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The internal combustion engine was developed at about the same time as the electric car. Battery swapping already existed in the very late 1800s. The oil and ga
by Schiendelman 5y ago
The internal combustion engine was developed at about the same time as the electric car. Battery swapping already existed in the very late 1800s. The oil and gas industry delayed real research and development of electric vehicles for 100 years.
Cities would have become even cleaner, much faster, if not for that industry.
- gumby 5y ago> The oil and gas industry delayed real research and development of electric vehicles for 100 years. Do you mean proactively somehow (as with GM and some trollycars)? I find that hard to believe and would love to learn more. If you mean their very existence reduced incentives, well ok, but that’s simply path dependency and is the way life works. There were other pressures on battery improvement (portability: schlepping a heavy box of protons around is a lot of work!) so I have a hard time blaming the oil and gas industry for that. But as I said I’d like to learn more, if that were the case.
- Schiendelman 5y agoYes! I don’t have a link handy, but they patented battery technology and kept it off the market, including buying companies that could have become competitive.