Electric cars?

I’ve had an EV for a few years. Absolutely love it. If I never drive an ICE again, it would be too soon.

That said, I didn’t get it to save the environment or stop American dependence of foreign oil. I bought it because I love how it drives, in some cases drives itself, and love 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. Frankly, I just think it’s a better product. It probably doesn’t hurt the ROI paying $0.13 cents a kilowatt hour right now either.

Not sure if that answers your question, but that’s one random guy’s opinion.

 

Ultimately, it depends on what you mean by "replace." It will likely be decades before all combustion engines, with the exception of hobbyists, are pulled off the road. I strongly suspect that the final push will come after somebody like Uber essentially takes over the transportation system through autonomous driving and there is really no need for personal cars any longer (essentially, if I can get point to point transportation, there is very limited need for me to own and maintain a piece of capital that continuously loses value and that I am not using most of the time). The cost will come down over time.

The materials will come through trade, much like the materials in the computer or phone that you used to type this message that we don't produce on scale in this country.

In terms of pricing, electric vehicles are still a relatively new technology and we will likely continue to see declines in prices over time.

 

The Lithium Ion battery has really been the game changer for EVs. The Nickel Ion batteries on the GM EV1 and EV2 degraded more and faster than Lithium Ions will. As battery tech improves, you’re going to see really high ranges. Tesla’s new roadster (0-60 in 1.9 seconds…drool) is going to have a 625 mi range. That’s just amazing.

 

Seems more like a lot of politicians say they want green energy as do many people. But I see way more urgency and panic from politicians responding to gas prices than any sort of urgency to to adopt electric vehicles en masse. Even the government is dragging its heels on adopting electrics for its own fleet:

AP FACT CHECK: Biden takes half-steps on electric vehicles

The electric car should be seen as a half-measure itself, a tacit admission that we have trapped ourselves in a certain transportation paradigm. Its fairly emblematic of our approach to any sort of large scale environment issue in that we fool ourselves into thinking we can solve them or mitigate them without sacrificing our lifestyles and that through a slightly different set of consumption practices progress can be made. It also illustrates our faith in the market to make such consumption practices eventually accessible to a broad majority of the population.

 

Well, that’s kind of idiotic. 1) I purchased an EV when I was going to purchase a vehicle. It’s not $0 compared to $56k. It’s the price I paid vs the price I would have paid for an ICE. And they weren’t that different. 2) Low end Tesla model 3s start at $39-$42k. So…m’kay.

 

Make it affordable, and I'm in. But when my current car craps out I'm replacing it with another $2-3k car, not a $40k car.

 

I drive a Tesla. Have for the last two years. Love it and don’t miss gas vehicles one damn bit.

Right now, it’s simply not feasible for everyone to drive electric. And to be honest, I’m nearly certain building electrics reduces carbon footprint but not by as much as one would hope purely because of the harms of manufacturing EV batteries. Getting to a point where we’re recycling these batteries at a VERY high rate (say 90% are broken down for 90% of their materials that go into new batteries) then yes, you would see TREMENDOUS benefits to the environment.

It’s a bit cart before the horse though — can we build EV vehicles at a price that’s competitive? Can we get enough of them to build a strong market of used EVs to make them even more affordable for people at lower income brackets?

And can we move enough of the driving public to EV such that an EV fueling network becomes ubiquitous? (This last part is interesting in the sense that, for EV drivers who are also homeowners, the reliance on “gas station” is mostly removed. I charge my car at home)

The current moment in the global market is a great moment to truly consider twenty, thirty years ahead regards this topic

 

I think the average cost of an electric car is around $56,000. Mine cost $80,000 which is $50k more than the solar I had installed on my house. But my fuel and electric costs have zeroed out. Doing my part.
I think what we might do for people who can’t afford it is to increase mass transportation.

 

The average cost of electric car is still high, but you can get a new Nissan Leaf for under $30k. I looked, and used in my area, and that comes in just over $10k to start. It's also likely that electric cars will get less expensive soon, and will be the same price as their ICE counterparts in the coming future. Oh, by the way, the average price of a new ICE vehicle is $46,000. Really cuts down on that 84 year mark if a person chooses an electric car over and ICE vehicle.

 

I believe I saw a poll that a large majority of people are okay with gas prices increasing due to boycotting Russian oil.

And I say this as someone who, as you can tell, doesn’t have a dog in the gas price fight.

 

I mean, this is basically why a "Green New Deal" makes sense to offset the sorts of costs of this transition as a broad societal effort. Makes more sense than tax credits or various other incentive schemes which tend to favor higher incomes and individual consumption, hoping the market will sort it out.

 

The problem with the whole electric vs ICE arguement for passenger vehicles leaves out the elephant(s) in the room when it comes to economics.

1) Shipping (Boats, Trucks, trains) use ICE and oil/gas.
2) Aircraft all use gas
3) Electric Generation (Most are NG in the US)

All of those three above drive the prices on the shelves. This could really be a disaster here soon. Getting all of these off of gas/oil will take about 50-100 years.

 

It will happen eventually. Airbus and Boeing are already investing in electric planes

 

China makes the batteries

and yes others do too, but resources, raw materials and manufacturing need to shift. Tesla’s main market is China not US?

For trucks, short haul could go electric in Cities, possibly. Long haul or tough terrain, maybe fuel cell as a more realistic alternative. All are big quantum shifts. Starting to see more buses and others.

 

And it most certainly does not leave out trucks.

Tesla Semi - Wikipedia

And that is the first of multiple trucks in development.

 

Cool looking car. But they need that range on a sedan/crossover. That car is more for showing off around town than it is to need range.

 

Yes, there are hydrogen engines being tested now. The problem is you need electricity to make hydrogen, and that requires alot of power generation to replace the energy expelled by jets everyday.