Recharge My Electric Car?

[Isaac]

Just the term "forced monkey labor" seems very funny to me.
Haven't we been enslaving chickens, cows, goats and practically every other animal since the beginning of time,

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I saw an article the other day about how an older EV with a worn-out battery (i.e can no longer take a charge) suddenly shows the stupidity of the whole idea. The cost to replace the rechargeable battery is now more than the Blue Book value of the whole car now that it has depreciated due to normal aging.

 

[AngelSpeaks]

Hubby shared a meme that stated anyone with an electric car must use solar or wind energy to charge it. Hypocritical if the electric company is using nuclear or fossil fuels.

 

[Pat Hartman]

You can't tell an EV owner that his car is powered by coal He thinks it is powered by Electricity. When asked where electricity comes from and how much does it cost, he is speechless.

My sister-in-law was very proud of her virtue when she bought an EV. I tried not to be cruel but I did open her eyes. She had an accident two years later. Did she buy a second EV? No

 

[Steve R.]

The other chicken that will eventually come home to roost is when the battery charge-cycles enough times to degraded and it will be very costly to dispose of it in an ecologically safe way. Most of those are lithium batteries, not lead-acid batteries, so they require a totally different disposal method. They count as "hazardous e-waste" and, in the worst case, can lead to smoldering dump fires that release toxic gasses.

And along those toxic disposal lines:

Connecticut Transit Replaces Electric Bus Fleet with Diesels Following Massive Battery Fire

Just one day after officials promoted the passage of the Connecticut Clean Air Act, CTtransit, the Connecticut Department of Transportation's bus service, has pulled its entire fleet of electric buses due to one bursting into flames. The electric vehicles have been replaced with traditional...

www.breitbart.com

"Hamden fire officials said: “Lithium ion battery fires are difficult to extinguish due to the thermal chemical process that produces great heat and continually reignites.” Two transit workers were hospitalized as a precaution after being exposed to the smoke and a firefighter was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion."

My "negative" observation, just because one vehicle (bus, car, truck, etc) goes up in smoke, should not result in an entire fleet being shutdown (as happened periodically with the US space shuttle program). Yes, we need to find-out what went wrong, but we have to keep going. One of my favorite concepts (paraphrased and re-imagined) from Heinlein comes from the story: "The Roads Must Role". My out-of-context interpretation, when faced with an impediment, keep going.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I read the comments to the article. There weren't many but all were negative on EV's for the reasons we've discussed and now including this particular danger.

I like the concept of EV's as buses because diesel buses emit noxious fumes but not if they're going to set people on fire. Does anyone remember electrified street car lines? They were all replaced with buses for the flexibility. The streetcar couldn't go anywhere that there wasn't a line. Of course, adding the overhead electric lines is a lot easier than the older trollies that ran on rails.

 

[NauticalGent]

Found this today...

Could be a spin, but what if it isn't?

 

[Steve R.]

Excellent video. It's not spin. She raises concerns that we should all be aware of. Unfortunately, those rabidly behind promoting the "green new deal" avoid the negatives and only "sell" the positive utopian outcome to the gullible. As an editorial add-on, I will reiterate my never-ending mantra, that technology in itself does not solve the adverse environmental effects resulting from meeting anthropogenic needs.

 

[NauticalGent]

I'm inclined to believe it too, but then we never really know the whole story do we? All we can do is listen to as many sides/opinions as we can and try to make an informed decision.

 

[Pat Hartman]

If she doesn't watch out, the Democrats will issue a fatwa on her How dare she tell us the real cost of an EV?

 

[NauticalGent]

She is in Iceland...she might be ok

 

[Pat Hartman]

I wonder who her sources are. It is not easy putting all this stuff together when Google manipulates search results.

 

[NauticalGent]

I hear you. From what I an tell, she is a credible source, but then she IS saying things I agree with and I WANT her to be right.

Oh well, it isn't like my belief in her is going to change anything. I haven't watched any of her financial advice videos yet but I do know she recommends silver and gold (silver more so than gold) and art over either of those.

Problem with commodities is that there has to be a market for them to have value...

 

[Steve R.]

Another "negative" electric vehicle attribute that people, including me, have; until now overlooked. Now that is addition to electric vehicles needing "clean" energy from "dirty" power plants, cold weather adversely affecting their performance, lithium battery hazards, and their dependence on rare earth minerals that tend to be both toxic and expensive.

Are electric trucks too heavy to crash test?

The IIHS has evaluated the capability of its crash-testing equipment with the expectation that an increasing number of heavy electric vehicles will need to be evaluated.

www.foxnews.com

The 200 kilowatt-hour battery in the GMC Hummer EV, for example, weighs nearly 3,000 pounds, pushing the truck's total weight to more than 9,000 pounds.

This got the folks at the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) wondering, "Are our crash test machines sturdy enough to handle it?"

Since posting, I realized that the theme of this article was from the perspective of crash testing, not from the potential damage that an electic vehicle with a massive battery pack may cause when it impacts smaller vehicles, such as Honda Civic. Additionally, this article notes:

As it turns out, the frontal structure visibly held up surprisingly well, but the load went straight into the cabin.

 

[jdraw]

I saw/heard something recently that said a fully charged EV battery system may only be about 45% of mfr specs/capacity at -10C.
I haven't seen anything technical, nor feedback from Canadian drivers, but winter here is often -10C to -30C.

 

[AccessBlaster]

It turns out electric trucks are getting very heavy, while their gas counterparts have been getting lighter over the years. Are electric trucks too heavy to crash test?

I wonder what this will do to insurance rates in the future, especially after it's mandated everywhere

 

[Pat Hartman]

What does the extra weight do to roads and bridges? Aren't they going to be negatively impacted. We just keep seeing more and more unintended consequences as we do with most "feel good" ideas. Like Socialism. They all look good on paper but they fall apart in the real world.

Someday our electric grid will be able to support more than a few Electric vehicles (looks like Switzerland is going to have to restrict charging your EV this winter. Good luck at 45% starting capacity due to the cold). Someday, our electric grid will be powered by something other than fossil fuels so that instead of driving your coal powered car and thinking how moral and good you are, we won't need to use coal to power your EV. Someday, batteries will be far more efficient and therefore smaller and lighter and take fewer scarce resources (all controlled by China because they, unlike us, think ahead and implement based on self-interest) to build. We could have cornered the market on rare earth metals but we're too nice. Let China do it. They're our friends, right? Someday, maybe it will be possible to recycle batteries without destroying our environment.

Everyone wants to do the right thing and someday technology will make it possible for the right thing to align with self-interest. At that point, the transition will be so rapid, it will make your head spin.

 

[Steve R.]

What does the extra weight do to roads and bridges? Aren't they going to be negatively impacted. We just keep seeing more and more unintended consequences as we do with most "feel good" ideas. Like Socialism. They all look good on paper but they fall apart in the real world.

Quite true. That also reminds me that tax $$$ will be required to take care of the roads and bridges. Currently those $$$ are collected at the (gas) pump, which means that those driving electric cars are currently not paying for road maintenance. (This assumes that state legislatures have not yet implemented other measures to collect money for road maintenance from those driving electric cars.)

As another possible unintended consequence; how will competition (for electricity to charge an electric car) be implmented, if at all? Currently, we have several companies providing gasoline, so they can compete on price. But electric distribution tends to be an area wide monopoly. Also, do you charge the same price for electricity whether it is used in a home or in a car?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

This Canoo "Muscle Van" reviewed by my hero Sandy Munro" It's a beauty!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Sandy Munro's YouTube channel was born out of the lockdown. With little work, and poor prospects of surviving the lockdown, Sandy reluctantly began his YouTube career.

His forthright approach, his strong opinions and his great depth of knowledge of the motor industry come to the fore often, and make for some very interesting and entertaining YouTube's. Well worth watching the "Munro Live" channel if you get 5-minutes to spare .....