An future end to DPF Diesels?

[EddieWalker]

24 volt and 12 volt, DC systems work great. You get what you pay for with them, but costs are dropping every year. Even home systems are getting better, the big drawback are the batteries and how often they have to be replaced, but that's the same with electric cars. Making the batteries is very destructive to the environment, and disposing of them is even worse. How long they last, what they cost and how much electricity you have available to use at your home are still an issue.

 

[fried1765]

There are several reasons off hand that I can think of. I'm not saying these are insurmountable but we aren't going to get there with present day technology. If you put 100 barrels of oil in a long pipeline you end up with 85 at the end. The other 15 are used up to move the oil down the pipeline. If you generate 100 megawatts of electricity you end up with about 33 to sell to the customer. Again on a long transmission link. The other 66 megawatts get burned up in what's called line loss.

Further more if everyone on a city block buys an electric car the whole infrastructure for supplying electricity to that city block is going to need upgrading. Presently there can be only approximately 4 Tesla's per city block. This is all information that I've been told. Your research might come up with different facts. I haven't double checked it.

Very few people talk about how much range you lose in cold weather. Cold battery's don't have the same capacity as warm ones. In the city this isn't so serious but for rural people you basically end up needing a second car for longer distances.

Another issue that is seldom mentioned is the amount of carbon produced to generate electricity. If the generation is coal there is no carbon advantage to an electric vehicle. I essentially consider wind and solar to be expensive experiments. You would have to cover the surface of the earth to generate enough electricity to meet current demands, plus in this day and age you still need conventional generation for when solar and wind are idle. Solar and wind are idle far more often than we are led to believe.

It would do far more for reducing carbon to require automotive manufacturers to build at least 1-2 million miles of reliability into vehicles with the ability to upgrade to more efficient engines as technology advances. If you think of the energy used to produce a vehicle vs the energy used to propel it through out it's lifetime this makes sense.

Lastly if governments were really serious about reducing carbon, planting trees makes tons more sense than carbon taxes.

VERY well said!
Unfortunately, the "green new deal" types don't comprehend those facts.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

What are your thoughts on home based solar and wind as charging sources for electric vehicles?

Sounds kind of HIGHTECH to me.

Of course that sounds good to have solar charging high tech storage batteries while you are out planting the crop and you come home for the day and pull in your tractor so it is fully charged and ready to go the next morn.

As others have covered the green technology is getting there and perhaps is 40% of the way there today.

Those of us that get our tractor fuel in 5 gallon jugs will never live long enough to pay for the set up and the EV's (cars, trucks and tractors) out of profits. It would be nice if those with the interest and cash to do so would do so to help finance the green evolution.

This real real bad cold going around may slow the green evolution but I reading of people this morning some are making the case since the virus is helping clear out the smog that it is a sign we should go EV full bore ASAP.

Right now we all understand we are at a greater risk of a near term death than in our life time so food and toilet paper are our main focus. At the rate gas prices are dropping they will be paying us to fill up by Christmas 2020.

 

[FatTire]

......
Another issue that is seldom mentioned is the amount of carbon produced to generate electricity. If the generation is coal there is no carbon advantage to an electric vehicle. I essentially consider wind and solar to be expensive experiments. You would have to cover the surface of the earth to generate enough electricity to meet current demands, plus in this day and age you still need conventional generation for when solar and wind are idle. Solar and wind are idle far more often than we are led to believe.

.......

Let me say first that I am not ready to give up my diesel pickup or any of my diesel powered equipment. BUT, that remark about having to cover the earth to generate enough renewable energy isn't even close to being true. If I remember correctly there were several days in 2019 when electricity production in the USA from renewable sources exceeded fossil fuels. Obviously there is a long way to go, and powering the nation's transportation fleet with clean power is going to be a huge step up, but like it or not we are already taking significant steps toward a much different future.

 

[FatTire]

What are your thoughts on home based solar and wind as charging sources for electric vehicles?

I live off-grid and have gone 7 years since I last ran a generator for my house*, but there is no way I could charge an EV off my current system unless I were willing (and able) to break the charging up over 5 to 7 days. If I wanted to charge an EV I would have to install a PV array significantly larger than my current 2.1 KW set up. With PV panel prices continuing to drop, I imagine someday this is will be feasible for me.

* My shop runs off its own PV system, and typically I run a generator 10 to 20 hours a winter. Usually because something won't fit in the shop over night and I have to run a block heater, or used too much power that day (welding being the big one).

 

[BrokenTrack]

Another thing people do not think about with electric vehicles is the charge time.

I talked with someone whose daughter and husband went to Florida, and it took them 8 hours longer with an electric vehicle than gasoline because of the wait times to recharge the batteries.

I would have never thought of that issue.

 

[John_Mc]

Let me say first that I am not ready to give up my diesel pickup or any of my diesel powered equipment. BUT, that remark about having to cover the earth to generate enough renewable energy isn't even close to being true. If I remember correctly there were several days in 2019 when electricity production in the USA from renewable sources exceeded fossil fuels. Obviously there is a long way to go, and powering the nation's transportation fleet with clean power is going to be a huge step up, but like it or not we are already taking significant steps toward a much different future.

Yeah, that post was long on opinions, short on facts. I didn't bother to bite.

 

[John_Mc]

Another thing people do not think about with electric vehicles is the charge time.

I talked with someone whose daughter and husband went to Florida, and it took them 8 hours longer with an electric vehicle than gasoline because of the wait times to recharge the batteries.

I would have never thought of that issue.

We own a 2019 Chevy Bolt. 237 mile range when we don't have to run heat or AC. There are people who do cross-country trips in them, but we're not inclined to do that. We have gas vehicles for that. We use the Bolt for a commuter/grocery-getter vehicle. We may try the 250+ mile trip to my wife's family one of these days, but really that's not what we bought it for. Not a chance we'd try to make a Vermont-to-Florida run. When using it for local trips, it's been perfect. Pretty much zero maintenance, and we never stop at a gas station. Drive it to work and back, run whatever errands we need, and plug it in overnight. Even in the winter, when we need to run the heater, range has not been a concern. It doesn;t fit 100% of our needs, but that kind of use is the vast majority of all driving in the USA.

 

[1010]

DPF/DEF is a joke and expensive joke. And we are paying out the nose for it. We are stupid for allowing it.
The same clowns calling for these restrictions are the same clowns calling for less GOV.. Pathetic.

 

[FatTire]

1010, can you clarify that comment? Isn't it usually the.people who truly want smaller government who also are aggrieved by pollution control standards, at least in their current form?

I love how clean my F350 runs, but I do wish the systems that provide that were less complicated and more reliable. I guess we'll be switching to EV by about the time really good emissions control for diesel becomes a reality, and quite possibly the manufacturers that are slow to embrace that will fall by the wayside.