Since you’re so vehemently anti-ev, what alternative fuel source do you propose?


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Electric vehicles will never be truly practical. First and foremost is the problem of charge time. A gas tank can be filled in five minutes. EV batteries take hours to charge.

And even if someone found a way to make a battery that can charge in minutes, there's the issue of power transmission, i.e., how do you get that much energy to, and through, the charging station. Here's an article that explains why this is pretty much an insurmountable problem:

https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/mo...ng-gas-engines

Also, where is all that energy going to come from? Almost all of the electricity we currently generate is already spoken for. It's used to power our homes, offices, factories, farms, etc. Now, we have somewhere over 263 million passenger vehicles in the USA. Imagine how much additional power would need to be generated to keep those vehicles charged, every day, on top of the power we're already using. And that doesn't even include trucks and other non-passenger vehicles.

Furthermore, fuel can easily be carried. If you need to extend your range between gas stations, you can haul extra fuel in cans. If you run out, you can get someone to bring fuel in a can.

Electric vehicles will never be truly practical. First and foremost is the problem of charge time. A gas tank can be filled in five minutes. EV batteries take hours to charge.

And even if someone found a way to make a battery that can charge in minutes, there's the issue of power transmission, i.e., how do you get that much energy to, and through, the charging station. Here's an article that explains why this is pretty much an insurmountable problem:

https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/mo...ng-gas-engines

Also, where is all that energy going to come from? Almost all of the electricity we currently generate is already spoken for. It's used to power our homes, offices, factories, farms, etc. Now, we have somewhere over 263 million passenger vehicles in the USA. Imagine how much additional power would need to be generated to keep those vehicles charged, every day, on top of the power we're already using. And that doesn't even include trucks and other non-passenger vehicles.

Furthermore, fuel can easily be carried. If you need to extend your range between gas stations, you can haul extra fuel in cans. If you run out, you can get someone to bring fuel in a can.

Imagine what an already compromised, and completely linked, national power grid would look like when 150 or 200 million EVs get plugged-in at night at 10+ amps...

Personally, I wouldn't own a full EV vehicle purely for the distance factor. Not in the distance it can travel, but in the convenience of recharge when traveling. What does appeal to me are the plug-in hybrid options. The vast majority of my driving these days is within a small radius of my home. When I do leave that radius, it's usually for a fairly long road trip. So, with the pug-in hybrids, you get the best of both worlds. I've considered the Audi A3 E-Tron, but just can't pull the trigger on an Audi. Love the brand, but I like to hold onto my vehicles for longer than what I would be comfortable holding on to an Audi for.

What I do see as a feasible future is creating efficient enough solar panels to where you can essentially recharge your EV vehicle while it sits outside. And get a decent recharge even on a fairly overcast day. But big oil will make sure to kill any of that tech.

While lithium is most definitely a finite resource and the mining of it is in no way environmentally friendly, what it does have is that it's completely recyclable. That and the amount of actual lithium in a battery is quite small.

But I do agree with a lot of what you're saying. We'd all be better off driving gas engines if we all ate a quarter of the red meat that we do.

Electric motors are all torque, you can pass them in 200 miles

I use mine as a daily driver....
and I travel an hour+ to work, each way.
Before the price of gas started to drop around here...
I was spending $100 a week in gas.

Take a guess on how I feel about an electric SUV.

I would definitely appreciate something like the 400 mile range like what was recently revealed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eRCYhPy2Mw

I would rock the electric truck with minimal downside for daily duties, and keep my 4Runner for the weekends and road trips. Road trip vehicle that will never die and I can keep it for 15+ years will easily round out all my requirements.

Driving and charging for FREE? What am I missing?

I've driven electrics and the torque is wonderful, but we are not close yet to it being useful for anything more than a relatively short distance commuter.

But we seem to be forgetting something. Assume everyone in America goes electric. Won't that then drain an already stretched power grid? And won't that demand cause major price spikes as utilities invest huge $$ in their struggle to supply power for a grid that is suddenly hungrier than they ever could have imagined?

I mentioned this in another post and it's completely valid.

The entire US power infrastructure is daisy-chained on purpose for some reason. If substations start popping like corn for any reason, it will create a cascade event scenario in one or all 3 national grids. It's all built for as much failure as possible seemingly and very few people are talking about it. I learned of it from being in contact with Eric Dollard and looked into it myself, not that I needed to... To say this is a man you can believe about electricity and it's infrastructure is a radical understatement. Something like 75% of the infrastructure in the US is over 25 years old and is not engineered for current demand let alone double the demand or whatever it might be.

Nope. I understand that I may be overwhelmed by EV lovers one day. But I’m nostalgic, and I also like the idea of driving 400 miles, spending 3 minutes to refuel, and driving another 400 miles. Plus, can’t carry five gallons of spare electricity. I don’t like the idea or the limitations of an EV.

It's an old thread but I figure 2 cents is where it should be. IMO it would depend on use. The biggest problem with wheeling an EV truck/SUV would be potential damage to the undercarraige. Those battery packs are prone to fire once punctured so I wouldn't want to wheel an EV unless the manufacturer designed it to be bullet proof.

As a DD, it'd be great. I took my Model 3 last week on a road trip and thought it was fine. My usual stop for gas usually last 15-25 minutes depending on what I'm picking up from Buccees, rest room break, and standing in line. I was able to charge up my car during my lunch break stop of 35 minutes from 18% to 85%. With a range of 310 miles, my furthest trip I mapped out showed 3 stops averaging 20-30 minutes. Maybe I'm not as tough a driver as others out there, but I do need to stop for a short break every 3-4 hours. This is true even when the car is doing the driving for me, autopilot made the road trip real relaxing but I still had to pay attention, its not like I could sleep while it was driving. I know I used to have to pit stop for naps on longer road trips. So maybe a traditional 8-10 hour road trip might end up being 11-12 hours long depending on whats going on.

I do agree with the whole issues with our infrastructure. The rate of growth in all the major cities doesn't help. A lot of inner city lots, where small single family homes are being replaced with 3-4 unit side by side larger homes. I live in a newly developed subdivsion on the outskirts of the city and theres probably half a dozen new developments out here. Back then all the area around me was just farm land. I'm sure nothing was upgraded as these areas are being added on. Unfortunately, it seems though there is more emphasis placed on other concerns by our government at the moment. I guess it'll take some emergent event for this to be addressed.

Hydrogen fuel cell EV's seem to be the most practical EV with current technology. Fuel up with liquid hydrogen and use it to power an electric motor. The byproduct is water and the benefits align with high torque EVS with the fuel speed of gas.

Not sure if there are issues in sub freezing conditions, however I'd definitely buy one.

And before the Hindenburg comments start rolling in, liquid hydrogen in a solid container on the ground is completely different than a bag of gas high in the air. Additionally, big flare up vs slow burn... how do you want to go?

They do have hydrogen fuel cell cars but like most new tech the refueling stations are mostly located in Cali.

I guess its easier at the moment for Tesla to keep expanding their Supercharging network since electricity can be tapped anywhere. Those superchargers are capable of producing up to 400 volts at 200 amps. Thats why you can recharge so quickly. I noticed that alot of superchargers slated for 2019 are going to be put at Targets so I guess a semi-partnership is there. I know I used to stop at random Targets on road trips when I hunted for certain rare action figures and Legos.

Of course it'd be nice if they try to get hydrogen cell cars to be more mainstream. It'd be just like gasing up and not taking as much time as charging. Even supercharging takes 20-40 mins depending on how much distance you have left to go.