Posted on 02/09/2019 12:16:08 PM PST by Hojczyk
Are electric vehicles the wave of the future, or expensive toys? This shocking news story–shocking if you live in the North, anyway–suggests the latter *** Many owners discovered the range limitations last week when much of the country was in the grips of a polar vortex. Owners of vehicles made by manufacturers including Tesla, the top-selling electric vehicle company in the U.S., complained on social media about reduced range and frozen door handles during the cold snap.
Frozen door handles are an annoyance not unique to electric cars, but reduced range can be life-threatening.
At 20 degrees, the average driving range fell by 12 percent when the car’s cabin heater was not used. When the heater was turned on, the range dropped by 41 percent, AAA said.
Of course, at 20 degrees you pretty much have to turn the heater on. T
Also, AAA tested the vehicles at 20 degrees above zero, a balmy temperature that we haven’t seen for a while here in the Twin Cities. What happens at 20 below, a temperature we have seen several times in the last week or two? Or eleven below, which it is at this moment where I live? A car whose range is severely compromised at such temperatures could be a death trap.
Advocates of “green” energy say that giant batteries will overcome the intractable problem of the intermittency–i.e., unreliability–of wind and solar energy. Of course, while batteries can power my laptop for six or eight hours, or a vehicle for a relatively short distance, no batteries exist that can power a city for six months, nor is any such technology on the horizon. But I wonder whether green energy advocates who toss around the word “batteries” much as they might say “magic” have considered the impact of cold weather.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
20 above Zero is Warm for many areas of the country during winter. Now what about 20 below zero?
The range probably drops by 90%.
And even in the best case how long does and electric car battery last? 20,000 miles?
The electric car craze is only due to there being so many gullible people in the world. The same kind that voted for AOC.
Nuclear (hopefully including nascent Thorium reactors) solves most of these issues proving ‘Ratz want the problems, not the solutions.
I'm not an expert on distilling, but it takes about 1,200 btus's to boil a gallon of water while a gallon of ethanol contains about 76,000 btu's.
That would be a little over 2 tons of distillers grain per acre, not 5 or 6.
Wait until they get their electric bill.
Are these all the batteries made with lithium, a rare earth mineral collected by children?
“A Tesla wouldn’t make it to Palm Springs. (It was 110 degrees in Needles.)”
The owners I know haven’t had any trouble driving to Las Vegas. That’s a good deal farther than Palm Springs.
“This is a Youtube of a cross-country trip. LA, in the DPRK, to New York.”
One guy has a son in New Jersey. He flies there. His Tesla S has been his daily driver since 2015. If he wanted to drive a gasoline car he could use his wife’s Lexus.
You can pretend that these are toys all you want. I’ll base my judgement on what I’m seeing with people who have been driving them for years.
I’m reading where the amount of energy used to produce ethanol is greater like 7 in gets you 5 out; that’s from cost of planting to final product.
“And even in the best case how long does and electric car battery last? 20,000 miles?”
There’s a shuttle service in LA, Tesloop, that has gotten as much as 400,000 miles on the battery pack of one of their Teslas.
The cost of running their Tesla fleet is running at 5 cents per mile, versus over 25 cents for a Mercedes gasoline fleet.
I too know someone who has a Tesla. He doesn’t use it as a daily driver but he has had almost no problems with it. I was a skeptic until I actually rode in it. These are incredibly hi tech vehicles and will only get better with time. But for people to think that they will get rid of gasoline powered vehicles, it just aint gonna happen for a long time.
“It’s the perfect complement to your Tesla Driving Gloves and Tesla Driving Shoes. “
so what’s their solution for summer time? a single piece of thong underwear?
“People shouldn’t be allowed to live where it is cold.”
or at least not allowed to drive ... electric car problem solved ...
“41% decreased range is downright dangerous.”
and that’s just for 20 degrees .. what about 20 below?
0 weight synthetic oil is good to -40. At -55 I guess you still need the block heater.
“but these are excellent cars for those who have the money and who don’t need to own a parka.”
sure ... until they need servicing or parts ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=wait+for+tesla+parts
https://www.google.com/search?q=wait+repair+wait
https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+service+times
Never been in a traffic jam during a rush hour blizzard, eh? You have to turn the engine on long enough to heat the car, then shut it off to conserve fuel because you do not know when the plows will be along to free you from the drifts covering the tires - could be an hour before they get to you or a dozen hours and even longer.
Stupid is as stupid does.
I think the ‘Darwin Awards’ will soon require a new category for all the “Green Geniuses.”
Honestly, I’ll just laugh my ass off at their demise, as being the best contribution to mankind they ever made.
anybody who has ever owned a regular car or who owns a golf car could have told them that cold kills batteries. Wait til China finds out:
“Tesla has said its focus this quarter is on supplying cars to customers waiting in China and Europe.
“There are not enough deliveries,” one of the former employees told Reuters. “You don’t need a team because there are not that many cars coming through.”
https://www.autoblog.com/2019/02/09/teslas-layoffs-delivery-team-las-vegas/
Yep. Teslas are very impressive, but, seriously, what cars in their delivered price range aren’t pretty cool?
The readout on my daily driver frequently frequently reads something like 3 hours elapsed time at 22 mph, 18 mpg. I could get by with a Nissan Leaf for a majority of my driving. But cold winter weather and necessary longer trips on short notice means I would need another vehicle anyway. An extra $40k buys a lot of gasoline!
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