How about we start regulating ship engines? There are currently no regulations involving large ships' emissions. But they are extremely dirty, emitting tons of unfiltered sulfur in per voyage. They use different fuel, with much 3.5% sulfur content while road cars' fuel is 0.001%. This all goes in the air.
I find it unacceptable that we consumers bend over backwards changing our habits, but the largest emissors don't change one bit and emit literally tons of sulfur in the air per voyage.
The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
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Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#92Love my e-up. Small cars can do so more than you think. My girlfriend and I just used it to drop our kid off in kindergarten and then go skiing. Am currently sitting in a tight supermarket parking space half way up a mountain- very easy in a cheap, small car.
The e-up is only cheap as long as you don't compare to other cars equal in size. VW is far behind in EVs for now sadly.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#93This is something I realized recently. I am in India and the number of small manufacturers who are making electric people movers is very high. These are not high speed vehicles, they are below 40 KM/h speed as I see them, but the big shift is that hundreds of small companies around India are producing and maintaining small electric vehicles, mostly locally. The drivers charge them at home at night or during longer lu…
The critical part that is playing its role as I understand is that DC motors and batteries are plenty available from decent manufacturers. Very soon, as I see articles around the web, there will be much better quality motors and batteries available across the country from brands say Yamaha or LG. Making the shell of a vehicle is not hard. ICEs have a ridiculously higher parts count compared to EVs. And not all EVs ha…
The only thing stopping this democratization would be crash-worthiness. While this is more true for Western markets currently, regulations will come to India as well.
However many Indians ride in the 3-wheeled death-traps called auto-rickshaws so I don't know... I've personally been in one which almost rolled over when the driver made a sharp turn at (relatively) high speed.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#94How about we start regulating ship engines? There are currently no regulations involving large ships' emissions. But they are extremely dirty, emitting tons of unfiltered sulfur in per voyage. They use different fuel, with much 3.5% sulfur content while road cars' fuel is 0.001%. This all goes in the air. I find it unacceptable that we consumers bend over backwards changing our habits, but the largest emissors don't…
Shipping only count for something like 2% of human caused release of CO2 and the pollution isn't local (cars inside a city is worse for humans). I agree something should be done ASAP but it isn't a low hanging fruit (hard to regulate worldwide shipping) so I doubt it will happen anytime soon.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#95I remember. A 7 seat Japanese Kei car, Suzuki Every. How to fit all 7 people into it?
probably not meant for the western high score bmi population
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#96A problem with such tiny cars is that they cannot absorb enough kinetic energy in a crash. Although they cannot go very fast compared to traditional cars, a frontal collision between two tiny cars going at full speed will likely have severe outcomes for the drivers and passengers. Of course, it might get worse when they get hit by a faster driving traditional car.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#97How about we start regulating ship engines? There are currently no regulations involving large ships' emissions. But they are extremely dirty, emitting tons of unfiltered sulfur in per voyage. They use different fuel, with much 3.5% sulfur content while road cars' fuel is 0.001%. This all goes in the air. I find it unacceptable that we consumers bend over backwards changing our habits, but the largest emissors don't…
Doesn't much of these sulfur emissions disperse and break down before it reaches land when they're out to sea?
There's already a lot of activity to reduce emissions when ships are near land. In Norway there's a big push to provide electricity from land when the ships are docked. There are also a very big hybrid ferry that has enough battery to run electric for the first and last few minutes near land.
Maersk wants to have its first carbon neutral vessel by 2023, and be net zero emission by 2050. That's probably going to be done with ammonia as fuel, which I don't think has big problems with emissions.
So it seems like there's already a good amount of pressure to solve this problem. Could be better of course. But "the largest emissors don't change one bit" is pretty far from true. Shipping is not really the biggest problem in total emissions, especially for CO2, and seems to be following the development in the zero emission space quite well.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a software engineer and I am not crazy enough to build a minimal ICE vehicle. But after spending decent teenage and college years in battery and small motors, I am actually confident enough to build a 3 people mover, slow and all, but it will go. There really is an order of magnitude difference in the complexity. The typical ICE already has electric batteries and motors. But the EV does not have the ICE parts. N…
Yet every yokel with a garage, builds an ICE car for fun. Not even college educated. Some disconnect here?
Plenty of people buid airplanes and helicopters too.. Established templates and parts compatibility make it possible for people without a great deal of engineering knowledge but a high level of technical skill (which apparently many yokels posess) to build things.
Building an ice vs electric vehicle in the discussion context means design plus build, not a kit or retrofit. It's a bit different.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#99A problem with such tiny cars is that they cannot absorb enough kinetic energy in a crash. Although they cannot go very fast compared to traditional cars, a frontal collision between two tiny cars going at full speed will likely have severe outcomes for the drivers and passengers. Of course, it might get worse when they get hit by a faster driving traditional car.
> a frontal collision between two tiny cars going at full speed will likely have severe outcomes for the drivers and passengers
Wouldn't the lower mass of the vehicles mean less forceful impact of the crash? Momentum, kinetic energy, impact - everything scales linearly with mass. If that cars weigh half as much they only need to handle half as much impact.
> Of course, it might get worse when they get hit by a faster driving traditional car.
The real problem, as you mentioned, is when they get hit by a bigger car. The same problem we have where regular cars get hit by trucks, or trucks get hit by semis. It's pretty obvious size matters.
Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars
#100How about we start regulating ship engines? There are currently no regulations involving large ships' emissions. But they are extremely dirty, emitting tons of unfiltered sulfur in per voyage. They use different fuel, with much 3.5% sulfur content while road cars' fuel is 0.001%. This all goes in the air. I find it unacceptable that we consumers bend over backwards changing our habits, but the largest emissors don't…
The IMO implemented a 0.5% sulfur limit on marine bunker fuel in 2020.