Why did GM crush the EV1s?

[MX793]

I'll give you the muffler sound DOESN'T = explosion.

But you're totally wrong on the steam engine. That works from high pressure steam (which is already heated and high pressure) going into the cylinder, pushing the cylinder, then being released.

The internal combustion engine works because when the gas ignites it creates gas that has more volume than it did coming in. An explosive reaction per se. WHILE blowing up, that gas creates heat, too.

Explain the Stirling engine?  All combustion takes place outside of the cylinders, but it otherwise operates similarly to an Otto cycle piston engine (the P-v diagrams are nearly identical, although T-s diagrams are quite different).  There was no explosive force driving the pistons, only pressure created by heat.

The reason the pressure increases in the cylinder during combustion is because chemical energy is being released in the form of heat.  Steam engines and Stirling engines use the same principle.  Burn fuel to release heat, heat causes gas to expand, expansion creates pressure, pressure moves the piston.  The differences are that in an IC engine all of this takes place in the cylinder while in EC engines it takes place outside.  The P-v diagrams obviously are different (although as noted, the P-v for a Stirling and Otto are nearly identical), these are different cycles after all, but the gist of it is the same.  In both an Otto cycle and a Rankine, there is some work input initially to cause a pressure rise, then heat is added, then a pressure drop to extract work, then some form of cooling to reset the cycle.

I will give you that in order for a piston IC engine to work, you do need a fuel that will burn pretty rapidly.  You're obviously not going to power one by dumping lumps of coal or wood into the combustion chamber (although fine sawdust or coal dust might work, if you had a reliable means of delivery).  Granted, diesel doesn't burn all that rapidly at STP (in fact, you could toss a lit match on a puddle of diesel and it wouldn't light the fuel).  But rapid combustion is not necessarily an explosion.  As noted, deflagration is a more appropriate term.  Explosions create shockwaves, which makes them a supersonic event.  Deflagration is subsonic.  There is a flame front, but not a shockwave.

[ChrisV]

To bring this back to the original topic, I've posted this before, but it's an interesting read of a four day rental of an EV1 by an electric car developer and racer:

http://www.portev.org/commentary/living_in_the_past.htm

The range and ability of this car are more than useable in day to day living.