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One of the many inconvenient truths about electric cars. We're trading dependence on oil with dependence of rare earth metals.
by jinushaun 15y ago
One of the many inconvenient truths about electric cars. We're trading dependence on oil with dependence of rare earth metals.
- knowtheory 15y agoThe two do not compare in the least. Dependence on oil has direct costs in extraction, and high potential for environmental disaster associated with it. Then, on top of that, there are ongoing costs for physical distribution of fuel, and then after all of that additional environmental consequences of using the fuel. Rare earth metals are a component that are extracted from the ground, manufactured into the structures we need for electric cars, and then put in the cars until the component wears out. So, sure, long as we need stuff, you're never going to get rid of dependence on everything. But lets have a reasonable sense of proportion here.
- po 15y agoIn other words: it's a good trade.
- bjelkeman-again 15y agoMany electric car components can be be made without resorting to "rare earth" metals, and have successfully been implemented by Tesla, for example, which supposedly doesn't use these metals at all. http://www.economist.com/node/18750574 http://www.economist.com/node/18750574
- SpacemanSpiff 15y agoAgreed. Permanent magnet synchronous motors are just one kind of traction motor. There are alternatives out there that don't require rare earth magnets. See this nice table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#Categorization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#Categorization