3 miles a day

[Zephod]

My district actually put a refurb engine in a 1988 short bus. The thing is so old it probably contravenes every piece of schoolbus legislation. Given the choice between $10,000 to fix an electric bus or $2,000 to convert it to diesel, I'd convert to diesel too At the current rate of $2.75 a gallon, $8,000 would buy 2941 gallons of diesel and allow the bus to run for approximately 25,000 miles or round about a year.


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[Jeremy]

There's nothing remotely wrong with electric power in principle, especially for large and heavy vehicles like motorhomes. Trains weighing thousands of tonnes are powered by electric motors and travel huge distances at high speed every day

The problem is where to get the electricity when you don't have overhead wires, but that's something that will be solved in time. Carrying large, heavy, low capacity batteries with you can ultimately only be a stop-gap measure, unless some chemical quantum-leap is coming - which seems unlikely. What's more likely is that the problem will be solved by a combination of huge infrastructure investment (induction charging from the road surface, microwave charging from roadside dishes, battery swap-out facilities at every 'gas' station), and alternative ways of producing electricity on-board - such as chemical fuel cells or multi-fuel turbines.

It's all gonna happen and we'll all be driving electric vehicles eventually, no matter how much people laugh at the concept and say "Not me!" now. People on horseback laughed when the first steam-powered vehicles arrived, and people driving steam-powered vehicles laughed when internal combustion engines were invented. And so on.

Jeremy

(And of course everything will change again the day they either figure-out how to make hydrogen in a cost-effective way, or how to make nuclear fusion work)

[CrabbyMilton]

Much of these things will happen but it may take many more years. Yes, locomotives are electric but they have have a good old reliable diesel spinning the generator. It would cost a few fortunes to convert railroads to all electric with overhead wires and a few more fortunes to maintain them. I don't think customers who use the railroads to receive and ship commerce will be to thrilled with that.
BTW, I was happy to learn that AMTRAK's newest locomotives have CUMMINS engines.

[Zephod]

Britain has been using diesel electric engines such as the intercity 125 for decades. France etc leapt ahead with 100% electric trains.

Of course, with a big vehicle, it might be possible to get it to run from an RTG power supply. I think 238PuO2 is in short supply though.



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[Jeremy]

Almost all of the UK rail network is fully electrified now, although even some of the main lines have only been completed within the last 15 years or so, and at huge cost. Diesel electrics such as the IC125 are still being used in some parts of the country though

Jeremy

[lostagain]

And the majority of electricity produced in the US and Canada is by burning coal 

JC

[Lee Bradley]

It's neck and neck right now, between nature gas and coal. Both fossil fuels with hydro and nuclear making up most of the rest.

[CrabbyMilton]

Nuclear is the ideal solution since it's clean and quiet. But you just say the word nuclear and people hide in the basement and scream.

[richard5933]

And the majority of electricity produced in the US and Canada is by burning coal 

JC

Actually, electricity produced by coal in the US is considerably lower than it was only a few years ago:

2012 - 92%
2016 - 30.4%

Richard

[Lee Bradley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/US_Electrical_Generation_1949-2011.png