Electric vehicles and alternate fuel sources

I know I wont be driving one on price alone then what to do with the batteries when they go and the cost of replacement. I usually keep my cars for around 500,000 klms then find the next one.
I have been in Hybrids and they are lovely and quiet and can really get up and go but I will stick with fuel thanks.

invested energy wrote: Electric cars are back and if you think they'll never be viable then I've got some shares in Cobb & Co to sell you

Without the cut n paste codswallop from some unnamed BBQ eating Canadian electrical expert...

Electric cars charged by a diesel gen set still get better fuel mileage than equivalent diesel vehicles.

This is a stop gap that will allow charging infrastructure to catch up with EV uptake.

thedriven.io/2018/12/14/diesel-charge-ev...ener-than-you-think/

“Shares in Cobb & Co”....... Hmmm.... that makes for an interesting analogy...

Engine driven vehicles were invented in the early 1800’s.

Cobb & Co came along about 40 years after engine driven vehicles were invented, about 1850.

Cobb & Co’s Last ‘ride’ were in the 1920’s. Over one hundred years after the invention of the engine driven vehicle.

Were it the invention of the engine driven vehicle that finished off horse drawn vehicles or were it when engine driven vehicles finally became cheap and reliable and had a suitable infrastructure that were the end of ‘horse’ power ?

That’s the problem with todays electric vehicles. No one doubts just how good electric cars are, the problem is the cost and practicability.

One gets the impression there are a lot of zealots out there who want to do something akin to shooting all the horses soon after the invention of the engine driven vehicle...





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Lantana

You are right about the zealots.

I believe the electric car will be the transport of the future. The only thing holding them back is the battery system. Once they become main stream cost will plummet and there will be an efficient pipeline for battery replacement and disposal.

They will never become mainstream until they are an every day usable vehicle. They will never become mainstream until they can be recharged from EMPTY to FULL in less than 10 minutes (and even that is too long). They will never be mainstream until they get at least 400km from that charge at normal driving use - current mileages touted by the makers and zealots are complete BS and time after time road tests at highway speeds and stop start traffic, in other words normal driving, return less than half the advertised range.

The whole picture will change of course when electric vehicles are forced to pay their fair share of tax for the roads they are driving upon now, getting a free ride from everybody else. All the "cheap to operate" claims are total fantasy while petrol/diesel drivers are subsidising their motoring.

It will come but not tomorrow.

Lang

Never a truer statement made than Lang's.

As Lantana Jack and Lang have said, electric cars will come but not soon. Just imagine if every motor vehicle in any country was powered by electricity. Where would all the electricity be generated? What source of energy would generate it? How would millions of vehicles be recharged every night? where would the electricity wire network come from? Who would pay for it?

According to wikipedia....

In the United States by the turn of the century, 40 percent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle


EDIT, they're referring to Last Century.

Interesting picture I took at a Euroa motel.

Rod

Don't you love these marketing people "20mm longer wheelbase" for a "subtly more spacious cabin". 3/4 of an inch, talk about subtle!

A 10.25-inch touchscreen in 16:9 ratio will feature ‘UConnect 5’ connectivity. The system allows access to functions of the vehicle via a smartphone.
Owners can monitor and schedule battery charging, locate the car, and operate locks and climate control. Navigation and anti-theft features can also be accessed and various maintenance parameters such as tyre pressures can be monitored.
The new Fiat 500 will also work as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to eight devices, however Fiat claims this will only be available in some markets.

At $1,000 fine for using a phone in Queensland the government will be buying these to give away free to the population - how the money rolls in.
Lang

At Euroa there's also a drive-in charging station, over road from Rec Reserve & toilet block on Seven Creeks if I remember. Not far from Police Station.

I'd be interested to know where everyone gets their informative banter from...

Old mate of mine was "listening to the radio" & parroting some bullshit about how 5 year old electric cars were worthless as trade ins "cause of the battery"

He refused to say if it was the truth or if it was Alan Jones radio. (because they're mutually exclusive) He was also pretty quiet when asked, if basically the entire taxi industry is now hybrid cars, how could they be taken in by worthless unwarrantable frauds?

As mentioned previously, diesel gen sets are a good stop gap to allow you to charge electric cars quickly, at better than equivalent diesel vehicle fuel mileage.

Things like a Tesla will allow you 80% charge in 20 minutes... about enough time to have a piss and get a coffee. With a generator that can be at the temporary Lions Club driver reviver if need be. You'll get at least another couple of hours driving before you need charging and the authorities would like you to stop every 2 hours anyway... It's not much different with my XY V8 ute driving to Bathurst at 20litres/100.

What's more interesting is that used/wrecked electric cars are already being used to convert classics and power houses. In fact Nissan offer cheap repacked batteries for the Leaf which sees old models getting better mileage than ever and old batteries being reused in houses where the performance degradation isn't a problem.

Charging infrastructure won't be hard to deploy. Everywhere you have a street light or a service fuse there is a point that can easily be wired for car charging.

Seeing as cars only spend about 95% of their time parked, they can be plugged in and stabilise the grid... you see "vehicle to grid" is already avaliable. It's possible to charge your car during the day when solar energy is cheap (SAPN have a solar sponge tariff out this year that's 25% of normal electricity rates) and then you go home & cook dinner with your electric car.

Don't take my word for it though...

reneweconomy.com.au/how-sharing-solar-ba...GVCXe1ya8VVVAZb9ckbI