Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

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   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,471  
In the near term, (and likely long term) EV's are only a city vehicle. There is not really a need for many charging stations as people charge at home and/or at work. Driving a long distance (like here in Texas) is useless in them. Batteries will need to have double the current capacity or 1/12 of the charge times to make them practical for travel around much of the U.S. For those of you unfamiliar with the distances involved...the DFW metroplex is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island (wider, longer and more populous). El Paso is closer to Los Angeles, California than it is to Dallas. To drive a typical EV from Dallas to El Paso would take 2-3 full charges taking at best about 2 hours each time.

In my book, the best alternatives are (short term) Hybrids. My wife drives a Prius Prime. It Plugs in at home and has about a 20 mile EV range. It also has a 10 gallon gas take and the same regenerative charging of the regular Prius. That gives it about 95 MPG and she can literally drive from Dallas to El Paso on one tank of regular gasoline. The Prime also comes in the Rav4 with 4WD. The standard charging cord plugs into a regular home outlet and fully charges in about 5 hours. You can get an optional 220 version that will cut the charge time to about 2.5. But with the Prime, if you don't stop to charge, you are still running on the same powertrain as the very efficient Prius. With an EV, you run out of charge and you stop.

The next best option is going to be Hydrogen Fuel cells. Not to be a Toyota fanboy, but they are well ahead in this as well. The biggest issue with hydrogen in the US is that you do need specialized fueling options. You cannot just find an AC adapter. The current generation of Murai (Toyota's primary Fuel Cell platform) gets about 400 miles to a 'tank'. It takes 5 minutes to refuel. Zero emissions.

Ultimately, IMHO, the relevance to this site is that if most passenger vehicles and short haul delivery vehicles were using one of these options, there would be no reason to spend resources on making farm equipment more green. Use the advantages where applicable, but the numbers are not there and farm vehicles are not densely packed, so the air...wait for it...essentially cleans itself. Particulates settle into the ground and the trees 'breathe' the CO2.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,472  
A buddy of mine and his wife, drive from Washington state to Arizona to visit a daughter. He was driving a Chevy Bolt, but now has a Volkswagen EV. He likes to post pics of the places they charge up. They look like some nice picnic areas and he says it's a nice break in their drive. He says he'll never go back to an ICE vehicle as his primary driver.

Most of his work travel is air travel and rents whatever vehicle is available as needed.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.
  • Thread Starter
#3,473  

Sounds like Henry Ford's DNA made an impact on Tesla.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,474  
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,476  
Eventually it can go back to the politicians that forced electric vehicles on people.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,477  
Based on the information in the article, it seems that someone was buying gas and walked away. He then put the gas in a car somewhere else and drove. If, for instance, my wife was driving and I was the passenger, I would be walking to the gas station to get gas. If I was drunk and bought gas to take back to her, it does not necessarily follow that she is drunk and cannot safely drive. Sounds like someone had bad legal counsel.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,478  
Ultimately, IMHO, the relevance to this site is that if most passenger vehicles and short haul delivery vehicles were using one of these options, there would be no reason to spend resources on making farm equipment more green. Use the advantages where applicable, but the numbers are not there and farm vehicles are not densely packed, so the air...wait for it...essentially cleans itself. Particulates settle into the ground and the trees 'breathe' the CO2.
You might be OK on here, but don't you be running around in public, using that UnCommon Sense you are so obviously fond of !

You might get kidnapped by Team Green (not the tractor-one), and re-Edjumacated ! :alien::alien::alien:

Can't say I'm a fan of cities, but DFW is one of my favourite big ones.

Rgds, D
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #3,480  
In Vancouver, every car space in new hotels must have an EV charger

It would be interesting to see the the results of that mandate.
An "EV charger", they mean a fast charger which is rather pointless if you are staying in a hotel. Most stays would be at least 5-6 hours to catch some sleep and get back on the road. Even if you were in favor of the government mandating this type of minutia and thought it made sense for 100% of spaces in the parking lot to have them, a regular plug would work. I have not been to the Canadian Vancouver, but in many northern states there are AC plug-ins already for engine heaters. Those would work for regular charging. The article does not mention the cost, so my guess is that hotels will have a nice new income stream to charge for the convenience of each stall being 'wired'. (or rates for everyone go up to subsidize those of use with plug-in vehicles. heck, I own one and don't want this) High rollers will get complimentary 'free' charging, but people cannot seem to grasp the idea that you cannot make a business pay for anything, it is an economic impossibility. All business expenses come from the pockets of the owners, employees and customers in one way or another.
 
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