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As an owner of a pure electric car (and a home renter) for more than 5 years, I logged in specifically to respond to this. In 5 years, our Leaf has needed new
by 1053r 10y ago
As an owner of a pure electric car (and a home renter) for more than 5 years, I logged in specifically to respond to this.
In 5 years, our Leaf has needed new tires, brake fluid, and... windshield wiper fluid and blades. We didn't need any new infrastructure. We plug it into a normal outlet at night, and it's full every morning. We've been taking the money we save on not doing transmission fluid and clutches and oil changes, and all of that stuff and put it in a savings account. In another 3 years, we'll need a new battery, but by then, it will probably be twice the capacity of the old one. (Nissan has discontinued the 24Kwhr battery, so fingers crossed, we'll get a 40KWhr battery when the time comes).
From a more global perspective, even here in Northern California, electricity is very inexpensive at night, because of all the spare generator capacity. Practically everyone can plug in their car at night, and with nothing more sophisticated than a $10 outlet timer, fuel up the fleet no problem.
Will every car be electric in 2040? Probably not, because cars last a long time. But I'll bet there will be very few gas cars sold by then. Battery prices are falling over 7% a year, and that's the most expensive part of an EV.
- pasbesoin 10y agoExactly. Experts have been describing for some time that, especially down the curve, maintenance costs for electric cars will be substantially less and lifetimes (less untolerated obsolescence) longer. Switch to composite construction and other corrosion resistant materials, and... Another reason not to let DRM dominate this emerging market; so that we are not faced with profit-driven forced obsolescence.
- babyrainbow 10y ago>especially down the curve, maintenance costs for electric cars will be substantially less and lifetimes... There was a time when the maintenance cost of cars (traditional) were little. Things changed because now things are made to fail after sometime aka planned obsolescence. Do you think electric car companies will be different?
- jessaustin 10y agoDid you ever own such a car? Did you find the regular tuneups (points, plugs, distributor, vacuum, etc...) to constitute "little maintenance"?
- babyrainbow 10y ago>Did you ever own such a car? I did. It did't require "regular tuneups". You pour petrol and plain tap water for coolant in the radiator and the thing just goes...When it get stuck, you open the hood and take a peek, pull some wires, adjust some plugs and it goes again... I don't recall any really expensive repair work in the 15 years that we owned that car.
- bsder 10y ago> There was a time when the maintenance cost of cars (traditional) were little. And those same engines had no power. If you want a Model T engine, it's really uncomplicated. You just won't be able to drive on any modern highway.
- feadog 10y agoPractically everyone can plug in their car at night, and with nothing more sophisticated than a $10 outlet timer, fuel up the fleet no problem. Even that expense should disappear. My Fiat 500e lets me set a timer to start its charge.
- ZeroGravitas 10y agoAnd then the next step is to talk to the grid in realtime and soak up any excess wind energy when demand is otherwise low and pause charge if there's a sudden spike in demand and get a discount from the utility company for helping them out. This is already built into some chargers, but should be standard in cars in future.
- babyrainbow 10y ago> Electricity is very inexpensive at night, because of all the spare generator capacity... What do you think will happen (to the the electricity charges at night) if every one does that?
- jessaustin 10y agoPersonally I hope demand will rise enough to make the stupid oppressive darkness-destroying asinine "security lights" the damnpowercompany constantly pushes much less affordable. It seems unlikely that demand will rise to daytime and early evening levels, however.
- babyrainbow 10y agoI can't make sense of your comment. Can you please clarify a bit?
- jessaustin 10y agoI don't like the subsidized outdoor security lights that only exist to increase demand for nighttime power. I hope that nighttime demand will increase so that those lights will no longer be economical. I look forward to actual darkness in rural areas as a result.