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"The likelihood that 150, 160 markets in a very short period of time—and one decade is a very short period of time—will converge fully into one drivetrain is hi
by ploden 6y ago
"The likelihood that 150, 160 markets in a very short period of time—and one decade is a very short period of time—will converge fully into one drivetrain is highly unlikely." - BMW AG CEO Oliver Zipse
Spoken like a true dinosaur.
- threeseed 6y agoHe’s 100% right though. People who are buying EVs right now are classic early adopters: Western, middle to upper class, willing to overlook inadequate charging infrastructure and good but not great range. To get the other 90% to move is going to require governments spending billions in infrastructure. Which is challenging when most are running large deficits and at every turn are up against a powerful coalition of oil and gas interests. Not to mention the myriad of logistical and technical challenges eg. can grids support EVs.
- atonse 6y agoYou’re absolutely right but this statement is largely true of the west. Meanwhile, cities in China have electrified their multi hundred thousand strong bus fleets and have built the infrastructure to cope. Sadly we in the West have just lost that hunger for big projects.
- rsynnott 6y agoLots of bus systems are being electrified in Europe.
- adamcstephens 6y agoIt’s not just hunger, but it’s ability to execute at reasonable costs.
- threeseed 6y agoI don’t understand what buses have to do with anything. They are the easiest segment of transport to electrify i.e. fixed routes, handful of depots all in industrial locations. I’m more interested in how you bring EVs to the edge cases of society eg. rural areas of Indonesia, sparse land masses like Australia/Africa and the developing world. Because that’s hard and constantly overlooked in people’s timeframes.
- atonse 6y agoRight, you say it's easy. How many buses have we electrified in our cities in the US? I bet every city has 5 buses they've painted green with "ELECTRIC!!!!" on them, to show they're doing something. But nothing of substance.
- bradgranath 6y agoKing County Metro in WA is mostly electric and has been so for 50 years.
- kuschku 6y agoThe state I'm originally from switched all previous diesel trains to electric today, and is switching most busses to electric by the end of next year. Additionally, over the past year, availability of FTTH with symmetric gigabit connections was increased from below 1% to 53% of the state, with the goal to reach >98% by the end of the year. Over 38% of the state already have switched ISPs accordingly. This is also necessary to get >98% LTE coverage by area. Big infrastructure projects are still possible :)
- theshrike79 6y ago> People who are buying EVs right now are classic early adopters: Western, middle to upper class, willing to overlook inadequate charging infrastructure and good but not great range. Yeaaa, but: "China is both the largest manufacturer and buyer of electric vehicles in the world, accounting for more than half of all electric cars made and sold in the world in 2018. China also makes 99% of the world's electric buses"[1] Technically China is west of the United States =) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_industry_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_industry_in_C...