4 ms·

I like the detail that went into your reply, but it would be a lot better (and less downvoted) if you removed the vitrol.

• godelski 7y ago
  It would also be nice if they responded to my actual point. Which was the state of technology over a hundred years ago. Using bad lead acid batteries vs poor efficiency petrol engines. The petrol was just way ahead at the time.
  • jessriedel 7y ago
    Agreed.
    • hwillis 7y ago
      I had another comment focused more on the historical state: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182159 The tl;dr is that market forces led to early electric cars being slow and expensive- they were luxury vehicles primarily targeted at women, because they didn't have to be manually started. The cost was about equal before the model T, and speed could have been equal without any design compromises. The cost of fuel was also about equal. The main reasons they weren't adopted was the lack of charging at home and secondarily the lack of good speed control. Not a big issue at low power, but once you can hit 40+ mph it's cumbersome and dangerous to be throwing switches to accelerate.
  • hwillis 7y ago
    That wasn't the part that I had any complaints about, although it's not the real reason electric cars didn't win: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182159