Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[Egon]

(( There is some new development in battery technology every ttmonth. It looks like it follows the same pattern as computer technology in the past three decades. The energy density of batteries might not increase much but the cost/kWh will go down. I also think that with the right software and enough storage capacity the electric grid might benefit. ))

Change is inevitable and ongoing. Has been and will be. The rate at which it happens may vary but that depends a lot on demand.

Yes, there have been some new elements recognized in the past year.

 

[Egon]

"What pollution" in the west. If you want to be concerned about pollution today, you will have to travel to the 3rd world.

Debate by Obfuscation?

Third world countries are poor. They can't buy large amounts of consumer goods. The first world Brownies can buy though and they do so in large quantities. They also move industries to the lower production costs of the third world enhancing their power ( economic ) base. Works well for a short time.

 

[IslandTractor]

"What pollution" in the west. If you want to be concerned about pollution today, you will have to travel to the 3rd world.

That's right. EPA has set rules in this country that work and continue to clean up sources of pollution. Third world doesn't have such laws or ability to enforce.

 

[buickanddeere]

If gasoline price goes significantly up many detractors will consider electric cars. Just about every manufacturer is planning to make one or more models. I think the adoption rate will first increase in Europe because they can get by with shorter range and thus cheaper cars while gasoline costs just about double than in the USA. Electric car makes sense to me. Our PV produces excess of power that we are paid wholesale rate for so it makes a sense to use the excess charing the batteries. We are retired so we can adjust our driving timing and we drive enough distance spending significant money for the fuel. Right now the fuel is cheap but that might not be the case later on, while cost of electricity is more or less predictable. And we need new car as all but one car we currently own were born in this milenia. If we need to drive long distance we could rent a car or borrow kids car and give them the electric to drive.
There is some new development in battery technology every month. It looks like it follows the same pattern as computer technology in the past three decades. The energy density of batteries might not increase much but the cost/kWh will go down. I also think that with the right software and enough storage capacity the electric grid might benefit.

Without government mandated production quotas and tax payer funded refund incentives. The EV would not exist off the golf course.
Check the number of EV's sold to government fleets. The is the bulk of EV sales are supported by tax dollars.
btw we just brought home a 2017 Sierra Max Towing with the 420HP 6.2 L yesterday.

 

[buickanddeere]

Debate by Obfuscation?

Third world countries are poor. They can't buy large amounts of consumer goods. The first world Brownies can buy though and they do so in large quantities. They also move industries to the lower production costs of the third world enhancing their power ( economic ) base. Works well for a short time.

Don't blame or penalize me for somebody else's pollution.

 

[buickanddeere]

Seriously, no.

You have to be either joking or trying to obtain a reply that you can twist into being offensive.

 

[houstonscott]

The reason all electric hybrid car threads turn this way is because the main reason for the thread is about how to make others switch to all electric and remove ice cars from the road, and how to do it. And it's all based in a belief that CO2 production by people mainly in the USA is causing the planet to warm, and they are going to put a stop to it... Then you get push back, because that is political and not really based in science. Hence the pushback. So now you know. When you truly discus technology advances that's cool, but, since the only real reason to change over and absorb all the short comings is to stop ice.

 

[IslandTractor]

Without government mandated production quotas and tax payer funded refund incentives. The EV would not exist off the golf course.
btw we just brought home a 2017 Sierra Max Towing with the 420HP 6.2 L yesterday.

Too bad you couldn't afford the 6.6L 445HP 910ft/lb HD truck. Now THAT is a real man's truck.

Ask Houston about how tax payer funded tax credits changed his life.

 

[vvanders]

High capacity cooling or not, the battery internals are heating up and electrolyte is being gassed.
For those claiming "high EV efficiency". How about those KW hours of heat being dissipated by battery cooling systems and wasted by rapidly charging batteries

How about this, I'll eat all my words if you can show first-hand excessive degradation from a modern EV with active thermal management.

However, I have over 50k miles, 100+ Supercharges on our car and we're showing well under the expected degradation(<2%). I plan on keeping the car for ~150-200k miles and I'm sure at that point I'll still have plenty of usable capacity.

Also if you look at tear-downs of Tesla's packs you'll see they run cooling fluid right against the cell walls pulling heat away rapidly. The packs keep a good temperature since that's critical for a host of reasons.

 

[buickanddeere]

Too bad you couldn't afford the 6.6L 445HP 910ft/lb HD truck. Now THAT is a real man's truck.

Ask Houston about how tax payer funded tax credits changed his life.

I paid 10's of thousands of dollars less up front. And will save 10's of thousands in operational costs over the next 300,000 miles vs the diesel. The max tow option puts this truck beyond diesel ratings of just a few years ago. If I have to haul more than rated it is cheaper to hire a hauling company with all the class A and CVOR hassles.