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Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

economist.com

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Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#61

Post by falcolas »

aphextron wrote: post #38
falcolas wrote: post #7

For most of the time, I'd be totally cool with an electric vehicle (this has changed in recent years as ranges and cold-weather performance has improved dramatically). However, that time when I'm traveling off the "grid" would be an absolute nightmare. For example - taking a vacation up in the mountains. No power, limited direct sunlight for solar, and your car is your lifeline. Or cross-country travel that isn't on…

https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/09/bmw-i3-range-extender/

With a range extension of 115 miles, that's not quite the distance I'd like to see.

It's fine as a proof of concept, and maybe even for a daily driver with a bit of emergency range, but not for my aforementioned trips.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#62

Post by baron816 »

bwanab wrote: post #56
baron816 wrote: post #12

If I had to choose between a world where 1) everyone owned electric cars 2) no one owned cars but just hitched rides on autonomous ones and 3) no one used cars at all, I would take the third option. I think it's possible if we start building new cities designed for walking, instead of just expanding our current cities, with all the problems that presents. I think the trick would be to strictly limit their footprint t…

I agree with you in principle, but any city has to have the ability for delivery services and emergency vehicles to move around.

I think there are ways to deal with those things. You could have underground tunnels that allow limited motorized transit.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#63

Post by kumarvvr »

falcolas wrote: post #52
kumarvvr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need a gas turbine. A simple ICE generator will suffice. I'd personally go for a DC generator (domestic power supply is AC), that plugs directly into the battery charging system of the car. A few gallons of fuel can certainly add more than a 100 miles.

I'd still prefer a turbine, for many of the same reasons as an electric motor. Fewer moving parts, more fuel efficient. As a point of their reliability, most of the old pumpjacks you've seen about (if you're my age) are powered by turbines. Turned on, and left running for years without stopping.

I am under the impression that as the size of a turbine reduces, to maintain the same efficiency, you'd have to increase the running speed.

So for small turbines and with safe speeds, I guess the efficiency is compromised.

Having said that, I have come across efficient micro-turbines.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#64

Post by Broken_Hippo »

greedo wrote: post #24
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont' think it'll be so bad. Sure, you might not be able to do that at first as we won't have the infrastructure and accessories built for it. But we will. Folks enjoy such things. I can imagine being told: Now, as part of your trailer, you have extra energy storage, perhaps some solar capacity to refill the trailer batteries, possibly using the movement of the vehicle itself too. Trailer too much? You also have th…

A wind turbine that works as you drive? Nonsense on stilts...

Yeah, that seems a bit ridiculous to me as well and I wrote the thing :) Without tech being much better, that is, and even then it doesn't seem proficient.

But I can see it being sold. We put fake blowers, oversized spoilers, and other such things on cars now.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#65

Post by flexie »

pilom wrote: post #36

US drivers drive 3.1 Trillions miles per year [0]. Every month, the 12 Month moving average has been going up at 5 billion miles [0]. So every month we need to install enough charging stations to charge 5 billion miles/year. Lets use a Level 2 charger that adds ~25 miles of charge per hour. So 5B miles / 25 miles of charge per hour / 24 hours per day / 365 days per year = about 23,000 Level 2 chargers need to be adde…

You forget charging at home. There are currently around 100M home charging stations in the US, most of them completely underused :-)

So every home is a charging station and if the range for EVs keep increasing 10 percent per year we will reach 400 miles in 2 years, 500 miles in less than 5 years. By then, road side charging stations will be for people driving more than 7 hours in a day and for the very forgetful.

I drove more than 300 miles in one day once this year, and I still haven't driven more than 400 miles in a single day this year.

Even if you commute 30 miles to work and 30 miles back, you would only have to charge your Tesla model 3 in the weekends. In 5 years you could drive 100 miles a day and still only charge your EV every weekend.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#66

Post by Tade0 »

baron816 wrote: post #15
noahbradley wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for people not interested in living in a city? I'm genuinely curious on this note. I love utopian visions of cities, but also recognize that even if they existed, more than a few folks wouldn't want to inhabit them.

They can live somewhere else and drive their ICE cars around. I don't care that much what they do, but I want a live in a city that's livable. I think my vision would make for the most livable city possible.

I live in a city which has a central district unavailable for most of the cars(aside from residents, but parking spaces are very limited).

I would never want to live in that district. Reasons:

- Buildings are very close to each other which makes the place dark and noisy(sound bounces off the walls).

- Rent is high, because apartments are so close to everything that landlords can get away with high prices.

- Trash day is once a week, because you can't have a garbage truck roaming the streets every morning waking everybody up.

- Summer is hell, because air can't travel through all this tight space.

Once you get rid of the roads you create a perverse incentive to place something there instead, e.g. buildings. And this is what ultimately happens.

Also: assuming you're walking at a brisk pace of 6km/h. In 30 minutes you're going to travel 3km, which means that in order to be able to walk from one end to another you'll need a city with an area of at most 7km^2.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#67

Post by Fundlab »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #2

Anytime you make something cheaper, easier to use, more useful and/or more efficient you get an increase in usage. Autonomous electric cars are all 4, and will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of miles driven. Some of those miles we can imagine (for instance sending your car on a dead-head journey somewhere for somebody else to use it), but most of the increase will probably be from new usage models that we…

Global adoption of autonomous vehicles is quite far fetched, ofttimes i suspect when people talk of its widespread usage they're referring to developed economies.

Maps and GPS triangulation or pinpointing operates on a margin of error and sometimes routes you to a wrong location even in New York

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#68

Post by falcolas »

poopchute wrote: post #29
falcolas wrote: post #7

For most of the time, I'd be totally cool with an electric vehicle (this has changed in recent years as ranges and cold-weather performance has improved dramatically). However, that time when I'm traveling off the "grid" would be an absolute nightmare. For example - taking a vacation up in the mountains. No power, limited direct sunlight for solar, and your car is your lifeline. Or cross-country travel that isn't on…

I think about it the same way as owning a boat. If you go fishing every weekend then by all means buy a boat. If you only go once a year for a weekend then just rent a boat. Same principal can be used for longer than 650 km drives

Probably the easiest answer. Not necessarily with the current car rental prices (it immediately adds $300-400 to the cost of a vacation), but overall a decent model.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#69

Post by Aron »

seibelj wrote: post #6

You don't realize it until you focus on it, but walking around a city, even a relatively clean one like Boston, how much of the air is full of exhaust. City busses that don't run on natural gas spew huge amounts of black smoke, it's disgusting. I can't wait until electric cars take over, the air is going to be so much cleaner, even in dense urban environments.

I have a theory that people will treat gas cars like they treated smokers. There was a stretch of time where smoking was popular in restaurants but the common shtick was the table next to you would go 'ewww!' and wave their hands around their nose or faux-cough causing all kinds of conflict and pressure. Pedestrians at stop signs might do the same for ICEs, etc.

Re: Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine

#70

Post by baron816 »

mikeash wrote: post #37
baron816 wrote: post #12

If I had to choose between a world where 1) everyone owned electric cars 2) no one owned cars but just hitched rides on autonomous ones and 3) no one used cars at all, I would take the third option. I think it's possible if we start building new cities designed for walking, instead of just expanding our current cities, with all the problems that presents. I think the trick would be to strictly limit their footprint t…

I can see a city with the third option, but the whole world? What if you want to go someplace that isn't in a city? Public transportation can't cover every rural destination.

Sorry if I gave the impression that I want to make everyone live there. I don't want to make anyone do anything they don't want to do.
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