Posted on 10/18/2021 12:46:03 PM PDT by Red Badger
A pair of economists, one with the University of Calgary, the other, the University of California, along with a civil engineer from Carnegie Mellon University, is suggesting in a Comment piece in the journal Nature, that electric vehicles (EVs) need to be lighter if they are to replace gasoline-powered vehicles. In their paper, Blake Shaffer, Maximilian Auffhammer and Constantine Samaras suggest that the added weight of EVs makes them less safe and less efficient and therefore less economical.
In their paper, the authors note that climate change has put EVs on a path to replace cars powered by gasoline. But they also note that for the changeover to be successful EVs need to be made much lighter.
EVs are heavier than gasoline-powered vehicles because of their heavy battery packs. They are also heavier because engineers have to add strength to the vehicles to allow them to carry such heavy batteries. Therefore, the authors conclude, batteries need to be made lighter. They note that up until now, most of the engineering effort involved with batteries has been focused on making them hold more energy so that EVs can travel farther on a charge. But they suggest that focus now needs to include reducing weight. They point out that heavier EVs, in addition to being less efficient because of their weight, pose a danger in collisions with gasoline powered cars due to the weight differential. They note also that heavier vehicles produce more tread wear on tires, which means more roadside pollution.
The authors have several suggestions to help the EV industry reduce its weight problem. The first is to shrink the size of the batteries by using other materials that are more energy dense and removing those that are heavy, such as the liquid electrolytes. They also suggest it should be possible to lighten the frames of EVs that had been made heavier to hold the heavy batteries—again, by using other, lighter materials. They note also that adding technology to reduce crashes could help with acceptance of EVs. And they suggest that efforts could be made by communities to promote less driving. The pandemic, they point out, has shown that more people could be working at home.
Explore further
Why some electric car owners revert back to buying gasoline-powered vehicles
More information:
Blake Shaffer et al, Make electric vehicles lighter to maximize climate and safety benefits, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-021-02760-8
Journal information: Nature
“And they drove with pride...”
They should make electric cars using lots of magnesium. It’s light weight.
That would certainly solve the hazardous waste clean up problem following a fiery collision. A shop vac and dustpan are all that's needed. Saves on cremation expenses too!
You have to love the arrogance...of course they’re heavy, it’s the state-of-the-art respective to battery technology. So of course every single engineer understands the benefit of reducing the weight - which, overwhelmingly, means the batteries! Doh!
...we can also make aircraft more efficient if they were lighter. ;p
I saw a pickup truck do similar damage here in SoCal.
Speeding, clipped a curb just right and launched into the air. It demolished the house that it landed on and killed two in the pickup. No one was home in the house.
Thanks. I assumed that if a couple college “economists” just figured it out, engineers already knew it like forty years ago.
Just eliminate the batteries. That is where much of the weight comes from. Put in two AA batteries.
Stick those electric cars where the sun don’t shine.
Skip the batteries and plug in extension cords.
Not to mention insurance rates...
Because:
You can fool some of the people all of the time
You can fool all of the people some of the time
BUT - you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Thanks to Dr Obvious and Professor WeAlreadyKnewThat. Jeez, where do they get these people?
Here is a example result of a lighter less rigid frame after a crash...
https://atlas-content1-cdn.pixelsquid.com/assets_v2/139/1396417224482231526/jpeg-600/G08.jpg
[snip] The 4680 battery cell was unveiled at Tesla’s Battery Day in September 2020.
The automaker presented several new pieces of technology that combined together result in a more energy-dense cell that could reduce costs by 50%.
One of the most significant improvements that 4680 cells bring to the table is the ability to build a structural battery pack that makes the pack part of the vehicle structure – reducing parts, weight, and cost. [/snip]
https://electrek.co/2021/07/26/tesla-update-4680-battery-cell-production/
> They point out that heavier EVs, in addition to being less efficient because of their weight, pose a danger in collisions with gasoline powered cars due to the weight differential.
Because, y’know, there have never before been a large range of different vehicle sizes on the road.
I hear that's mined in wakanda.
oh...and the unobtanium....that's good.
An interesting thing... no one examines the "green" cost of building the roads for EVs to drive on.
The other day at a box store there was lady standing in the parking lot trying to get in her car. She could not get the door to unlock. VW with No place to put a key and turn it. She was on her cell phone and kept playing with the key fob, but could not get in. In bad weather or if her life was in danger from thugs then she could really be in trouble.
What a wonderful world we have now.
“more people could be working at home.”
that’s one way to improve electric vehicle safety
hey, i know, maybe they could start making ‘em out of Papier-mâché ... that would be lighter ... of course, passenger protection in a collision would be nil, but hey, everyone needs to make a little sacrifice to the gods of climate change, right?
True.
Can’t repeal the laws of physics.......................
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