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The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

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Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#51

Post by rocqua »

toxik wrote: post #4

> It’s like the old-school nerds refusing to adopt graphical user interfaces in the 80s. It’s a mindset that once gotten rid of, looking back you can’t understand why you ever thought that way. … which is exactly what most power users are still doing with terminals and tooling that is as old as modern computing. Did he just inadvertently argue against his own point? There are many great arguments for EVs, but this te…

Very few power users forego GUIs. Your IDE is (probably) a GUI, your browser is (probably) a GUI, so are many other things.

A more nerdy argument would be virtual memory addresses, automated testing, better compiler warnings, etc.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#52

Post by rob74 »

buro9 wrote: post #6

Agreed. However... I'd still argue if you have a car today that you own... Stretch ownership to another 5 years. I'm currently on vacation in the lake District in the UK and the car I have is Volvo T8 twin engine. I can't charge this thing anywhere. Charging spots in hotels aren't available to non residents, the solitary charging spots in car parks are taken, and the cottage I'm in has a very strange weak circuit tha…

Absolutely - I had to get a new car in 2019 (because I, er, kinda wrecked the old one - no one got hurt fortunately, but the car was 10 years old already, so an economic total loss :( ), and I hope this one lasts 10 years too. By that time, EV technology should definitely be at a point where you won't have to think twice about buying an EV.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#54

Post by rocqua »

ppf wrote: post #40

>"Why bother doing anything here as China is polluting so much? The reality is that we have to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. All. That includes every tonne we release here, in our home country. No matter what does, we have to stop our pollution here Now." Exporting your CO2 emissions to other countries (in the form of battery manufacture) does not achieve this goal. If anything, it's worse, because other countr…

At least you managed to hide your personal dislike to the authors response in your message...

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#55

Post by ppf »

user-the-name wrote: post #47
ppf wrote: post #40

>"Why bother doing anything here as China is polluting so much? The reality is that we have to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. All. That includes every tonne we release here, in our home country. No matter what does, we have to stop our pollution here Now." Exporting your CO2 emissions to other countries (in the form of battery manufacture) does not achieve this goal. If anything, it's worse, because other countr…

> Exporting your CO2 emissions to other countries (in the form of battery manufacture) This does not make sense. Battery manufacture is no way equivalent to ICE emissions.

>Battery manufacture is no way equivalent to ICE emissions.

How is it not? It takes a huge amount of energy to manufacture a battery pack (you spend about the first 1/3rd to 1/2 of an EV's life paying off the "CO2 debt"), and it generates all sorts of pollution in the process.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#56

Post by zhdc1 »

nickik wrote: post #24
roschdal wrote: post #8

Petrol cars have significantly longer driving range, which is important for transport efficiency. Petrol cars are significantly cheaper to buy. Petrol cars refuel significantly faster than electronic cars recharge. Petrol cars don't have a costly battery which degrades over time and pollutes.

> Petrol cars have significantly longer driving range, which is important for transport efficiency. 95%+ you charge at home or at work and a single fully charged battery is by far enough for daily use. > Petrol cars are significantly cheaper to buy. Life-time analysis of anything but very cheap cars this doesn't really hold up. > Petrol cars refuel significantly faster than electronic cars recharge. Not relevant most…

> 95%+ you charge at home or at work and a single fully charged battery is by far enough for daily use.

Less than 35% of people in the EU live in detached houses. A sizable percentage of these either rent or don't have enclosed parking.

My guess is that only about half of the population, once you factor in people who live in apartments but have separate enclosed parking spots, have the opportunity to charge an electric vehicle at home. This is probably optimistic.

However, once you consider that the ratio of apartments and alternative housing detached houses increases in highly populated areas, I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage of people who live in an urban area, are able to spend 20-30K+ on an electric car, and have access to convenient overnight charging is significantly less than 50%.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#57

Post by ppf »

rocqua wrote: post #54
ppf wrote: post #40

>"Why bother doing anything here as China is polluting so much? The reality is that we have to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. All. That includes every tonne we release here, in our home country. No matter what does, we have to stop our pollution here Now." Exporting your CO2 emissions to other countries (in the form of battery manufacture) does not achieve this goal. If anything, it's worse, because other countr…

At least you managed to hide your personal dislike to the authors response in your message...

I dislike being told what to do, when their assertions make no sense to my life choices. Especially when most of the arguments boil down to "most of the environmental benefits are not going to happen yet, but soon!".

My personal choices (mostly, keep my house a bit colder, don't buy new electronics, and cycle to work as much as possible) probably do more good, and right now, than buying an EV ever will.

I also don't need to get my thrills out of driving a nice car. If we need to save the planet from CO2-induced death, then that is an absurd luxury that has no place.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#58

Post by rob74 »

paganel wrote: post #19

> The first car I bought (after driving a self-repaired / built junk) was a Honda Civic type-R Yeah, no, not all of us have enough money to have had as our first car a "Honda Civic type-R". Probably the title should read be more like: "If You're At Least Comfortably Middle-Class The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric". But of course all this push to EVs is a huge regressive tax applied to the less-off people which i…

Granted, EVs are still considerably more expensive than conventional cars, but that's not set in stone. Except for the battery, the rest of the car is much simpler than an ICE-based one, so once they are produced in greater numbers, prices should come down.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#59

Post by zhdc1 »

buro9 wrote: post #6

Agreed. However... I'd still argue if you have a car today that you own... Stretch ownership to another 5 years. I'm currently on vacation in the lake District in the UK and the car I have is Volvo T8 twin engine. I can't charge this thing anywhere. Charging spots in hotels aren't available to non residents, the solitary charging spots in car parks are taken, and the cottage I'm in has a very strange weak circuit tha…

> It feels like infrastructure has yet to really catch up to need. It will. But today, if you still own a hybrid, ICE, twin engine... Keep it a while longer.

It will, but it isn't something that will likely happen in a short period of time. Civil engineering projects take several years to plan and execute. There's also the question of who will pay for it.

Re: The Next Car You Buy Should Be Electric

#60

Post by ruslan »

Although I like a lot big heavy SUVs (I own a Toyota LC200 diesel), I recently bought myself an EV scooter. It appeared it is pretty much more convenient to navigate through downtown using this small EV - it is ubiquitous, faster, brings joy while riding and you don't care about parking lots as much. The only negative part is you have to care about battery charge which takes huge amount of time compared to diesel/petrol.
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