Personality vs electric vehicle adoption

[freed7]

Dear all,

I am currently doing my masters at Newcastle University, and I am investigating whether a person's personality is linked to their attitudes and opinions towards electric vehicles. It would be hugely appreciated if you could donate ten minutes of your time to fill out a survey.

www.surveymonkey.com/s/JNFrazer

Sorry to bombard your forum with this but with all my Facebook friends being of a younger (and less knowledgeable) age, I would really appreciate a different take on Electric Vehicles.

There are personality questions at the end but everything is anonymous. it would also be great to get a discussion/ chat going. I believe that electric cars are excellent, the only drawback being the initial cost for me.

Thank you very much.

[skodatezzer]

Would this sit better in the "general chat" section?

[TheInsanity1234]

I may be too young to drive, but believe me, I do have an opinion on electric cars!
Should I fill out the survey, or shall I leave it to the license holders?

[MrToad]

When the question says 'spew out fumes', do you mean visible smoke?

Also, would you consider changing 'zero emissions' to 'zero tailpipe emissions'? After all, the energy's got to come from somewhere.

[Gareth]

Picking up on MrToad's second point, (although being cynical I haven't done the survey), I wonder how the emissions compare for use of electric vehicles versus those powered by fossil fuels. I'm willing to discount the emissions costs of manufacture since they'll probably work out fairly similar in the round, but I wonder if anyone has done any really detailed investigation into this.

For instance, counting against electric vehicles is the emissions at the electricity generating facilities, and of course these vary depending on technology used but it would be either naive or willfully wrong to only consider renewable electricity generation as the source. On top of that there are losses due to carrying the electricity from the generating facilities to the charging point, and then there are losses in recharging the batteries.

The main thing electric vehicles seem to do is move the pollution somewhere else; it's utterly stupid to imagine they have zero emissions.

[Carbon Based]

The main thing electric vehicles seem to do is move the pollution somewhere else;

Agreed, however the dream is that the "somewhere else" can avoid fossil fuels or at least be more efficient, including the supply and charging losses.

Waiting for Tessla to have a test drive event somewhere nearby before I can say wether they are any good though!

[martine]

I don't know the answer but I could imagine electricity production even at coal-fired power station is less polluting than the equivalent number of petrol/diesel engines. It should be easier/cheaper to put the necessary technology to make it cleaner at a central point rather than reproducing it a million times (in each car).

The big issues for me are range and cost to purchase. I am also concerned about the longevity of the expensive batteries.

[Ancient]

Some interesting value judgements in the way some questions are stated! E.g. "Electric vehicles will reduce our dependence on foreign oil" - as opposed to foreign something-else one wonders?
Some very ill-thought through questions too:
"An electric vehicle has a lower range of mileage before a re-fuel than existing cars" - well obviously existing (announced) EVs have the same fuel range as existing electric cars - which is less than some existing petrol or diesel cars: What was the question again?
"There should be as many re-fuel points for electric vehicles as there are petrol stations currently" That would surely depend on the refueling technology? If refueling from a domestic supply is quick, easy and popular, there could be many more points than current petrol stations; if the range issue is decisively solved, many less may be needed - as long as they are easy to find and use at one's destination.

[GJD]

Some interesting value judgements in the way some questions are stated!

Some very ill-thought through questions too:

Quite. Can you qualify for a masters producing stuff like this? To be fair to the OP, it's not just them - all the surveys we get posted here seem to be of similar quality.

[Gareth]

Can you qualify for a masters producing stuff like this? To be fair to the OP, it's not just them - all the surveys we get posted here seem to be of similar quality.

I wonder if the survey requests are mostly from people involved in behavioural sciences, with lip service being paid to trying to remove biases from the questions. On the other hand, I've thought that the survey questions I have read have been an attempt to get a specific result, which would stand the students in good stead for many careers not involved with science or engineering.

[GJD]

Can you qualify for a masters producing stuff like this? To be fair to the OP, it's not just them - all the surveys we get posted here seem to be of similar quality.

I wonder if the survey requests are mostly from people involved in behavioural sciences, with lip service being paid to trying to remove biases from the questions. On the other hand, I've thought that the survey questions I have read have been an attempt to get a specific result, which would stand the students in good stead for many careers not involved with science or engineering.

Perhaps that's it. The OP didn't actually say what the masters was in - I just assumed it was a discipline that's supposed to be unbiased.

[WhoseGeneration]

Usual curent politically "on message" biased "survey" we seem to see here.
Funding to retain jobs is the basic point.

[watts93]

I don't know the answer but I could imagine electricity production even at coal-fired power station is less polluting than the equivalent number of petrol/diesel engines. It should be easier/cheaper to put the necessary technology to make it cleaner at a central point rather than reproducing it a million times (in each car).

Yes in terms of CO2 output per kWh, a coal power station is more efficient than a petrol or diesel engine. But once you look at the overall picture, including transmission/charging/battery storage efficiency, petrol and diesel cars win out over electric cars charged using a coal power plant.
Since only about half our electricity is from coal the real answer is probably how much is the wind blowing when you are charging your car. In terms of pollution actually harmful to people a modern petrol car is much cleaner than a coal plant. The real problem with electric cars and renewable energy sources is that batteries are rubbish and until they improve electric cars don't really make sense.

[Ancient]

... The real problem with electric cars and renewable energy sources is that batteries are rubbish and until they improve electric cars don't really make sense.

True, but battery technology is improving; one major issue is the rare metals needed for them - obtaining (and depleting) a scarce resource.
However, improvements developed specifically for EVs then highlight ways in which petrol/diesel cars can be improved. The real 'switch-over' is likely to be so gradual that the vehicles will not even be thought of as hybrid, as opposed to the 'We'll all be driving EVs' that is currently promoted.

[MGF]

The survey is not about the relative merits of electric and fossil fuel vehicles. It is about attitudes and opinions towards electric vehicles.