EV drivers are showing up to public chargers and finding locked gates and surprise fees

[jd666]

That just makes EVs a thing for rich people. Which, while I am not going to quibble over, seems to be losing the whole point.

With average prices of vehicles sold crossing what $40k, we're all but rich. Another way to frame it is, due to lack of foresight and infrastructure it's accessible to folks with home charging / solar to offset.

 

[jd666]

High-speed rail? This isn't Europe, with everything in an area less than the size of Texas. Just how many not-metro towns do you know with rail shipping? How many Wal-Marts, Krogers, shopping centers, electrical-generating stations (other than nuclear power plants) have a rail loading dock?

And ... how much does the cost of manufacturing rails, locomotives, and cargo cars add to the "savings"?

You want to save Mother Earth? Then design, build, manufacture, and use the most efficient methods. EV, which requires major investment, major pollution, and child labor overseas, is not it.

Not sure if sarcasm or opinion, But take a peek outside the US of A and it's all out there. I would recommend the EU, China, Japan to name a few. It's unavailable in the US due to 'poor, industry influenced planning' not because of economics.

"Cost of manufacturing" - Compare what the cost to ship goods via rail vs truck is. (Around 25% less per banana unit)

What is most efficient? Burning hydrocarbons or building a storage/distribution and access infrastructure for literally free energy?

 

[cachy]

Good. EV is such a crock of sht. Anyone who drives a tesla drives 5 under speed limit to extend battery life. pisses me off. get a golf cart hippies.

That's Prius drivers. My Model Y Performance does 0-60 in 3.5s. I'm typically going 80-100mph on the highway and move over if I want to go only 70. 0 maintenance cost. No time wasted doing oil changes, transmission fluid changes, belts, spark plugs, rusted exhaust system, gaskets, coolant, fuel pump, rear end fluid, you name it and I had to change it. No brake pad change either since the regen does all the braking. I'm never going back to a gas car.

 

[cachy]

I am curious to see something that is ought to happen within this decade.
I am curious to see what happens to Teslas with 100% dead batteries.
How much will they cost, will there be ability to rebuild batteries
without making the car unattractive to someone looking for a
reliable used ride.
I mean, at some point there will be a lot of EVs that would require
a new battery making them only good as parts donors. Will
the industry learn to bring them back to life without this process
costing too much to even try.

I am aware that Tesla's batteries last long after warranty expires.
But those batteries have a time frame within most of them will fail
regardless of how reliable they are. What is going to happen to those EVs.
Even if someone keeps rebuilding them, there will be shortage of batteries
since one rebuilt battery would probably require several donors with working cells.

Battery warranty is 8y 100,000 miles. They go far beyond that. The questions you're asking also apply to gas cars. How much past 100,000 miles will the engine, transmission, and rear end last and how much does it cost to replace each?

https://recharged.com/articles/life-span-of-tesla-battery

Also, keep in mind battery technology is still improving. Whatever statistics are out there, the batteries keep getting better. Tesla just updated to 4680 tabless batteries.

 

[cachy]

Smart people buy Teslas, there are chargers literally everywhere.

I don't miss waiting in line at the gas station. I never had to wait for a supercharger. I only use them when I go out of state since 270 mile range is plenty for daily tasks.

Definitely only use Tesla superchargers. A lot of work places are installing free chargers so you can fill up while you're at work. That's what I do.

 

[Gravitytr1]

I hope to live long enough to see the great war for electric power between data center owners and EV owners. Who will win?

Ev owners are used to getting the short straw. That's just the audience category they are. So data centers win. Plus data center owners use helicopters.

 

[jbakerjonathan]

Some of us have been banging the drum of "you need infrastructure dummy" for ages now. This kind of "is it available? is it locked? Does it exist?" simply does not happen with gas stations, if one is closed or broken there's another 5 minutes away.

The fact this is STILL a problem 15+ years on, coupled with the hike in energy prices from data centers because "the grid cant handle demand" shows we well and truly were not ready for that EV 2035 mandate.

I'd like to see microreactors as a requirement for any ai server installation. Make them supply their own electricity. It can be done safely.

 

[captaincranky]

That is 9 years away. That's almost a decade to ramp up the infrastructure to support EVs. That's a pretty long time.

Yes, that is a very long time. However, the proliferation of data centers at present, may unfortunately and ultimately, render it not long enough.

 

[Au Contraire]

Europe is the same size as America.

Overlay the maps. There is a difference.

 

[Endymio]

I would recommend the EU, China, Japan to name a few. It's unavailable in the US due to 'poor, industry influenced planning' not because of economics.

Oops! Economics is indeed the primary factor here:

Population densities (per mi^2)
Belgium: 1000
Japan: 880
United Kingdom: 740
Germany: 630
China: 390
France: 320
United States: 96

 

[mbk34]

Overlay the maps. There is a difference.

You're right, Europe is slightly larger, but the difference is only about 4%.

 

[jd666]

Oops! Economics is indeed the primary factor here:

Population densities (per mi^2)
Belgium: 1000
Japan: 880
United Kingdom: 740
Germany: 630
China: 390
France: 320
United States: 96

Some folks from the 19th century that linked East to West USA might have a thing or two to share on the subject .
The overall population concentration doesn't account for the high concentration business/import/export regions that could benefit immensely.
Incidentally I was just reading about South Dakota that has an estimated population of 950,000 but invests federal funding on the interstate and other connectivity roads for a smooth access, tourism, transport of production in the state.
The same could be high speed rail or an EV infrastructure.

 

[Endymio]

Some folks from the 19th century that linked East to West USA might have a thing or two to share on the subject .

They'd share that railroads primarily connected major cities and industrial centers, while the vast majority of the rest of the nation went without.

Some statistics from 1870 (40+ years after the first US railroads) that show interesting parallels between then and the EV charging networks of today:

- There were ~6,000 trains operating in the US, of which only some 600 to 900 were in actual motion at any time.
- There were 50,000 total miles of track, little more than 1% of the total public roads the US has today.
- Those miles were split into some 400-500 independent networks: in most cases transferring between them required travel by foot or horse.
- Those rail networks operated on as many of 23 different gauges, meaning locomotives and cars built for one gauge couldn't travel on others.

It wasn't until 1886 that the US finally standardized on a single rail gauge. And while so-called "union stations" were prevalent by the 1890s, there were still many places in 1940 -- 110 years after the first US railroads -- where passengers had to manually transfer by car, bus, or foot to move from one rail network to the other.