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Everybodies super paranoid about job loss in auto manufacture. If we all move to electric cars, the charging infrastructure is going to need to be massive. In c
by simon_000666 7y ago
Everybodies super paranoid about job loss in auto manufacture. If we all move to electric cars, the charging infrastructure is going to need to be massive. In cities, we will need chargers by every parking space and in towns/villages every house will need its own charger. The building, installation, and maintenance will be far from trivial for all these chargers. Also, battery production, car battery refit, and recycling will become industries in themselves. I'm not convinced that people are thinking about all these feeder industries that will benefit from the adoption of electric vehicles. I don't think these jobs will go away, just mutate into something else.
- Merrill 7y agoTrue, but since this is a Detroit News story, the real question is whether these will be United Auto Workers union jobs?
- draw_down 7y agoRight, something tells me manufacturers won’t miss the opportunity to get rid of unions.
- ghobs91 7y agoSame goes for solar panel/roof installation, backup battery installation, burying power lines to improve storm resilience, etc. There's no shortage of infrastructure that needs to be built to modernize our system. Trying to artificially protect jobs in one industry while there's a huge labor shortage in much more productive things like infrastructure modernization or housing construction seems like the antithesis of an efficient market.
- mr_overalls 7y agoAgreed. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, my family lived without electricity for two weeks. We depended on our gasoline-powered truck to procure food and water, transport an ailing grandmother for medical care, and generally survive. If we and others had depended on the existing electrical infrastructure to power our vehicles, we would have been completely screwed. A chaotic, uncomfortable situation would have become truly dangerous.
- dzhiurgis 7y agoOr your car could power your house for a week...
- pnutjam 7y agoIf it was hybrid, but those seem less common now. Everything is pointing towards fully electric.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- rhacker 7y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=generator+on+car+for+ac&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS765US765&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioifeGoL3kAhWyOn0KHclVBW8Q_AUIEygC&biw=1440&bih=708 https://www.google.com/search?q=generator+on+car+for+ac&rlz=... Or this kind of hybrid?
- rstuart4133 7y agoOur house uses 12kw hour per day, or 84kw hour per week. A Tesla model S has up to 100kw hour battery.
- benkuykendall 7y agoI appreciate that use of your vehicles was essential for you during the aftermath of Katrina. But I don't think emergency situations are a good enough rational for using a gasoline-powered car every day. As in many computer science problems, there are benefits from treating the worst case (e.g. medical transport after a natural disaster) and the average case (e.g. commuting to work) separately. In general, I suspect electric is better in the average case, and gasoline in the case of emergencies. We see this with household power: most people power their houses with electricity, but may use a gas backup generator. For the similar reasons, we should probably drive electric cars to work but continue using gasoline-powered ambulances.
- dzhiurgis 7y agoInfrastructure projects are heavily regulated by corrupt politicians, to the point where most of housing cost is basically regulation...
- afiori 7y agoThe amount of jobs created is partially irrelevant if the now unemployed workers do not have access to them. If you close a factory in city X and open 2 400km away in city Y people in city X strictly lost jobs.
- hwillis 7y ago> In cities, we will need chargers by every parking space There are a number of alternatives that are not nearly as onerous. EVs do not need charging every day, and few people in cities need to drive every day. If you only drive 10 miles a week you can just charge once or twice a month; I already have to move my car twice a month for street cleaning. IMO portable batteries are the most obvious solution. The lifetime-amortized cost of batteries is <20 cents per kWh, and for larger batteries with low discharge demands it's <5 cents. A small UPS-sized truck drives down your street in the afternoon, dropping off low-profile batteries underneath your car while another guy plugs them in. In the morning the batteries get picked up and taken to be recharged. In the end the infrastructure is about the same level of effort, but I think the portable vision is much easier to conceptualize. A lot of jobs would be opened for people making these charging trucks. Many more would be opened to drive and operate them, but I'm not sure auto plant workers would want that. > in towns/villages every house will need its own charger Unfortunately these jobs are not transferable to auto workers. The processes to make chargers are highly automated, unlike auto manufacturing (outside frame and component production). There will be a lot of very well paying electrician jobs opening... but that's not a profession you can just jump into, despite the number of people who try (and cause fires doing so).
- bb611 7y agoWhy would someone averaging <500 miles of driving a year need to own a car?
- baq 7y agoChildren
- thescriptkiddie 7y agoIsn't it dangerous to drive children in a car?
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoBingo, church, groceries, repeat until death or loss of driver's license is achieved.
- GarrisonPrime 7y agoThere will certainly be new jobs created by this shift, but arguably fewer than the number that will be lost. And the infrastructure needed to charge EVs largely already exists in the current electric grid. A simple adapter allows people to charge at home, and renovating current gas stations to become charging stations will be cheaper than many alternatives.