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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric who wrote (78306)	7/14/2017 11:14:59 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 86356

Half a ton is still a LOT of weight to lug around, even if it cost nothing to produce. What matters is the extra functionality, or cost savings, or other benefit of having the extra half ton. The benefit of that extra half ton is that right now a good big range can be had by having a huge battery. The reason to get big range is because it's the old chicken and egg problem = a big range is needed because the number of rechargers is low and range anxiety is high. It's the same reason the Prius hybrid and other hybrids were so popular = the problem of range went away, and the great benefits of electric motors could be enjoyed, but at the cost of having BOTH electric and internal combustion systems. Now, increasingly, people are willing to go without the security of an internal combustion engine. But competition and efficiency and cost reduction all will push towards more and more improvements. Perhaps capacitors will do the job, but they aren't there yet. Right now, a car maker could make cars with swapable batteries and provide all the benefits of 7 second recharging - no technological revolution needed, just the application of existing engineering. In the oil industry and vehicle industry, for many decades, there has been a continuous battle for very small increments in efficiency, weight reduction, safety, emissions reduction, cost cutting, reliability, depreciation reduction etc etc. That process won't stop because electric cars become popular. Car makers will come up with all sorts of ways of outdoing competitors. Half an hour at a recharge station, or more, and maybe even 5 hours on a very busy Thanksgiving, at peak electricity prices, when the sun has been obscured by heavy cloud all day, will see car makers finding a better way to keep customers on the move. You might think it fine to blow off half an hour, or an hour, hobnobbing with grandfathered Tesla owners at a Supercharger hangout, but regular humans will not. Especially commercial vehicle operators will not. "Yes, it's true that the extra half ton of battery does cost a lot, and makes the car inefficient, but at least you have to spend half an hour, or more, at a recharging point" is not a great sales argument. Mqurice