The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars • Hacker News Board

Re: The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars

#291

Post by Erudite_Genius » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #79

Erudite_Genius wrote: post #58

Right now, electric cars are a stupid choice. Half the range, 50x the refuel time, and triple the cost of any gasoline-powered alternative. The day you can buy a $15,000 car that gets 1,000 miles of range that takes 5 minutes to charge at every currently existing gas station will be the day the gasoline-powered car goes extinct.

Right now, gas cars are a stupid choice. You have to plan your trips around refuelling, instead of leaving the house every day with 100% charge. The running costs mean that over the lifetime of the car, it will cost you far more than an EV. Not to mention the cost and inconvenience of replacing the oil and brake pads - and this is all before we get to the gross emissions from your tailpipe.

You clearly don't own a Tesla. Maintenance costs are the same as gasoline cars if you drive them a lot.

Look up "Rich Rebuilds" on YouTube to see an endless supply of videos where he rebuilds Tesla cars, which are falling apart MUCH faster than gasoline cars (including the electric motors).

Carbon dioxide has absolutely nothing to do with global average temperature, by the way. If you believe that, then you must also believe in unicorns, the tooth fairy, and that electric cars are a good idea at this point in time.

Re: The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars

#292

Post by Erudite_Genius » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

spo81rty wrote: post #149

Erudite_Genius wrote: post #58

Right now, electric cars are a stupid choice. Half the range, 50x the refuel time, and triple the cost of any gasoline-powered alternative. The day you can buy a $15,000 car that gets 1,000 miles of range that takes 5 minutes to charge at every currently existing gas station will be the day the gasoline-powered car goes extinct.

All cars are a stupid choice compared to a motorcycle, subway or taking a bus... The average car sold in the USA is about $35,000. You can buy an EV for that and less. But to your point, there are companies in China making electric cars for like $15,000. One day in the US we will get a sub $20,000 EV.

You can buy a very nice used car for less than $6,000 all day long, and (if you're still indoctrinated to believe the lie of "carbon dioxide = global heat") has a much SMALLER impact on carbon emissions than ANY new EV.

Chinese crap is just that... CRAP. The Chinese don't care about durability one iota, their entire culture is set up to be cheap and disposable.

The reason Chinese gas cars are never sold in the U.S. is because they don't meet even the most lax of safety standards. Get into what would be a "fender-bender" in an American car, and the Chinese car will fold up like a bad hand of poker.

The REASON that EVs are expensive is because, at least for now, they use rare earth minerals to power them (not to mention the existence of labor unions and burdensome federal regulations on the auto industry driving costs up). Once graphene ultra-capacitors are perfected, you won't need to build a one-ton battery pack made of toxic minerals, so the cost will drop faster than Tesla sales after their government bribes to consumers ran out.

Tesla cars are LUXURY TOYS only afforded by the very wealthy. Teslas are marketed to BMW M5 shoppers... NOT Toyota Camry shoppers. (Because a Toyota Camry beats every Tesla in every possible measure except raw acceleration, including purchase cost, running cost, and even carbon impact for the first 2 years. 5 years if you buy used.)

Re: The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars

#293

Post by Erudite_Genius » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 12:49 AM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #67

Do electric cars really have far fewer parts? Will this mean they'll become far more reliable and require less maintenance? I know expensive Teslas apparently are like this but what about the budget cars to be?

They may have fewer PARTS, but those parts are MORE expensive and yet take EVEN MORE STEPS during manufacture to create.

See this video for more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvCcOEMWnw&t=138s