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For electric cars to take off, they'll need place to charge

14 Comments
By DEE-ANN DURBIN

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14 Comments
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Hydrogen will ultimately be more efficient.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The average income of a Tesla owner is over $300,000 per year, but these well-to-do drivers are subsidized by those who earn much less, most of whom cannot afford to buy a Tesla.

The wonders of capitalism.

Too bad there is no better alternative.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Those greenies pretty much have tunnel vision. They can only see the reduction of CO2 from cars ignoring the fact that they shifted the CO2 generation to power plants, landfill from those batteries, toxic substances inside the batteries and not to mention Lithium also need mining - out of sight, out of mind?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Not mentioned is that the current production of batteries produces vast amounts of CO2, as much as a gasoline-powered car would produce after years of driving. Next, in places like Japan, were almost all electricity comes from fossil fuels, electric cars pollute more than gasoline-powered cars.

Figure the amount of fuel which must be burned to create a certain amount of electricity. 75% of that electricity is lost in transmission. Then the amount of hours one must charge a car. If you are an American driver, who commutes every day, your electric car could produce as much as 6 times the CO2 of a conventional gasoline-powered car.

But it's all the new economy. If Ford and others produce these cars, they'll be heavily subsidized by the state. They no longer have to produce cars in such a way as to earn a profit from their buyers, their profits can be coerced out of the taxpayers instead.

Every Tesla sold receives a $7500 subsidy from the federal government, and many states sweeten the pot with their own subsidies, California will toss in an additional $2500.

Elon Musk has received more than $4 billion in state subsidies for his top three green ventures, which, in the end, are no more green that conventional cars, unless you are talking about green as the color of money.

The average income of a Tesla owner is over $300,000 per year, but these well-to-do drivers are subsidized by those who earn much less, most of whom cannot afford to buy a Tesla.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

How many solar panels would it take to feed one of these cars? It could feed a battery bank while the car was gone. Obvious limitations include apartment dwellers who have one roof for a number of flats.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

To my knowledge there are no Li-Ion battery recycling plant either.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The grid will overload when that figure exceeds 20% requiring more electric power generators to be placed on line.

My guess is in most places the overload will occur long before 20%. But whenever it occurs, the lead time to build new power stations of any kind is years. Meaning when the overload is reached people will see brownouts, blackouts, rationing and soaring prices.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's one reason electric vehicles make up less than 1 percent of cars on the road.

The grid will overload when that figure exceeds 20% requiring more electric power generators to be placed on line.

At the end the big utility corporations gets the last laugh.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

this article is correct. I have had my plug in hybrid for over a year and only one time twice was I able to use, a charger. once, St the, airport where I was paying for parking. the, second a charge station where the price per hour was more than gasoline where I'm at in California, assuming the full charge range in miles compared to the gallons needed to do the, same range. I've seen charging stations but they are almost always in inconvenient areas. wither behind paid parking at a mall or some out of, the, way back lot making walking in 100 degree, weather more than too much when it is, 100 yard in heat or rain. the few stations in convenient locations in areas you don't have to pay to park, are almost always in use because there are too few. but I think having changeable batteries would, be better. gas stations could, expand to battery service centers where you pay to have your dead battery pulled and a fully charged installed, much like propane tanks for grills happens. only the cars would have to be engineered for facilitating a service man changing batteries.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How ugly Tesla Model X face was?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Tesla has a nice range calculator with temperature estimate, surprising:

https://www.tesla.com/jp/models#range-calculator

Also without the very heavy inefficient internal combustion engine and transmission you save weight for the battery, plus way more cargo space than a hybrid.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

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