Peak Internal Combustion Engine Sales Behind Us

You have some points here. I agree that we need a serious energy plan for America, and that it will probably have to include nuclear. Plus, we already need infrastructure upgrades to our power grid for capacity, security, resilience to natural phenomena, etc.

But, solar does save the homeowner money.

The only real issue is that it does take an investment that is then paid off over a time period.

If homes were built with solar, the solar installation would be part of the mortgage and thus amortized over a significant period. The new home buyer would get immediate return by having power bills lowered by more than the additional mortgage payment - that is, a real immediate benefit.

Your point about 12v batteries isn't a valid measurement. One has to consider the watt hour production and local utility price.

There are companies today that will install for free if the homeowner agrees to share in the benefit of lower cost of electricity.

 

I'm getting rid of 23 year old car this week because it is tough to get parts for. The other side of Obama's 'cash for clunkers' is that people can no longer get parts for their older cars.

 

Yes, I do, and wind and solar are tiny compared to coal, the latter of which is still around 40% of energy production globally.

 

Yep, the manufacturers can keep all their fancy crap as far as I am concerned. Now of course, if we are talking about this:


or this


or this:


then maybe that would be something worthy of bragging about. Roll-up windows and no fancy-schmancy electronic crap.

 

EV's have environmental impact.
EV’s Fossil Fuel Economy No Better than ICE Vehicles
June 17th, 2022
…But the price per mile of EVs energy use is cheaper for the time being ($2 per gallon of gas equivalent)


Photo credit: Insideevs.com.

Most of the electricity generated in the U.S. continues to come from fossil fuels (61% in 2021). This is not likely to change much in the future as electricity demand is increasing faster than renewables (20% of total in 2020 and 20.1% of total in 2021) can close the gap versus fossil fuels. Given that fact, it is interesting to ask the question:

Which uses fossil fuels more efficiently, an EV or ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle?

Most of what you will read about EVs versus ICE vehicles discuss how EVs are more efficient at converting the energy they carry into motion (e.g. here, and here , and here, and here, etc.) but this is only part of the equation. The generation, transmission, and battery storage of electricity is very inefficient compared to the refining and transport of gasoline, and those inefficiencies each year add up to more than all of the gasoline consumed in the U.S.
. . . .

 

CLEAN ENERGY: Counterculture Festival’s Electric Car Charging Stations Have a Dirty Little Secret.

They are powered by diesel generators!

"Yeah, those green batteries are kept powered by the farm’s diesel generator which is “switched on as and when it is required,”

​

 

Those chargers are paid for by the government. When they go 'private' the costs will jump. An article in the WSJ a couple of weeks ago was about some woman who made a round trip from New Orleans to Chicago and back, 2013 miles. Cost for juice was around $175 versus an estimated $275 for a Kia equivalent gas powered car, not nearly enough of a savings given the upfront costs of the EV car and the free chargers to businesses. 8.69 cents a mile versus 13.66 cents a mile, a savings of a nickel a mile doesn't nearly pay for the upfront cost difference of say the first 250,000 miles, as an example, and that's very generous, since I seriously doubt anybody gets 250,000 out of these EV's. A gas powered Kia starts at around 19,000 for its cheapest, while its cheapest EV starts at $40,900. You might get a mini cooper cheaper, but a Kia is about as small as most people will go. 7.6 cents for the first 250,000 on the cheap gas Kia versus 16.36 cents up front for the EV for the first 250,000. It is entirely possible to get 200,000 + out of a gas powered vehicle. And EV will probably get lucky to get 100K.

 

Many have gone hundreds of thousands of miles. Taxi drivers use EVs.

 

People seem to have forgotten what it was like before personal mechanical transportation existed. The bicycle led to the automobile and folks were happy to be able to get around without having to feed and care for a horse. Like so many human endeavors, however, things grew to grotesque proportions and then these became the "norm". Now, we have to re-think what it is we really want in life. Is it oversized, wasteful vehicles and pollution at high cost? We are more than creative enough to find pleasant alternatives that are just different.

 

They also tried electric vehicles; guess which technology won out after two decades. Same thing will happen when hydrogen gets cheaper.

 

Define 'many'. 3? 8?

 

That is possible, and so much the better. There will will be a very big place for bicycles and variations of pedal/electric displacement vehicles, as well as fully electric transports. There is nothing wrong with a mix. What is "wrong" is the current over-dependence upon a single solution.

 

Ummm, scuse me, go look up "Salton Sea Saudi Arabia of Lithium".

 

Hmm but Vanadium redox batteries are scalable for large grid storage

 

As we said an awful lot of Taxis use hybrids these days

 

WSJ. Says it all really

 

Yes , they must suck if they disagree with EV fantasies.

 

But hybrids aren't ev's, that's why they're called 'hybrids', not 'ev's.

 

But the 'environmentalists' here are shutting down mines needed to produce their fantasy vehicles as well as the power plants needed to produce the massive amounts of electricity needed to charge them. So no, they aren't trying to reduce pollution, they're just running a game, trying to get all those uppity proles crammed into sardine cans and high rise public housing blocs and off the roads, so all those elites can cruise along in their limos and Ferraris on empty freeways unimpeded by all those Deplorables.

And as already pointed out, all they;re doing is shifting the pollution around and nt really doing squat about 'global warming'; India and REd China and other labor racketeering paradises are building many more coal plants to meet their needs for manufacturing and powering their new sweatshops.

 

Oh! Dear!

The world is changing

Like incandescent light bulbs ICEs will change

 

Oh! Dear! Unsupported twaddle obviously sourced from right wing denialist blogs that simply keep churning misinformation

What mines are being “shut down”?

 

Human "intelligence" is amazing. It has often been shown to have phenomenal capacities for inventiveness. It has also shown capacities for barbarity. It has also shown capacities for conspicuous absence. Perhaps re-enforcing our natural intelligence with "artificial" may help channel our capacities. Human history has some very sad tales to tell, and even sadder things are possible today.

 

More problems with EV's.

Car quality is slipping: These are the brands with the most and least complaints, study finds

Electric vehicles performed worse than gas-powered models in the J.D. Power quality study, with 240 complaints per 100 vehicles on average

KELLEY BLUE BOOK New car owners are experiencing more problems in the first 90 days of ownership than ever before. Buick took the top spot in the 2022 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, but the headline isn’t the winner this year. . . .

 

I Like Hydrogen!
Fuel Cell electric or
why not internal combustion.


Moi

Get Over It!​

 

Erm, no.

Car manufacturers are investing in EV's because the sale of new ICE vehicles will be banned. If EV's were a viable alternative, they would be allowed to compete against ICE vehicles, but even the government know they have to force them onto the public, otherwise EV's would have already peaked