Electric Cars

https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/10944402
https://www.afr.com/companies/trans...changer-for-australian-market-20190723-p529u7

If Australia’s spraying cities can see a market advantage...

 

How about this article?

https://interestingengineering.com/the-tesla-semi-is-reportedly-exceeding-range-expectations

Price seems to be in the ballpark for a Semi which range from $80k up to $200k.

The load carrying capacity is all there and the range is on the high side.

Looks like the technology is almost ready for prime time.

 

Teslas have now come down to about $35,000, the cheapest lower quality electric cars go to as low as $10,000. The average price for a new regular car is $33,500. Prices for electric cars are coming down all the time and competitors are entering the market with competitive alternatives.

Some of it will. Some of it won't. Sometimes the only way to get something to work is to try it in real life and work it out, failures and all. So far its been working pretty well and making amazing progress that I wasn't expecting.

I'm all for moving up that date if its unrealistic. I believe in pragmatic skeptical optimism. New technologies often take a ton of research, real-world attempts, infrastructure building, and economies of scale to be marketable. The government helps them by scientific research and using tax breaks to encourage the first businesses to try to sell them. Does it always work? No. Some technologies just fail. Others fail for decades but then after long periods of stagnation become marketable and transform people's lives. You can't always know something is going to work and have to give it a chance, sometimes a lot of chances.

If I didn't want to listen to the scientists, I wouldn't nearly as excited about electric cars. Your excitement about electric cars will very much depend on whether you trust the scientists.

But at the very least electric cars are a great plan B if we start running out of cheap oil and gas prices start shooting up. Adopting electric cars early will result in less oil consumption so we will have more of it in the future, and as you pointed out its going to take a long time to get it right, so we should start as early as possible.

 

That's up to the market to decide. Electric cars have been around for almost as long as there have been cars. Just that they weren't very practical. They have some use for commuting to work and back, but I wouldn't want to take the tribe cross country to see wally world in one.

 

Yes, they're economically and ecologically pointless.

 

Since WWII we have been funding research into science and technology because we realize that the market has a blind spot. Often the cost of making a technology that we aren't even 100% sure about yet is too great and risky for a single business to want to undertake. But if we do put in the work, but there is a good chance it will greatly benefit businesses and consumers in the future. So companies don't do anything and let great possible technologies collect dust. This is why we fund science and technology and give them tax breaks.

Weren't practical. Past tense. Computers were also around for decades and weren't practical for most people either.

Even if that was true now, technology is improving very quickly. With our current technology, trips of a few hundred miles are now easy. A cross nation trip would be very difficult now, but not impossible. This is changing as we speak.

 

Can I tow my digger with a Tesla? I won't be happy ferrying colleagues about with muddy boots and tools.

A $10,000 car will need replacement batteries of how much?

And no doubt they will want to drive them on macadam.

Thank goodness I'll be retired before all this mess kicks off.

 

Only in your own misinformed opinion!

Odds are every truck manufacturer already has electric prototypes on the road.

Amazon just ordered 100,000 electric delivery trucks!

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme...-rivian-total-ev-suvs-pickups-built-to-date-0

Looks like Jeff Bezos doesn't share your opinion when it comes to the POINT of using electric trucks.

 

Unless you retire in the next 5 years there will be electric trucks towing diggers all around the place while you are still stuck paying through the nose for diesel.

 

Nonnie

Everyone has been very patient, giving you links and information, none of which you appear to be taking on board so please

 

Could you carry tons of your farm's grain with a Ford Model T? You could with a team of horses. These newfangled automobiles aren't ever going to work.

You don't want the $10,000 cars. I suggest getting the higher quality ones.

Even retired people need to drive. I am sure you will be fussing and complaining all the way as your wifi capable electric car self-drives you around and charges itself when its done.

 

You do realize that gas stations and their pumps require electricity to function, right? And an EV can be changed with solar while that gas/diesel guzzler rusts out with a bone-dry tank?

 

Gas stations have electric reserves to deal that that. These reserves are enough to keep them on but obviously not enough to fuel vehicles. But hopefully technology will improve. And I'm not that sure gas stations are very useful during natural disasters. There are huge lines and they run out quick.

 

Technology has improved. Home based solar with Tesla-invented Powerwall packs can run a home and charge an EV 100% grid-free. EV range per charge is steadily increasing, with Tesla hitting the 300+ mile per charge mark, which rivals the mileage a modern gas powered car gets per tank of fuel.

 

I agree. And it will continue to improve. One day, we won't have to sit in long lines to get gas at stations that are running out during a natural disaster. We will have batteries with reserve energy at home.

 

Yeah, the ultimate irony will be gas stations using solar charging systems to run their gas pumps during a power outage...

 

I don't know if I will live long enough to see it but there will probably come a time when gas stations are few and far apart for those who still insist upon driving those vehicles.

 

It's possible, but there is a huge problem with electric vehicles that have always plagued them, even 100 years ago. Batteries are much better these days, but they still lose a charge just by sitting and doing nothing. Pushing ahead with electric cars despite that enormous problem might work, but probably won't. It's roughly 10% lost every day. Multiply that by the number of vehicles in the country and you can forget electric cars.

Gasoline tanks don't lose 10% of their fuel every day, but batteries do.

 

Sunlight is free and it can replace that lost charge WITHOUT causing pollution.

 

I drive vehicles that are beyond the appreciation/understanding of a Prius driver. That’s MY way.

 

Isn’t that because CA now mandates that for all new construction homes?

If it’s so good, it wouldn’t have to be forced down the consumers throat.

 

Just because you do not appreciate/understand the benefits of hybrids and/or EV's and their performance does not mean that their drivers are incapable of understanding/appreciating what was available in what is becoming an outmoded and outdated form of transportation.

 

Local governments are FORCING consumers to have indoor plumbing?

 

And gas car engines typically have 20-30% energy efficiency. So we have countless oil fields worth of non-replaceable literally being wasted.

EVs may have charge loss but technology is constantly improving. How do I know this? The newest EVs have a drain rate of only 2%, not 10%. Technology just keeps getting better doesn't it.

Plus, if you charge them fully every morning, you aren't going to have a problem driving around the city. If we provide this energy with solar panels, then wasting a bit of energy really isn't that bad.

 

It says in your link that they're economically and ecologically pointless.