Poll: Only 25% of Americans Think Electric Cars Are Practical | CNSNews
As-if this is any surprise. How can any country having rolling blackouts in its states expect to reliably power and recharge millions of vehicles, particularly in winter.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm all for new tech solutions. But the waste involved in making just the batteries and the demand on our infrastructure as they phase to anemic and paltry solar is destined to be nothing more than another money-pit were politicians and corporations will get richer AND the American people will be force into public transportation and all the restrictions associated with it.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm all for new tech solutions. But the waste involved in making just the batteries and the demand on our infrastructure as they phase to anemic and paltry solar is destined to be nothing more than another money-pit were politicians and corporations will get richer AND the American people will be force into public transportation and all the restrictions associated with it.
1. Current infrastructure can't handle more than a few 50 amp EV chargers in a neighborhood at a time. Expect lots of blown transformers.
2. The price of new EVs puts them out of the reach of most people, and no one is looking forward to buying a used one with depleted batteries.
3. The charging station problem, with long recharge times isn't going to be solved anytime soon.
4. The same people pushing for mandated EVs are the ones pushing wind and solar as the only acceptable clean energy solution. Not only are they horrified at fossil fuel energy, but they shrink from nuclear, and don't want to hear about geothermal or hydroelectric energy sources (the DOE estimates that with the use of fracking, geothermal energy could meet 80% of our power needs; there are 6,000 flood control dams the Corps of Engineers think could be outfitted with hydroelectric generators). Of course the fact that China is the primary source of wind and solar power equipment wouldn't have anything to do with that (sarc).
Other than that. THANK YOU. I learned something!
1. Go to your. kitchen, open your freezer, and wave your hand around for 30 seconds in some section where there is frigid air (below 32°F).
2. Get a large bowl or perhaps a 2 quart pot. Fill it a quarter of the way with ice and add water to come close to filling it, leaving room to insert your hand. Stir a little with a spoon until its at 32°F in equilibrium. Stick your hand into the ice water for 30 seconds. Or at least try.
3. After about 5 seconds when you yank your hand out, you can conclude that water cooling is tremendously more effective than air cooling.
My last few cars were 200k + miles. My current has 75k and I feel I have 10yrs to go with it. Imagine trying to get that kind of mileage from one of these vehicles (without replacing the batteries 4 times)
200K miles is another thing. No doubt you are right, the batteries won't last. However, a majority of people don't keep their cars that long.
Another thing missing from this discussion is that people don't really want to drive anymore. Driverless cars are coming, and will displace a majority of transportation. Once this happens, $/mile will be far more important than car life, and charging will be irrelevant. Cars will just go charge (or fill up) between rides.
However, they work fine for most people. Range anxiety is excessive. I have several cars as well. If I need to drive real far, I would just use another one, or rent one. Easy.
We need to dissociate hatred for the use of government force for EVs, from the EVs themselves.
There are brownouts in parts of California with no special loads. Add 20 million electric vehicles sucking on the grid and see what happens.
The media and government are pounding on us to change over to electric cars. I feel it, and for that reason alone I wont buy one.
Downside... I also live in FL where my electric bill is one of my larger monthly expenses. Eclipsing my fuel purchases, normally.
And let me mention Batteries do NOT LIKE HEAT...
in FL, I went to sears to buy a 5yr battery (circa 1992) from Sears.
The first thing they did was took 2yrs off the warranty. I SCREAMED a bit.
WTF? The whole purpose of getting a 5yr battery was to get 5yrs of battery life.
He explained: In FL, it gets > 170 degrees under the hood of the car for many hours in the day. You drive to work, and the car sits in the sun. The battery never cools down. The excess heat destroys the battery. We simply cannot honor 5 years in this environment. And sure enough, the battery didn't even make 3yrs, they pro-rated my battery life and applied it to the new battery. What an eye-opener!
Now imagine a vehicle that LIVES on the most expensive replacement battery known to consumers... What is that heat going to do there? Jut erode it faster.
But that's okay, because they get you when you COME BACK more often.
We’re not done yet. Owners are reporting that charger and battery are about 80% efficient https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threa... . So, we’re now down to about 46% efficiency.
Finally from battery to wheels is only about 85% efficient (which is why the battery has to be cooled during BOTH discharge and charge), so we end up with about 39% efficiency from power plant to wheels.
Many gasoline engines are already better than this and Mazda’s Skyactive-X https://insidemazda.mazdausa.com/the-... will beat this by a lot.
Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be a warning, Not A Newspaper!
>90% of households can readily be supported with an EV. Changing ALL cars to EVs increases grid consumption by <50%. EVs reduce fuel consumption by at least 50% over ICE cars.
EVs work fine. They don't need subsidies (and none should have them). If I bought another car today, I would probably get an EV. They are fast, and low maintenance. I do not have a concern for the minor cost increase. I have aggressive cars anyway.
We should bristle at the forced subsidy, the CO2 nonsciencesence, and value signalling. EVs are not the issue, nor are they useless. Force is the issue.
I have all kinds of friends with EVs. Never had an issue charging. I have a generator and a 1,500 gallon propane tank.
If you don't want one, don't have one. If your main reason is lack of charging stations or concern over electrical outages, that is up to you. It is of marginal value in my opinion, and not a matter of practicality. I haven't driven more than 200 miles in four years and it may have been 10 .
EV advocates have been saying that for 100 years. Hasn't happened yet.
Integrated solar panels covering every horizontal surface of the average family car would provide enough power to run a small fan to circulate fresh air in the passenger compartment. It would only be a drop in the bucket for recharging a main propulsion battery.
Battery ratings have increased a factor of three and price has dropped a factor of five in the last 10 years. This is why hand tools have almost fully transitioned from cords to batteries, even many pneumatics.
There is a clear technical path and investment appetite to further improvements.
For energy storage on the grid, I am a big advocate for pumped hydro and compressed air. These work fine, and are a lot better than wasteful hydrogen. Batteries are not a good utility scale energy storage mechanism. Also, get ethanol out of gas, and use the vegetable oil (if you have to keep the ridiculous subsidy) for diesels. This is many times as efficient. In all these cases (and in big pharma) we are not working on solutions. We we brokering power from need (real of believed).
What support I have for EVs (aside from the are fucking fast) and renewables is not CO2. It is to take all the fiscal strength from our enemies, Russia, middle east, et al. If their natural resources are not needed, they become irrelevant. We could have made a much more significant dent in the middle east by nationalistic effort to reduce oil import than by our wasted military action.
We have a lot more oil than they do in the Bakken Oil Play of North Dakota. I used to truck across US2 in ND. At night, I could see a continuous string of natural gas flares from the oil wells. When I stayed in Williston, ND overnight, I couldn't sleep because of the continuous traffic outside. Temporary workers housing camps were all over the place, and not a hotel room could be had in the whole town. Think "Wyatt Junction" in Atlas Shrugged. Williston impressed me like that.
Interested in your view of trains vs long-haul trucking. They are clearly more efficient. Seems to me something (subsidies and government intrusion) killed them.
The stock is severely overvalued with an inflated PE (price to earnings) well over the S&P 500. Bear in mind Tesla has only been profitable for 2 years out of 18 (2003). I'd say ride the wave and step off before the inevitable crash.
I travel by bike or bus primarily, but a few times I've been in an electric-powered taxi, they seemed to have amazing acceleration. I think one driver had "ludicrous mode" enabled.
It seems like most cabs here are Telsas. I don't know how they keep them charged. It seems like it would be impractical.