Tablespoon

[bennelson]

I did some more calculations on energy usage for the electric motorcycle.

After converting electric energy to gasoline energy, and figuring per mile; the cycle uses the equivelant of less than a tablespoon of gasoline per mile.

To compare, my wife's good car, on a good day, not driving too fast, would use just over half a cup.

Maybe I should keep a tablespoon with the cycle, just as a visual aid.

[SVOboy]

I love the visual,

[LostCause]

Pretty impressive at a vehicle efficiency level.

However, is that taking power generation into account? Source to sink, books I've read put electricity about on par with gasoline efficiency. The decrease in light sweet crude availability is starting to skew things, but electricity transmission is pretty lossy.

Data from R.Q. Riley's book (circa 2004) claimed that electricity from coal plants mated with electric cars consumed more energy per mile than traditional gasoline extraction mated to an equivalently sized petrol car. Natural gas plants slightly eeked out ahead.

Don't get me wrong. I'm damned impressed with your motorcycle and at $4.50 gas I wish I had one to put around on. I think electric technology is the way of the future. I was just surprised to learn that little caveat.

- LostCause

[bennelson]

Things always start to get a little funky once you figure EVERYTHING in.

Two big differences I can think of right off the bat are:

1) Physically moving oil from other parts of the world to refineries to the gas station, using a lot of fuel in tankers, trains, and trucks.

Electricity is transmitted over wires that just stand there. Better yet, make it yourself locally. (Now, I am NOT talking about shipping coal around, simply electric power transmission)

2) Gas comes only from oil.

Electricity can be make from coal, oil, natural gas, nuke, solar, wind, biogas, and more. I have 0% coal electricity at my house.

We all need to conserve more. Driving a ton of miles every week in an electric car charged off electricity make from coal, is NOT ecofriendly. Finding creative ways to travel less miles on less energy is.