Electric vehicles depend upon minerals we are increasingly prevented from mining here in the U.S..The minerals instead get produced in places of horror for children in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed seven years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added a used Tesla Model S, P85, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.
But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night. If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 4 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla would cost 5 cents/mile at California off-peak power prices.
No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor, it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care.
THAT is what will sell the EV, and the real problem is not powering them, (the power companies have been working on and praying for the EV for a generation), the problem will be dealing with an economy which has had a large portion taken out of it. Too much of our economy is dependent on the needs of the internal combustion engine, from mechanics to emissions checkers to the folk who make oil filters, and all the folk who support them. I see a rush to EVs, (go drive one, and see), and the implications of this advance as an impending wave of dislocation for this society for which we must plan now.
This is the Capitalist part of going green, not by greenies like me, who want to change it. It is already changing with new types of batteries which use little or no cobalt.
Oh yes there are real reasons for going green, both for money savings and for saving ourselves. Want to start with Ocean Acidification? Look it up. Meanwhile I will educate you about other problems with the way we are doing things, and how to do them better and cheaper.
New battery technology is solving that. Show me how all those parts of ICE cars are made environmentally, especially the toxic fuels and toxic exhausts.
Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed seven years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added a used Tesla Model S, P85, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.
But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night. If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 4 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla would cost 5 cents/mile at California off-peak power prices.
No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor, it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care.
THAT is what will sell the EV, and the real problem is not powering them, (the power companies have been working on and praying for the EV for a generation), the problem will be dealing with an economy which has had a large portion taken out of it. Too much of our economy is dependent on the needs of the internal combustion engine, from mechanics to emissions checkers to the folk who make oil filters, and all the folk who support them. I see a rush to EVs, (go drive one, and see), and the implications of this advance as an impending wave of dislocation for this society for which we must plan now.
This is the Capitalist part of going green, not by greenies like me, who want to change it. It is already changing with new types of batteries which use little or no cobalt.
Oh yes there are real reasons for going green, both for money savings and for saving ourselves. Want to start with Ocean Acidification? Look it up. Meanwhile I will educate you about other problems with the way we are doing things, and how to do them better and cheaper.
The information is valid. Did you look up Ocean Acidification? I'll bet not.
New battery technology is solving that. Show me how all those parts of ICE cars are made environmentally, especially the toxic fuels and toxic exhausts.
Flow batteries are already in use, and we already have LFP types and sodium-sulfur.
Did you look up Ocean Acidification? I'll bet not.