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1. Electric motors are cheaper to maintain. Railroads worldwide know this. ( random article: http://www.american-rails.com/support-files/locomotive_operating_co

1. Electric motors are cheaper to maintain. Railroads worldwide know this. ( random article: http://www.american-rails.com/support-files/locomotive_operating_costs_comparison.pdf http://www.american-rails.com/support-files/locomotive_opera... ) 2. Not correct - OP is pointing to current Priuses that have exceptionally long lived batteries "Current estimates for the lifetime today’s electric vehicles are over 500,000 miles." and "But today there are anecdotal stories of Prius’s logging over 600,000 miles on a single battery." 3a. Maybe there is sentimental value to a Mustang... but that crappy car with headliner coming down? .. no.. 3b. Utility as in always available, possibly. However consider just the case of a family going from 2-3 cars to a single car. (Which is what my family has done) That alone could halve the number of cars purchased. Not smug -- futurist is predicting future.

nnfy 9y ago
1. Electric motors are easier to repair than bus sized diesel engines in trains- not the best comparison to motors and engines that have to be shrunk down and crammed into the family sedan. I'll bet the maintnence savings margin is smaller if not gone. 2. The point is it is too early to estimate batter life with such certainty based on current battery output. Would you buy a Prius with 300,000 miles on it today? I think its a little too early to make that bet before we have regular examples of EVs lasting that long. 3. Even your example shows that there will still be demand for fossil fuelled vehicles. Point again: are ICVs going to go extinct? Most likely. Are we going to stop using oil to fuel vehicles in EIGHT YEARS? only if you're a smug Prius driver ;).
- pm24601 9y ago
  1. If anything, smaller electric motors have an even larger advantage. Smallest ICE v. smallest electrical motor? Small ICEs have a problem with being too cold. 2. "Would you buy a Prius with 300,000 miles on it today?" - sure if its body/frame is good shape. There is no inherit life span to a machine when its parts can be replaced. 3. "still be demand for fossil fuelled vehicles" - The doubt is about "big oil" to survive with the current cost structure. Yes I bet "little oil" will have a role as a specialized fuel. In Manhattan and San Francisco, it is harder and harder to find a gas station - the land is too valuable to waste on a toxic/dangerous land use. Electric charging stations don't have the same problem that gas stations have. I can easily see a situation where owning a ICS vehicle in major cities means having to get personal fuel deliveries (if you are rich) or having to drive outside of the town to refuel (time consuming)

nnfy 9y ago

1. Electric motors are easier to repair than bus sized diesel engines in trains- not the best comparison to motors and engines that have to be shrunk down and crammed into the family sedan. I'll bet the maintnence savings margin is smaller if not gone. 2. The point is it is too early to estimate batter life with such certainty based on current battery output. Would you buy a Prius with 300,000 miles on it today? I think its a little too early to make that bet before we have regular examples of EVs lasting that long. 3. Even your example shows that there will still be demand for fossil fuelled vehicles. Point again: are ICVs going to go extinct? Most likely. Are we going to stop using oil to fuel vehicles in EIGHT YEARS? only if you're a smug Prius driver ;).

pm24601 9y ago
1. If anything, smaller electric motors have an even larger advantage. Smallest ICE v. smallest electrical motor? Small ICEs have a problem with being too cold. 2. "Would you buy a Prius with 300,000 miles on it today?" - sure if its body/frame is good shape. There is no inherit life span to a machine when its parts can be replaced. 3. "still be demand for fossil fuelled vehicles" - The doubt is about "big oil" to survive with the current cost structure. Yes I bet "little oil" will have a role as a specialized fuel. In Manhattan and San Francisco, it is harder and harder to find a gas station - the land is too valuable to waste on a toxic/dangerous land use. Electric charging stations don't have the same problem that gas stations have. I can easily see a situation where owning a ICS vehicle in major cities means having to get personal fuel deliveries (if you are rich) or having to drive outside of the town to refuel (time consuming)