4 ms·

Diesel puts out more torque every day of the week. The reason you use electric in Seattle is because of cheap hydro energy.

1024core 11y ago
You are incorrect. At start (speed == 0), an electric motor will put out a lot more torque than a diesel. When you're stopped at a steep hill, this is what matters the most.
- kazinator 11y ago
  At speed == 0, a combustion engine doesn't put out any torque; it doesn't work at that speed. It has quite a high minimum speed, below which it stalls (if under load: the idling speed is lower). To get going, you need a low gear and a clutch of some kind. To get going up a steep hill, with a heavy load, you simply need an even lower gear. The problem has a solution. The high low-end torque of electric motors is actually annoying in a transit vehicle. Particularly to those passengers who are standing up. The vehicle moves suddenly, flipping from zero acceleration to high acceleration. The time derivative of acceleration is called "jerk", for a good reason.
  - mc32 11y ago
    The jerking problem could be solved, if they wanted to. Just like modern elevators aren't jerky or HSRs aren't typically jerky and with most you are hard pressed to feel hard acceleration/deceleration (BART does have a jerking problem, but it's old and it's not HSR).
  - themodelplumber 11y ago
    Wait so where are you on the diesel yes/no question
    - kazinator 11y ago
      I don't own a car and cycle to work, appointments and errands (as well as for recreation, on top of running five days a week). Things on wheels with a diesel engine in them tend to be oversized and driven by lowlife assholes who threaten cyclists and other motorists. At times (such as when accelerating or otherwise loaded) they spew noxious black smoke from their unmanaged, unoptimized engines that run fine on 25 octane garbage due to the way they are designed, and are noisy as hell. The regulation for sulphur content in the fuel and the condition of diesel engines must be a joke in Canada. Definitely I don't see such black smoke coming out of trucks, or the pungent smell, in Japan, for instance. The trucks and buses smell similar to an indoor, household kerosene-burning heater, a bit like a paraffin candle; quite different from the acrid stench I'm used to smelling at home. So that's where I am on the diesel yes/no question.

1024core 11y ago

You are incorrect. At start (speed == 0), an electric motor will put out a lot more torque than a diesel. When you're stopped at a steep hill, this is what matters the most.

kazinator 11y ago
At speed == 0, a combustion engine doesn't put out any torque; it doesn't work at that speed. It has quite a high minimum speed, below which it stalls (if under load: the idling speed is lower). To get going, you need a low gear and a clutch of some kind. To get going up a steep hill, with a heavy load, you simply need an even lower gear. The problem has a solution. The high low-end torque of electric motors is actually annoying in a transit vehicle. Particularly to those passengers who are standing up. The vehicle moves suddenly, flipping from zero acceleration to high acceleration. The time derivative of acceleration is called "jerk", for a good reason.
- mc32 11y ago
  The jerking problem could be solved, if they wanted to. Just like modern elevators aren't jerky or HSRs aren't typically jerky and with most you are hard pressed to feel hard acceleration/deceleration (BART does have a jerking problem, but it's old and it's not HSR).
- themodelplumber 11y ago
  Wait so where are you on the diesel yes/no question
  - kazinator 11y ago
    I don't own a car and cycle to work, appointments and errands (as well as for recreation, on top of running five days a week). Things on wheels with a diesel engine in them tend to be oversized and driven by lowlife assholes who threaten cyclists and other motorists. At times (such as when accelerating or otherwise loaded) they spew noxious black smoke from their unmanaged, unoptimized engines that run fine on 25 octane garbage due to the way they are designed, and are noisy as hell. The regulation for sulphur content in the fuel and the condition of diesel engines must be a joke in Canada. Definitely I don't see such black smoke coming out of trucks, or the pungent smell, in Japan, for instance. The trucks and buses smell similar to an indoor, household kerosene-burning heater, a bit like a paraffin candle; quite different from the acrid stench I'm used to smelling at home. So that's where I am on the diesel yes/no question.