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by sucramb 4616 days ago
> using electricity to charge them at your house (with 60% lost in transmission)

The overall losses in Germany are 7%. [1]

> It's more efficient to simply use hydrogen.

Only if you fake your numbers by an order of magnitude, see above.

> I don't understand why anyone would be convinced by arguments like this that don't include numbers.

Still better than your astroturf numbers. If hydrogen is better, so be it. However, the Tesla S can go 450km with one charge today and it can be charged everywhere.

An electric car is the nightmare of traditional car manufacturers: an electric motor costs nothing and lasts unlimited kilometers. You need no engine oil change, the brakes last a lot longer and cars will easily last 1.000.000 miles / kilometers and a lot more with little maintenance. You do need to change the battery but this is not money for the car manufacturer.

So there are two huge industries for which e-cars are a nightmare: petrol and classic car manufacturers.

Disclosure: I drive an MiEV an it works amazingly well.

[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbertragungsverlust (german)