re: Why do you believe that we should be driving electric vehicles?

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Why do you believe that we should be driving electric vehicles?

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We shouldn’t

I think we should go back to no emission regulations with big block engines and leaded high octane gasoline but that’s just me

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You sure it's not the combination of performance, low operating and maintenance costs, and convenience of charging at home?

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Yes, I’m sure.

Those points might motivate you, and good on you. Go for it.

But of the 4 points you mentioned, only performance and (somewhat) lower operating costs are a reality at this time.

Maintenance costs are difficult to accurately calculate, depending on the model and the life span of the car. Will current Tesla’s still be operating on the same batteries (and other parts) in 10 years? How will they compare to the cost of maintenance/repairs to similarly priced ICE cars at 10 years? I’ve heard that the battery life is much shorter than 10 years.
And what about repairs after an accident? Are repairs comparable?

Convenience of charging at home? Isn’t that negated by charge times (compared to refueling times on ICE’s), inconvenience of finding a charge source away from home, multiple cars needing to be charged at home and limited ports, etc.?

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Most think we don't have the capacity, and my response was that we do.

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You remind me of German Göring trying to convince Hitler the Luftwaffe can supply 6th Army in Stalingrad via air transport alone. You can’t will something into being simply by saying it.

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So what do you think is the biggest concern in powering a fleet of EVs, then? Do you think we will have a problem increasing production by ~25% over the course of several decades? I doubt it.

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I think you have no concept of the scale of what you’re proposing. There’s over 275 million autos in the US today. It takes approximately 40 kWh to fully charge one EV. Where the biggest issue will be is in major cities like LA where there’s just shy of 5.5 million vehicles. The burden placed on the grid, which is already stretched banjo tight a good deal of the time will be too much.

Now the problem can be resolved by a massive expansion of the power grid. But that’s going to require new power stations. And wind nor solar will get you the added capacity required. It’s going to take coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants. By the time you’ve built the power plants to charge the hundreds of millions of EVs, what have you really accomplished if your goal is reduction in CO2?

Then there is the matter of batteries. I know you want to believe brine extraction will be the answer but I assure you it won’t. Takes too much just water and you don’t get enough material for it to be economically viable on a mass scale. It’s going to take strip mining on a huge scale for not only lithium but other minerals required to manufacture these batteries. The impact on the environment from battery production, recycling, and eventually disposal will dwarf the impact of oil extraction.

Its not even that, these people dont understand that the US currently gets 79% of its energy from NON RENEWABLES. (Source EIA)

Pushing for all EV is literally pissing in the wind at this point.

You rebuild your infrastructure 1st. Not backwards like this.

Just asking for trouble.

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It's not out of my arse, it's based on typical EV mileage per kWh vs current US electricity production.

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Like I said, out of your arse.

Lets not just factor in pullulation or consumption growth or anything.

You over here talking about commuters just ignoring the overwhelming majority of road travel is done via shipping for consumption.

People are saying limits and terms with no actual studies or foresight.

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I think you have no concept of the scale of what you’re proposing.

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I do.

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Where the biggest issue will be is in major cities like LA where there’s just shy of 5.5 million vehicles. The burden placed on the grid, which is already stretched banjo tight a good deal of the time will be too much.

Now the problem can be resolved by a massive expansion of the power grid. But that’s going to require new power stations.

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So you have either ignored the part about charging at night, or you don't realize that the grid has ample excess capacity at night.

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And wind nor solar will get you the added capacity required. It’s going to take coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants.

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We really won't need much more capacity, if any at all. As of now we have over 1 Billion kW of capacity, but let's throw out the ~30% renewables and focus on the ~70% that we can generate 24/7/365. So 700 million kW times 24 times 365 is more than 6 Trillion kWh that we could generate. We actually only generate 4 Trillion kWh, which reflects the nature of the day to day and hour to hour fluctuations in electricity demand. The point is charging at night fills in the troughs without adding to the peaks, so additional capacity will not be required everywhere, but rather in only specific cases/regions. Additionally, backfeeding chargers have the potential to knock the top off the peaks, which could help to counter our electricity demand for other things.

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By the time you’ve built the power plants to charge the hundreds of millions of EVs, what have you really accomplished if your goal is reduction in CO2?

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Even if we don't need more plants, yes we will end up burning more fuel. But doing so in power plants is more efficient than inside an ICE.

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Then there is the matter of batteries. I know you want to believe brine extraction will be the answer but I assure you it won’t. Takes too much just water and you don’t get enough material for it to be economically viable on a mass scale. It’s going to take strip mining on a huge scale for not only lithium but other minerals required to manufacture these batteries. The impact on the environment from battery production, recycling, and eventually disposal will dwarf the impact of oil extraction.

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Like I said, out of your arse.

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My arse didn't invent math.

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You over here talking about commuters just ignoring the overwhelming majority of road travel is done via shipping for consumption.

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What difference does it make?

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One night last month I left my house at 8:00 At night, started driving to Ft Davis TX in west Texas without giving a single seconds thought as to where, or if I would get fuel.

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This really isn't a counterpoint in favor of EVs because there is no question that there is currently a big disparity in charging vs gas stations.

It is funny you mention the West Texas 1-10 run because (especially west of Ft Davis) it is one of rare places on the interstate system you DO have to pay attention to your fuel levels and where the fuel stations are. It is nearly as bad in a couple of stretches as I-80 across Wyoming. More than 1 person has been on that path and was damn happy to see Little America because they were sweating their fuel gauge.

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so pretty much everyone considering the cost of new ICE vehicles.

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Mostly

There's just such a misconception. People always assume all Teslas cost $100k and you gotta be rich to have one.

I have one, I ain't rich lol. But no one bats an eye at someone with a brand new pickup truck or Jeep Wrangler that easily cost way more than my car, not even factoring in total cost of ownership.