Quote:
Originally Posted by Fundguy1
Doesn't bother me a bit they are there. It does bother me that my money is buying them.
Let me check off the counter points to your points
1. It uses electrical power. Problem here is the grid is not prepared for a significant increase in useage.
2. Maybe overall it is including the transport of fuels etc. Not sure of that though as I have seen studies where the amount of energy required to generate and deliver the electricity uses more fossil fuels than the current ICE way. And the gas infrastructure must remain now as all gas cannot be replaced by electrics. The gas infrastructure is there already. The electric is not. Finding a charge station can be daunting and inconvenient comparitively.
3. Its works for some, definitely not all. What about trucking, towing, or soneone like ne who drives over 500 miles a day a dozen or more times a month? Good for city commuters but not for a large subset of the population.
So again, maybe in 20 years when we have 3 min charge times, ability to have level torque amounts at speed, towing, charging stations as prevalent as gas stations, 400+ mile range, a grid that can handle the power, and competitive pricing without subsidies and I'd change my mind.
|
Okay, 1) you're most likely 100% correct. Depends from country to country. However, in some countries (like Australia) rooftop solar has put pressure on the grid because we're now _generating_ more than the grid can handle during the day. It's now reached the point where there are no government subsidies, and people still buy rooftop solar. Energy storage is a problem - Nobody is charging their Tesla's during the day. For most countries, this isn't actually a concern, they're upgrading the grid bit-by-bit, and the decentralization of energy generation and migration of generation towards the end of the grid where it's previously just been consumption is actually a good thing. Our energy companies are upgrading the 'last mile' of the grid, for a more 'neighbourhood' centric generate/consume capability, rather than the old city-wide generate miles and miles from the consumption design.
tl;dr: Thanks to the rapid uptake of solar, this is less of an issue than you'd think. Energy storage from day to night, and having 'base-load' generators which can be turned up at night and down during the day are the real issues here, but ones that electricity companies have more than enough money and time to deal with.
2) Two parts. 1, Environment:
If you live in a country which burns dirty, dirty coal, it's lineball. If you're country invests in renewable energy, battery powered cars (yes, even with their lithium batteries) are better for the environment. Gas is always going to be a fossil feul. Grid energy is not.
2) cost: I'm Australian, so forgive the metric. Google tells me you pay 85c for a litre of gas and 12c for one kWh of electricity. The tesla gets 426km out of 85kWh. A similar car driven by a normal driver gets 426km out of 32 litres of gas.
32 litres x 0.85 = $27.20 for 400km.
85kWh x 0.12 = $10.20.
Thus, it's far cheaper to fill up your Tesla.
2.5) Charging: most people don't travel more than 400km in a day. Most people don't travel anywhere near that. This is a critical point: To most Tesla owners, charge stations are a non-issue. They never need them. They plug their car in overnight to charge at home. So for the one trip every month or three where you need to go inconveniently out of your way to find a charge station, you've saved having to stop in at the local gas station at least four times.
Charging can be done in 3 minutes. You swap the battery. Just because the company that pioneered this technology went bankrupt, don't blame the technology. The key issue for battery-swap is the point above: Before buying an EV, you think this is a must-have technology. As soon as you own one, you charge your car every night and never think about battery swap again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place
However, when you scale up to Electric trucks, this technology becomes more viable. Think dedicated solar energy properties along the interstate with a truck battery-swap bay. Your truck batteries are swapped in and out in the same way we now get our BBQ gas bottles filled.
3) Absolutely, yes. 100%. For quite some time, you will still have gas powered cars on the road. It'll be a gentle transition. Consumer battery-swap might become popular again, but only once the price of EV cars come down. Until it's as popular as gas stations, a percentage of the population will have a gas powered car. But for many, it will be their _second_ car.