“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. I predict long lines at recharging stations that no one will put up with. “
95% of charging is done at home while the driver sleeps.
They will get the recharging down to 15 minutes or less. They will get the speeds up to the point that they’ll compete in the INDY 500.
The next car I get will be a total electric car. I love this Lexus RX450. Amazing engineering. I hate every second that it’s burning gas. I’m not getting the greatest mileage, almost 30 mph, but this is a 6 cylinder SUV. It has a lot of zip. The range on the car is almost 500 miles.
Unless you are on a road trip.
Exactly!
And what I pay in electricity in one month to charge is still less than what I pay for ONE FULL TANK of gas.
95% of charging is done at home while the driver sleeps.
However, here is the dirty little secret about electric They are not “long distance” cars. Yet.
I think Teslas are cool, but they are only good for scooting around the megalopolis. If you want to drive from Seattle to Portland, Chicago to Indianapolis, etc. you need your petrolium car, or constantly worry about the amount of charge.
Oh, and cars use a LOT of electricity to propel two ton machines down the road. Imagine the stress on the power grid if only 20% of the population used electric.
The day may come where they are practical, but it is decades away, barring some earth shattering tech advancements in solar collection and power storage, e.g. graphene based capacitors as batteries - but don’t let those contacts touch. :)
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.
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
Most home neighborhoods are not set up to have lots of people charging cars overnight due to the transformers typically used.
Unless you want to drive farther than the range provided by a single charge. Right now, I can drive about 1000 miles in a day before I need to stop and recover. “Recharging” my vehicle requires about 8-10 minutes at a gas station. In an electric car, I might get lucky and manage 600 miles within a technical day i.e. both legs started within a 24-hour period.
There is a fatal flaw in their plan:
IF either of my gas powered cars break down, I am the only person affected by that breakdown & I can repair it.
IF there is any kind of large or massive POWER GRID problem-—thousands of cars are not able to get charged & going again.
Try to hit those recharging stations during an evac.
And what fuels electricity for recharging?
>> 95% of charging is done at home while the driver sleeps.
Plus, that’s during off-peak hours, when base-load production often goes to waste anyway. EVs actually make our power infrastructure more efficient.
“95% of charging is done at home while the driver sleeps.”
And the other 5% is done at a gas station on a “cross-country trip” (any distance over 150 miles) while the kids fight and your spouse curses at you for being a tree hugging hippie.
Many electric fires and electrocutions in the future I bet.