Does anyone have a measure of the feasibility (or lack thereof) of converting ICE vehicles to electric within the next decade? Is there a potential to reduce waste here?
Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
301–310 of 667 posts
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#302My problem is renting apartments. If you ask the strata or the building managers about charging points in the carpark, they look at you like you're speaking Klingon. This is true of even very recently completed buildings in well-off areas of relatively wealthy western countries. Heck, I just walked past three Teslas in my building's car park, one of which is new and wasn't there last week! Do people... not plan ahead…
In 1998 few building managers knew what you meant if you asked about fast internet access.
They'll figure it out when start losing leases.
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the problem with card payments in germany for non-germans?
Credit cards are not widely accepted in Germany. Germans generally use cash or EC/Maesto debit cards, and you can't get an EC card if you're not an EU resident with an EU bank account (which can be hard for Americans, and, to a lesser extent, any foreigner, I'm sure). I used to have a Maestro-branded debit card (in the US) when I was younger. I have no idea if it's the same system and/or if they're compatible. I chec…
We need the Google Fi equivalent of credit cards. Even with vaunted "international credit cards", there are still use cases where they do not work, which seem country-specific, and finding information about what is actually going on under the hood has been difficult for this layperson.
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#304My problem is renting apartments. If you ask the strata or the building managers about charging points in the carpark, they look at you like you're speaking Klingon. This is true of even very recently completed buildings in well-off areas of relatively wealthy western countries. Heck, I just walked past three Teslas in my building's car park, one of which is new and wasn't there last week! Do people... not plan ahead…
A staggering amount of buildings are built to code, and nothing more. If code says that there needs to be 1.5 parking spaces per bedroom for the complex, and the complex has 80 bedrooms, you can bet there will be 120 parking spots. Apartment managers will be dragged kicking and screaming into offering chargers for cars. The best way to get chargers into apartment buildings is going to be a local mandate that they hav…
Fortunately, the CalGreen code has some charging requirements:
https://up.codes/viewer/california/ca-green-code-2016/chapte...
I think the requirements should be higher, but this is a start.
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#305I rarely drive, but can't wait to own one. Where I live (and for a lot of people who live in cities) there is only on-street parking. Will be interesting to see how increased electric vehicle ownership might happen for people without a garage or designated parking.
Also stuck with on-street parking. I don't need a car so I don't own one, but if I did, and got an EV, I'd charge it at the fast charger close to my apartment and go grocery shopping while I did so.
It's not like a phone or a normal gasser car, you don't and probably won't need to fill it to 100% all the time. 20%-80% doesn't take that long.
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
What percentage of the world's car owning population lives in a place with a restriction like that? Few enough that it would be fine to let you keep your ICE/hybrid vehicles with almost no impact on climate is my guess. If I had to guess, you live in Canada which is a country of extremes like what you mention. The solution for Canada probably isn't to prohibit ICE vehicles, but to disincentivize them heavily where th…
EVs are pretty impractical to virtually impossible for use in the vast majority of the American Midwest. With temperatures that frequently get below 0F in the winter and the huge distance between cities, I will be very surprised if EVs have anywhere close to a majority within the next 10-20 years here. Some people own them as their 'commuter' vehicle and own ICE vehicles for longer distances, but most people can't af…
As of fairly recently, the average US household had 1.9 vehicles. [1]
[1] https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/highlights_of_the_2...
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the number of high-speed chargers are tiny (think a couple of locations per large city) That's not so far off. Even large cities in North America have no more than a few dozen gas stations (and the UK likely fewer still due to things like London's congestion pricing reducing vehicle count). Once-a-week-or-so fueling doesn't really require a huge amount of infrastructure. That's one of the reasons we're all addicted…
The real issue is charge times. Gas fillups take a few minutes at most - meaning no long lines. Once charges are close to that speed I think EVs will really take off.
What most don't realize here is that they are not counting the drive time to the actual gas station.
Whereas most EV owners just plug in when they get home and wake up to a full charge.
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#308My problem is renting apartments. If you ask the strata or the building managers about charging points in the carpark, they look at you like you're speaking Klingon. This is true of even very recently completed buildings in well-off areas of relatively wealthy western countries. Heck, I just walked past three Teslas in my building's car park, one of which is new and wasn't there last week! Do people... not plan ahead…
A staggering amount of buildings are built to code, and nothing more. If code says that there needs to be 1.5 parking spaces per bedroom for the complex, and the complex has 80 bedrooms, you can bet there will be 120 parking spots. Apartment managers will be dragged kicking and screaming into offering chargers for cars. The best way to get chargers into apartment buildings is going to be a local mandate that they hav…
A bit off topic, but your example of parking spots probably isn't the best. There's been some calls to lower the kinda ludicrous parking requirements mandated by local authorities
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the number of high-speed chargers are tiny (think a couple of locations per large city) That's not so far off. Even large cities in North America have no more than a few dozen gas stations (and the UK likely fewer still due to things like London's congestion pricing reducing vehicle count). Once-a-week-or-so fueling doesn't really require a huge amount of infrastructure. That's one of the reasons we're all addicted…
Was having this conversation with a neighbour the other day. I have a 7kw charger at my house, but the loop for our street is 21kw, which is typical here. It’s going to be a big problem to solve when it comes to it. I wouldn’t mind if I had to charge at 3.3kw, but if every car is an EV the current grid just isn’t going to be able to carry enough juice.
>I wouldn’t mind if I had to charge at 3.3kw, but if every car is an EV the current grid just isn’t going to be able to carry enough juice.
What about the theory some folks have that, once there's a ton of EVs on the grid, their batteries will help smooth out peak demands?
Also, how did you find out the capacity of your street?
Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea of providing charging outlets at the base of street lamp poles seems like a practical way of helping transition to EV's.
While I agree that this is obvious low hanging fruit, there are plenty of housing in areas with relatively sparse street lamps
Assuming you mean rural areas, they have their own parking.