71–80 of 205 posts
So EVs at 30% are about 2X as efficient as ICE.
I have an electric car, a leaf. I also have solar power from Solar City. I live in sunny MA, where in the winter we average 15kWh generated to the summer we average 50kWh. My commute is 60 miles per day which is around 6-8kW depending in traffic and weather. Also, my local power is a mixture of nuclear and wind. So. Can we please stop rolling coal burning power plants into the electric car equation as if it is univer…
One stop-gap hybrid solution for a number of these issues would be a gas station that has a small power generation station powered by diesel fuel. This would cancel out the ecological benefits of running an EV, even if the power station had more efficiency than a combustion engine.
You've got to burn something. Much of the electric power used by EVs in the States comes from burning coal. Diesel is the clean option.
You find this guy to be "brilliant"? I only skimmed the article, but it's just the same old, tired, ignorant anti-EV talking points I see from Luddites and oil industry shills every time I come across some kind of anti-EV rant. This article is just better written, but it's the same crap. If I were being extremely generous, I would just say that it's obviously not written by an engineer or anyone who really understand…
God, how I love HN and the endless stream of negativity that it can produce. Just for you, from this 'Luddite and oil industry shill':
http://jacquesmattheij.com/how-to-build-a-windmill
Now, do fuck off.
Apologies for breaking HN etiquette but I've really had it, blame my lack of sleep or whatever is convenient but comments like yours really make my blood boil.
Can somebody explain how are EV, and especially Tesla, batteries different from, say, my laptop batteries, which normally degrade to the point of being unusable within 4-5 years, and have to be replaced?
Can somebody explain how are EV, and especially Tesla, batteries different from, say, my laptop batteries, which normally degrade to the point of being unusable within 4-5 years, and have to be replaced?
Ugh... here we go again... > Problem 1: Transportation will load the grid and generating capacity in rather nasty ways Electric cars are not a _complete_ solution on their own. They are _part_ of the solution, along side more renewable power sources like solar and wind. I drive an electric car and I charge it almost exclusively with solar panels at a local free charging station provided by the Tennessee Valley Author…
Shift your thinking! Electric cars won't be charged at gas stations like gas cars of the past. Most electric drivers charge at home in their own garages or driveways. I have neither, but I still manage to charge my car in street parking with an extension cord, an exterior wall outlet, and a few of those little safety mat things so strangers don't trip over my cord.
-> I agree to an extent, however, I think you over estimate the discipline of the average person with respect to them always remembering to charge their car at night. The time it takes to recharge an EV to a significant capacity is still too long for people to easily transition, not to mention the massive current demands that would be required for such a quick charge. In an ideal world, people would plug their EV into an outlet every night when they come home from work, but we all know that the average person isn't as deterministic as that. How many people wake up in the morning and realize that they forgot to plug their cell phone in at night? This is why there's such a push for rapid charging technology in those devices.
In order for people to easily make the switch, I think we would need vehicles capable of charging to a ~100 mile capacity in under 5 minutes; similar to how long a refill for a gas vehicle takes. I’m not up to date on the latest EV news, so maybe we’re already there.
Nonetheless, I find myself many times in the morning on my way to work, glancing down at the gas gauge, realizing that I forgot to refill last night. This forces me to make a quick stop on my way to refill, which only adds about 8 minutes to my total commute. Waiting at an EV charging station for 30 minutes would require a significant change in my lifestyle.
People like the average HN user are generally responsible enough to make appropriate accommodations, but my 68 year old father wouldn’t go through the hassle.
Another hurdle I see with overnight charging is the mess it would cause in cities like Philadelphia where you aren’t guaranteed to end up in the same parking spot every time. The people there can’t even handle shoveling out a parking spot without shooting each other, so I expect a few issues when there are extension cords in front of everyone’s house and you need your specific spot to charge your car. This could easily be solved with a universal charging infrastructure that includes chargers every 10 feet, but that infrastructure will only come when adoption reaches a certain rate where the _massive_ costs can be justified. This is the obvious catch 22.
Of course, these issues will slowly go away as EVs become a part of everyday life, but I’m specifically talking about the transition period.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about people who park curbside? Will their cars be spending 2 hours/night at the charging station?
To all the people replying "curb chargers", how much do you think it would cost to equip tens of thousands of street parking spaces (per town) with them? I don't see that happening any time soon, and if it does the huge capital expenditure will have to be passed down to the consumers, reducing the economic attractiveness of electrical.
That may still sound like a lot, but the parking spot itself typically costs $2,000 or so, and you're saving on the cost of the gas pump that this charger helps to replace.
Yes, you have to account for the cost of charging infrastructure when looking at the total cost of an EV, but it doesn't greatly change the picture.
How about horses? Tried and true method, reliable for millenia, green and sometimes majestic.