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I think the smaller EVs currently on the market can fill a niche in America for city commuters, but only if they're cheap, and I think you'd be stretching their

by ehnto 4y ago

I think the smaller EVs currently on the market can fill a niche in America for city commuters, but only if they're cheap, and I think you'd be stretching their limits for faster highway commuting or longer travel. The sedan sized EV is I think the smartest choice for EVs in the American market, but they're still too expensive. Plug in series hybrids might be a good stop-gap, as they're cheaper and solve some of the range and size issues current EVs have. You can have a smaller car, still capable of good speed and range, and at half to a third of the cost of an equivalent performance EV. For anyone not aware of the term, a series hybrid is an EV drivetrain that has a smaller battery and an auxiliary petrol generator onboard to fill the battery if it gets low, or you demand more power from it. At first thought, that sounds ridiculous, but we're talking about compromises to fit specialty requirements here, and in that context they make a lot of sense. (also good EV conversion potential, since all you do is upgrade the battery and ditch the petrol engine once battery prices make sense)

wongarsu 4y ago
It's not ridiculous at all, past a certain size basically all diesel vehicles are diesel-electric, meaning they run diesel engines to produce electricity to run electric motors. All diesel trains do this to avoid needing giant gearboxes, mining trucks use it to cut weight, modern ships use it to enable articulating motors. Now we are slowly reaching the point where it becomes desirable even for car-sized vehicles.
jillesvangurp 4y ago
The main reason those cheaper EVs are not widely available yet is that the more expensive vehicles are more lucrative and the whole market is supply constrained. So, most manufacturers are just churning out big expensive SUVs as fast as they can and are allocating all their battery supplies to that because they make more profit on those. As the market continues to double in size for the next few decades, inevitably, they'll start churning out cheaper/smaller/lighter vehicles as well. Basically, the market is far from saturated yet so that might take a few years. Hybrids have a role in the market for the brief period of time that battery production capacity is not large enough yet to replace them with cheaper EVs. But they are inherently more complex and costly to manufacture and drive. So, that's not going to last long.

by ehnto 4y ago

wongarsu 4y ago

It's not ridiculous at all, past a certain size basically all diesel vehicles are diesel-electric, meaning they run diesel engines to produce electricity to run electric motors. All diesel trains do this to avoid needing giant gearboxes, mining trucks use it to cut weight, modern ships use it to enable articulating motors. Now we are slowly reaching the point where it becomes desirable even for car-sized vehicles.

jillesvangurp 4y ago

The main reason those cheaper EVs are not widely available yet is that the more expensive vehicles are more lucrative and the whole market is supply constrained. So, most manufacturers are just churning out big expensive SUVs as fast as they can and are allocating all their battery supplies to that because they make more profit on those. As the market continues to double in size for the next few decades, inevitably, they'll start churning out cheaper/smaller/lighter vehicles as well. Basically, the market is far from saturated yet so that might take a few years. Hybrids have a role in the market for the brief period of time that battery production capacity is not large enough yet to replace them with cheaper EVs. But they are inherently more complex and costly to manufacture and drive. So, that's not going to last long.