Paywall workaround: https://archive.is/wHV3C
Does The Guardian have a paywall in some countries? All I ever see is a pop-up and some banners asking to donate. Sometimes those banners and pop-ups explain why they don't have a paywall.
Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
91–100 of 519 posts
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#92Can i get an electric car that I can go fill it's battery as fast as I can go fill my gasoline tank? That's when I'm getting one!
Not at this time. Charging in 2-5 minutes for 300 miles of range is still 5-10 years away, and is likely to cause accelerated wear on the battery pack. Also charging locations will be more difficult as you now need to supply 1 megawatt per station rather than the 120-250kW you need now. The charging station will likely need to charge your car from a bigger battery at the station as power companies are not fans of peo…
The Semi charger will probably be in the megawatt range on account of the larger battery. What will it take to power a truck stop with 100 chargers? Nuclear reactor maybe?
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#93I’ll be interested to see the lifespan of EVs for “normal” people. I’ve got a 2012 Nissan LEAF we bought post-lease in 2015. I love it still, and don’t have any plans to replace it. The battery is not in great shape, but it gets me where I need to go. I am genuinely considering replacing the battery rather than buying another EV when the battery finally fails.
An EV inverter for $200 can allow your car to power your refrigerator + router/phone/laptops for many hours (days for a LR Tesla).
A powerwall has what, 12ish KW usable (less in reality) which a single one can power a house for for up to a day if you're careful about what you're using. If you scale that up to the 75KW+ batteries being put into EVs today buying an inverter could be a good investment if you live in an area with frequent power outages (or a cabin or whatnot).
There was also some talk about Teslas being able to send power back to the house with the new HPWC - not sure if that ever happened.
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#94One thing I keep getting tripped up on with EV cars is the usability during an emergency. I grew up in SoCal when there were rolling black-outs. Just this week, a windstorm took out my parent’s power for 3 days. I don’t view electricity to be as reliable as gas. What fact am I missing that can change my view on this?
We have thought about this as well. If there is an emergency that affects a metro area, you need to be able to get out of the area and then refill. In an ICE, it's easy to drive 200 miles and then tank up in 5 mins. In an EV, you might be able to get 200 miles, but it's much less likely that you'll be able to refill in under an hour. If many people are evacuating, charging stations will be overloaded. Trickle charging can be done almost anywhere, but that can take a really long time.
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#95Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#96One thing I keep getting tripped up on with EV cars is the usability during an emergency. I grew up in SoCal when there were rolling black-outs. Just this week, a windstorm took out my parent’s power for 3 days. I don’t view electricity to be as reliable as gas. What fact am I missing that can change my view on this?
It's easier to set up back yard solar panels than a back yard fuel refinery.
> It's easier to set up back yard solar panels than a back yard fuel refinery.
If you have lot of open space with sun exposure, true.
For the average small yard, it's easier to buy a 55gal drum of gasoline and a manual pump if you can anticipate the need.
Growing up in hurricane country, it's something some people did. Buy a drum in the summer and store it. If it wasn't needed, just use it up after November (end of hurricane season).
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#97Vaguely curious why this is the case, if people are respecting the pandemic.
People are driving far less in general, and I suspect fewer people are road tripping , so range anxiety, and rechargeability becomes less of a problem for those who need to buy a new car. But there are also more people replacing plane with car travel, which increases the numbers of people driving, but I presume that's much lower than the number of people no longer road tripping. And some of those people might decide…
Ah, this makes sense (as do the other responses, likely a combination of factors).
It had slipped my mind that people would still need to make (typically shorter range) trips for groceries and other critical things.
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#98Up 43% is great news. To put it in context: There were 91 million cars produced last year (per wikipedia) and 3 million electric cars sold.
If that growth rate continues, electric cars will pass 50% sold in 8 years. Going to be an interesting decade.
That would be great but high % growth from a small base doesn't imply the same growth rate will continue once it reaches higher levels (see for example how undeveloped economies grow faster until they become developed, at which point growth slows down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_(economics))
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#99'Global sales' I hope everyone understands in China it is very hard to get a licence plate, the government allows you to get a licence plate if you buy a heavily subsidised electric car. The aim is to stimulate demand to develop an industry. Large cities also banned motorbikes and scooters, with the same aim. This is no way market driven demand, BYD is a very interesting company to look into. It is my understanding t…
China is the biggest market indeed. As a counter point though
> Sales of BEVs almost tripled in the UK, while those of PHEVs almost doubled, giving the vehicles a combined market share of 10.7%. Other non-plug-in hybrids took 18% of the market, but overall car sales were down 29%.
Here is another interesting chart about Germany
https://insideevs.com/news/447542/tesla-sales-growth-germany...
It's not solely China.
Re: Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020
#100'Global sales' I hope everyone understands in China it is very hard to get a licence plate, the government allows you to get a licence plate if you buy a heavily subsidised electric car. The aim is to stimulate demand to develop an industry. Large cities also banned motorbikes and scooters, with the same aim. This is no way market driven demand, BYD is a very interesting company to look into. It is my understanding t…
China is a country lead by engineers with unlimited power to do whatever they want. If they want all cars to be electric, that will happen. If they want a 5 million person city just there because it's logistically advantageous, then that will happen.
The good thing is that they can make decisions like this.
The bad thing is that they can make decisions like this.