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

bloomberg.com

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

#171

Post by aphextron »

gambiting wrote: post #161
aphextron wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not a big deal. Chargers are everywhere in urban areas. I've lived with an EV for two years now with just street parking.

Maybe everywhere in urban areas in certain US cities. I live in a mid-size EU city(<500k people) and there's just few charging points around me, which are pretty much permanent occupied.

Things are much different in the bay area at least. My employer has a whole bunch of of plugs in our parking garage, and I charge for free every day. My commute cost is almost negligible because of it. I can totally see a future where it just becomes standard for every parking lot to be powered with at least a few plugs. When you're plugging in everywhere you go, there's no need for overnight charging.

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

#172

Post by maherbeg »

syntaxing wrote: post #93
mrfusion wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ITT people who haven’t heard of Tesla’s supercharger network.

There's about 10K supercharging stations in the US. There's amount 168K gas stations. The amount of super chargers is probably about the same as the measurement error for the 168K estimate.

I except that a significant portion of drivers will be able to drive at home. You don’t need as many gas stations in a world where over half the owners charge at home (or work)

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

#173

Post by giobox »

greglindahl wrote: post #169
stephengillie wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Camry Hybrid can have 500+ miles of range recharged in a few minutes. That's the "killer app" that electric has to beat, one way or another. Spending multiple hours recharging is like driving 30mph on the freeway.

And yet hybrid sales are low, despite your enthusiasm.

Hybrid or not isn’t really the point.

A gas car refills to max range almost instantly. It just so happens this Camry example has particularly good range on one tank of gas by virtue of being a hybrid, but the point is no more diminished with any other ICE car. Many non-hybrid models will also comfortably manage 500+ miles on a single tank.

All that said, I suspect there is a “good enough” tipping point for EVs, especially now that we are seeing some manage ~300 miles on one charge, which is more than enough for many commutes/weekly shopping trips etc.

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

#174

Post by pishpash »

gambiting wrote: post #160
astura wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It will be privatized, like some parking meters and infraction monitoring already are.

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

#175

Post by usaar333 »

gambiting wrote: post #163
billfruit wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The reason why it's not more popular in the 1st world countries is that a motorcycle/moped is yet another vehicle that you need to tax and pay insurance on, while you are already paying not a small amount of money for a perfectly usable car - why double your expenses? Not to mention that in a lot of climates riding a bike/moped is a really bad idea in winter without significant skill and gear.

Safety concerns are also a huge issue with motorcycle adoption.

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

#176

Post by greglindahl »

giobox wrote: post #173
greglindahl wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet hybrid sales are low, despite your enthusiasm.

Hybrid or not isn’t really the point. A gas car refills to max range almost instantly. It just so happens this Camry example has particularly good range on one tank of gas by virtue of being a hybrid, but the point is no more diminished with any other ICE car. Many non-hybrid models will also comfortably manage 500+ miles on a single tank. All that said, I suspect there is a “good enough” tipping point for EVs, espec…

Uh, OK, I thought it was, but you're free to disagree.

I do agree that there's a ton of evidence that Tesla's S/X have plenty of range for most people to not be bothered by it. And it doesn't appear to matter to these folks that a hybrid would fill up faster, which brings us back to hybrids.

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

#177

Post by [deleted] »

gambiting wrote: post #160
astura wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#178

Post by BurningFrog »

gambiting wrote: post #160
astura wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They have money. They just don't care about potholes and uneven streets.

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

#179

Post by [deleted] »

azeotropic wrote: post #71
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…

America is not the Bay Area. Those short trips are across town to pick up the kids at school or take them to sports or go grocery shopping or other errands. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. Nobody is going to use a scooter or an e-bike for that. If someone made an electric minivan, sure, that might soak up most of those trips, but for some reason nobody makes one.

[deleted]

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

#180

Post by usaar333 »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #103
azeotropic wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is not the Bay Area. Those short trips are across town to pick up the kids at school or take them to sports or go grocery shopping or other errands. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. Nobody is going to use a scooter or an e-bike for that. If someone made an electric minivan, sure, that might soak up most of those trips, but for some reason nobody makes one.

It would be progress if the kids could get their own electric scooter to go to school or soccer training. It would increase their social skills, it can't be good to be dependent on the parents for everything when cooped up in an exurban paradise.

Almost any kid that can use an electric scooter can already bicycle. A scooter is barely even faster than a bike on flat ground.

A kid under the age of 8 (half the population of children) isn't going to be taking solo trips.

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