Electricity is $5/gallon

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

No doubt that NG CCGT is more efficient than other fossil fuel combustion methods but I cannot think of a good reason why all the plants operating at much lower efficiencies should be ignored. Unless you have a personal NG CCGT in your garage, a fairer comparison would be a residential generator that combusts petrol. Their efficiency is ~ 10 - 15% IIRC

I focused on CCGT because it's taking over baseload generation, and PEV demand is mostly going to be evening and night-time charging.

Natural gas generators make up the largest share of overall U.S. generation capacity - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

CCGT was 53% of natural gas capacity, but has a much higher capacity factor than the simpler peaker plants, which implies that it is the dominant generation method in natural gas.

Even though capacity factors have increased, there's clearly more to spare.

Given also that major trend in generation is the shift to NG and to renewables (together now almost half of all US generation, up from 30% 10 years ago), and given that there's still significant unused CCGT capacity, and given the PEV demand will be new demand, and given that significant growth in PEVs almost certainly implies increased used of batteries on the electricity grid that would allow for more renewable generation and other efficiencies, I think it's pretty reasonable to focus heavily on the CCGT efficiency over other generation.

 

[SageBrush]

At $0.15 / kWh, electricity costs the equivalent to $5/gallon of gasoline

Just a random fact of the day. Enjoy

This thread has lasted way longer than it deserves and has prompted me to think again about the OP.
It is, of course, correct on a btu to btu basis. But it breaks down if we consider what useful work we can obtain from each energy source starting from equal amounts of each energy type:

E.g., in a Model 3, 33.7 kWh of electricity moves the car ~ 135 miles
A gallon of petrol moves a car 15 - 50 miles
So even presuming the most efficient petrol car on the road, the Model 3 is cheaper to fuel.

Moreover, few people can directly affect their price of petrol whereas a large segment of the population can buy much cheaper electricity. Mine at home amortizes out to 2.5 cents a kWh

 

[brucet999]

Damn so more like $15 a gallon here, boy that adds up fast!

Going to change to an EV charging plan but it will add about $100 a month to my bill in other way (Mandatory $16 fee for EV TOU, then double the cost to run the rest of the house for 5 hours a day.)

Looks like no matter what my EV will cost more than a typical gas car or a plugin hybrid which helps balance the costs. But hopefully I can save on maintenance.

Why are you getting an EV rate if it is so costly? Can't you get low rates at night with normal TOU metering?

 

[SageBrush]

Why are you getting an EV rate if it is so costly? Can't you get low rates at night with normal TOU metering?

He has explored many options to stay out of the expensive tiers. He can probably add PV to his home and if he was actually interested in lowering his bills rather than complaining conservation and efficiency would be obvious steps.

Some people just LOVE playing the victim.

 

[dhanson865]

Funny because I have exactly the opposite problem. Whenever Americans leave out words it grates terribly on me. "She wrote me while traveling down 95" just seems grammatically incorrect. "She wrote to me while traveling down the 95" is how it would be written here. People are different.

"the" seems grammatically incorrect to me.

I'd go for one of:

"She wrote to me while traveling down Highway 95"
"She wrote to me while traveling down Interstate 95" aka I-95
"She wrote to me while traveling down State Route 95" aka SR-95
"She wrote to me while traveling down Scenic Route 95"
"She wrote to me while traveling down Toll Road 95"

anything specific would be better than "the" in that spot.

 

[SageBrush]

"the" seems grammatically incorrect to me.

To some a highway is a river

"Row the Isis."

 

[Ulmo]

No comment.

Top Trump Officials Clash Over Plan to Let Cars Pollute More

None needed.

It speaks for itself.

The title is misleading. It promotes Tesla and rolling back regulations at the expense of Governor Brown's corruption party, according to the text of the article, which in itself is likely misleading, too.

 

[HankLloydRight]

"She wrote to me while traveling down Highway 95"
"She wrote to me while traveling down Interstate 95" aka I-95
"She wrote to me while traveling down State Route 95" aka SR-95
"She wrote to me while traveling down Scenic Route 95"
"She wrote to me while traveling down Toll Road 95"

So nobody is going to say anything about the fact that maybe she shouldn't be texting/emailing and driving on any road?

 

[1.21GW]

This thread has lasted way longer than it deserves

This.

 

[Hitman007]

Time for a Tesla challenge. Tesla M3 vs. Honda Accord, Miami to Seattle. Evaluate time, cost and comfort. That would be a good Motor Trend project.

 

[chronopc]

This hurts my ears. We don't call roads "the" anything around here. It's just 95. or maybe I-95.



They are? Where? Where can people drive by and "see the progress"? The pinpoint on that map is just the centroid of the city of Philadelphia. That pin drop location on the map is probably the worst possible location for a SC in the City of Philadelphia.



There are currently only two active superchargers near Philadelphia.

• Newark, DE which is about 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
• Burlington, NJ which is about 30 miles northeast of Phildelphia, and requires a Delaware River bridge crossing

Neither one of those is the least bit convenient to someone travelling to, from or around Philadelphia, unless they happen to be passing through Newark or Burlington on their way.

There are two more in process of being built:

• King of Prussia, PA -- 20 miles Nortwest of the city, and not really a convenient drive to get to. It's well outside of the city
• Deptford, NJ -- 12 miles away, but again, requires a Delaware river crossing and toll.

As of right now, there's nothing being built in the City of Philadelphia.

View attachment 321936

I never knew they pin on Tesla's website is just the center of the city. I guess you can't trust what Tesla says if it involves "coming soon". I guess with the current state it would be kind of inconvenient to own a Tesla and not have home charging, but I'm sure eventually there will be a s Supercharger in Philadelphia. The two active supercharger near Philadelphia still makes it so traveling there isn't an issue.

If you get bothered by what people call a freeway, you must get annoyed quite a bit. Does your ear also hurt depending on how people pronounce route?

 

[chronopc]

Time for a Tesla challenge. Tesla M3 vs. Honda Accord, Miami to Seattle. Evaluate time, cost and comfort. That would be a good Motor Trend project.

Cost is definitely cheaper in the M3. Comfort would also be much better in the M3 assuming you have EAP. It would take longer in the M3 because you wouldn't be able to take the most direct route since you have to hit superchargers.

 

[tsla007]

my EV can take me home when I'm drunk at the bar but yours can't move. Even if I pass out my car is still mostly safe to have moving-ICE not so much.

 

[tsla007]

also our energy efficient EV outperforms your super power gas guzzling noise pollution POS.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I never knew they pin on Tesla's website is just the center of the city. I guess you can't trust what Tesla says if it involves "coming soon".

Tesla has two Superchargers in Stamford, CT "Coming Soon". One in North Stamford (probably near the Merritt Parkway), and one 'downtown' (probably 'urban' SCs). I went down to Stamford Town hall Planning and Zone to find out where they might have applied for zoning approval. Nobody in the building has heard as much as a 'boo' from Tesla concerning charging stations in the city. I'm sure many other 'coming soon' locations are just the same -- darts thrown on a map where someday they'd like to put some superchargers.

If you get bothered by what people call a freeway, you must get annoyed quite a bit.

Clearly, I'm not alone in this.

Does your ear also hurt depending on how people pronounce route?

Not as long as they pronounce it correctly.

 

[chronopc]

Not as long as they pronounce it correctly.

Is there a correct way? I experience between pronouncing it differently depending on the context.

 

[Lasairfion]

Well, I did realise that here we would say "I'm driving down the M25" or to add in the missing words "I'm driving down the M25 motorway", so perhaps because you guys say the words backwards, putting the word highway before the designator, that's one reason for the difference.

Does your ear also hurt depending on how people pronounce route?

Everyone knows it's the same pronunciation as 'root', right?

Also Cooking Oil is $4.59 a gallon (but your car smells like a chip-shop)

 

[cybergates]

even with lead footed driving I get about 380 wh/mile = .380 kwh/mile according to the tesla trip calculator on my model S. Assuming a Kwh is 13cents = 4 cents a mile. An equivalent gas car is likely to get at best 25 mpg and a gallon in california is let's say at least $3.25/gal tjat
s 13 cents a mile.

EV is at least 3 x efficient - and my numbers are conservative, 92 octane premium gas is close to 4 dollars here and the electric rate is close to 10 cents at lowest tier.

 

[Runt8]

I cant tell if this thread is Satire or not....

This thread shows the obvious need for additional rating types. My preferred one would be a smiley pointing at the joke as it flies over his head.

 

[chronopc]

Well, I did realise that here we would say "I'm driving down the M25" or to add in the missing words "I'm driving down the M25 motorway", so perhaps because you guys say the words backwards, putting the word highway before the designator, that's one reason for the difference.

Everyone knows it's the same pronunciation as 'root', right?

Also Cooking Oil is $4.59 a gallon (but your car smells like a chip-shop)