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Not only that, there are entire continents where electric vehicles are simply not feasible. You cannot drive an EV 100km through mud and forests to get to a tow
by foepys 6y ago
Not only that, there are entire continents where electric vehicles are simply not feasible. You cannot drive an EV 100km through mud and forests to get to a town just to charge it. Those EVs are not only very heavy and will sink in mud, they turn into bricks when empty. Have fun getting electricity into the jungle. A gas canister can be brought by anybody and filling the car up is quick. So most likely you will be hauling around generators - gas powered of course.
These are problems I don't see discussed anywhere when car manufacturers are claiming to go full EV by 2030.
- ajross 6y agoTo be fair: vehicle density in rural Africa or South America or wherever you're thinking of is extremely low. To first approximation all cars are in cities (because to first approximation all people are in cities), and so to first approximation all cars can be feasibly replaced with EVs. It's true there will always be edge cases best served by some other technology, but that's true about any device, not just cars.
- Already__Taken 6y agoHow many of these places drive 2021 model cars right now?
- imtringued 6y agoProbably none, and most of them can't even afford a used car with AWD. Every time I hear about Americans buying offroad cars as a status symbol I think of people in Cameroon getting stuck in the muddiest dirt roads on the planet with their Golf 3.
- tatersolid 6y agoI live in Suburban Chicago. AWD and ground clearance are not “status symbols” here: there’s a thing called snow 1/3 of the year. Our last big snow storm of the season required me to pick up my in-laws and take them to the doctor. Their BMW 5-whatever sedan couldn’t even make it out of their parking garage.
- agloeregrets 6y agoYup! Plus in the US the majority of all cars are not parked in a garage or driveway. How do those charge?
- plorkyeran 6y agoI see power cables running out to a car parked in front of a house fairly regularly.
- martyvis 6y agoIn inner Sydney suburbs with terrace houses, the 2sigma distance to your street parked car might be 100 metres. You can't run an extension cord that far
- Dylan16807 6y agoHow impractical is assigning parking spots?
- rswail 6y agoThe government/local councils seem to be able to work out how to power the parking meters. There's no reason why each parking spot couldn't have a charging pole installed with smartcard or NFC via mobile app registration and payment. There are plenty of solutions, what's needed is the will of government to deploy those solutions.
- bananabreakfast 6y agoChargers are installed in parking lots everywhere. Just because you haven't noticed them doesn't mean they aren't there.
- tommoor 6y ago> in the US the majority of all cars are not parked in a garage or driveway. Source? That seems highly unlikely
- 6y ago
- kingsuper20 6y agoIt would be interesting to see an EV design that's appropriate for the Third World.
- bananabreakfast 6y agoThat's probably because car manufacturers are not making electric cars to traverse the jungle. That is an extremely niche use case compared to the global car driving population and a straw-man argument.
- emkoemko 6y agoelectric car drove on the moon we are fine... give enough time and people in jungles will be using electric eventually, hydrogen or battery
- emkoemko 6y agowell you could go to town and get a tank of hydrogen and fill up your tank and go? seriously we drove a electric car on the moon and your telling me we can't figure out how to drive in remote places?
- foepys 6y agoHydrogen transport is actually quite complicated. There are many villages where you buy gas in cola bottles, so I wouldn't bet on hydrogen to be available, even in 20 years. Gas powered generators will be more likely. > seriously we drove a electric car on the moon How else would you drive on the moon? ICE needs oxygen for combustion.
- emkoemko 6y agotake your hydrogen tank with you.... plus you can generate hydrogen anywhere using solar power. using a ICE engineered for low gravity? with your own supply of oxygen?
- foepys 6y agoI think you underestimate the amount of pressure hydrogen tanks are under. You need pretty large solar panels to power the compressor alone. So large that you can better charge a battery over a day or two. Why engineer a new kind of ICE when electric engines and batteries are already ready to go as they are both needed for the flight to the moon? Also, you don't want explosions in space. Especially not when supplied with oxygen tanks.
- rswail 6y ago>Have fun getting electricity into the jungle. There is already generators there, solar power and batteries will replace that. But people in the jungle either don't drive, or there is a river with boats. Is a small electric motor boat that much different to one running on petrol?