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Lubrication, fuel, and cooling systems all work more efficiently when powered by electric motors. The reason is they increase drag unnecessarily at high motor
by Andys 18y ago
Lubrication, fuel, and cooling systems all work more efficiently when powered by electric motors. The reason is they increase drag unnecessarily at high motor rpms. (But they also cost more).
I think this would be a logical way of making a car engine more efficient. Fuel cells are cool but the infrastructure already set up to refuel and maintain petrol engines is vast and not ready to go away yet.
- rbanffy 18y ago"the infrastructure already set up to refuel and maintain petrol engines is vast and not ready to go away yet." And that's precisely why ethanol engines are such a nice idea. I have been driving ethanol-running cars since my youth and can tell you they work just fine and have a pretty low carbon footprint, specially when compared to fossil-fuel based ones. I sincerely doubt they got their math straight.
- jibiki 18y agoIn terms of carbon footprint, a lot depends on where the ethanol comes from. For instance, if you're getting it from corn grown in the US, then you are doing it wrong... (The wikipedia article is kind of awful, but it touches on the main concerns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_ethanol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_ethanol )
- rbanffy 18y agoWe are getting it from sugar cane in Brazil. While not the most efficient way, it's pretty good. Getting ethanol from corn is so stupid only a government could imagine it. I think I have owned only one car that ran on gasoline, an import from Argentina.