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> I hope the author realizes that at some point there wasn't a network of gas stations across the country, Not much of an argument. The ICE won out over electr

> I hope the author realizes that at some point there wasn't a network of gas stations across the country, Not much of an argument. The ICE won out over electric drivetrains for the express reason that liquid fuels are far easier to provide logistics for than batteries. Most electric car makers stopped production at some point in the 1910s. It's not that electric vehicles were never tried out. They were. Gasoline was just a way better fit.

djrogers 11y ago
Yes it was. In 1910. Do you honestly expect that to always be true?
- vinceguidry 11y ago
  Until and unless something fundamental changes about batteries, sure. If you can figure out how to charge a battery at the same rate as filling up a gas tank, then that would qualify. If you can quadruple capacity, and therefore range, that would also qualify. Right now and for the foreseeable future, EVs are a promising alternative to regular cars, but if everyone hops on board, the logistics will murder us. EVs won't work until they're actually better than ICEs in every way. Not just some of the ways, all of them. Because only that will make the economics of replacing our entire gasoline-based infrastructure work.
  - ryanmarsh 11y ago
    > EVs won't work until they're actually better than ICEs in every way. I'm guessing you haven't spent much time behind the wheel of a Tesla. You're making a sweeping and unsupported assertion there.
    - vinceguidry 11y ago
      Do you think every EV is going to drive like a (specced-out) Tesla?
ryanmarsh 11y ago
> Gasoline was just a way better fit. Was. See: my argument re: small scale localized electricity production for EV charging thanks to our glorious NG infrastructure.
ryanmarsh 11y ago
> The ICE won out over electric drivetrains for the express reason that liquid fuels are far easier to provide logistics for than batteries It was purely logistics, not that energy density of early batteries was logarithmically worse than hydrocarbons?

djrogers 11y ago

Yes it was. In 1910. Do you honestly expect that to always be true?

vinceguidry 11y ago
Until and unless something fundamental changes about batteries, sure. If you can figure out how to charge a battery at the same rate as filling up a gas tank, then that would qualify. If you can quadruple capacity, and therefore range, that would also qualify. Right now and for the foreseeable future, EVs are a promising alternative to regular cars, but if everyone hops on board, the logistics will murder us. EVs won't work until they're actually better than ICEs in every way. Not just some of the ways, all of them. Because only that will make the economics of replacing our entire gasoline-based infrastructure work.
- ryanmarsh 11y ago
  > EVs won't work until they're actually better than ICEs in every way. I'm guessing you haven't spent much time behind the wheel of a Tesla. You're making a sweeping and unsupported assertion there.
  - vinceguidry 11y ago
    Do you think every EV is going to drive like a (specced-out) Tesla?

ryanmarsh 11y ago

> Gasoline was just a way better fit. Was. See: my argument re: small scale localized electricity production for EV charging thanks to our glorious NG infrastructure.

ryanmarsh 11y ago

> The ICE won out over electric drivetrains for the express reason that liquid fuels are far easier to provide logistics for than batteries It was purely logistics, not that energy density of early batteries was logarithmically worse than hydrocarbons?