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Hi Chris
I think we're all grasping at straws these days! I don't know the monetary costs of electric vs. petrol but don't forget the cost in resources of electric cars. We have to get away from replacing like with like in our messages to the mainstream. Electric cars, as far as I know, require lithium batteries. Where does the lithium come from? Bolivia has the world's largest untapped resources, unfortunately for Bolivia. When will lithium production peak? Then what?
 
I will definitely write something on my blog at some point as it's a really important topic - some electric vehicles, sure, but we need to get a message of doing more with less & that means that we don't all have an electric car or three! Expressing lifestyle changes in terms of money rather than carbon saved is always going to get through better to people including those who don't rate the environment as an important issue to them, so obviously that's a good general approach but no one knows the future costs of energy - electricity or fuel.
 
Also, we have to get a bit smarter at psychology - you will never "conquer the deniers" but we have to reason with them - good practice even if the reasoning is ignored - you'll never persuade everyone & change has to be voluntary (the addiction analogy works for me!). Denial is a nice work for lying. People lie about themselves & their surroundings & to each other all the time and at different scales. Climate Change is scary & some people's response is to lie and say it's not true. Peak oil is scary & some believe it's not a problem because we can replace the energy of fossil fuels with non-fossil alternatives. I don't believe that to be true either. Maybe I'm in denial? Maybe technology can save the day - maybe if we'd started 40 years ago it could have?
 
Mandy x
 
http://mandymeikle.wordpress.com/
____________________________
 
"A civilization is a society which adopts increasing complexity as a general strategy"
 - Joseph Tainter
 
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Chris Keene
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: [localsustuk] News Items from the USA re electric vehicles and solar pv plus Notes

It would be nice to know the average cost of driving a mile on electric and on petrol. I believe electric is much cheaper. But how much of the petrol cost is tax?  Would electric still be cheaper than petrol if taxed at the same rate?

The reason I ask is a campaigning point. All good campaigns have an enemy, and I know the oil companies have been buying up the patents for electric batteries and blocking their development.  If we could show the public how much they would save by having electric cars rather than petrol we could get them to really hate the oil companies, and just maybe get them to disbelieve the climate denial the oil industry has been funding.

Or am I just grasping at straws?  We must do something to conquer the deniers - only 19% of college educated Republics in the USA believe in anthropogenic global warming (and the more educated you are the less you are likely to believe, which suggests to me this is a function of the climate denial propaganda educated Republicans are exposed to)

Chris

On 17/06/2010 22:38, ferrand wrote:
[log in to unmask] type="cite"> 

4.7 Million EV Charging Units Expected Worldwide by 2015:

McClatchy/Tribune, June 7, 2010

http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=15795940

The first affordable mass-produced electric vehicles will hit the
streets of America later this year. Once the Nissan Leaf begins to make
its way from dealerships to consumers, the electric vehicle charging
revolution will begin. A new report by Pike Research reveals that there
will be an estimated 4.7 million EV charging units in operation
worldwide by 2015. Of these 4.7 million units, about 1 million will be
located here in the United States and the remainder elsewhere around the
world. One primary difference between the national and international
markets is location. The majority of charging stations in the United
States will be located at individual residences. The report indicates
that about two-thirds of EV charging equipment sales will be in the
residential sector. Americans are expected to prefer the convenience of
charging their vehicles at home where it will typically cost consumers
less than $2 to fully charge a vehicle.