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It's more about its Fukusima-like location, I believe. Building it on the beach was the original assinine act.
but Tsunami's are far more common on Japan
Now I’m interested in the Chevy Bolt!
Today driving into Santa Cruz I saw 4 Bolts within a few minutes of each other, those are evidently popular here.
http://patrick.net/post/1323735/2019-04-07-evs-are-cheaper-to-operate-and-much-cleaner-than-ice
I am on my third EV, it is so fun to drive I am not going back to that 20th Century ICE
The thing to consider is that solar and batteries prices are not static: they are collapsing.
And they are collapsing because there are people who buy these technologies now.
The people who buy early super expensive Teslas paid for investments that will allow one day electric vehicles to be by far cheaper than gas cars (they are simpler).
And - given that solar power prices are also collapsing - electric vehicles are going to be clearly the greenest.
So the rant above amount to conservative nay saying in the face of progress - progress from which everyone benefits.
The willing, fates guide them.
The others, they drag.
You should go test drive one and be sure to put it in "L" mode which give you one pedal driving. The acceleration and torque are awesome, but it is the regenerative braking which makes the Bolt such a blast to drive. I never use the friction brakes, I just take my foot off the accelerator and maybe hit the regen paddle on the steering wheel if I need to slow down more.
A friend of mine who is pretty well off just got done test driving the Tesla X and 3 and decided to go with the Bolt.
I guess the Model 3 is close in price until you add on all the stuff which really makes it expensive.
Suggest the EV haters test drive a Chevy Bolt, Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro or a Tesla if they can afford one.
How is it possible after all these years that GM still makes the most hideous looking cars
Why I will never switch from my EV to one of these new gas cars.
1. Range anxiety - I am used to being on 100% every morning. With a gas car, I might not have enough gas to get to work and have to waste time going to recharge it.
2. Big maintenance problem - After 100k-200k miles you have to swap or rebuild the engine. That’s $10-20k on an old car. This is crazy!
3. Risk of fire - Gas cars have ~100x the likelihood of catching fire compared to EVs. You literally have a full tank of explosive liquid right underneath your back seats. No thank you!
4. Underdeveloped charging infrastructure - Every home has a power outlet. Every AirBnb has one too. No matter how remote. With a gas car, you have to go find special charging stations instead of charging while you sleep. Sometimes, the nearest one could be 50 miles away!
5. Environmental impact - Did you know it takes about 10x as much mining and pumping to get the oil needed to fuel a gas car over its lifetime than the materials needed to build an electric battery? Insane!
6. Range issues - Did you know that if you turn on aircon, charge your devices in the car and blast the infotainment system, your gas car range can go down by 20% or more?!
7. Cost - The average gas car costs 20% more than a Tesla. It’s just too expensive for mass adoption.
You have to be a real nutcase fan boy to switch to a gas car! [socal2, Eman]
This is what I like.
Off the subject: if you guys are someday seeking an income investment which is not four walls and a roof, check out SPYI.
It's got a high yield.
He also complains that FPL doesn't pay him for the energy he produces from his vast solar panel installation on his house roof.
He's not satisfied that he pays no bill each month; he wants them to pay him some money.
I have talked to several "net zero" rooftop solar homeowners around here and unlike your Tesla bud, none have complained about not being paid by Dominion Power. Net Zero is fair, since although they supply free power to Dominion during the day, they get free power from Dominion at night.
Dominion doesn't get shit. The excess power generated gets burned off as heat at the neighborhood substation because the grid was built to push power in only one direction.
HeadSet says
Um, no. Remember, the grid is AC, not "one way."
Nice snark. I assume that you are implying the step down of a substation makes it "one way" even though you seemed to imply no house could feed PV into the grid as all houses feed directly to the local substation and thus burn off as heat. Around here, a substation feeds hundreds of houses. I will admit that my AC comment was a bit inane, but so is the idea that home PV feeding the grid is useless because the power system is "one way."
Your premise is interesting. I did not know that the power grid had this limitation. I would be curious to know what components restrict the flow of power.
Conductors, transformers and switches are not "one way". Power and current can flow through these elements in either direction.
Your premise is interesting. I did not know that the power grid had this limitation. I would be curious to know what components restrict the flow of power.
Conductors, transformers and switches are not "one way". Power and current can flow through these elements in either direction.
yawaraf says
Your premise is interesting. I did not know that the power grid had this limitation. I would be curious to know what components restrict the flow of power.
Conductors, transformers and switches are not "one way". Power and current can flow through these elements in either direction.
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/63042.pdf
Yeah, it's a bad design.
I think power systems should move to a cooperative type system.
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Electricity for much of the US and world is powered through coal, its just a switch to another equal pollutant. The batteries and materials used in EVs are full of heavy metals, not to mention that when the batteries in an EV combust they fill the air with pollutants, burning heavy metals that fire departments cant extinguish. Lastly, theres not enough data on current EVs to determine their shelf life, given the materials and amount of electronics, i imagine the shelf life of an EV will be significantly shorter than that of an ICE vehicle.
Given all of that, you will still be subject to the bitching and moaning of bugmen and babies who have never changed their oil in their life. The sheer panic that these people attempt to spread and their ever changing timeline of ecological destruction is obnoxious. These arent folks who attempt to clean up India or China(our leading polluters) but they want to concentrate on stripping you of your ability to choose.
The government is only too happy to comply too. The more that bloodsucking government can entangle themselves in transportation, the more control they have over you and your movement. The government gives companies like Tesla "Credits" that they can sell to ICE manufacturers who dont develop EVs, or dont develop them to the point that the government wants. This allows failing EV companies, like Tesla, to stay afloat even though they cant run a business efficiently. Honestly this type of behavior is more akin to a villain from an Ayn Rand novel, both with the governments overreach and with the behavior of many EV owners in general.