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They could've worked in cities. Lead-acid batteries, though, have never had the energy/weight ratio necessary for the type of long-range driving necessary outsi
by Causality1 7y ago
They could've worked in cities. Lead-acid batteries, though, have never had the energy/weight ratio necessary for the type of long-range driving necessary outside of highly urbanized areas.
- jacquesm 7y agoLikely if the fossil fuel bonanza had not happened there would have been more interest in improving battery chemistry.
- Something1234 7y agoI would say that fossil fuels are very important for a lot of our battery technology. I believe that a large number of important chemicals and materials like plastics are derived from oil.
- jacquesm 7y agoThey are important, but not as important as they are to transportation. The quantities of oil required for fuel production dwarf the quantities required for plastics and other important chemicals. It's still a sizeable amount but not even close to what gets burned every day. It's just that fossil oil is - relatively speaking - very cheap compared to other sources.
- bmurphy1976 7y agoOr more public transportation.
- soperj 7y agoAnd we would have all been better off. Cities would have been much more livable, and walkable, and people could commute by train/plane.
- Causality1 7y agoMore livable for the urbanites. Everybody else, like my relatives who still live on dirt roads, can go screw themselves apparently.
- Gibbon1 7y agoI think people tend to forget that before 1900-1940 if you were outside of the city; no electricity.
- qroshan 7y agoand of course charging times, cold weather performance, real range (it's funny how advertising pamphlets are taken on face value as facts)
- munk-a 7y agoNot everyone has always had access to everything... internet in rural districts used to be rare as well. I don't think you can really make any sort of meaningful conclusion from this - rural areas tend to lag in this sort of innovation.
- Gibbon1 7y agoTwo of my great grandfathers bought cars around 1915. One owned a plantation outside of Memphis. And the other a ranch in California. They didn't have electricity. Not developed by my comment is in 1920 you didn't 'need' a car in cities. Since you had street cars. In rural/small town America cars were really useful but electric cars were a non starter.