From my understanding of how DE engines work they provide a steady supply of electricity to electric Motor drive wheels. There is no need for gearing, just a reostate To regulate the amount of electricity from the generator to the drive motors. It’s a simple arrangement allowing for the carrying and generating of energy in an efficient way. You might have a variable power drill with a cord to plug into an outlet so you can apply as much force or spin as desired. There’s no plugin on the track. But the same convenience and efficiency can be provided by a diesel generator.

Yeah, the politicians are already talking about making up for the loss of gasoline tax. They're thinking of having a GPS in your car (YOU'd have to pay for that) and the charge you some amount per mile that you've driven. They'll tell you LATER what that amount per mile is.

And if I know how politicians think, this "per-mile" tax wouldn't be INSTEAD of the gas tax, it would be IN ADDITION TO IT! If the gas tax were to be discontinued, that would make it a "temporary" tax.

If you believe that there's such a thing as a temporary tax, then you're some kind of a Pollyanna!

A different perspective than the one pushed by the Greens and Politicians generally!!

How will highways be maintained?? Each state and the Federal Government levies taxes on gasoline and petroleum products!!

Interesting Take on Electric Cars

As an engineer I love the electric vehicle technology However, I have been troubled for a longtime by the fact that the electrical energy to keep the batteries charged has to come from the grid and that means more power generation and a huge increase in the distribution infrastructure.

Whether generated from coal, gas, oil, wind or sun, installed generation capacity is limited. A friend sent me the following that says it very well. You should all take a look at this short article.

IF ELECTRIC CARS DO NOT USE GASOLINE, THEY WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PAYING A GASOLINE TAX ON EVERY GALLON THAT IS SOLD FOR AUTOMOBILES, WHICH WAS ENACTED SOME YEARS AGO TO HELP TO MAINTAIN OUR ROADS AND BRIDGES. THEY WILL USE THE ROADS, BUT WILL NOT PAY FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE!

In case you were thinking of buying hybrid or an electric car:
Ever since the advent of electric cars, the REAL cost per mile of those things has never been discussed. All you ever heard was the mpg in terms of gasoline, with nary a mention of the cost of electricity to run it. This is the first article I've ever seen and tells the story pretty much as I expected it to.

Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things yet they're being shoved down our throats. Glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

At a neighborhood BBQ I was talking to a neighbor, a BC Hydro Executive. I asked him how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious.

If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, he pointed out, you had to face certain realities. For example, a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service. The average house is equipped with 100 amp service. On our small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla, each. For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded.

This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our
residential infrastructure cannot bear the load. So as our genius elected officials promote this nonsense, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system! This latter "investment" will not be revealed until we're so far down this dead end road that it will be presented with an 'OOPS...!' and a shrug.

If you want to argue with a green person over cars that are
eco-friendly, just read the following. Note: If you ARE a green person, read it anyway. It's enlightening.

Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes, "For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran
on the battery. So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity.

I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.
$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 Mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car costs about $25,000 while the Volt costs $46,000 plus. So the Canadian Government wants loyal Canadians not to do the math, but simply pay twice as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country.

On the other hand; I CAN SEE, where those who will figure a way to avoid burning conventional fuels; will NOT, in fact; be paying ¿our? "Fair SHARE" of the construction & maintenance of our highways and byways. ... When driving Commercial trucks, man (OR woman) needs to stop at (before) MANY State boarders and purchase a "Fuel Stamp" for the next state down the highway, which they need to drive IN (or through).
I can't remember for sure, but I THINK that I have posted previously, about a son of a Captain, who I'd worked with (both of them); who had a Chevy truck, that would burn either gasoline OR towmotor fuel (propane).

Back in the 1950's, my Dad put a conversion kit on his Ford so that he could run it on gasoline or LP gas. He put a switch on the dash to switch between them. It worked great, although he lost a bit of space in the trunk for the butane tank.

It would probably be a more involved operation with today's cars, as they have a computer (the ECM) that has an "opinion" about everything involving the car. I'm not sure how much you can change under the hood without failing a smog test, either.

You pretty much can't do much that the government hasn't TOLD you to do, or at least approved it.

Back in the 1950's, my Dad put a conversion kit on his Ford so that he could run it on gasoline or LP gas. He put a switch on the dash to switch between them. It worked great, although he lost a bit of space in the trunk for the butane tank.

It would probably be a more involved operation with today's cars, as they have a computer (the ECM) that has an "opinion" about everything involving the car. I'm not sure how much you can change under the hood without failing a smog test, either.

You pretty much can't do much that the government hasn't TOLD you to do, or at least approved it.

Back in the 1950's, my Dad put a conversion kit on his Ford so that he could run it on gasoline or LP gas. He put a switch on the dash to switch between them. It worked great, although he lost a bit of space in the trunk for the butane tank.

It would probably be a more involved operation with today's cars, as they have a computer (the ECM) that has an "opinion" about everything involving the car. I'm not sure how much you can change under the hood without failing a smog test, either.

You pretty much can't do much that the government hasn't TOLD you to do, or at least approved it.

Duel Fuel Vehicles have to pass Emissions Test in both fuel modes.

All vehicles are made with capabilities to pass Emissions with plenty of room but when people remove emissions equipment it changes the emissions.

It is a Federal Offense to remove or alter emissions equipment for street use vehicles. Vehicles that were never built that way and vehicles for speed exhibition ( racing ) do NOT have same requirements. Off road Rallies I have been involved with in last few decades require to be street legal so they all have enough equipment to pass.

I helped build and maintain a State Emissions Testing Program for 25 years. The Clean Air Act is pretty clear.

Hydrocarbons cause Cancer. Carbon Monoxide causes Heart Disease.

You should look at pictures of Los Angeles in the 1960’s and look at a modern picture as well as other big cities. Old Timers have told me they had to stay indoors in the old days to avoid Vehicle SMOG