Electric vehicles are the wave of the future!

[Vern Humphrey]

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-philadelphias-proterra-fleet-in-complete-shambles/

More than two dozen electric Proterra buses first unveiled by the city of Philadelphia in 2016 are already out of operation, according to a WHYY investigation.

The entire fleet of Proterra buses was removed from the roads by SEPTA, the city's transit authority, in February 2020 due to both structural and logistical problems?the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles' chassis, and the battery life was insufficient for the city's bus routes. The city raised the issues with Proterra, which failed to adequately address the city's concerns.

[togor]

So you're arguing that early teething issues with reliability doom new technologies?

I would think a military historian would know better, since the military is often on the bleeding edge of new technology.

Or is this just an oil & gas man having fun at the expense of the "competition"?

[Johnny P]

Regardless of what the other vehicles are powered by, the electric car or truck is not ready to make the gasoline or diesel powered vehicle obsolete. Range is their big problem, and there isn't a charging station on every block. Run out of battery without a charging station is sight, and you are ready to be towed to the nearest charging station. Tesla advises to charge battery to 80% capacity rather than 100%, as the battery management system will kick in and reduce the charge unless settings are changed to allow it, which isn't advised. Using heating or cooling is also a draw on the battery, limiting driving range even more.

They are more a grocery getter now rather than something you can take an extended trip in.

[BudT]

Electric cars and trucks are just a figment of their imagination, it will never be developed to any real useful level. A waste of money, resources time, money and to top it all off it don't work. It's the same as wind or solar, they are only good when you have wind or sun the rest of the time you got much of nothing, batteries ya say.....BS ya cant have enough of them to run the world 1/2 the time. As a supplement all the above can provide something but it's WAY TO EXPENSIVE. All the people that believe it can replace what we have today are living in another world and it's only in their own tiny mind. Waiting for the WOKE crowd to light their dim bulbs.
Have you pissed on a WOKE person today? I bet I did.
Bud

[kj47]

Cant be said plainer than that.

[barretcreek]

Asked the state natural resources director (Dem) how much of the U.S. would have to be covered in solar panels @100% efficiency to run our economy. He rattled off a list of states. Texas was one.

Mr. Toyoda said the grid can't handle total EV.

[togor]

Regardless of what the other vehicles are powered by, the electric car or truck is not ready to make the gasoline or diesel powered vehicle obsolete. Range is their big problem, and there isn't a charging station on every block. Run out of battery without a charging station is sight, and you are ready to be towed to the nearest charging station. Tesla advises to charge battery to 80% capacity rather than 100%, as the battery management system will kick in and reduce the charge unless settings are changed to allow it, which isn't advised. Using heating or cooling is also a draw on the battery, limiting driving range even more.

They are more a grocery getter now rather than something you can take an extended trip in.

The big advantage to EVs is the regenerative breaking.

When you step on the break pedal, the "motor" turns into a generator, and the momentum of the vehicle is recovered as a surge of electric power that is dumped back into the batteries. This technology allows hybrids to get city mileages that far exceed their highway value. Because the lower speeds of city driving mean less wind resistance, and regenerative breaking captures much of the kinetic energy dumped when stopping. Also in city driving, range is less of an issue.

True that in highway use with higher speeds (losses to wind resistance go with roughly the square of speed, so 70 mph has about 2X the wind resistance losses of 50 mph), and longer trips, the battery system becomes a limiting factor. But most car trips occur in urban areas.

[Johnny P]

Again, getting groceries the brakes are applied quite often, but not so much on long road trips.

When you do take a trip chances are that your hotel won't have a charging station, or enough. You leave your vehicle at the charging station and call Uber to take you to your hotel. Still a novelty and not ready for prime time yet.

[barretcreek]

Do a search to figure out how much a home solar charger for an EV will cost. So you won't be left w/o wheels when, not if.

[togor]

Do a search to figure out how much a home solar charger for an EV will cost. So you won't be left w/o wheels when, not if.

Well on the + side it's easier to turn sunlight into electricity than gasoline, if we're exploring SHTF scenarios. Of course without an industrial base, those still alive are back to foot travel and horseback within a generation.

[lyman]

Again, getting groceries the brakes are applied quite often, but not so much on long road trips.

When you do take a trip chances are that your hotel won't have a charging station, or enough. You leave your vehicle at the charging station and call Uber to take you to your hotel. Still a novelty and not ready for prime time yet.

there are a few utube vids out there where folks take a Tesla or similar on a long road trip,

it adds a good amount of time to the trip,
since instead of a 20 minute stop to fill the tank, get a snack and pee,, you are not at a long stop, as in hours, to charge your car.

grocery getter or similar in the burbs or town, sure thing , (really need to investigate the back door cost of energy,, it may not really be worth it)

otherwise,, no way

[Vern Humphrey]

there are a few utube vids out there where folks take a Tesla or similar on a long road trip,

it adds a good amount of time to the trip,
since instead of a 20 minute stop to fill the tank, get a snack and pee,, you are not at a long stop, as in hours, to charge your car.

grocery getter or similar in the burbs or town, sure thing , (really need to investigate the back door cost of energy,, it may not really be worth it)

otherwise,, no way

The backdoor cost is the key -- it costs more to generate the electricity, when you consider losses in transmission, in the change and discharge cycle and so on. You burn less fossil fuel driving a gas-powered car.

[togor]

The backdoor cost is the key -- it costs more to generate the electricity, when you consider losses in transmission, in the change and discharge cycle and so on. You burn less fossil fuel driving a gas-powered car.

Not if the energy isn't derived from coal or petroleum.

Capital is trying to get away from burning sequestered carbon to do things.

[Art]

there are a few utube vids out there where folks take a Tesla or similar on a long road trip,

it adds a good amount of time to the trip,
since instead of a 20 minute stop to fill the tank, get a snack and pee,, you are not at a long stop, as in hours, to charge your car.

grocery getter or similar in the burbs or town, sure thing , (really need to investigate the back door cost of energy,, it may not really be worth it)

otherwise,, no way

My brother has a friend who bought a Chevy Volt when they were new-ish. The Volt is a plug in hybrid but this fellow only used it as a work car so the gasoline powered generator never had to charge the batteries. His electric bill (Louisiana) went up by $15.00 - $20.00 a month.

Frankly, most electric vehicles are going to by hybrids indefinatly, either conventional hybrids (Prius) or plug in hybrids (Volt) until either charging time is reduced or or at least a 200 - 300 miles can be squeezed out of a charge. Only Tesla has the 200 = 300 mile range but their batteries are proprietary and their cars are not cheap. One reason I'd never buy an all electric car where I live is the chance I'd have to "bug out" in a hurricane. Frankly, if the majority of cars down here were electric only evacuation would be impossible. Everybody on the coast "bugging in" would for sure increase the mortality rate.

Even Tesla admits that an all electric, even theirs, is not an ideal road trip (or emergency) vehicle at this point.

[Johnny P]

Saw a video where a lady was showing off their non-polluting electric vehicles plugged into charging stations in front of the company office. When ask where the electricity came from to charge the vehicles she replied "right there" pointing at the charging station. When explained that the electricity had to come from somewhere to get to the charging station she replied "Oh, from our office". When ask further where their office got their power she explained from the power company.

An officer with the local power company explained that over 90% of their generation came from coal.