re: Electric Automobiles - What's your take?

EVs are here to stay due to the backing of governments.

What aggravates the frick out of me is that it seems within the last year many people have been led to believe all vehicles will be electric in 5 years and oil will disappear. The delusions are strong.

Look at the some of the comments. "Tesla is better than the rest except maybe a couple brands that cost $100k". They aren't affordable.

"Tesla says 300k out of a battery". This doesn't jive with my experience using lithium batteries for various devices. The batteries usually start loosing capacity after a year or two, or roughly 500 charges. That's using a proper stand-alone charger. Tesla may have some tech advantage but last I saw it was just a big bank of 18650 cells.

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"Tesla says 300k out of a battery". This doesn't jive with my experience using lithium batteries for various devices. The batteries usually start loosing capacity after a year or two, or roughly 500 charges. That's using a proper stand-alone charger. Tesla may have some tech advantage but last I saw it was just a big bank of 18650 cells.

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Tesla’s advantage is huge, just not visible yet, they have put the work and research into going away from others for their battery supplies and creating a process where it is much more cheap and efficient to produce those batteries. They are investing tons in creating everything from the ground floor including the equipment used to make the batteries. We will see this become much more visible when their battery factories go online over the next few years.

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They are investing tons in creating everything from the ground floor including the equipment used to make the batteries.

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So are GM/Honda/LG. And to a lesser extent VW/Porsche, Toyota, and Ford.

Nothing against them, but the tech and price aren't where I would buy one now, and probably not within 5 years.

I know this, many used EVs are selling dirt cheap. I'm a little suspicious.

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So are GM/Honda/LG. And to a lesser extent VW/Porsche, Toyota, and Ford.

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Nothing on the scale or as far ahead as Tesla is doing currently.

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"Tesla says 300k out of a battery". This doesn't jive with my experience using lithium batteries for various devices. The batteries usually start loosing capacity after a year or two, or roughly 500 charges.

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Tesla has about a decade of real world use data that shows battery loss is nominal. This doesn't account for improvements in design either. A lithium battery in a Tesla (or other model) will be a lot different than your experiences with your Dewalt battery.

Manufacturers can still try to get off cheap and frick it up, ala the Nissan Leaf.

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They'll have have everyone in fully electric and at a flip of a switch restrict society's movement.

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About 14 months ago, this would have been a ridiculous statement about the US.

Now it's legitimately alarming.

Electric jet planes is a better question.

We are still a long long way off from EVs becoming mainstream.

Sure, there are some good applications that work great.

We have an battery-powered forklift that works great.
Go to large warehouses and you see them in use all day long.

Golf courses have been using battery-powered carts for decades.

There are, however, still large hurdles that must be overcome for EVs to used wide scale.

The battery technology is still not there. Until some sort of battery tech, such as a solid-state battery, can be achieved that can be produced on a mass-scale that is viably economical, it is still a pipe dream.

Battery tech company QuantumScape claims they have solved this issue but there has been no independent verication or testing to prove their claim.

Even the vaunted Elon Musk and Tesla will admit that the technology is still a long way off.

Then there is the extraction/mining of rare-earth minerals to produce and manufacture these batterys.
Think of strip-mining, which is very environmentally destructive.

Oh yeah, guess who has the lithium market cornered right now. Yep, its Chyna.

We are going to need mega-tons of lithium, copper and other metals not only to produce batteries(that have yet to be seen) but we are going to need mega tons to manufacture many of the componets that are going to be needed for EVs.

Right now, there is a huge shortage of micro-chips needed to produce many of the gas/diesel engine componets.

Then there is the actual power generation of electricity to fuel EVs.
It takes years and years just to agree when and where to build a power generating plant.
Then it may take another ten years just to build that plant.

Solar and wind are pretty much Mickey-Mouse. Again, they have a few good applications but they will nowhere generate enough power to fuel the nations fleet of vehicles.

Nuclear power is the way to go, we are now on the third generation of nuclear power plants such as Westinghouse's AP1000 design.

Research has been underway on fourth generation NP designs and there are several promising designs out there.

Tens of millions of homes, businesses etc, are going to have to be wired for 220 volt recepticles.

Then there is the issue of power transmission lines. Most people don't want thpse ugly huge towers installed in their quaint little neighborhoods but the ENTIRE power-grid will have to be re-wired with the heavier guage wire.

I can go on and on. I am not trying to be a downer here and I welcome new technology, advances and research.

But the fact remains, oil and gas, with the addition of Nuclear power, are what we as a nation, a society will need for decades to come.

I’ll bookmark this post and check back in 12 years