Clearances

[dukealien]

Clearances

Electric cars burn fiercely
shipboard and on land–
dealers wish more would.

[Tiger the Lion]

Clearances

Electric cars burn fiercely
shipboard and on land–
dealers wish more would.

Not an expert on the subject. But I have no interest in going electric. At least not until electric airlines, electric cargo ships and electric snowplows are commonplace. Sad that it's yet another divisive political issue. We'll never see any Dem or a Rep waving from a brand new "Air Force E-1 chopper" on its inaugural flight.

[CRNDLSM]

I'm over here thinking I could thrive with a horse for transportation, reading of the thousands of gallons of horse urine and manure in the cities at their peak...

[busker]

Electric cars burn
rarely, you’ll learn,
and ICE cars burn more,
since the days of Jerome Kern.

[dukealien]

Electric cars burn
rarely, you’ll learn,
and ICE cars burn more,
since the days of Jerome Kern.

Clever, though I had to look up the Jerome Kern reference (d.1945)..."Smoke Gets In Your Eyes?"

So far, electrics burn less frequently  because there are so few... but they do burn very fiercely.  Perhaps this can be solved with batteries based on iron rather than lithium... which would also fix the conflict-metals aspect.

Seriously, though, the reason electrics don't sell (especially used, which is another dark cloud on their horizon) is that they aren't exactly cars, consequently a niche market.  They're several sigmas above the automobile mainstream for acceleration and eco-compliance (if charged from nuclear), but against that they're  off the scale for repair and insurance cost (fragility), "fueling" time, and range insecurity.  They also have a no-chicken-no-egg problem with charging stations:  until there are more electrics on the hoof, no one will create charging stations for them... and until there are adequate charging facilities, sensible people won't buy electrics.  Government trying to pry that dilemma open works about as well as other government interventions in markets.

As for simply outlawing ICE vehicles, well, there's already one mainland China.  No need to create another.

Personally, I drive a hybrid - definitely the best car I've owned.  It participates moderately in the acceleration and eco-compliance advantages without the disadvantages, for a reasonable bump in initial cost.  Electrics are the Schlieffen Plan:  it can't work, but it HAS to work, so we'll pretend it will work and ignore evidence to the contrary.  Of such are tragedies made.  And smoke *does* get in your eyes.  Jerome Kern died on Armistice Day, 1945.

[rayheinrich]

I'm an electric car proponent even though I don't own one and don't plan
on buying one because I have a reliable 1999 Toyota Sienna which I love dearly.
(It was made back when Toyota made reliable cars.) Two other reasons
I don't plan on buying one are I don't have enough money and I drive
about 2,000 miles a year. Since you need to drive about 16,000 miles
before an electric car becomes carbon neutral, that would take me
eight years so I wouldn't be doing the environment any favors.

My sister has an electric car, a Tesla Model Y. I've driven it around and it
pretty much feels like driving any other car, there's really nothing people
have to get used to. She lives in California with high electric rates so her
savings over buying gasoline are about 15%. Since I live in Texas I'd save
about 40% if I charged from home and not from the charging stations
which can get kind of pricey. If you have a Tesla and live near a large
urban center there are plenty of charging stations as well as ones along
all the major interstates so that really isn't a problem. If Tesla opens up its
charging stations to other manufacturers, then it won't be a problem for
others as well.

In the foreseeable future there are always going to be use cases for
gas cars. If I lived in a rural area i.e. Montana or somewhere like
that, it definitely wouldn't make sense to have an electric car. I see the
main problem with electric cars at the moment is price. A transition isn't
possible until the price comes down. BYD and Nio are going to be the
first to have really inexpensive ones and then Tesla when it gets its next-gen
car into mass production. In an Ideal World we would reduce CO2 emissions
by using mass transit and bicycles (Denmark is really cool that way) and
giving up cars altogether. And in an Ideal World domestic cats wouldn't have
sharp claws; but here I sit with blood dripping down my leg and staining my socks.