When you move to the wilderness, and disconnect from the artificial
urban environment, you come face-to-face with the key issue: Electric
vehicles require electric generators... somewhere. When you can just
plug your charger into the wall, that nasty generating plant is out of
sight and out of mind. But when YOU have to supply the electricity, you
end up with the same conclusion: burn fossil fuel.

But if you are going to burn fossil fuel, next you need to ask yourself
if burning the fuel in an engine in the generator is an improvement over
burning the fuel in an engine and using the power output directly, thus
eliminating the need to carry (and indirectly, to manufacture) the
battery and the electric motor, and eliminating the inefficiencies of
turning shaft horsepower into electircity, electricity into stored
chemical energy in the battery, stored chemical energy in the battery
into electricity again, and finally converting electricity back into
shaft horsepower.

TAANSTAFL

bob

wrote:
Hi,

I want to put a motor on an 8' inflatable dinghy. A big question is
whether I should use a conventional gasoline/oil based motor or go with
electric. The situation is as follows: I plan to take the boat out to a
complete wilderness (in a car/SUV) and use it there for, say, a week to
explore lakes and streams. There will be no AC outlets out there. This
creates a problem---how do I recharge the battery/batteries if I decide
to go with electric motor? Is it possible to do it through the running
car in some way? Is this a realistic approach anyway? Solar
power(likely, unrealistic)/other alternatives? I would not have asked
unless electric motor was not so nicely quiet and environmentally
friendly and thus appeal to me. Using electric motor has its value, but
it is not clear if it holds it in the above set up.

Thanks