Comments by "seneca983" (@seneca983) on "Joe Scott" channel.

  1.  @weak1ings : Additional weight increases the rolling resistance of the wheels, which cannot be recovered. I think I recently saw an article saying that regenerative braking only increases the range by a few percent (depending on terrain) and the main advantage is that it doesn't suffer from wear as much as mechanical brakes.
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  2. "If I may add, ICE cars can also be converted to run on hydrogen gas." Really? How is that done? Do you have a source for that claim?
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  3. He already factored that in in the efficiency calculation.
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  4. "Whilst steam reforming creates CO2 as well, it is comparatively way less than what is created when building batteries and transforming energy in coal power plants which is alongside nuclear power still the main source." I don't know. Steam reforming needs methane. If you already have methane, it would seem to make more sense to just use the methane to power vehicles directly rather than produce hydrogen from it. The exact same carbon content gets released either way and steam reforming reduces the energy content which seems a bit wasteful.
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  5.  @ArmchairMagpie : Yeah, I mean NGVs. They might not be that common, but I've seen some buses here that run on natural gas. I guess CO₂ sequestration at the hydrogen production sites could improve things, but presumably, it's not (usually) done, at least yet? As long as there's no sequestration, hydrogen from steam reforming doesn't seem any better than NGVs in terms of CO₂ emissions and is probably worse in terms of CO₂ per energy in the fuel, because some of the energy content of methane is lost in steam reforming. Additionally, steam reforming has the problems that methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂ and the extraction and transportation of natural gas will involve some leakage and that it's a somewhat finite resource (though these points affect NGVs as well).
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  6. Water vapor emissions don't matter.
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  7. "How does an electric car work in the winter?" I recently read one journalist's experience and he wrote that his EV (Nissan Leaf) is the best winter car he's had so far. He was writing when the temperature went below -20°C (-4°F) for the first time this winter. The range suffered noticeably but was still above 200 km which was enough for him.
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  8.  @Triumvirate888 : He was using his car for the daily commute to work, which was comfortably below 200 km. It's not that he had to charge all night but overnight charging without quick charging was enough for the daily commute. I think quick charging should be able to fill an empty battery in clearly under an hour. The range Nissan promises for Leaf in summer conditions is 270 km, which is below an ICE or diesel but still sufficient for many purposes, but of course for long distances it's not as good. Note that that lower range was caused by below -20°C temperature which is not that common. And this is for Nissan Leaf which is among the cheapest electric cars. More expensive ones would have a longer range. Additionally it's not that uncommon for ICEs or diesels to fail to start when the weather is very cold. Electric cars can be a quite good choice for people like him who mainly use their car for shortish distances in cities. For people regularly driving longer distances it's not as good.
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  9. At least that would increase the weight.
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  10. What? Do you have a source for that? It sounds a bit too strange to be true.
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  11. Water vapor exhaust doesn't matter. The atmosphere's water content is determined by temperature.
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  12. (Besides, even if did matter, ICEs and diesels also have water vapor in their exhaust.)
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  13.  @larrybrennan1463 : "Another point is batteries do not hold power in extreme heat or cold. You wouldn't want to depend on an EV in Minnesota winter." I can't speak from personal experience but I recently read one journalist's experience about using an EV (Nissan Leaf) in the winter in a magazine. He wrote that it's the best winter car he's used so far. You get heated air immediately unlike in many ICE cars (though of course, you could get that with an electric heater in any car) and there's no need to pump gas in the cold as the car can just charge whenever it's parked at his home or at his workplace. He was writing when the temperature had gone below -20°C (-4°F) for the first time this winter. The range suffered noticeably but was still above 200 km which was more than enough for his needs. "Ignore the rare metals that go into it" By "rare metals" do you mean metals that are actually rare or do you mean "rare-earths" which are not rare at all (except for promethium)? What elements specifically are you talking about?
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  14.  @gsilva220 : "Electric primary propulsion is very efficient wherever you put it (cars, machines, planes, boats, etc.)" I'm not so sure about that "planes" part. In planes, the extra weight from the batteries degrades the efficiency much more than in vehicles that travel on the surface which supports their weight.
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  15.  @gsilva220 : The point is that the extra weight increases the losses due to drag. I don't think it matter whether any losses are due to drag, due to battery losses, or some other source, for the purposes of calling something efficient or inefficient.
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  16. "And are you aware the the so-called man-made CO2 impact on global climate change is substantial not even measurable?" Man-made greenhouse emissions are responsible for more than half of the recent warming.
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  17.  @nathan43082 : "My big problem is with the initial premise: that we must have personal transportation vehicles for everything. [...] There are many places in larger European cities where an automobile is unnecessary for most of the things you do because 1. They have very good public transportation infrastructures and 2. Their cities are more “walkable,” meaning you need not travel far for most of your needs." Well, I live in a European city (Helsinki) and don't own a car. However, the buses that transport me still need to run on something so roughly the same logic applies to them. There are some electric buses (and some that run on natural gas), but most run on diesel and it would be good if that changed at some point.
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  18. EV = electric vehicle
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  19. Does the current produced by the fuel cell have to go to the battery before going to turn the motor? Is it not possible to bypass the battery at least part of the time to improve the efficiency a bit?
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  20. "Stop with the CO2 scare. As greenhouse gas, it is un-interesting when compared ordinary water vapor, both in volume and effect." The point is that the water vapor content of the atmosphere is determined by the temperature. It acts as a feedback, not as a forcing. CO₂, on the other hand, acts as a forcing.
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  21. That "making ozone" thing was clearly a joke. (For comparison, note that the next sentence was about separating hydrogen and oxygen with puppies.)
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  22. To my understanding photosynthesis is a rather inefficient process.
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  23. Also, natural gas is still a CO₂ emitting fossil fuel as well (though better than other fossil fuels).
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