Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

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   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,621  
I can imagine all those large farm outbuildings being covered with solar panels.
That would be OK, as long as those panels aren't covering good productive land. For one thing, it's pretty damn stupid to destroy a CO2 consuming forest for a solar "farm"
Personally, I don't see solar power being effective for high density areas. I do think Solar will be good for individual homes and, in some instances, farms
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,622  
That would be OK, as long as those panels aren't covering good productive land. For one thing, it's pretty damn stupid to destroy a CO2 consuming forest for a solar "farm"
Personally, I don't see solar power being effective for high density areas. I do think Solar will be good for individual homes and, in some instances, farms
This could be the best comment in 5623 posts. 👍
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,623  
I can imagine all those large farm outbuildings being covered with solar panels.
Relatively common site here, and other parts of the world I'd suspect.....

Likely same your side of the border, I've noticed an explosion of self-storage facilities the last 40 years (Do we have too much Junk ?... but that's another thread.... :cool: ). I've noticed many self-storage places here, totally roofed over with PV panels.

Rgds, D.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,624  
Do we have too much Junk ?... but that's another thread.... :cool: ).

Short answer, YES! Storage owners tell me that most of the things there aren't worth as much as the rent people are paying. I once dated a woman who had 5 dining room table and chair sets... she kept rotating them out, 4 in storage while the fifth was being used.
She was one of those people who move every two years, as soon as she didn't need to worry about capital gains on each home.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,625  
Rivian had a good week. I’ve read and watched some reviews, seems to be an overall favorable impression so far of the R1T.
They also picked up a wee bit of operating capital.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,626  
Its interesting how North Americans will frame the usefulness of EVs. And I'll admit I'm using some very large brushes to point out why EVs are problematic in North America, yet perfect solutions for parts of Europe and the British Isles. As a younger man, from 1976 to about 2003, I'd driven an ICE vehicle from the Pacific West Coast to the Mid-East Coast, and back, at least 11 times. About 3,400 miles each way and I drove near every route from Route 2 in the North to Route 10 in the South, and most in between.... 90, 80, 70 etc. Shortest drive was four days, and the longest, 2 weeks. For many years, 1982 to 2011, I also, every other month or so, would take a train or bus or drive from Eugene, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. The train was always more expensive, then driving, even if I added the parking fees, and added 2 hours to the trip. The bus, Grey Hound, was less expensive than driving, but, frankly, a depressing experience, on clapped old ICE buses, filthy stations, and grumpy staff and sketchy fellow passengers.


Wife and I have been traveling to England, Italy or France, near every year for the last 17 years. Seeing, over time, how these counties have adopted EVs has been fascinating to us.


Just before the pandemic in 2018, our last trip was a top to bottom trip through France only using trains and buses.


There is no way to compare the compactness of Europe to the vastness of the USA.


So when I read a post comparing a particular European country with the USA, the comparison makes no sense. In Europe you can get a train to most any city, and then take a bus to near any more rural location. Owning a car in Europe is VERY expensive.


In Europe, pubic mass trans is a point of National Pride and heavily subsidized. . The Government Owns the railways, on which private companies bid to use the tracks. In the USA, public mass trans is an after thought, Amtrak doesn't even have the right of way on these privately held rail lines owned mostly by Union Pacific and BNSF. This plays into the EV equation in the sense that there are few, spur lines, that Amtrak operates on, and few private bus lines to take you from the Train Station to your destination. So you have to have a car if you are going anywhere out side the main point to points that Amtrak operates in. This is a general, “do I even need a car?” consideration.


The largest Mass Trans System in the US is the Yellow School Bus. There are 480,000 school buses in the USA, only 2,100 of those are EVs.


In comparison, in England they are publicly committing 140 Million Pounds to replace at least 500 of their school buses to all electric, with the next goal being 4,000 buses in the next five years. All for a much smaller population


These are usually small countries , with few people that people use as comparisons. And some of these comparative counties have huge wind generated electrical potential. The wind blows all the time in the Northern Sea. And their cities are closer together and well with in the current 140 mile range of average EVs. My next biggest city is Portland, 110 miles away, meaning I'd have to find a QUICK charging station. One of the eight, on the way back. And most likely have to be a subscriber to the Quick charge, and have the right interface to do that to have a 20 minute experience ....... Gas only has one interface, takes 5 minutes and at damn near every exit,... its available.

Our impressions of Europe, is that, we wouldn't need a car at all, if we moved there. Aside from more rural areas of Italy, the trans systems were cheap, organized, on time, and clean. “Do you need a car, anyway?” Which, I believe is the larger question when we compare the USA to Europe. If we lived in an Urban area of Europe the answer would be, “No.” Even though electricity is very expensive in Europe: What we would want is a tiny electric car to get us to the next village and back for only local trips.

This doesn't work in the USA. Its too big, and there is no public will for any tax to support mass transportation infrastructure. What does work in the US, is smaller ICE type cars that get better then 30 mpg, usable on our 75 MPH Hiways. My 1993 Ford Festiva gets 35 MPG and the Wife's 2017 Accent Hyundai gets 37. There is no compelling reason to change to an EV. If we need a big truck.. we will rent it.

We have been brain washed to think that you have to personally own, the biggest truck, that you will rarely use to its potential. And in the mean time, run that behemoth around as a grocery get-er and then complain about gas prices and not the fact that your 400 HP, 4WD, Dual Cab Truck gets 12 miles per gallon, while in Europe they are paying $5.50 per US Standard Gallon.
In Norway, its more like $9 a Standard US Gallon. In this, there is something true to the European concept of the Ugly American running those damn ICE engines at half their prices in those big underused trucks. :)
 
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   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.
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#5,627  

I watched this entire 10 year old video and found it technically interesting how hydrogen fuel cells work and their pros and cons.

With millons of new EVs hitting the roads annually powered by lithium ion batteries yearly 10 years after this video was compiled clearly shows it did not age well. Toyota is at risk because of their hydrogen bet and selling their large Tesla ownership stake.

Clearly hydrogen has it's market but passenger vehicles have yet to embrace the hydrogen fuel cell technology in a meaningful way.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,628  
I know it's over simplistic, but I always wondered about using electrolysis as a means of storing surplus solar energy. I know it's not efficient, but you use solar powered electricity to separate hydrogen from H2O. Then when the sun isn't shining, you use the hydrogen as fuel to generate electricity.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. #5,629  
I know it's over simplistic, but I always wondered about using electrolysis as a means of storing surplus solar energy. I know it's not efficient, but you use solar powered electricity to separate hydrogen from H2O. Then when the sun isn't shining, you use the hydrogen as fuel to generate electricity.
I've wondered that also, and why the other storage systems like mass dynamo systems didn't take hold. There lots of different ways to think about "Batteries." We seem fixed on the lithium ones.
 
   / Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.
  • Thread Starter
#5,630  
I know it's over simplistic, but I always wondered about using electrolysis as a means of storing surplus solar energy. I know it's not efficient, but you use solar powered electricity to separate hydrogen from H2O. Then when the sun isn't shining, you use the hydrogen as fuel to generate electricity.
 
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