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Does Anyone Want an Electric Car?
Road and Track ^ | 7 Jan 2022 | JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN

Posted on 01/07/2022 6:38:14 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT

Deloitte’s new report sees a messy future.

A new report from the big-time, grownup pants Deloitte consulting firm indicates just how big an undertaking that is proving to be.

Much of what Deloitte reports is unsurprising. People still vastly prefer personal vehicles over public transportation; are willing to embrace high technology as long as they don’t have to pay for it; that they still want to buy new vehicles in person and not over the internet; and that they’re fine with electric vehicles as long as they’re affordable and at least as good as those relying on internal combustion.

Governments are driving forward with aggressive plans for converting the vehicle fleet to alternative fuels. What prominently emerges from the Deloitte report is that ambitions are one thing, and reality is something else.

“There are a lot of big, all-in bets being made,” Robinson asserts. “We’re right in the middle of a very messy time.”

(Excerpt) Read more at roadandtrack.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Travel
KEYWORDS: ev
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To: tophat9000

—”I’m telling you.. a small towable gas powered electric generator..”

Ford F-150 Electric Pickup May Get Newly Patented Range Extender in Its Bed

It looks deceptively like a toolbox, but it could be used to increase the range of the upcoming electric F-150 pickup truck.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34277725/ford-f-150-range-extender-ev-pickup-patent/


61 posted on 01/07/2022 7:59:13 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: freeandfreezing

Teslas have seat heaters. They can go a long time just using those. But, you probably can’t keep a gasoline engine idling all night either. You’re probably going to be cold regardless.


62 posted on 01/07/2022 7:59:28 PM PST by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: madison10

I want one.
I had one for two years, loved it.
Range anxiety is barely a thing, now that >500 mile batteries are happening.
Any issues with EVs are coming on par with issues with ICE - we learned to live with the latter, we’re learning to live with the former.

Nobody is compelling people to buy EVs, they’re not being shoved down our throats. Demand is years beyond supply already, voluntarily.


63 posted on 01/07/2022 8:01:37 PM PST by ctdonath2 (Statistics don't matter when they happen to you.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

If you’d been stuck on I95 over this past week, I guarantee that you wouldn’t have wanted one.


64 posted on 01/07/2022 8:03:02 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: bankwalker

DR-Z400S...Same model used in military service in several countries around the world.


65 posted on 01/07/2022 8:06:42 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Fai Mao

I love these threads. I have a friend who thinks Attila the Hun was too liberal, he’s on his second Model S. First one was 2014. Teslas have replaced the Mercedes for the most common upscale car in SoCal. I can think five friends offhand who own them. “Gas” in their garage. Zero maintenance other than tires and washing them. Incredibly fast if that’s your thing. And paying about half per mile what a gasoline car costs to fuel in $5/gal California.


66 posted on 01/07/2022 8:07:08 PM PST by Pelham (Q is short for quack )
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To: Fai Mao
“You probably can't sit in a gas powered car for 8 hours with the motor running.”

I haven't done the arithmetic, but my quad-cab gasoline pickup can travel 60 miles per hour for 5 hours. I'm guessing I could nurse the engine sitting still for 15-20 hours, maybe more, by running the engine and heater fan 15 or 20 minutes at a time and then stopping the engine for a similar period of time.

I think most automotive engineers will say it takes a lot more fuel to move a car fast than it does to sit still at idle or just above idle.

67 posted on 01/07/2022 8:10:06 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Electric cars are a great idea whose time has not come.

Maybe 30 years from now..


68 posted on 01/07/2022 8:19:23 PM PST by GOPJ
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To: ctdonath2
“Nobody is compelling people to buy EVs, they're not being shoved down our throats. Demand is years beyond supply already, voluntarily.”

The Biden administration denies it but many feel deliberate government actions have driven up the price of gasoline helping to make ICE vehicles relatively less competitive.

But you could say that the Biden administration is deliberately taking action to drive up the price of electrical generation by limiting the production of fossil fuels and gas. So there is that.

Regardless, many Karens have told their husbands that an electric car will save the planet. That is pretty powerful stuff on the demand side.

69 posted on 01/07/2022 8:23:52 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: jeffersondem

My record is 13 hours stuck in traffic after an ice storm knocked down trees and power lines all the way home, about 20 degrees outside.

I idled the whole time to keep the heat on.

I started with about 3/4 tank and finally got home with about 1/8 tank.


70 posted on 01/07/2022 8:27:46 PM PST by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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To: freeandfreezing; dfwgator
"No way the infrastructure will be able to handle everyone driving EVs, which is the point, to get rid of personal transportation."

I agree wholeheartedly. And I'm thinking of buying an EV. But that's with me thinking decentralized overall in green energy. Time to think outside the box in the whole EV vs gas debate.

Think libertarian with green energy, not exactly a prepper, but not exactly wanting my long term financial plan to be derailed by Dims jacking up energy costs like they're talking about doing. And this is all from a voluntary perspective of EV's, not them being forced on us like the Dims are trying to do. Again, think libertarian, not Dim, when it comes to things like EV's and solar power.

I have a ton of solar on my house and about half of the year I have excess power that my solar panels make that I'm currently not using. When the time comes for me to have to replace my old used gas pickup I may spend the extra cash to get a new EV truck for $40K to $50K instead of buying another used gas truck for $8K to $10K. My wife will still have a gas car and we'd have the best of both worlds.

By my estimation, if I keep driving ~200 miles per week my solar system will provide about 10% of the power the EV needs (roughly 20% from late spring to early fall, and virtually nothing the other half of the year). After I've had the EV for a year and study the throughput of both the EV and the solar system, particularly how they work together, I may decide to upgrade part of the solar system. Just eyeballing the numbers (I have hard data for my solar system, but making estimations on a couple of EV trucks that caught my eye), it just might be feasible to upgrade my solar system to the point where I'm about 75% to 80% independent for both the house and an EV. Even if I don't upgrade my solar system, I'd be pulling less from the grid even with an EV than I was pulling before I put a solar system on the house.

So far my solar system has provided over half the power I need for my all-electric two-story house. Admittedly that's been about 40% since we got into winter, and more in other months. The current system will pay for itself in about a decade.

If I get an EV like the F-150 Lightning for $50K in the fall of 2024, pay about $90 extra monthly in insurance for having a new car (vs the liability only insurance I've had for years for old used trucks), plus car payments for 63 months, at 1.9% interest, no gas, but buy extra power, using $2.90 per gallon gas vs. the 12.9-13.5 cents per kWh that I'm paying (it's different rates throughout the year), assuming 1.8 miles per kWh vs the current 15 mpg I get now (and I'd get if I keep buying used pickups like I've done for decades), $60 for an oil change every 5,000 miles if I keep gas trucks but $0 if I go EV, not buying another used pickup for $10K every 7 years, but buying a new battery for the EV for $10K ever 10 years, all other repairs being equal (keeping an old used truck means repairs more often, but a new EV would be costly the few times it needs repairs, would that be roughly equal?) .... all of that would make the EV pay for itself in late 2031 early 2032. And that's without assuming any of the EV miles would come for "free" on the days I have excess solar power. That's about the year my solar system would pay for itself without an EV. And all of that assumes a reasonable 3% inflation rate for all costs (electricity, gasoline, and the natural gas I'm avoiding by having converted my house to all-electric last year). (My house consumes on average 48 kWh per day, with me buying 19 kWh per day from the power company, so even adding 20 kWh per day for an EV would be me pulling 39 kWh from the grid instead of the 48 kWh I pulled before going solar.)

Obviously if the radical Dims keep jacking up energy costs my system will pay for itself a lot sooner. Which is the whole point of me even thinking about getting an EV, and the reason I got a solar system. Basically right now I'm not crying country songs about being broke while Brandon makes natural gas cost literally twice what it did this time last year (at least the Henry Hub price on the commodities market is twice what it was, I don't know what my local natural gas utility charges now that I'm no longer a customer of theirs). And I grumble about power costs about half as much as I used to.

71 posted on 01/07/2022 8:31:14 PM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Yes and no.

There are some performance advantages to having an electric drive vehicle.

Just not the wat these idiots are doing it with batteries.

Find a way to generate onboard power in the -25F to 120F temp range, that refuels in about 10 minutes, and gets you 400-600 miles between recharge/fueling.

Then, you could easily kill off the ICE.

Until then, they are toys for people with more brains/money than critical thinking ability.


72 posted on 01/07/2022 8:34:38 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Fai Mao

“But, you probably can’t keep a gasoline engine idling all night either.”

You must be too young to own a car.


73 posted on 01/07/2022 8:43:09 PM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: ctdonath2

“Nobody is compelling people to buy EVs, they’re not being shoved down our throats.”

Silly boy, you didn’t learn from the recent history of liberals. Everything not mandatory is prohibited with them. They are relentless about suggestions today being mandatory tomorrow. When Rush Limbaugh said they would ban smoking in bars, people like claimed otherwise, but they did.


74 posted on 01/07/2022 8:45:19 PM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Depends. Is it free?


75 posted on 01/07/2022 8:46:39 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: seowulf
“My record is 13 hours stuck in traffic after an ice storm knocked down trees and power lines all the way home, about 20 degrees outside. I idled the whole time to keep the heat on. I started with about 3/4 tank and finally got home with about 1/8 tank.”

Based on your experience, perhaps 24 hours of run-time is not out of the question if the engine was run a while, and turned off for a while. A car is not usually thermally insulated well so it would get uncomfortable real quick in extreme cold with no engine generated heat.

I suppose people that routinely drive in snow or cold weather always carry an emergency kit with blankets, food, water, and chemical hand warmers for just such an occasion.

76 posted on 01/07/2022 8:55:26 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: jeffersondem

I do not know about other electrics, but Tesla’s have heated seats that take very little power. If you are not naked, and have shoes on, an electrically heated seat would be more than adequate in a snowed in freeway situation over night. It would provide heat to you and and probably enough to the cabin to make the situation tolerable.

Once again, electric cars have some issues. But if you are stuck on a snowed in freeway, (Which was the example) you are not in much, if any, more trouble in an electric vehicle than a gasoline one. A more problematic example would be running out of power, or gas in Arizona or West Texas. That is where a gasoline engined vehicle has a real advantage. You can bundle up and stay warm. Hot is hot.

I’d like the Tesla truck because it is LITERALLY built proof to 9 mm ammunition. That is, I think, a nice feature! The body is also stainless steel.

BTW, The top-of-the-line, three motor, Tesla truck has an advertised range of 500 miles on a full charge. That is about 8 hours at 60 mph. Granted that is like MPG, what they say, and what you get are sometimes different. That is also a $70,00 to $80,000 MSRP. The base $40,000 model only has a 250 mile Range. I need a truck for general errands around town. Range is not much of an issue, as it would never go farther than about 100 miles to the Galveston Cruise Port and the parking has spaces to charge electric vehicles.

FRgards!


77 posted on 01/07/2022 8:55:41 PM PST by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: CodeToad

I am not quite 62.


78 posted on 01/07/2022 8:56:12 PM PST by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: Tell It Right

“I have a ton of solar on my house and about half of the year I have excess power that my solar panels make that I’m currently not using.”

I’m not challenging you, what you have done is great, but how many square feet are you air conditioning?


79 posted on 01/07/2022 9:05:22 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: algore

Yeah, I’ve been fighting this fight for a while.

Electricity produces heat VERY well. In fact, it’s hard to stop it from doing so.

Tesla engineers are well aware that batteries don’t like cold. They stay warm. They stay cool. Teslas are also very good maintaining battery conditions - it’s one of the keys to it’s superiority over other EVs.

I have no problem with EVs and in fact, I would love a model X. The problem I have with it is that, like so many things, are politicized to a point where I lose interest.

But I drive a Subaru and have to deal with that cult everyday so I may be getting used to it.


80 posted on 01/07/2022 9:11:10 PM PST by Celerity
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