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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

#291

Post by Angostura »

aphextron wrote: post #171
gambiting wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> My employer has a whole bunch of of plugs in our parking garage

An employer with a parking garage. That's a very funny concept.

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

#292

Post by StevePerkins »

ohhellno wrote: post #290
kwhitefoot wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of infrastructure didn't stop the adoption of internal combustion engine vehicles. The infrastructure was built as demand for it increased. Anyway we have most of the infrastructure we need for electric vehicles already, it's called the grid. All that is missing is the connection points. And for many people that is also not a problem because we can plug the car in at home. So electric vehicles have a massive adv…

The original cars were electric and gas won out as a better solution because it was more portable and less dangerous in the event of an accident. Those things are still true today. Edit: why the downvote? Sources cited below. HN, you judge too fast.

Source? I'm curious, as I don't know much about the state of rechargeable battery technology in the late-1800's.

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

#293

Post by snarfy »

I predict any large shift in the EV market will be tempered by the growth of the electric grid as a whole.

The grid is already strained. It can barely handle new AC units in the summer. The large 500KV lines that connect cities to plants are near or over capacity already. Upgrading is a delicate balance of income vs cost. Upgrade or run them hotter.

They won't upgrade the backbone due to cost, now imagine the cost of trying to upgrade the substations and last mile connections. We seriously need better power distribution for EV to take over the market. Not everybody in the neighborhood can upgrade their meter to 300A+ without upgrading the network too.

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

#294

Post by ohhellno »

StevePerkins wrote: post #292
ohhellno wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original cars were electric and gas won out as a better solution because it was more portable and less dangerous in the event of an accident. Those things are still true today. Edit: why the downvote? Sources cited below. HN, you judge too fast.

Source? I'm curious, as I don't know much about the state of rechargeable battery technology in the late-1800's.

"In 1884, over 20 years before the Ford Model T, Thomas Parker built the first practical production electric car in London in 1884, using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

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

#295

Post by multjoy »

Angostura wrote: post #287
mtgx wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be different but it doesn't mean that it's impossible to achieve. Building the EV infrastruture is relatively cheap (compared to say building a gas-powered or hydrogen infrastructure). Tesla has already built its own (not perfect, but "good enough"), and the other car makers have joined alliances to build their own. Also new companies have appeared whose sole reason to exist is to build such infrastructures. P…

> The EV infrastructure should be mostly complete by 2025. All the people witgout off-road parking will have charging points outside their house?

Many streets have these things called 'lamp posts', into which electricity is being supplied. All you need to do is work out how to bill it.

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

#296

Post by vvillena »

snarfy wrote: post #293

I predict any large shift in the EV market will be tempered by the growth of the electric grid as a whole. The grid is already strained. It can barely handle new AC units in the summer. The large 500KV lines that connect cities to plants are near or over capacity already. Upgrading is a delicate balance of income vs cost. Upgrade or run them hotter. They won't upgrade the backbone due to cost, now imagine the cost of…

Not every country is like this, there are lots of countries with lots of overcapacity built into their electricity network.

Regarding charging points, there's no need to have a quick charge point for personal use. An electric car can be charged overnight.

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

#297

Post by lloeki »

StevePerkins wrote: post #292
ohhellno wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original cars were electric and gas won out as a better solution because it was more portable and less dangerous in the event of an accident. Those things are still true today. Edit: why the downvote? Sources cited below. HN, you judge too fast.

Source? I'm curious, as I don't know much about the state of rechargeable battery technology in the late-1800's.

On May 1, 1899, La Jamais Contente was the first car to break the 100kph barrier. It was an electric car. Competition was fierce to gain the Paris market which was fond of electric cars due to their numerous advantages. This was a tipping point though, and gasoline won during the early 20th century because road infrastructure allowed for long haul trips and electric cars couldn't make it, as well as the ease of operation, reliability, general comfort (vibrations, noise, fumes) and cost of ICE cars significantly improving.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jamais_Contente

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicl...

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

#298

Post by Someone »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #288
ben_w wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although electricity is already everywhere, it’s still not going to be an easy transition. Globally, electricity production in 2012 was somewhere around 20 PWh/year, while transport used around 30 PWh/years. I’m optimistic about cheap solar — a one or two meter wide strip of PV next to every interstate, highway, motorway, Autobahn etc. should suffice — but it’s still not trivial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_e…

Electric vehicles use roughly a third of the energy so that 30 PWh only needs to be an extra 10 PWh for the grid. We need to increase overall capcity by 50%.

Chances are the network isn’t used at full capacity, so if people are willing to charge their cars outside peak hours (e.g, between midnight 7 AM, we wouldn’t need 50% more, network wise.

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

#299

Post by kalleboo »

Merad wrote: post #126
telchar wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're underestimating the Tesla supercharger network. It basically solves both of those problems (if you have a Tesla) and live in the vicinity of one - if you don't live near one then it still solves the second issue. The infrastructure is expanding rapidly, so your "unless" is a fairly safe bet.

According to Tesla's map there are only 12 supercharger stations in my state. That seems be a pretty typical number for most of the US outside of Southern California and a handful of other major areas. That might be enough to support a handful of enthusiasts and early adopters, but it's a drop in the bucket when your goal is to have millions of people using EVs as their primary vehicle.

You don't think they plan on building any more??

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

#300

Post by mpweiher »

ohhellno wrote: post #294
StevePerkins wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? I'm curious, as I don't know much about the state of rechargeable battery technology in the late-1800's.

"In 1884, over 20 years before the Ford Model T, Thomas Parker built the first practical production electric car in London in 1884, using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

Hmm...the Ford Model T wasn't exactly the first car with a combustion engine. Credit to that generally goes to Carl Benz, who got his patent in 1886.

There were earlier self-propelled vehicles.

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