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Come to think of it, that's probably going to happen eventually. There's no future for internal combustion ground transportation, and eventually most of those

by elihu 3y ago

Come to think of it, that's probably going to happen eventually. There's no future for internal combustion ground transportation, and eventually most of those gas stations are going to be closed. I wouldn't be surprised if, when parts of the country begin to be unreachable by ICE vehicles because of lack of gas stations, some irate ICE truck owners block the roads in protest. It doesn't happen now because petroleum is available basically everywhere. "I had trouble locating an open gas station" is a problem that's happened to me I think once about twenty years ago, and even then we didn't have to go all that far to find an open gas station. (That I remember it at all had to do with the circumstances of the event. I was on a road trip through the deep south, and the police showed up at the second gas station and questioned us because someone apparently thought we were trying to rob the first gas station we stopped at which was closed.)

azinman2 3y ago
We have a long way to go before this happens. EVs are still a small percentage of cars, we haven’t solved long haul trucks and many already exist (and are expensive to replace), charging times prohibit many scenarios, rural areas are going to be hard pressed for chargers, and EVs don’t do well with cold which a majority of people experience with winter (not everyone is in coastal west coast).
- elihu 3y ago
  Those things can all be solved with current technology. Batteries can be insulated and heated to optimal temperatures in cold climates. There are already some roads in Sweden and Germany where trucks can charge from overhead lines while moving. One of the roads in Sweden uses rails embedded in slots in the road surface, which can be used by cars as well. The current fleet of cars will take a long time to replace, just because cars usually take a long time to wear out. I think we'll hit an inflection point soon, though, where it just doesn't make financial or practical sense to buy an ICE vehicle anymore. Infrastructure is a pretty big hold-up at this point. Battery manufacturing is also a bottleneck, but at least lithium prices have dropped quite a lot. There's nothing stopping companies from building a lot more factories for LFP cells.

by elihu 3y ago

azinman2 3y ago

We have a long way to go before this happens. EVs are still a small percentage of cars, we haven’t solved long haul trucks and many already exist (and are expensive to replace), charging times prohibit many scenarios, rural areas are going to be hard pressed for chargers, and EVs don’t do well with cold which a majority of people experience with winter (not everyone is in coastal west coast).

elihu 3y ago
Those things can all be solved with current technology. Batteries can be insulated and heated to optimal temperatures in cold climates. There are already some roads in Sweden and Germany where trucks can charge from overhead lines while moving. One of the roads in Sweden uses rails embedded in slots in the road surface, which can be used by cars as well. The current fleet of cars will take a long time to replace, just because cars usually take a long time to wear out. I think we'll hit an inflection point soon, though, where it just doesn't make financial or practical sense to buy an ICE vehicle anymore. Infrastructure is a pretty big hold-up at this point. Battery manufacturing is also a bottleneck, but at least lithium prices have dropped quite a lot. There's nothing stopping companies from building a lot more factories for LFP cells.