1.Road map to better cars

2.Fuel sell

3.Whither battery cars?

4.Big bad batteries

5.Yearning for electric cars

6.A cheaper way?

Pollution sucks the life out of you!
Courtesy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

What good are electric cars?
The push for electric cars grew out of persistent air pollution in Southern California, which lead the state's air quality regulators to require that 2 percent of new vehicles sold in 1998 be "zero-emissions vehicles" -- meaning battery cars. That level was never reached, although the air regulators do plan to insist on the sale of more clean cars.

But the "truth-in-advertising" crowd over at The Why Files wonders whether battery cars are actually "zero-emission" vehicles...

Do battery cars doom the fume
Certainly, battery cars do reduce overall pollution and tailpipe fumes. When Michael Quanlu Wang of Argonne National Laboratory used a computer simulation to compare battery and gasoline cars in four large U.S. cities (see "Magnitude and Value... " in the bibliography), he found that battery vehicles would:

1. Cut hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 98 percent. (Hydrocarbons create ground-level ozone, which causes cardiac and respiratory disease. Carbon monoxide is poisonous.)

Reduce emissions of nitrous oxides, another cause of ground-level ozone and acid rain.

Increase emissions of sulfur oxide, a key component of acid rain, and particulates. The health effects of ultra-fine soot particles are under increasing suspicion for causing asthma.

Possibly reduce output of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that's taking heat for causing global warming. At slow speeds, battery vehicles produce far less carbon dioxide. At higher speeds, the results were mixed.

Clean? Depends on where you breathe
To urbanites, battery vehicles truly produce" zero-emissions," Wang says, since they move all pollution to the power plant. Overall, he suggests that battery vehicles would benefit the environment by reducing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide, and thus ground-level ozone. And while more particulates would be produced (particularly if the electricity came from burning coal), Wang observes that most electric generators are "away from populated areas, so there would be less population exposure."

Ideally, battery vehicles offer a way to use "green electricity" from solar energy, wind and geothermal sources.

What about the "greasy wrench"approach -- fixing filthy cars? It's not sexy, but it's cheap and effective.