Share This! Text SizeAAA Share Email   Fall 2012   Electric
Vehicles Spark Readers’ Curiosity  In the spring Catalyst
article on electric and hybrid cars [“How Clean Are Electric
Vehicles?”], you fail to mention Tesla. The Model S is
expensive, true, but its top-of-the-line model goes 300 miles
(at 55 mph) on a single charge. If I want to go to San Francisco
(120 miles round-trip), I cannot get there and back [on one
charge] in a Nissan Leaf. The Chevrolet Volt doesn’t work,
either. Once the battery is exhausted, the Volt gets about 30
mpg [miles per gallon], so the round trip in my Prius (close to
50 mpg) uses less gas.  E. Blake Peterson Santa Rosa, CA  I
enjoyed reading your analysis of the relative carbon emissions
of EVs [electric vehicles] due to upstream power plant emissions
based on geography [“How Clean Are Electric Vehicles?”]. Your
article states it used a “well-to-wheels” approach; was this
true for gasoline as well?  Greg Hanssen Irvine, CA  The author
responds:  Though we focused on GM and Niss