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The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

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Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#131

Post by jessaustin »

rayiner wrote: post #116
efosmark wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rent a gas car for the one day a year you need that distance? That's sort of where I'm ending up. Not w/ electric vehicles, but with bicycling. I bike commute year-round & use it for most of my travel, but for the rare case when I need to use my car for longer trips it's nice to have. However, paying the cost of upkeep & monthly insurance for something I use so infrequently is starting to make less sense.

Because it’s a huge pain in the ass. So I go to a car rental place in my EV and then what, leave it there? Bring someone along to drive it back. Add a couple of hours renting a car to a trip that’s already jam packed with fussy kids and irritated spouses, that you’re trying to squeeze in on a weekend?

When I didn't have a car, I rented from Enterprise several times a month. I never found it to be inconvenient. They pick you up! Besides, if like GP you mostly get around by bicycle or public transport, it doesn't seem like a hardship to get to or from the rental place that way.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#132

Post by wang_li »

valarauca1 wrote: post #126
aphextron wrote: post #5

It's been fascinating to watch Saudi influence wane over the last few years as this sinks in as the new reality. We live in a completely different power structure now from 20 years ago. They're certainly still obscenely rich, but the power they had over geopolitics via OPEC is effectively gone at this point due to tar sands, renewables, and natural gas.

We live in a completely different power structure now from 20 years ago. The US has always imported That being said OPEC had some control over the price that oil was traded at, but never the volumes.

According to NPR in 2010 the US was importing 60% of the oil used.

https://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150444802/where-does-america-...

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#133

Post by bsder »

BrandonMarc wrote: post #86
derekp7 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people I talk with in my peer group wouldn't even think of getting an all-electric car (except maybe as a secondary vehicle), due to range anxiety. However, what I think will happen over the next 20 years (with battery improvement, etc) is more and more hybrids and plugin hybrids. For example, see Ford's plans starting in 2020. But the plugin hybrids won't be sold as "fuel efficient", but sold as "more powerful"…

For my part, I'm not anxious about range; price is the main issue. The car purchases over my lifetime have been $5000, $2500, $1, $4000, $11000, $8000, $12000 ... and I have never bought new. I do not see a viable electric vehicle for me. Tesla looks awesome, and I cannot find an affordable one near me. Hell, there are TWO (count 'em, 2) used Model-3's within 20 miles of me, and they're selling for $50,000. LOL and M…

> I do not see a viable electric vehicle for me. Tesla looks awesome, and I cannot find an affordable one near me. Hell, there are TWO (count 'em, 2) used Model-3's within 20 miles of me, and they're selling for $50,000.

I think this year is a watershed along those lines. My guess is you will start seeing used hybrids shortly (within 3 years) at reasonable prices.

Quite a few "hybrid" cars in California are losing their ability to use the carpool lanes because there are so many of them. You now have to be able to do something like 40-50 miles on battery or you don't qualify anymore.

In addition, I think GM has moved out of the first tier of federal rebates on their electric/hybrid cars because they've sold so many of them.

You probably won't find used Teslas, but I bet you will start finding used Volts/Bolts.

From my point of view, the biggest issue I have is that while my internal combustion engine car is 25 years old, I haven't been able to keep a hybrid for more than 5 years because the technology is still evolving so quickly.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#134

Post by mikeash »

tjr225 wrote: post #52
oliveshell wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me personally, 350-400 miles (in the worst case: with the A/C on full blast, up an incline, including frequent stopping and acceleration) would be a start. But it’s also about about refueling (i.e. charging). Until a spot at a supercharger is as easy to come by as a gas station wherever you go, it won’t be the same. Not to mention having to wait 30+ minutes to charge, which can add up on a road trip.

What if there were "battery stations" with charged swappable, standardized batteries? You could do your own charging at home or at work otherwise.

Tesla built one. They gave up on it because almost nobody used it. The problem with charging time on long trips is somewhat exaggerated. It does add a bit more time, but it’s not much if you're taking breaks the way you ought to anyway.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#135

Post by tzs »

efosmark wrote: post #67
83 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, about 1800 miles. I'm sure there are others who might need more. I take a yearly drive to utah (~1400 miles each way, straight through only stopping for fuel). I'll have an ICE vehicle until range is sufficient to get me there plus a few hundred miles for exploring/getting back to a city where I can charge.

Why not rent a gas car for the one day a year you need that distance? That's sort of where I'm ending up. Not w/ electric vehicles, but with bicycling. I bike commute year-round & use it for most of my travel, but for the rare case when I need to use my car for longer trips it's nice to have. However, paying the cost of upkeep & monthly insurance for something I use so infrequently is starting to make less sense.

One problem with the "rent a gas car for long trips" approach is that for many people their long trips are at times or for events that a lot of people also need a gas car for. Rental cars may be hard to come by at such times, or may be very expensive.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#136

Post by briandear »

beat wrote: post #100
jfrankamp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way to think about it is owning an electric as a primary vehicle (most trips are under 50 miles or whatever) and the gas car as as secondary, long range vehicle. This makes way more sense than hybrids for two car families. We own a Nissan Leaf and its definitely our primary vehicle, it gets 10x the miles/day as the gas car at a fraction of the maintenance cost. We pull the gas car out for the weekends or trip…

At which point just renting a gas vehicle for long trips starts sounding really good.

Except for the hassle of renting a vehicle. And, what do you do in a natural disaster?

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#137

Post by simonbyrne »

rayiner wrote: post #116
efosmark wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rent a gas car for the one day a year you need that distance? That's sort of where I'm ending up. Not w/ electric vehicles, but with bicycling. I bike commute year-round & use it for most of my travel, but for the rare case when I need to use my car for longer trips it's nice to have. However, paying the cost of upkeep & monthly insurance for something I use so infrequently is starting to make less sense.

Because it’s a huge pain in the ass. So I go to a car rental place in my EV and then what, leave it there? Bring someone along to drive it back. Add a couple of hours renting a car to a trip that’s already jam packed with fussy kids and irritated spouses, that you’re trying to squeeze in on a weekend?

I don't understand why car rental places haven't tried to address this yet: e.g. offer drop-off and pick-up (of the car, not me), including evening and weekends.

You can sort of get this through Turo, but you don't get the network benefits (one-way rentals, easy replacement, etc.).

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#138

Post by mikeash »

jdpedrie wrote: post #46
melling wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much range do people need before there's no longer range anxiety? People used to complain about 200 miles not being enough then Tesla released 300 miles then they said that's not enough either.

Neither are enough. Until I can drive across the continent as conveniently as I could in the ICE car I have today, I'll be extremely reluctant to purchase an electric vehicle.

Counterpoint: until I can drive around town as conveniently as I could in the EV, I won’t buy a gas car. (I won’t anyway, but....)

People focus on the extra time spent charging on trips (which is real but not huge) and ignore the extra time spent filling up at the local gas station every week even when you’re not taking any trips.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#139

Post by rossdavidh »

8ytecoder wrote: post #25

This ignores the fact that Saudi Arabia has a large spare capacity that it doesn't deploy - except when it's absolutely necessary. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-saudi-trump/can-...

True, but the reason it doesn't deploy it is that it has decided it cannot drive the U.S. frackers out of business, even if it drives them into bankruptcy. The initial investor may lose their investment, but the oil keeps flowing. So, they are trying to bring the price back up by holding back some of their capacity. Either way, it doesn't seem like the amount of money they got when a barrel of oil cost $125 or more, is coming back any time soon.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#140

Post by simonbyrne »

jessaustin wrote: post #131
rayiner wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s a huge pain in the ass. So I go to a car rental place in my EV and then what, leave it there? Bring someone along to drive it back. Add a couple of hours renting a car to a trip that’s already jam packed with fussy kids and irritated spouses, that you’re trying to squeeze in on a weekend?

When I didn't have a car, I rented from Enterprise several times a month. I never found it to be inconvenient. They pick you up! Besides, if like GP you mostly get around by bicycle or public transport, it doesn't seem like a hardship to get to or from the rental place that way.

It still takes ~30 mins, and the one near me isn't open on Sunday afternoons, which cuts into my Monday morning and pushes a 2 day rental to a 3 day one.
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