11-22-2017, 11:11 AM
(11-22-2017, 03:14 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: The biggest thing holding back an alternate main source of power is batteries. The capacity of the batteries, the life of the batteries, the cost of the batteries, the recharging time of the batteries, the safety of the batteries, and the hazardous waste of the used batteries. None of those factors are good enough right now.
Capacity:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1107455_2017-electric-cars-with-more-than-100-miles-of-range
Note that the bar set is 100 miles. Only 2 of those 7 cars that met that bar have a range of at least 200 miles. So only two electric cars (not including the $70k-130k expensive Tesla models) are even capable of making the round trip between Cincinnati and Louisville, and that's assuming you don't hit any traffic and don't mind going by the skin of your teeth on one of them.
Hell, only 4 of them are capable of theoretically making a Cincinnati/Dayton round trip, and that's only if you trust their numbers enough to have 4-5 miles left on your car's charge. (Enjoy pushing if you're that trusting.)
Life:
http://www.hybridcars.com/how-long-will-an-evs-battery-last/
The batteries are expected to last about 8 years/100,000 miles before you need to buy a new one. That doesn't mean they will keep operating at peak condition for those 8 years, no.. Nissan for instance guarantees their Leaf batteries will still hold 70% of it's original maximum after 5yrs/60,000 miles.
Of course if you live somewhere with hot weather, you're not going to have it last anywhere near that long:
http://www.hybridcars.com/nissan-leaf-owners-hope-best-fear-worst-50263/
People in Arizona/Texas/California finding their batteries dying MUCH more quickly. For instance a man in Texas lost 21.25% of his battery's max charging ability after just 14 months.
Cost:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1107455_2017-electric-cars-with-more-than-100-miles-of-range
Back to this link again, electric cars that can actually get you places are simply expensive. The Chevy Bolt with it's "awe inspiring" 235 miles theoretical maximum range (assuming your battery hasn't degraded yet) costs $37.5k. You can buy a brand new Toyota Camry for like $24k and a new Hyundai Sontata for like $22k. Even just getting a fusion adds a couple grand to the car's price, and that's not even full electric.
Of course then there's the fact that with all the electric/computer stuff in your car, you're really not capable of doing a whole lot of maintenance on your own anymore. It requires more expensive professional maintenance because you need people with the proper equipment and training that you can't get with your handy family member who enjoys working with cars, or your neighborhood small business mechanic.
(Note: The Tesla "home battery" system after install costs and all that? $7k)
Recharging Time:
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-charge-an-electric-car.htm
You have your brand new, still fully charging battery, short-ranged 125 mile electric car and you make the 120 or so round trip from Cincinnati to Dayton magically without hitting any traffic, construction, or detours. You make it home with 5 miles left to spare. Quick, how long until you can charge it up to make the trip again?
8 hours if you own a Nissan Leaf and also own a Nissan charging dock installed into your garage.
Yeah. 8 hours of charging. Really.
Safety:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lithium-battery-fire-risk-samsung-galaxy-note-7/
Nuff said there.
Hazardous Waste:
Less of an issue right now, but if everyone is going through giant car and home batteries every 5 years or so, they will start adding up something fierce.
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Of course this is all assuming we somehow figure out a clean way to produce all the electricity needed, which is unlikely considering Americans used 385 million gallons of gas per DAY in 2015.
That's not counting the people who using heating oil for their homes. Or the energy used for electricity in homes from coal or nuclear power, etc.
There's a reason every single clean energy attempt has vastly underproduced it's targets and are constantly going out of business. The technology just isn't good enough/cost effective enough to make it feasible even on a smaller scale in freaking deserts, let alone to produce it for all of the entire country's needs including cold weather places. Enjoy producing clean energy in snow and ice.
The only way to make it even appear worthwhile is by pumping everyone full of credits, tax breaks, and govt funding, which means we're all paying heavily for it anyway, which wouldn't hold up under expansive use by everyone.
Unless you find a wayyy more efficient way to produce green energy, and a WAYYY better way to store it, it's a pipe dream to even replace 25% of fuel use with clean energy, let alone 90%.
Considering the govt gives subsidies and tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry, should be pretty simple to strip those and give them to clean energy industry. You can also pay for green energy r&d by taxing polluters. Kind of like what the government is doing with cigarettes. Raise taxes to make them less desirable, use the tax revenue on smoking cessation and healthcare.
As far as battery technology, I agree it's not currently there, but it is getting better every year. Some really exciting breakthroughs on materials, charge time and charge holding happening at universities all over the country. Recycling of battery material is going to be very important to reduce the waste and need to mine new materials.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/130380-future-batteries-coming-soon-charge-in-seconds-last-months-and-power-over-the-air
The electric car revolution is coming and China is driving it. They are making electric cars tax-free and have upcoming laws that make gasoline/diesel powered vehicles illegal. China accounts for 1/3 of all car sales in the world (and is also the fastest growing), manufacturers will cater to that.
