In 3 days the world will change.

Which is what would really happen if electric cars become popular, you wouldn't have charging stations with people sitting around waiting 40 mins for a charge. You'd have swap and go cartridges. And those cartridges once spent, would end up bloody everywhere

 

I think it's been 3 days and I'm not feeling much changes.. My AMD chipset still isn't good enough.

 

The vehicles would charge during the day at work or at home during daylight hours. The average daily commute is 40miles while the vehicle range is 200+ miles which leaves 80% unused and available for storage. People could be paid to store the energy. Ideally the charging would be automatic and wireless using induction or with a robotic arm for plugging in. No one would even think about charging. There will also be less alternating current and more DC in the future as distributed solar power generation doesn't need to travel long distances. This eliminates the need to invert. I can also see the possibility of buying or selling energy through induction while waiting in line at a Starbucks for example. Highways could have metal stripping induction lines to charge your car while it's driving or at least maintain the charge.

 

We are in the UK, where the national grid is bursting at the seams.
The concept of solar power locally charging vehicles seems like a good idea and allows the current to remain direct.
I have always thought that induction was part of the answer, particularly in areas such as London where 90% of houses do not have off street parking, but this puts the supply back to requiring inversion. It would present a lot of problems setting transmitters in the road surface, due to many services crossing the road from a single main on the opposite side. The problems would become a nightmare when telecom cables pass over them, and affect airborne RF signals.

All these average figures are fine, but when a 14 mile trip from my home to the film studios can take more than 3 hours crawling across London with the heater full on, they are of little value.
Our police have trialed electric patrol cars, but they are useless. Fast charging 10 cars at 45kw requires half a megawatt of power, which is more than a small town consumes.

Our hybrid buses were intended to charge in the garages, but it is impossible. 8000 buses charging at 100kw, would require 800 megawatts of power. This is more than the output of a nuclear power station.

We have little concept of the enormity of the problems being faced in any attempts to convert to all electric vehicles.
Just remember that a fast vehicle charger runs at 45kw and the average household uses 6kw of power.
Already, roadside chargers have beaten the substation tap changer times and caused tens of thousands of pounds in damage to surrounding equipment.

 

Musk electric jet - Wikipedia

He's pretty impressive. Not sure how cost effective his ideas are, though. If you're going to get companies and consumers on board, you also have to make your product reasonably assessible.

 

This is a tap changer, that regulates the 415 volt secondary of a grid supply. few people even know that they exist, let alone how they work and have to be timed to prevent 'hunting'.

 

I don't think it would be as simple as "swap and go". The battery for a Tesla, for example, weighs 1,200 lbs.

 

They are just a tray of a shitload of batteries barely bigger than AA size all strung together. Wouldnt be that hard to design that tray to be swapped by a machine

But then if they did that it would be a lot easier for aftermarket companies to under sell them on what is the most expensive part in the first place

Understanding Tesla's lithium ion batteries

I dont see how this is ever going to be viable technology. Thats a crapload more of those little batteries that actually make up the cars powercell to be eventually released into the environment. Battery pack lasts for about 300,000 klms. Which is 5 to 10 years for most people, a petrol car has a certain amount of emissions in that time frame, but you arent left with the toxic waste those batteries represent

8256 of those cells in a 90kwh tesla battery.

1 billion cars in the world at the moment

If electric cars ever got close to 100% market share, the world would basically go through an extra trillion AA batteries every couple of years.

How on earth woyld that be better for the environment than internal combustion?

 

Here's a Tesla that has over 300,000 miles on it. https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-put-300-000-miles-on-a-te-1798662230

After 200,000 miles the battery pack had degraded 6%. They also lose around 0.2% per year. It's much lower maintenance than a ice car. Also, the batteries make sense to recycle. Billions of beer cans are produced every year too and most are recycled pretty easily.

 

Yeah, i call bullshit

That article you linked, it says at the end they got the range on the estimator back after the 'new battery' but doesnt say when they replaced a new battery, so 300k miles and already had to replace a new battery pack at least once.

Also comparative estimates on a Merc over 300k miles for maintenance at $86k ???

What the fuck?

Also only 6% degradation of a battery in one year, what a load of shit

Panasonic are the ones making the batteries, so somehow they sell batteries to Tesla that last 15 years, but to no one else?

That site is likely being sponsored.

And there seems to be so much bullshit surrounding Tesla, electric cars, self driving cars all across the web

 

still waiting...

 

Tesla replaced the battery for free as it was under warranty after the car had passed 200,000 miles and had only 6% degradation. The computer wasn't calibrated for such high mileage so the range estimator wasn't working. The battery didn't even need changing, but Tesla chose to change the battery instead of going through the hassle of software improvements.

 

Trump will have more leverage now as he meets with Putin and won't have to bend over backwards for Russian oil oligarchs thanks to good old fashion American innovation and manufacturing.

 

Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit

6% a year, no friggin way, otherwise those batteries would be everywhere

 

We're going to need a lot more lithium for all the batteries that will be required and we all know how environmentalists feel about mining. Let's see how everyone feels about digging up the English county of Cornwall, there's a big deposit of lithium there.

 

Arrghhh, they are not HIS ideas, he isnt the one inventing this stuff

 

His newest electric car sells for $35,000 so it's much more accessible than his earlier versions that sell for $70,000+. I'll be looking to get a used one once they really start taking off over the next few years.

 

Has the world changed drastically yet? I can't tell bein' out in the middle of nowhere & all. Haven't seen any Tesla Roadsters silently flyin' past so my guess is no

 

There are some negatives, but I think the positives outweigh them especially when compared to fossil fuels.

 

I've wondered about this. Largely because we should have our shit together by now and have eliminated the need for commuting for 3/4 of the workforce. I think we all know that you'd need enough solar panels to cover a house in order to provide a practical supply of power for the car. An electric motor has a very different torque curve, so a 20HP electric motor can feel like a 35hp automotive engine (think old volkswagen).

Unfortunately each electric horsepower requires a kilowatt of power. So a lighter vehicle, under 100 hp combustion power, 45hp electric, would need 45,000 watts of available battery power. As with combustion, an electric car doesn't have to travel with the throttle wide open for the whole ride. There's ups and downs in speed as well as complete stops and the chnce to integrate regenerative braking to catch a few watts that were destined to become heat.

There is another way to get this kind of power without the weight of scores of lithium batteries, even under your seat. They call it an RTG or RITEG and it's a way to turn heat into electricity directly using thousands of thermocouples. The RTG would require only 46 kilograms of fuel. The fuel consumes 50% of the power rating in 87 years. So you never need to stop anywhere for fuel. Drive across the Sahara or take the Old Silk Road, no problem.

But with some shrewd driving proactices the fuel could last decades into the next century. With self driving we could own cars from cradle to grave.