Torvy
Super Member
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.
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.