge an electric car battery?
