EV news. Hybrid News. A Path Forward.

Sounds like an opportunity for tech schools and startups and a hiring surge upcoming for EV's. Jobs to build charging infrastructure etc.

 

We will see solid state batteries before this but interesting.

 

More pertinent questions.....

What is the typical highway range?
How long to recharge fully depleted pack?
Performance at temperature, between 0F-32F, below 0F.
Battery pack life?
Cost to replace battery pack?
Cargo capacity?
Towing capacity?
Distance between charge stations?

 

for the lazy:

"The Cambridge Crude liquid electric vehicle fuel makes it possible to reduce the size and cost of producing an overall battery system. The new system design is also ten times more efficient than lithium-ion batteries.

The research team believes that the liquid fuel design could reduce infrastructure development needs by half, since existing pump and pipeline infrastructure could be used to transfer the fuel. They argue that the technology could make electric vehicles fully competitive with gasoline and diesel powered vehicles."

 

Everyone in here arguing about 15 years in the future, while using 5 year old technology as the basis for why it won't work. The whole idea is that manufacturing process improves, technology advances, we find better and cleaner ways to produce the products that will allow us to move away from gas/oil/coal.

The US should be investing everything it has into the engineering and concepts that don't exist yet, this is how we stay ahead of the world (china) when it comes to technology, and meet standards that might leave us with a little clean water and fresh air. Trying to predict the technology that exits in 2035 (which is what GM is aiming for) as the reason this will fail is stupid. Go back to 2000 and tell everyone they will have a mini computer in their pocket that they will spend 4-6 hours every day using. You'd get put in the loony bin.

 

If I was making sure my car company is ready for the post-fossil fuel world or heck even my country, I'd probably drum up as much hype as possible that gets people to pay for my R&D for stepping stone versions of what could keep my company / nation current. Greenhouse gasses have been useful as many people have posited we make most of our electricity with carbon emitting methods.

 

Cool Liquid Electricity......


A bit like Liquid Schwartz.

 

Bingo you win the big prize!

 

Imagine slot car rail style recharging (like on the freeway in the middle lanes?).

And more importantly/more likely service stations that change your batteries

 

You do realize that biofuels have there own sets of problems?

 

And folks complain about the cost of a gallon of gas now.

 

Exactly, if i can wirelessly charge my phone without plugging it in, how can that be built into a road system? There are solutions out there, just need to do the R&D to figure out which ones are viable.

 

I still have those dilithium crystals for sale.

 

Not to be a grump, but there's a chance with less potential energy at our disposal after fossil fuels we may have to move less metal. A big scifi fan I'm looking forward to new advancements in technology just the same.

 

This, this, this. Everybody comes home a 5:30 and plugs in their vehicles. One of two things happens, power on the grid will get throttled down to manageable levels (and your car won't charge overnight to take you to work in the morning), or the grid catches fire and CA burns again. No way is the grid ready for this. Nor does it offset the emissions of power plants used to recharge these vehicles at a relatively high percentage of power loss over the distance of the power lines or to convert it from AC to DC. I guess I could be misunderstanding how these things work though.

Not to mention recharge times are still abysmal, the material resources still need to be found and mined, and service/ recycling/ manufacturing facilities to create these batteries in really doesn't exist yet... but let's commit to a 20% solution.

 

The power loss from inductive charging is around 25%. Not really feasible with current technology.

 

You can make biofuels out of garbage and waste water treatment extract.... we think of waste incorrectly.

Systems are built on profit margins and not efficiency. To squeeze more profit they become more efficient.

If you think of energy the same way that capitalism thinks of profit you start seeing how to make things more efficient and see where to squeeze. It’s an entire paradigm shift....

 

We're at the limit of known physics at this point. Unless materials science steps up to create something that operates far more efficiently at every state of energy consumption and transfer, we're kind of stuck in the same place we have been for a decade or so.

I'm not saying it won't happen, just that like you said, we can't really guess as to what the solution will be. Setting goals is good for improvement though.

Also, I'd have believed you about the mini computers in 2000.

 

Smart metering is already a thing, you opt in to your car charger charging overnight when the grid has additional capacity, or you pay more for your electricity to charge it immediately.

The electric grid will need substantial upgrades, but this is already being worked into utility plans. Electric utilities are already going away from large coal/oil plants, which means decentralized electric generation, instead of a few large plants located in a state, you have multiple smaller scale plants, which reduces the losses you see in transmission over long distances.

If you dont set a goal (your 20% solution) then there will never be any progress made until we are in crisis mode with dwindling fuel supplies, the market needs to be encouraged to innovate, and this is one of the most effective ways.

 

For sure. I think smart metering is an absolute must. However, the ratio of EV to non-EV is massive still. With less than 4 EV in each neighborhood, you're only competing with water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners, ovens, and fridges. I'm not saying it can't be overcome, but it's a bigger hurdle than people want to believe.