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Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

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Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#151

Post by sunstone »

astura wrote: post #101
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I live in an apartment, I can't charge one, on the street" I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I still can't fathom how electric cars are going to make more than a dent in NYC where most cars are stored streetside.

There's no physical reason why there can't be municipal on street charging, even if it's "pay to charge." Think like parking meters. There just needs to be a demand for the initial infrastructure to be built.

And, at an equivalent of about $1 a gallon, lots of people will get on that.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#152

Post by newnewpdro »

Given some definition of "suddenly".

I don't expect everyone to run out and buy brand new cars off the showroom floor en-masse the instant the economics favor the newly available flavor of shiny.

Cars are big ticket items often involving financing, they're sticky. This is why it's pretty damn urgent that we get the competitive EVs on the market ASAP. Every new ICE vehicle we add will be on the roads for quite some time, especially with how mature/reliable they are today. My 94 Japanese econobox has nearly 300,000 miles and still runs great.

The other issue is as increasing numbers of ICE vehicles get replaced by EVs, the gasoline demand drops, and the prices may correspondingly drop. In the words of a friend of mine: "All the oil in the world will be burned."

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#153

Post by MBCook »

saudioger wrote: post #5

The only thing holding back EVs are/were batteries/charging times. Aside from that they're easier to maintain and perform better — on paper they're loads more practical.

I can’t buy one from my brand I trust.

I don’t want a GM. I don’t like the way they look anyway. The offerings from Honda or Toyota or often limited to certain states and I was unavailable in less I want to go through the giant hassle of purchasing it somewhere else and then getting it shipped here (so I don’t get stuck charging it on a very long journey over and over and over again).

I’m not aware of Ford having one. I know BMW does, I saw one the other day (not a big fan of the looks), but that’s way out of what I would want to spend anyway. Mercedes would be the same issue if they have one. The leaf has a small range if I remember correctly. The bolt is a hybrid, and isn’t the volt as well?

Honestly, I don’t know of any all electric cars made by non-luxury brands except for the Leaf, Clarity and all electric Prius.

Just having one decent all electric car available from each of the major brands in the majority of markets would be a big step forward in allowing the transition to happen. If you don’t want to pay luxury prices you have a very limited selection. And it’s worse if you don’t live in California or a handful of other places.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#154

Post by greglindahl »

sfifs wrote: post #132
jblow wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Household wiring will anyway not have enough current capacity to support charging citation needed

Sure here https://www.tesla.com/support/home-charging-installation#out... Most home electricity installations have circuit breakers @ 15 Amps where I live. Wiring typically rated to a max 20 Amps draw before overheating. At a below 15 Amps current draw levels, you'll required an inordinate number of hours of charging for getting mileage on the battery and it's just not practical.

Most homes have electric stoves and dryers.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#155

Post by greglindahl »

api wrote: post #146
jblow wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure who is downvoting you. I charged my Tesla Roadster on 120v 15A for like 6 years.

Apparently motels are having to crack down on "extension cording" now. Park near your room, crack a window, free fill up...

It’s just a few dollars, maybe the should try letting people pay?

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#156

Post by Symbiote »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #74
zizee wrote: post #45

I think that electric car adoption is going to have similar characteristics to digital cameras. I remember playing with an early digital camera and seeing a poor replacement for film, but with obvious benefits. Back then it was common to hear "serious" photographers pooh-poohing digital, and how it's many drawbacks would mean it would remain niche, and never replace film. It didn't take long and digial cameras improv…

> "I live in an apartment, I can't charge one, on the street" I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I still can't fathom how electric cars are going to make more than a dent in NYC where most cars are stored streetside.

Many dense European cities have installed on street charging points.

https://andrew.london/2018/01/solving-the-electric-car-on-st...

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#157

Post by kosievdmerwe »

theluketaylor wrote: post #144
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I live in an apartment, I can't charge one, on the street" I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I still can't fathom how electric cars are going to make more than a dent in NYC where most cars are stored streetside.

Conveniently cities have already done a huge amount of the legwork for enabling charging at street parking thanks to street lights. It will be expensive no doubt, but so was converting gas street lights to light bulbs.

Cars draw a lot of power vs electric lamps.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#158

Post by billfruit »

stellar678 wrote: post #35

They neglected a huge part of the coming electric vehicle picture: lightweight, slow-speed electric vehicles. Almost 60% of US car trips are 5 miles or shorter. (2017 ref: https://nhts.ornl.gov/tables09/ae/work/Job63697.html , 2009 ref: https://nhts.ornl.gov/tables09/fatcat/2009/vt_TRPMILES.html ) Scooters, e-bikes, and electric cargo bikes (not to mention the human-powered versions!) will soak up an enormous portion…

It seems wasteful to use cars for short travel, esp for a single person or two persons. In third world people would use the motorcycle for such short travel, even if they had a car. And you can buy motor cycles that can go nearly 100kms on a litre of petrol.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#159

Post by ObsoleteNerd »

stellar678 wrote: post #105
ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never thought of that. Are there the same moves in tiny electric hatchbacks (eg kei sized, not Leafs), scooters, mopeds, etc as there is currently in fullsize cars? I'd love a high quality electric moped to run down the shops and pick up milk and bread, or pick something up from the post office. All I've seen is those cheap plastic electric mopeds that people get from eBay/Aliexpress or Costco. I don't remember see…

It's a good point that design and manufacturing quality are an important component here. I know the e-scooters used by Lime and Bird have seen a pretty quick iteration, and the models they have on the streets now are a lot better than the ones they had when they launched in my city just a few months ago. In terms of in-between vehicles, I haven't seen too much yet. Our current street designs (at least in most of the…

Yeah I'd absolutely love to use a golf cart or similar, but I need something street registerable (I live in an inner city high-rise in Australia).

Our local councils get these awesome little electric golf-cart things to roam around servicing things, but they're not legal for us to own, which is a real shame.

Something the size of a golf cart, so it can be tucked away in a corner somewhere, or parked sideways with tail to curb and be no longer than the standard width of a parking spot, would be absolutely incredible. It would only need ~20-30km range, seat 2, and have a small area for storage, and I truly think it would be pretty popular for inner city dwellers. Most people just keep a cheap car tucked away in a back street nearby, or use Vespa-style scooters.

Re: Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly

#160

Post by gambiting »

astura wrote: post #101
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I live in an apartment, I can't charge one, on the street" I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I still can't fathom how electric cars are going to make more than a dent in NYC where most cars are stored streetside.

There's no physical reason why there can't be municipal on street charging, even if it's "pay to charge." Think like parking meters. There just needs to be a demand for the initial infrastructure to be built.

So my local council doesn't even have the money to stay on top of fixing potholes and uneven streets , but will somehow find the money and will to put electric charging points everywhere? Yeah, I don't see that happening.
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