PhillyCarShare Adds New Electric Cars
Earlier I found a stimulating article posted earlier today, by Pete Danko, and entitled PhillyCarShare Adds New Electric Cars that I would encourage all of you to read. Here are a few excerpts in order to whet your appetites!
According to Transport Watch, only about 30% of the energy generated by the power plant actually reaches the vehicle because of losses in the transmission route. Of the energy delivered to the vehicle, 20% is then lost to the batteries and electric motor. This means that most EVs are only about 24% efficient. Contrast that with a modern on-board engine, which achieves an efficiency of 35-40% on the fuel burned by the vehicle. Granted, the internal combustion engine does emit CO2 at the tailpipe, while an EV does not. However, the CO2 emitted by the EV is not seen at the curb, leading to the assumption that electric cars decrease CO2 emissions overall. In addition, consider the heavy metals used in the EV’s batteries.
Now then, reading Pete Danko’s post started me off thinking so I searched for some more posts on the subject and found some more gems! i.e. this post by thecodger, posted yesterday, on From the desk of The Codger:
My most impressive accomplishment was inventing the external combustion engine. I made the plans right on a cocktail napkin. I’m sick and tired of every engine being internal combustion. That’s why we need a change, and I came up with the idea, so I don’t want any of you stealing credit for it. When I thought the coast might be clear, I phoned the missus. I made her assure me that she had our house fumigated before I agreed to come home. She said she did.
Another fantastic post came from admin on New Car Trade Show posted back in November and entitled Internal combustion engine powered vehicles which is also definitely worth a look.
In 1870, using a simple handcart, he built a crude vehicle with no seats, steering, or brakes, but it was remarkable for one reason: it was the world’s first internal-combustion-engine-powered vehicle fueled by gasoline. It was tested in Vienna in September of 1870 and put aside. In 1888 or 1889, he built a second automobile, this one with seats, brakes, and steering, and included a four-stroke engine of his own design. That design may have been tested in 1890. Although he held patents for many inventions, he never applied for patents for either design in this category. The four-stroke engine already had been documented and a patent was applied for in 1862 by the Frenchman Beau de Rochas in a long-winded and rambling pamphlet. He printed about three hundred copies of his pamphlet and they were distributed in Paris, but nothing came of this, with the patent application expiring soon afterward—and the pamphlet disappearing into total obscurity. In fact, its existence mostly was unknown and Beau de Rochas never built a single engine.
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The patent, and presumably the vehicle, contained many innovations, some of which wouldn’t be used for decades. However, during the vehicle’s first test, the frame broke apart, the vehicle literally “shaking itself to pieces,” in Malandin’s own words. No more vehicles were built by the two men. Their venture went completely unnoticed and their patent unexploited. Knowledge the vehicles and their experiments was obscured until years later. Supposedly in the late 1870s, an Italian named Murnigotti patented the idea of installing an internal combustion engine on a vehicle, although there is no evidence that one was built. In 1884, Enrico Bernardi, another Italian, installed an internal combustion engine on his son’s tricycle. Although merely a toy, it is said to have operated somewhat successfully in one source, but another says the engine’s power was too feeble to make the vehicle move.