Posted on 10/17/2017 10:52:16 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
A global tipping point for electric cars could come as early as 2022, as battery costs decrease and concerns about range and infrastructure ease. That’s from analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who in a little over a year’s time have turned even more optimistic about the future dominance of electric cars over internal-combustion vehicles. In a Tuesday note, the analysts forecast that one in three cars will be purely electric by 2030; their July 2016 prediction was one in 10 by the same year. “There are several factors converging that have led us to revise our thinking — a combination of changing customer preferences, increasingly viable product, regulation, and infrastructure,” they said in the note.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Hey, I know! Let’s have gas powered generators to produce electricity! Awesome!
Tortoise and the hare.
Don’t get me wrong. Not only is every tax paying American subsidizing this thing but for a commuter, wonderful but just wait until you have to replace the batteries or if they ignite on you. Go looking for your subsidy when that time will come along.
Which works if you stay close to home. Not so much when you travel greater than 300 miles. Most electric cars today have a maximum range of 100 miles. This goes down if you use heat, radio, air conditioning, lights etc.
I take public transportation to work everyday. Local bus to subway. Its fine for work and entertainment, dinner in the city. It doesn’t work for shuttling kids to sporting events, grocery shopping or most destinations outside the city. Hence I also own a gasoline powered automobile.
I would guess in the future there will be battery replacement centers instead of gas stations for long trips. You drive in and replace your battery with a fully charged one.
Nothing will replace push rods and pistons - NEVER!
Only when you are using your car as a commuter vehicle... if you drive anywhere, you need to recharge en route, and until you can charge it 10 minutes or less with at least a 300 mile range per charge, the all electric vehicle is a niche commuter/second vehicle... nothing more.
just like peoples cell phones ... oops not true
>>My Lexus Crossover RX450 is about the best car I’ve ever driven bar none.
Is that all-electric?
Tesla has a large number of stations nationwide. 200 mile charge in about 20 minutes.
What landfill will take all those used batteries?
The BBC program Top Gear road tested a Tesla. And it was very impressive. It can beat any gas powered car in a drag race because the induction drive yields insane acceleration.
That being said, they only test drove it within a 50 mile radius of New York City due to the lack of charging facilities elsewhere. And even at that they nearly ran out of juice.
15 minutes to charge? That is a lot of heat to transfer. You will need battery terminals the size of frying pans.
I’m curious. What does Tesla charge you exactly to recharge at one of those stations? Bet it ain’t free.
Or if it is, it won’t be once 100 million of these things are tooling around.
Liberal travel ideas...You only need your cat to get to work and the grocery store! Shame on you for wanting to take a road trip!
Don’t forget winter, because winter won’t forget you.
“Is there a mutual fund or suppliers who would be good to invest in?”
I’d invest in companies that produce retrofitting kits.
>>How many years until we start seeing the muckraker articles exposing the environmental and energy costs of lithium mining and processing?
It will be shortly after the day when electric cars become affordable and practical for the unwashed masses. The Agenda 21 journalists talk about electric now because working people can’t afford them. Once they can, then it will be time to lay on a new guilt trip.
Remember, it’s not pollution if an Elite or a Celebrity does it. It’s only pollution if YOU do it.
A few years ago Mercedes displayed a diesel hybrid at the NY Auto Show (which I always make it a point to attend).On the door was "4.1L/100KM"...meaning just over a gallon used every 62 miles.It was expressed that way because the car was only scheduled for sale in Europe.It's my understanding that there are at least several diesel hybrids available today in Europe.
As a recent EV driver...
“concerns about range and infrastructure will ease[?]”
Gasoline cars had the same issues once too. Advances in EV range & infrastructure are improving significantly. Range has increased from 50 to 300+ miles in a few years. Major cities have a viable recharging network now, and growing.
“I’ll take the range problem on any day in my Toyota Tacoma compared to any electric car.”
Most drivers don’t have an EV “range problem”. They commute an in-range distance daily. Even when I did commute farther than my Leaf’s range, there was a charger right there at work, and plenty of time to use it.
Yes, some drivers really do need substantially greater range. There are alternatives, if you’ve noticed. Nobody is saying _everybody_ MUST drive EVs.
“Who’s going to pay for all the infrastructure upgrades to accommodate all the recharging stations?”
In Atlanta (likely the biggest EV market in the US), lots of businesses & retailers installed chargers, as they found it advantageous to facilitate their employees & customers. Heck, a month after I got my EV, my workplace literally installed a charger in my favorite parking spot.
“It’s a hell of a lot quicker to put 20 gallons of gas in your tank than to wait for your car to recharge.”
It’s a lot “quicker” when you’re “topped off” every morning with just a few seconds’ effort. Pull in my driveway, plug in. Next day, unplug and drive away with a full charge. That was usually enough (and just used a normal 110v outlet), chargers were convenient at places I’d spend time at (plug in, go do something I was going to do anyway for an hour). In 2 years of daily use, there was probably just 2 days where I actually had to _wait_ for charging (and that longer than a gasoline refill). With a 300+ mile range, only seriously long trips would require any substantial recharge time, and that would only be about 20 minutes at a time I’d really want to spend 20 minutes out of the car anyway.
The paradigm for “refueling” changed for EVs. It’s rarely a “now I have to recharge/refill” event; most of the time it’s just...ready.
“I predict long lines at recharging stations that no one will put up with.”
There won’t be “recharging stations” a la gas stations. Park & plug in, ready when you come back.
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