You Cannot Take Them Seriously.

It doesn't end with the power grid being vastly insufficient to provide power for electric (or even hybrid) automobiles, just wait for next environmental "crisis" when it's time to start disposing of the worn-out lithium batteries in the hybrids and electric cars currently on the road. Don't get me started on what lithium mines do to the environment, or the child labor in the cobalt mines in the Congo (cobalt being essential for use in anodes for lithium batteries); it's the "blood diamonds" travesty of this generation.

Of course, this is all just an intermediate stage designed to lead-up to a push for an end to private vehicle ownership altogether, and forcing everyone into mass-transit (whether it exists in your area or not).

A massive crash of the power grid may be just what we need to demonstrate to the eco-Nazis that their "green" initiatives are little more than unrealistic pipe dreams.

 

Sounds like a great excuse not to go to work, when you wake up in the morning and the power has crashed. “Sorry I can’t get in this morning my car is out of power and we have no electric” . This is going to be a big problem. Hydrogen anyone……..

 

I've recently looked at pure electric cars and they're a non-starter for me. At the lower price range, say £30,000 you're looking at a realistic range of a hundred miles or so and a quick recharge time of five to ten hours. That's ok for doing the shopping but it aint going to get me to Scotland for a holiday. It would take several days and several hotels to get where we want to go.

 

And the ridiculous thing is, is that when we have all moved over to electric power the government will tax it so they get the same revenue they did from petrol/diesel.

 

The latest Audi EV, The Rs Etron GT starts at £111k and is, by all accounts, one of the most "sorted' fully electric cars yet (I should hope so!) but still has range and charge time limitations, especially at home charging on a domestic 240v supply. Apparently, a new Euro 7 emmisions target is coming into force by 2026 which all new ICE vehicles must meet and is very difficult and very expensive to achieve. Are manufacturers really going to spend loads more £££ and R&D time on engines that will be banned 4 years later? Of course not so that's another nail in the coffin for petrol/diesel. The availabilty of suitable charge points, the range, the charge times and the rate at which they're progressing are the things that will delay the all electric revolution. I just hope it is delayed long enough to see me out.

 

Buying a Teslar is giving a dollar to Elon Musk. I’d personally rather become a vegan.

 

I can't wait to get my first EV, currently using two cars and one will prob be an EV when that's swapped for a new one.
90-95% of my journeys are not further than 100km a day so I will manage that fairly easy with a EV. The bigger car will still be petrol for some time as I need a tow bar. And I simply don't have money or parking space to charge 2 cars at the same time.

When it comes to mining Lithium or Cobolt its interesting to see how many that has started to care for the kids mining it and taking a sudden interest to child labour. Have a look at most of the things around you, what you wear and what you eat or the gadgets with batteries you use. Most of it prob has some sort of child labour or slavery involved in the manufacturing process. It doesn't make it right of course, but I doubt any will give up their cellphones or laptops.
There are sustainable and responsible Cobolt mining going on, but I think customers need to be informed of where (if possible) the minerals of the "gadget" you are buying are from. That's when we can make a better choice.

If you look into the amount of power and polution it takes to make petrol or diesel its is a lot. That doesn't help a shitty grid that's been neglected for years due to taxcuts or companies ignoring to invest in it. But its something many countries would have need to invest in anyway.

I don't have a problem with EV, in fact after you have driven one most do love them. Its not a petrol car or sound like one. But as with bikes, they all have their pros and cons.

I am absolutely certain we will have ICE cars and motorcycles 2030, but hopefully there will be a lot less, and the bigger mass that doesn't get a stiffie when a Triple roar down the street will be happy with their EV cars.

 

Vegan isn't a bad choice after all, prob a better choice than buying an EV to try and save the planet.

 

Of course they will, and why shouldn't they?

 

I agree, its very country specific. And prob very regional within countries too.
Looking at where I am from the cold up north and long distances some people drive makes todays EV not a viable option. Sure they can get a Tesla but they aren't cheap.

I think many of the developing countries have interesting solutions where we can might find some inspiration. All from distributed vs centralized power distribution, new tech where we can "share" energy to local storage of energy when needed.

The way we distribute power today (and has done for 100 years) might not always be the optimal way.

 

I wasn't aware that Cobalt was used in so many ways.
Interesting and quite educating write-up below.

https://www.chargesmart.co.nz/post/cobalt-mining

 

it’s not that they shouldn’t, it’s more about ev’s being advertised as low cost to run. Which of course they won’t be in the long run. We’ve been here before when the government encouraged us to buy diesel cars then gradually increased the fuel tax to a lot more than petrol and eventually declared diesel emissions harmful.

 

Its the dealers that talk about "low cost to run", and I think everyone knows that the taxmoney is needed.

We had the same thing here in Sweden regarding the diesel, extreme taxcuts on car tax over night when we had a new government if you got a diesel which was bonkers cuz we had invested so much money in CNG.
Everyone knows diesel has harmful emissions, but all focus was at CO2 at that point. That people die from the other stuff that's coming of of the exhaust-pipe wasn't interesting.
And I guess VW and the rest of the car manufacturers tricked many governments pretty badly when it comes to diesel and how incredibly environmental-friendly it was. A shame they weren't fined even harder.

Dieselgate - what a scandal.

 

First of all, I love you guys and I love your skepticism.

For a look at some facts, I’d recommend the Wall Street Journal’s article on the economics of electric cars. Summary: For the first 20,000 miles (32,000 km), ICE cars make more sense. The cost of construction, the cost of energy, the overall environmental impact.

But after that electric wins. Even after you’ve factored in the environmental cost of the batteries and the cradle to grave impacts.

So that’s where we are headed like it or not. We are all gonna go electric eventually, and the grids will be beefed up to suit.

 

Most enviromental crusaders ignore the fact that the electricity used to charge up their Teslas still originates at a powerplant generated by turbines running on fossil fuels. 95+% of them, anyway.

Personally, I miss the days of sarcastic presidential tweets, gas @ around 2 buck a gallon, and affordable sheets of plywood.

YMMV.