Electric Car Towing a Generator - EnviroMENTAL Whacko Alert

August 23, 2003 | Eldoradude

[eldoradude]

On my way home from work today at about 5 P.M. I saw the dumbest example of environmentalism gone mad. Just east of Folsom Blvd. on Highway 50 I saw a Ford Focus Electric car. Here's the stupid part. It was TOWING A GAS POWERED GENERATOR to provide the electricity to make the car go.

It was a large wheeled generator, the type that uses over three gallons per hour to run. The Ford Focus was going about 50 mph, probably close to top speed. Assuming it needed 3 gallons of gasoline to run for one hour and it traveled 50 miles in that hour, this moron is effectively getting less than 17 miles per gallon!

Can you believe it?

[reagan_fanatic]

But it makes the enviro-wackos feel good...

[eldoradude]

This is what the big energy and pollution tax credits are going for. I wish I had had a camera to take a picture of this idiot!

[Sometimes A River]

Like the water-less, flushless toilet.

[Paul Atreides]

There was an article posted here a few days ago about an enviroweenie who had some trees chopped down so that he could build a house.

[dagnabbit]

Is it legal to tow a gassed-up, running generator?

[tet68]

But Dude, you don't understand, he's got a wind turbine running his oil well and cracking plant so he probably gets
19 mpg.

[rellimpank]

--wonder where the owner-operator studied physics?

[John Jamieson]

A whole bunch of people paid $5,000 extra for a Prius to save 500 gallons of gas each. Yes, I believe it.

[Young Werther]

this doofus probably thinks that physics is what you take when constipated!

[freekitty]

oops....they forgot to tell us that it has to use gas to operate.

[rockfish59]

Was he heading for the blackout?

[rogue yam]

Dude!

The configuration you describe sounds very inefficient and is therefore whack.

However the new hybrid cars are really an application of this same set-up, all housed within the engine compartment of the car, of course. With the different components sized and integrated correctly, and taking advantage of other efficiencies (e.g. capturing momentum during braking) these cars can be much more fuel efficient that standard gasoline-only cars.

It's all new technology and therefore it is not price-competitive yet. And I do not necessarily support any subsidies of these technologies. But that is not to say that hybrid cars won't one day be competitive on price and other performance with standard gasoline cars.

[Hugin]

Hey, I live right near there in Folsom. Haven't seen that, but I do see beat up old cars belching smoke with Ralph Nader, Greenpeace, etc. stickers plastered all over them.

[Mo1]

It was TOWING A GAS POWERED GENERATOR to provide the electricity to make the car go.

FOFL ... Oh yea .. they are saving the planet /sarcasm >

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Can you believe it?"

On this asylum planet, ran by the inmates? Absolutely.

[gitmo]

Don't be so obtuse. He had to tow the generator, because they don't make extension cords longer than a couple thousand feet.

[alancarp]

Actually, this sounds a lot like something a FReeper would do -- just to make a point!

[eldoradude]

I don't know the legalities but it was very noisy and belching a lot of exhaust. I'm sure that this generator was creating more air pollution that a fleet of gas powered cars.

[dc27]

Did the car have a Howard Dean bumpter sticker?