<VV> electric rampside

[Philip Alotis]

I found the post about the electric rampside very interesting.
Tim McCann "obviously feels electric vehicles a viable alternative."
He also obviously has put some thought into it and has done some of his homework.

But...

How much does this battery pack weigh and what sort of payload can his rampside
carry now?

Since he says he "Can charge it anywhere" we must suppose that he does in fact charge it anywhere.  
And if it's not on his own meter then what he really means is anywhere he can steal electric power from someone else. 
Sorry Tim, you can be mad at me about that last line but that has been my experience on a couple of occasions
with electric car buffs.  Try not to take it too personally.

Not every power plant has "up to date pollution controls"  many burn coal and buy "Pollution Credits" from other 
cleaner running power generating facilities.

Tim makes a good valid point about refineries polluting to make gas and trucks polluting to transport it.
Two true facts that I had not previously considered in this decades old argument.  

But... in order for his power to "Come in over the wires" the fuel must be transported to the power plant. 
If it is coal or URANIUM it didn't get there in a pipe line.
 
 Then after it is burned the heat must make steam, a less than 100% efficient process.
 The steam must spin a generator, another loss of approx. 15%
 The generator must make electricity kiss off another 15%.
 The electricity must be transformed to high voltage (anywhere from 34 Kilovolts to as much as 250 Kilovolts) for transmission, lose another 10% min.
 There is another loss if power in the transmission wires.
 The electricity from the transmission wires goes to a substation and is transformed down to 12,500 volts for "Primary distribution" to his home. Another 10% lost.
 On the power pole on his block ANOTHER transformer knocks it down to 120 / 240 volts for use in the home.  ANOTHER conversion loss.
 The battery charger in his truck and the batteries themselves each represent conversion losses.
 Then, when he wants to drive this truck the batteries heat up as they discharge (just like when they were charging) for another conversion loss .
 And finally the electricity gets to the electric motor for ANOTHER conversion loss.

 Now I am not an engineer but I am an electrician and when one considers the many energy conversion processes it takes to run an electric car 
 from grid power it seems MOST UNLIKELY that any more than 20% of the energy released from the fuel at the power plant gets to the front of his gear box.
 And to me that sounds like a lot of waste and a lot of pollution.

OK you guys.  FLAME ON.


Sincerely,
OverKill Phil