Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 450 posts

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

#231

Post by _ph_ »

whatever1 wrote: post #229
FullyFunctional wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they actually tried it and the demand was not there. They had a battery swap station in LA. I posit that the people enthusiastic about battery swaps aren't EV owners [yet]. There are too many practical issues with battery swaps, and larger batteries and superchargers are simply better answers. Battery swaps will never be a thing. EDIT: Better Place(TM) were pushing this very concept and had a LARGE presence i…

Most importantly it transfers the liability for the battery health from the user to the manufacturer which would be a huge pro-ev argument for commercial purpose vehicles.

Renault and Nissan offer to rent the batteries while buying the car at a reduced price. The rental batteries will get changed at the cost for the manufacturer, if they are out of spec.

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

#232

Post by Animats »

It is already coming suddenly in China. Beijing has a lottery for new car license plates for ICE cars, and the quota goes down each year. Not for electrics. More than half of new cars in Beijing are electric. Next, Guangzhou. Shenzhen is already all electric buses.

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

#233

Post by ztjio »

I won't buy another car that isn't an electric car. Even if I have to wait years. I am so sick of the idiocy that is current gas cars. The complexity is insane. You guys whine so much about repairability in tech gadgets and shit, but cars? ho. lee. shit. Modern cars are insane. Well, modern gas cars.

I am never spending another $2000 on "labor" to change a gasket. Power sources, being electric are cool, and I definitely appreciate the long term benefits to the environment and all that shit. But honestly.

The real reason for electric cars is that they are simple. The drive train is a few pieces requiring minimal management and maintenance. It's time for cars to stop being a huge pain in the ass.

Tesla may be loved, hated, what3ever. but they proved cars don't have to be huge garbage piles destroying the world and making our lives worse with stupid maintenance costs that don't need to exist. Whether they live or die is up to markets, sadly,. but it's up to us to make the world of personal conveyance a thousand times better than it is now by choosing electric.

Never buy a gas car. Ever. Again.

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

#234

Post by GW150914 »

_ph_ wrote: post #230
Entangled wrote: post #60

Wake me up when I can get an electric two-seater like this [1] or this [2] for under ten grand. No A/C, no windows, no nothing, just a cool buggy to run errands and cruise all day in sunny Florida. https://i.imgur.com/gQDPqOn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tCXxiRm.jpg

The Renault Twizy has been on the market for some years now and sets two persons. Its under 10 grand.

That is legally and in every other sense, a quad bike. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy#/media/File%3A...

He showed a picture of two very small cars, and you offered an electric quad with a body kit. It has a 61mi range, and a top speed (which it struggles to reach) of 50mph. He also mentioned Florida, where other people will be driving giant SUV’s that wouldn’t even notice if they ran that thing over. From a practical, safety, aesthetic, and functional perspective I don’t think that fits, especially when $10k can buy a lot of used car, including a Nissan Leaf.

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

#235

Post by sam_goody »

GW150914 wrote: post #65
burlesona wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I we may be at a point in time analogous to people in the early 2000's discussing the next revolution in PCs... and not really appreciating that the next revolution was going to be mobile. I think transportation is a lot more interesting than just cars - electric (and non-electric) cars will probably be part of the equation forever, but I suspect we're past peak car.

People have been saying that for a very long time, and every decade or two someone bets real money and loses horribly. I think the last time was Kamen thinking the Segway would change human transportation forever. Such visionaries tend to conveniently forget people who have families with kids, the price, and the fact that if their device can’t totally replace a car then it’s just an added expense many can’t afford.

Out where I live, the electric bike is as common as a regular bike.

When I first saw one, people said it was a useless half measure - if you don't want to peddle, you would take the car. The has proven wrong, and as time goes by, the reverse happens - it replaces the car.

You should realize that many people who buy these scooters and electric bikes are doing so to replace the bike, not the car. But then over time it replaces the car for 90% of the trips.

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

#236

Post by usaar333 »

soperj wrote: post #194
usaar333 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The do in the Netherlands. Almost all school age kids were going to school together when I was there.

ah, what is the earliest age a kid will travel without adult supervision in the Netherlands?

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

#237

Post by baxtr »

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…

The one thing that is really different is that digital cameras didn’t required a huge network of infrastructure to succeed. That’s unfortunately where you’re analogy breaks down

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

#238

Post by mikekchar »

kasey_junk wrote: post #149
ioquatix wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I walked past one of these in Japan and it even had a really nice kids play area, a cot/baby sleeping area, a TV area with consoles, etc!

How excited would you be to see those at a gas station? It implies a wait time I’d be concerned about.

Certainly it's a different way of doing things.

Although this thread is about the common person, for me the numbers actually work out relatively well. The new Leaf has about a 400 km range. My wife drives just under 40 km a day (I wish I could convince her to get an electric scooter instead :-P). You don't want to drive it down to empty, so I guess we could get away with charging it once a week. At least in our household, that would be easy to fit in.

My wife currently spends about $30 a week on gasoline (it requires high octane and it burns stupid amounts of fuel and gasoline in Japan is stupidly expensive). That's $120 per month, so she would be saving $90 per month on their charging scheme. In exchange she has to wait 2 hours a month (and organise refuelling the vehicle about 1.5 times more than she does currently). So, let's say $45 an hour post taxes (I think her marginal tax rate including health and pension is about 24%).

So it's a good deal if she's able to avoid waiting for other people too much... And assuming Nissan continues their deal for the life of the car (seems unlikely, but by that point hopefully we'll be able to plug in at home).

The main thing that bugs me is spending $30-40K to drive 20 km out and back every day. It's complete insanity, and you can talk all you want about driving a "green car", the earth is not going to take back the carbon required to build that car any time soon :-( Unfortunately my wife (who is pretty normal in this respect) can not quite grasp that logic.

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

#239

Post by smileysteve »

perl4ever wrote: post #133
srtjstjsj wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The used car market exists. EV car batteries last at least 7 years, in theory and in the 2010 cars still on the road. After 7 years, they need a battery replacement (similar to how an ICE car needs engine work, just a one-shot replacement instead of lots of minor maintenance and repairs), and the old batteries are easily refurbished into other kinds of batteries (like home backup batteries) where charge-per-unit-weig…

The average car in the US is said to be older than 7 years, and ICE powered cars do not normally need a new engine at that point. Cars are usually scrapped at 14 years or more, I believe.

Anecdotally, a valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, brake discs are going to be recommended on many cars after 7 years.

There is already datab out there from high class rental companies that reduced maintenance from oil changes, brakes, and major repairs easily leaves room for new batteries.

Post reply on HN