Musings/Ramblings/Opinions on the EV push

[Bonnewagon]

When I was a kid at the 1964-65 World's Fair here in NYC, we were promised space-age looking electric cars that would eliminate those stinky gas and diesel vehicles. And in 1964 they were pretty stinky. 57 years later I'm still waiting. Why? I want one. Most of my travel is short hops that would not even put a dent in the battery charge. No gas or oil to buy. No coolant. No emissions inspection. Just tires, brakes, and windshield wipers. It doesn't mean I have to get rid of my classic cars. They would become even more special. And I damn sure won't shed a tear for the petroleum industry. But people hate change. Seat belts, safety glass, disc brakes, electronic ignition, computers, radial tires, catalytic converters, everything we take for granted now was at one time demonized and hated. Once EV's become cheap and common you will wonder what all the fuss was about. And if you are sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours a day- you probably SHOULD be in an EV. I'm looking at YOU Wrong Island.

 

[abbey castro]

I'm not old enough but remember when the car replaced the horse, the diesel locomotives replaced steam ones, and the list goes on and on. People complained then, people will complain now. There are two choices, get on the wagon with progress or stay on the sideline and watch the parade go by. IMO

 

[ssn696]

History may not repeat itself, but it generally rhymes...

A Brief History Of Gasoline: Searching For The Magic Bullet

Part 8: People might have put less trust in leaded gasoline if they'd known how much of a shitshow the lab was that invented it

jalopnik.com

He was who gets there first, with the best marketing team, writes the story.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

I have stated in other threads that the EV push is only a stepping stone. The next pushs will be full time autonomous driving and the end of private car ownership. That cars will either be leased, subscription, or rideshare service. At that point its likely older manual driven cars will be banned from public roadways, at least in urban areas.

Another disturbing trend with EVs and modern ICE is all the drive by wire controls which reduce the driver's control of the car. Cars ard already semi autonomous with DBW throttles, automatic braking, auto parking etc. And it will only increase. Likely one of the real reasons for the EV push is that its easier to automate EVs over ICE. Moreover, another bad trend is the rise of subscription based business model in the automotive market which Tesla pioneered. Hence "You will own nothing and be happy."

If the wagon is going off a cliff, I rather be on the sideline and watch it go by.

 

[Wageslave]

Each post office would need to pull 220v power into their parking lots, 1 charging station for each van is needed, buildings may need to be built to store them for very warm or cold climates. There's potentially long term savings but up front capital is killer.

This is something that could be somewhat alleviated by having chargers that could use 277v power instead of only 220v. If the post office was upgraded at the pole to allow 3 phase power, you could pull 277v leg to neutral to charge with 3 different Level 2 EV chargers. The bump in voltage would also speed up the chargers and make them a little more cost effective.

 

[jiho]

No coolant.

Oh, but EVs do need coolant. Exact same type of cooling system -- but for the battery, not the motor. If the battery is not so cooled it will explode in flames.

Of course they can do that even with coolant. Think ongoing Chevy Bolt fiasco.

The Canadians chiming in on this thread remind me that Build Butt Better -- which seems to have died a slow painful death -- had provisions to subsidize EV purchases, but only when made in the US, and a fatter subsidy when made in a unionized plant. Canada pointed out that such provisions violate the elaborately negotiated NAFTA2 treaty, which makes them unconstitutional, as the Constitution specifies that treaties have force of law.

 

[blk7gxn]

As I sit here and read these blogs, I'm scratching my head in amazement and wonder. Each time your forced to buy something or be penalized for not, you're eroding your freedom away bit by bit. People should be able to have a vote, and that's done with how you spend your earned monies. Ok, you can look at the subsidies the governments will be handing out AT FIRST, to lure you in, and these subsidies, where do you think they came from?? YOUR POCKET through taxation, so it's not free monies people, you're basically paying to have yet another one of your freedoms taken away. I'm amazed at how little people truly think. Am I 100% against EV? absolutely not. As another G body brother has mentioned in his blog here, there are certain applications where they are applicable, and yes, you have to start somewhere, but to push this underdeveloped, technology starved, pollution creating overload at both ends, mining and disposal nightmare, WHAT ARE WE THINKING!! We aren't! This is BIG, so wouldn't you wait for it to be properly engineered, with clean mining and disposal/recycling procedures executed in a precise and clean way? The way this is being done right now, is this, you're getting a piece of dog crap dipped in chocolate and you're thinking it's great, go ahead, take a bite friend, because that's exactly what is happening here. Just like the pollution to make these solar panels that not only last a short 10 years, but economically not even breaking even at the end of their life cycle.

Technology and advancement are AWESOME! But why do we always sell ourselves out for inferior crap, why aren't we as consumers demanding more, more quality, truly environmentally cleaner products, not products that APPEAR to be cleaner that actually are harming the environment even more, how hypocritical is that! I'm for go, not show, I'll keep driving my ICE vehicles until there is a truly worthy EV that IS environmentally and human safe, until then, I'm not rushing out like the rest of the brainless sheep to cause more harm than good just to have a perceived image that you're doing good for the environment while destroying it worse than someone with an ICE vehicle.

And just for the record, there would be nothing more satisfying to see BIG OIL put on their knees, for all the screws they have been putting to consumers for decades, so if that's any consolation of how I truly would like to see some advancements with EV technologies. When you have competition, you have lower cost, so don't be so quick to be rubbing your hands together when you think its ok the Government will be taking your freedom away to purchase ICE vehicles. The ONLY way this will work, (IF we can get EV technology where it needs to be), IS TO have ICE vehicles too, to have the competition, because when you have competition, we have better products at a lower cost.

Will

 

[64nailhead]

50 years from now an ICE vehicle is going to turn you into a survivalist due to that you will be able to navigate without the power grid, as long as you store enough fuel and parts in reserve. Presently, I'm doing well on the additional parts, but the next project is the 20k gallon gas tank I'm burying in the back yard. I figure at 10 gallons per week I'll be in good shape about 20 years from now.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. I already have the building permit for the 'new pool'.



Just kidding 😉



The issue with EV discussion is that it has turned political rather than factual. And as with all things political, nothing is discussed in the realm of politics that has much of anything to do with facts FROM EITHER SIDE of the political arena.


Post #5 - spot on Jake.

 

[69hurstolds]

Please don't turn this to a political thing. Some of the decisions that were made about this are political. We know this because there was little to no thought put into those decisions. 🙂 But please try to keep any political finger-pointing out of it, i.e., don't pick "sides" to bring out the points. Now, you can support/badmouth the things the alphabet agencies are doing as long as it's somewhat factual-based (news articles, etc.), as it can affect our hobby.

That said, proponents of EV push will be saddened by this....should ICE fans rejoice? I don't know. I find this weird that the alphabet agencies find on one hand mining lithium is needed, but then, mining lithium is bad. Let's chalk this up as "mixed messaging", shall we?

First, EPA is mad at the postal service for not wanting to buy all electric mail trucks:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/02/02/usps-trucks-epa-climate-change/

But at the same time, U.S. Fish and Wildlife is considering making a rare buckwheat in Nevada off limits in what seems to be an attempt to try to prevent lithium mining, to help make the batteries to power those electric trucks. The buckwheat's only on 10 acres of land in the entire world, and that's in the one spot in Nevada. That's it. IMO, it's already extinct. Unless they're harvesting it to make a special food or medicine you can't get anywhere else, fugg it.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada/articles/2022-02-04/us-eyes-rare-flower-habitat-amid-nevada-lithium-mine-fight

 

[69hurstolds]

I have stated in other threads that the EV push is only a stepping stone. The next pushs will be full time autonomous driving and the end of private car ownership. That cars will either be leased, subscription, or rideshare service. At that point its likely older manual driven cars will be banned from public roadways, at least in urban areas.

The biggest hurdle now is convincing people to do any ridesharing. Covid put a monkey wrench into those gears. Not sure about you, but I'm not going to condone any ridesharing with other people for the foreseeable future. Unless Covid can be eradicated completely, eat my shorts on ridesharing or using public access vehicles, etc. I won't even use public transportation right now.