The Future Looks Electric… But So Did The Past!

[Snailer]

Yes I know they "can" be recycled, how many people "bother" so all that lithium ends up in land fill.

Battery packs, even ones used for an extended amount of time, are worth several grand. Doesn't matter if it's Tesla or some dude who buys it from you. Can't speak for other people, but I can definitely see myself "bother" with selling something worth several grand. Might just be me, though.

 

[Jan Larsen]

Here its the law to recycle old electronics, its forbidden to just throw them out. Just take them to the recycling center and they'll handle it from there.

 

[Jason M Fuller]

You realize that a lot of energy is lost boiling the water and then propelling the water? Why not immediately drive the car

Ya, it's not perfect. Just a theory. Another issue is temperature. Where I live, 3 to 4 months of the year it can drop below freezing. It causes enough issues with diesel fuel gelling and regular fuel lines freezing. Water freezing would cause all kind of issues.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

If batteries ever reach the energy density of hydrocarbons then it's a no-brainer as long as we're not scared off of nuclear electricity production - as far as I know ( and it's been some time ) though that sort of battery tech is highly experimental. Given you can throw almost anything combustible in an ICE, hybrid and some more thought of sustainable combustibles would seem a currently sensible path. Bioethanol would at least have the advantage of combatting some of it's CO2 emissions at source but the environmental impact of producing all the required biomass sounds pretty horrid, unless we can use areas of sea.

One of the worst offenders for greenhouse gases is methane, far more than CO2 ( about 25x or so ), and reservoirs for hydro power produce quite a lot. Burning methane would apparently *help*. Clean energy is a complex & surprising thing to study, and I haven't even really started digging.

Bioethanol for race cars does sound doable even if road cars are electric, and we get to keep our noise...

The UK has banned ICE only car sales after 2040, not hybrids afaik.

 

[Nevini]

Electric will never ever achieve the same level of mass take up as the petrol engine. Simply not enough rare earth metals on this planet. Electric is a stop gap.

 

[wombat999]

And of course, the whole 'Electric Car' politics overlooks the eminently simple 'Steam Power', another early 20th century World Speed Record holder.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

And of course, the whole 'Electric Car' politics overlooks the eminently simple 'Steam Power', another early 20th century World Speed Record holder.

External combustion has been rather inefficient historically - even with modern technology it's still not very good. Internal combustion steam on the other hand is simply burning hydrogen in an ICE. Hydrogen is unfortunately not very energy dense, and there's obvious handling issues.

 

[poir.qc]

I thought you were talking about my Wife...

Nice article btw.

 

[SlimCharles]

After having this discussion over and over again, I learnt that it's useless to defend what kind of engine is better from the fun perspective. Fun is completely subjective.

Of course I have my point of view, and I can't understand how someone preferes a dishwasher to this:

All the nuances of the sound, the strenght and noise it transmits, how different every single ICE sounds and behaves, the insane complexity compared to a electric engine...

In terms of performance and respect with the enviroment, ICE clearly can't compete.

 

[Terry Rock]

Having just this past week driven my first mile in an electric car, I'd have to say I was quite impressed.
While I don't see it as a full replacement to ICE at this stage, it definitely deserves consideration.
I drove my co-worker's 2014 Chevy Volt.
She just picked it up two weeks ago and knowing my love of all things mechanical, offered.
It was surprising fun to drive and although considered 'electric'...uses an ICE for charging the battery pack when close to depletion.
You get approximately 40 miles on a charge.
She uses electric only to and from work since her total commute is 38 miles.
There is a place for both types of technology.
Modern F1ICE shows the potential for much much better thermal efficiency. It just needs to be implemented widely by developers.

 

[M-Bimmer]

Just came across this video....

 

[Turk]

The electric drive system is better than ICE systems, it's less complicated and more capable, there can be no argument against that fact, it's better in every conceivable way from it's abilities to it's simplicity in application. The issue is the batteries. I don't think batteries even need to be better than petrol they just need to be close enough for now.

Electrics have huge benefits for for health of people living in cities, the fumes aren't as much of an issue for us living in rural areas. They're cleaner, easier to make, simpler design, less moving parts, it's all an improvement. They fit better into our electric world and could become totally automated feeding themselves and transporting us around. Maybe becoming less like the cars we know today and more of low capacity transport system. Meaning petrol cars aren't kept for practical purposes but purely for the love of them.

I don't think the argument that your just moving the pollution from one place to another is a killer blow either, cars disperse harmful chemicals and gases on a mass scale throughout the world. Moving that source of pollution to just power plants or the manufacturing makes it easier to deal with and do something about it.

The bottom line is we will run out of fossil fuels at some stage, it's going to happen, maybe not today, maybe not in 20 years, maybe not for 50 years, but it will happen. In the meantime prices will go up. We can't be so dependant on one product, it's just not smart. Being dependant on one thing for survival is how animals end up going extinct.

I think places like Europe may need to start doing more to push electric over the line with more incentives to buy and funded public works to make electric more viable. It will need to be pushed over the line with infrastructure. America has started the ball rolling by providing solid products that are desirable, but the US isn't in a position to be enacting social change for the betterment of mankind. Europe has shown it can encourage rapid changes to our behaviour if it's done fairly without hitting peoples pockets to much.

 

[Davide Nativo]

The electric drive system is better than ICE systems, it's less complicated and more capable, there can be no argument against that fact, it's better in every conceivable way from it's abilities to it's simplicity in application. The issue is the batteries. I don't think batteries even need to be better than petrol they just need to be close enough for now.

Electrics have huge benefits for for health of people living in cities, the fumes aren't as much of an issue for us living in rural areas. They're cleaner, easier to make, simpler design, less moving parts, it's all an improvement. They fit better into our electric world and could become totally automated feeding themselves and transporting us around. Maybe becoming less like the cars we know today and more of low capacity transport system. Meaning petrol cars aren't kept for practical purposes but purely for the love of them.

I don't think the argument that your just moving the pollution from one place to another is a killer blow either, cars disperse harmful chemicals and gases on a mass scale throughout the world. Moving that source of pollution to just power plants or the manufacturing makes it easier to deal with and do something about it.

The bottom line is we will run out of fossil fuels at some stage, it's going to happen, maybe not today, maybe not in 20 years, maybe not for 50 years, but it will happen. In the meantime prices will go up. We can't be so dependant on one product, it's just not smart. Being dependant on one thing for survival is how animals end up going extinct.

I think places like Europe may need to start doing more to push electric over the line with more incentives to buy and funded public works to make electric more viable. It will need to be pushed over the line with infrastructure. America has started the ball rolling by providing solid products that are desirable, but the US isn't in a position to be enacting social change for the betterment of mankind. Europe has shown it can encourage rapid changes to our behaviour if it's done fairly without hitting peoples pockets to much.

Wish I could like your comment more than once well spoken, rightly argumented and nicely behaved. Thank you for your contribution!

 

[Snailer]

Wish I could like your comment more than once well spoken, rightly argumented and nicely behaved. Thank you for your contribution!

What he said.

 

[DeVxC]

I like it's 21 century and we have to choose to be eco-friendly or not. Which means having a car or not... Because electric car is not a eco-friendly... Also I like how "there is no sound coming from engine" is the biggest problem of E-car...
Unless we do a massive one day switch to producing electricity form renewable resource I don't see how making electric car change anything? Do we stop oil production? no, we need it for tiers, plastic, etc. Do we stop CO2 emission? no, we will need more electricity more power plants PLZ. What about used batteries? What about production of the batteries? Oh @&^$ off
I don't get why people believe this change anything...
Want to change? Have a real change and not this... #&^%#$ changing axe for a stick...

 

[Turk]

Unless we do a massive one day switch to producing electricity form renewable resource I don't see how making electric car change anything?

I don't think renewable will ever be able to fulfil our energy needs. I don't really see renewable as the future of electricity. Big ugly bird dicing machines covering the surface of the planet isn't really good for the environment in my opinion. Massive infrastructure using up more and more space isn't a good thing, we need to reduce our physical footprint as well as our carbon footprint.

Nuclear is the only solution.

 

[AndrewBo]

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

― Henry Ford

 

[Snailer]

I don't think renewable will ever be able to fulfil our energy needs. I don't really see renewable as the future of electricity. Big ugly bird dicing machines covering the surface of the planet isn't really good for the environment in my opinion. Massive infrastructure using up more and more space isn't a good thing, we need to reduce our physical footprint as well as our carbon footprint.

Nuclear is the only solution.

Since you are obviously referring to wind turbines, how about offshore wind? Turbines placed at sea can generate more electricity than those built on land, don't take-up any useful space, aren't unsightly, don't kill avians, and more. Speaking of other renewable sources such as solar, solar panels are already often placed on top of buildings so they shouldn't take-up any useful space, either. I, too, quite like Nuclear but let's not write-off renewable sources just yet.

 

[Turk]

Since you are obviously referring to wind turbines, how about offshore wind? Turbines placed at sea can generate more electricity than those built on land, don't take-up any useful space, aren't unsightly, don't kill avians, and more. Speaking of other renewable sources such as solar, solar panels are already often placed on top of buildings so they shouldn't take-up any useful space, either. I, too, quite like Nuclear but let's not write-off renewable sources just yet.

I'm not writing it off as such but wind turbines are just ruining places. Scotland is covered in them. It's just a lot of infrastructure that needs constant maintenance and they don't come close to meeting our demands. Even off shore turbines are bound to cause damage to the environment they're in, they have to be painted and use lubricants that are going to seep into the environment. They are a very complicated solution to the problem. Difficult to build, Difficult to maintain, and much more likely to break down.

About the only renewable I think really works well is geothermal but you need the right conditions for them to be effective.

There are a number of clean nuclear solutions that could end the energy crisis pretty quickly. But commercial interests don't want them coming in and the public will believe whatever their told as children so it probably won't happen any time soon.

 

[dajdosta]

Be it electric future or something else doesn't matter as long as it is not current prevalent dirty oil technology. Even if EV fail they are important as a transition to something greener and for people to awake and realize that alternative has to be found as soon as possible.