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What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

nytimes.com

161–170 of 460 posts

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#161
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decreasing charging time might not be as helpful as you think. Lets say a car can be fully charged in 30 minutes: So the driver shows up somewhere and parks in one of the EV charging spaces and plugs in his or her car. They are not going to hang around for 30 minutes so they connect the car and go about their business. When they get back 3 hours later... This is still a problem if you can charge in 5 minutes.

If you know you will be away for 3 hours, why not use a slow charger instead of the limited fast chargers (that are probably more expensive as well)?

Why does everything good in the world get ruined? Because some people are just dicks. Unless there are active fines for holding up the queue in fast chargers, selfish people will make it worse for everyone.

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#162
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gets mentioned a lot, but I think the point is really over stated. First, there's a huge amount of room for growth in electric vehicle adoption even if we assume that EVs are a non-starter for people who park on the street at night. The problem is worth solving, but we're no where near the point in which it's the main obstacle to further adoption. Second, cars that are being used will generally spend a fair bit…

> we're no where near the point in which it's the main obstacle to further adoption Sure. I'm talking about universal adoption because the article is ("take over the world") > We don't drive especially far in a typical week This is a good point, EV range is already long enough that many urban drivers will not need to charge every day. > For some subset of street parkers, enough of that parking time will be spent at f…

And the effect on the grid and electricity infrastructure is non trivial and in the USA the grid is not as well developed as it is in the UK Europe so its even worse for the USA with its 110v standard

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#163
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're no where near the point in which it's the main obstacle to further adoption Sure. I'm talking about universal adoption because the article is ("take over the world") > We don't drive especially far in a typical week This is a good point, EV range is already long enough that many urban drivers will not need to charge every day. > For some subset of street parkers, enough of that parking time will be spent at f…

Decreasing charging time might not be as helpful as you think. Lets say a car can be fully charged in 30 minutes: So the driver shows up somewhere and parks in one of the EV charging spaces and plugs in his or her car. They are not going to hang around for 30 minutes so they connect the car and go about their business. When they get back 3 hours later... This is still a problem if you can charge in 5 minutes.

er no because people are used to going to the gas /petrol station and being able to refuel in 10 min

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#164
"About 65% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels"

These EV cars should be renamed "Coal Cars" so people understand the true harsh carbon footprint. Because you plug the car into a wall doesn't mean the energy is clean.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decreasing charging time might not be as helpful as you think. Lets say a car can be fully charged in 30 minutes: So the driver shows up somewhere and parks in one of the EV charging spaces and plugs in his or her car. They are not going to hang around for 30 minutes so they connect the car and go about their business. When they get back 3 hours later... This is still a problem if you can charge in 5 minutes.

Not really a problem. Putting chargers in every space in a car park is pretty cheap, they are basically just circuit breakers or even just ordinary domestic style sockets. Throw in a few fast ones for the people who need them and you are sorted. The fast chargers can be multi-head too, so even if someone finishes charging and doesn't come back someone else can still use it. Most rapid chargers are like that. Also, if…

no because carparks don't have the electrical power availed to support charging hundreds or cars at at a time - they will have enough to run the lights but not enough to service hundreds of high amperage car chargers

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#166
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much power does the electric motor need? -edit- found it https://www.quora.com/How-much-power-is-required-by-the-moto... 80kw to accelerate and 1 kw to maintain. -edit 2- how come no ones put 3 solar panels on top of an EV? Three of the following could output 1 kw and fit in the space available. http://www.solarwholesale.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Sil... Seems like an obvious for electric semis where there’s…

Priuses have a solar panel on the roof, but all it has the capacity to power is a fan to keep the cabin cool when you park in the sun on a hot day...

That's the old version; they're claiming the new can add 3.7 miles of range for each day of charging.

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#167
post #94
post #33

These articles keep omitting a pretty big barrier to adoption: street parking. (Maybe it's a function of US being suburb-centric? But at least the New York Times ought to know better.) One of 2 things needs to happen, either charging technology improves to the point where you can charge at a gas station in a span of time comparable to refueling a conventional car, or all street parking spots need to be fitted with ch…

First world city streets already have electricity supply (for the street light and for the buildings). Setting up charging ports is already rather cheap and once cities realize that they can - drastically reduce air pollution - make more money selling electricity than just charging for parking they will quickly start installing plugs everywhere. Battery range is already at around 500 km for Tesla model S and X and th…

Id speak to an electrical engineer before you make such wild assertions - upgrading supplies like this will be massively expensive.

Also battery tech doesn't follow mores law so we aint going to get an order of magnitude change in battery tech ever

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#168

I'm totally in favour of electric cars, but I'm surprised the article never mentioned the problem of sourcing all the power. There have been a lot of contradictory claims over how many more power stations would be needed for a fully-electric future, with some sources claiming the UK alone would need an extra ten nuclear power plants, and other sources massively downplaying that, but clearly if everyone was driving an…

Most electric cars will charge at night, which is when power consumption is currently at its lowest. Power stations (and other parts of the power infrastructure) have to be sized to the daytime peak, plus a safety margin to cope with at least the loss of any single element. So until the extra consumption from cars charging overnight grows above the difference between the nighttime low and the daytime peak, not much extra infrastructure is needed.

On the other hand, there will be cars charging at daytime (either at fast chargers, or while the owner is at work); and there are some power stations that can only work during the day. I don't know which of these two factors is bigger.

Re: What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World

#169

"About 65% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels" These EV cars should be renamed "Coal Cars" so people understand the true harsh carbon footprint. Because you plug the car into a wall doesn't mean the energy is clean. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

Maybe in certain parts of the world, where they're still stuck in the industrial era.

Ontario's power generation is primarily nuclear, then hydro, then wind, with a small percentage being gas turbines. https://cns-snc.ca/media/ontarioelectricity/ontarioelectrici...

I can charge my electric car here and comfortably assume that it is clean energy.

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