Posted on 07/18/2021 11:51:22 PM PDT by Cronos
Many observers are forecasting that the world’s transition to electric cars will take place much sooner than expected. Now, BBC is also joining the fray. “What makes the end of the internal combustion engine inevitable is a technological revolution. And technological revolutions tend to happen very quickly … [and] this revolution will be electric,” reports BBC‘s Justin Rowlett.
Rowlett points to the late ’90s internet revolution as an example. “For those who hadn’t yet logged on [to the internet] it all seemed exciting and interesting but irrelevant — how useful could communicating by computer be? After all, we’ve got phones! But the internet, like all successful new technologies, did not follow a linear path to world domination. … Its growth was explosive and disruptive,” notes Rowlett.
So how fast will electric cars go mainstream? “The answer is very fast. Like the internet in the ’90s, the electric car market is already growing exponentially. Global sales of electric cars raced forward in 2020, rising by 43% to a total of 3.2m, despite overall car sales slumping by a fifth during the coronavirus pandemic,” reports the BBC.
According to Rowlett, “We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in motoring since Henry Ford’s first production line started turning back in 1913.”
Want more proof? “The world’s big car makers think [so]… General Motors says it will make only electric vehicles by 2035, Ford says all vehicles sold in Europe will be electric by 2030 and VW says 70% of its sales will be electric by 2030.”
And the world’s luxury automakers are also getting in on the action: “Jaguar plans to sell only electric cars from 2025, Volvo from 2030 and [recently] the British sportscar company Lotus said it would follow suit, selling only electric models from 2028.”
Rowlett spoke with Top Gear’s former host Quentin Wilson to get his take on the electric revolution. Once critical of electric cars, Wilson adores his new Tesla Model 3, noting, “It is supremely comfortable, it’s airy, it’s bright. It’s just a complete joy. And I would unequivocally say to you now that I would never ever go back.”
In California, the grid is doing “rolling blackouts” because the grid cannot sustain itself during peak hours and high temps in summer. I would like to see what happens when 50 million or so cars are added into the mix. Because CA is sure as hell not fixing the grid. Tad bit different then running out of fuel at every station in the city. Considering my electric generator of choice is a 7800 watt gas generator, I’d rather skip the middleman and fuel my vehicles directly on gas.
I think the biggest flaw with EVs is that they are ideally suited for applications where a golf cart would probably do just fine -- i.e., they don't travel more than a few miles from home, they return to a predictable charging location regularly, and they usually carry a maximum of 3-4 people with almost no cargo weight.
Don’t hold your breath on this one.
You’re never going to see me buy an EV. Too risky if things go sideways.
Golf carts are all over many of the small towns around me since the communities changed the local statutes to allow them on city streets
It’s become a big business around here. Some of the custom ones are really cool
Can’t say I’ve ever seen one I’ve been around that is electric though
Just one MI winter will tell them how useful the elec POS will be.
When you have to run the headlights, whipers, heat, and defrost ALL the time, your exploding golf cart will have a trip range of 10 miles or less.
Everyone around me has one, but they are gas and 4x4 like the Kawasaki Mule or John Deere gator.
Solar. If you run out of gas and your area doesn’t have any for whatever reason, then what do you do?
They are everywhere around my rural area
We have a Mule we use on jobsites
Will be using it tomorrow to haul our 50 gallon cube to fuel the excavators through mud where our 4x4 trucks can’t go
Better control from government
Yeah, it's just that easy, isn't it. Everybody can have their own generator, even those who live in apartments. And if they can't afford suburban or rural living spaces that can accommodate a generator of sufficient capacity to charge their car, or a place to put up solar panels, well they can just walk or bike to work, if their employer is still even operating.
The argument “if the grid is out...” is just like saying “if petrol runs out in my area...”
LOL! You can always store a few 5 gallon containers of electrons in your garage.
Anyone who doesn’t see how screwed Texas wiould have been last February is a complete idiot. And we simply don’t have the electrical generating capacity for the conversion. It would take a crash program building nuclear generating plants. Good luck with that, given the Green extremists and our courts.
>>The demand on the electrical grid is an unknown factor.
It is quite predictable to anyone who can count and understand electrical generating and transmission capacity. It isn’t going to work without a major change to the grid. The whole thing is based on the hope that you can build enough wind and solar to power it all.
You cannot, plain and simple.
Maybe in the urban density areas but the vast majority of the country is ‘rural’....not happening any time soon.
1913 was just about when electric cars started losing out in popularity to the gas engine. There are still too many deficiencies to call electric vehicles practical yet. If they can bring the price point down on hydrogen fuel cell cars that might be do-able. Fuel cells offer comparable range and usefulness to gas vehicles. Refilling a fuel cell is a little more difficult than gas, but offers a signifigant time advantage to waiting around while your car charges.
CC
Natural gas microturbine. They already make them fir resudential use. They can run on natural gas and propane. In colder climates they also offer the advantage of the waste heat that can be funneled into your heating system.
CC
> Most people don’t need Range in their daily life.
Not daily, but often enough to avoid needing to use a second mode of transportation. For instance, I go hiking with a 3 hour drive about every other weekend. There isn’t an electric car around that will accommodate that use case.
I'm sure that is a side benefit as seen by the Gov.
Control travel.
Electric cars are more freedom than gas. I can make electricity to power them with solar panels off the grid .
I cannot make gasoline.
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