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I don’t think I ever drove above 40kmh in an Indian city if I wasn’t off the expressway or whatever they are called in India. It’s the perfect solution for eve

I don’t think I ever drove above 40kmh in an Indian city if I wasn’t off the expressway or whatever they are called in India. It’s the perfect solution for everyday life. Hopefully they become pervasive and help reduce air pollution dramatically.

Gys 6y ago
I lived on a tropical island for a while where the roads were so bad, narrow and busy that speeds above 40 km/h almost never happened (there was a one km stretch on the opposite side where I could reach 50-60 if lucky). Turned out that the low speed combined with short drives (it was a smallish island) was bad for the engine: the oil never really mixed well and had to be replaced much more often than expected for such low milage.
- natchy 6y ago
  > low speed combined with short drives (it was a smallish island) was bad for the engine Low speed or low RPM?
jordanbeiber 6y ago
Where I live 50km/h is the speed limit in urban areas. In city centers it id often 40 or 30. The effects of air pollution has just begun to dawn I reckon - it is indeed a welcome solution. Also the frickin' grid is there! Transporting oil and refined gasoline around the world seems like a crazy proposition in comparison.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  I'm still surprised how hard that perspective shift seems to be for people: Everywhere there is an outlet is a potential place to charge a vehicle. (Maybe not quickly, but that's a different matter, and people greatly underestimate what you can do with a steady trickle.) Everywhere there is a street lamp or grid-powered parking meter or stop light is a place that maybe doesn't have easy to access outlets today, but potentially could quite easily. Meanwhile we've been driven to think that the incredibly complicated logistics dance of liquids being shipped and trucked all around the world to pumps is a "simple" supply chain that is easy to run and will be around forever. Gas stations run on very low margins, the supply chain is ripe for disruption (in the bad way) and we've seen in the past (for instance, the 70s oil crisis) how quickly stations and pumps will close at the slightest disruption, and how easily that can snowball. ICE range anxiety will return, the gambles right now are on when and how quickly/how bad. (My money is on "surprisingly soon" and "very quickly, a lot quicker than most people seem to think".)

Gys 6y ago

I lived on a tropical island for a while where the roads were so bad, narrow and busy that speeds above 40 km/h almost never happened (there was a one km stretch on the opposite side where I could reach 50-60 if lucky). Turned out that the low speed combined with short drives (it was a smallish island) was bad for the engine: the oil never really mixed well and had to be replaced much more often than expected for such low milage.

natchy 6y ago
> low speed combined with short drives (it was a smallish island) was bad for the engine Low speed or low RPM?

jordanbeiber 6y ago

Where I live 50km/h is the speed limit in urban areas. In city centers it id often 40 or 30. The effects of air pollution has just begun to dawn I reckon - it is indeed a welcome solution. Also the frickin' grid is there! Transporting oil and refined gasoline around the world seems like a crazy proposition in comparison.

WorldMaker 6y ago
I'm still surprised how hard that perspective shift seems to be for people: Everywhere there is an outlet is a potential place to charge a vehicle. (Maybe not quickly, but that's a different matter, and people greatly underestimate what you can do with a steady trickle.) Everywhere there is a street lamp or grid-powered parking meter or stop light is a place that maybe doesn't have easy to access outlets today, but potentially could quite easily. Meanwhile we've been driven to think that the incredibly complicated logistics dance of liquids being shipped and trucked all around the world to pumps is a "simple" supply chain that is easy to run and will be around forever. Gas stations run on very low margins, the supply chain is ripe for disruption (in the bad way) and we've seen in the past (for instance, the 70s oil crisis) how quickly stations and pumps will close at the slightest disruption, and how easily that can snowball. ICE range anxiety will return, the gambles right now are on when and how quickly/how bad. (My money is on "surprisingly soon" and "very quickly, a lot quicker than most people seem to think".)