XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com   
      
   On 1/14/14 3:22 PM, Your Name wrote:   
      
   > Electric cars powered by plugging them into a socket will never really   
   > be a workable option for most people.   
      
   	Especially if you want to recharge them FAST, as you're then requiring   
   wattage that no ordinary residential neighborhood could manage to   
   handle. Overnight works for commuters. Not sure how the energy costs   
   work out.   
      
      
   > That's why most manufacturers are   
   > already moving towards hydrogen powered cars, which are a much more   
   > senisible option since they are refuelled quickly in the same basic   
   > manner as a petrol / diesel vehicle. It is also much easier to change   
   > petrol / diesel pumps over time to be pumps for hydrogen car refuelling   
   > or add more pumps.   
   >   
      
   	Hydrogen's a terrible choice at the moment. You need to (inefficiently)   
   use electricity to generate it, then you need either SUPER high pressure   
   storage for it (which means that even leaving combustibility aside, it's   
   a bomb) or some of the somewhat-less-high-pressure absorptive materials   
   which reduce its energy density effectively. It leaks easily (tiny   
   molecule), requires high-pressure transfer, and it's not THAT easy to   
   convert "dump liquid down a hole" storage and fill-up machinery to "send   
   highly compressed gas into a compressed gas tank".   
      
   	If you're gonna use electricity to manufacture your fuel, why not   
   manufacture gasoline? We already have the infrastructure to store and   
   transport it, we're intimately familiar with its hazards and how to   
   control them, it's got awesome energy density, and you don't have to   
   convert 250 million cars over in order to use it.   
      
   	Just build a bunch more generating stations. Preferably nuclear, maybe   
   thorium cycle if they get the bugs out.   
      
      
      
   --   
                         Sea Wasp   
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