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https://qz.com/electric-vehicles-cleaner-battery-mining-1850129845

EVs are far cleaner than gas-powered cars — even if batteries require more mining

Fossil fuel cars emit 12 times more carbon dioxide per mile than electric ones

The global transition to renewable energy will require vast amounts of minerals. Those minerals will need to be extracted from the ground, processed into purer forms, and turned into batteries and magnets to power things like electric vehicles.

So if the battery in an electric vehicle, or EV, demands so much mining andmanufacturing, are they really so much cleaner than gas-fueled internal combustion engines?

 

https://apnews.com/article/musk-tesla-electric-vehicle-steering-wheel-c69867f4eb15bc582d956c309aeba95b

US probes Tesla Autopilot, steering wheels that can come off

 

Lightship unveils L1 electric RV trailer, capable of maintaining the full range of the EV towing it

https://electrek.co/2023/03/08/ligh...-rv-trailer-maintaining-full-range-ev-towing/

 

Miss this bloke…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoJ8t3Lotm_/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/superconducting-material-lutetium-chemical-science-b2299692.html

Researchers say they have created a superconducting material that works at both a temperature and a pressure low enough to actually use it in practical situations.

It reaches a breakthrough that scientists have been chasing for more than a century, in making a material that is able to transmit electricity without resistance, and pass magnetic fields around the material.

Its discovery could lead to power grids that are able to seamlessly transmit energy, saving up to 200 million megawatt hours that is currently lost to resistance. It could also contribute to nuclear fusion, a long-awaited process that could create unlimited power.

Other applications include high speed, hovering trains and new kinds of medical equipment, they suggest.

 

Toyoda I'll do it again
https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/14864449

 

Forklift gate

 

Ha, same as the Hino, and VW scandals. These things are irrelevant and have no substantial impact on the environment. The products are usually wide received and like by the cosumer and often perform better than the products that meet the emissions regulations.

 

I normally ignore announcements of the new break through variety. 99% of the time its for some technology that will only ever exist in the lab. But, it sounds like this company is building a factory and going into production.

 

1200hp cool

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-lucid-air-sapphire-prototype-drive-review/

 

$250k is a lot. Will some of this trickle into other tech?

 

Vietnamese EV's coming to the USA in April this year.

https://electrek.co/2023/03/27/vinfast-to-ship-longer-range-vf-8-evs-larger-vf-9-suv-to-the-us/

 

The reviews I’ve seen on those have been pretty brutal.

 

I'm old enough to remember when Japan began importing their weird little cars that were indeed junk. Inside of 10 years they were eating Detroit's lunch. Based on the complacency I see in most of the current auto makers a repeat of the late 70's is headed our way. It remains to be seen if Vinfast survives, but I wouldn't bet against them.

 

Also with the zero emissions of EV's many more foreign companies can export their cars to the USA than before when their emissions would not meet the USA requirements. Now the influx will create competition and price reductions especially as battery tech improves.

 

The volvo study was interesting since they can compare the most like-for-like vehicle. They used their *40 series SUV and compared the ICE, Hybrid, and BEV variants against a Global Energy balance, EU energy Balance, and Hypothetical Pure Renewable energy balance.
This link isn't the study itself, which I recommend reading, but it seems a reasonable place to start: https://www.carscoops.com/2021/11/v...nt-more-emissions-than-its-petrol-equivalent/

 

I like Engineering Explained version of this topic. He even tips the scales in favor of the ICE and the EV still comes out ahead.


What I haven't seen is a fair comparison of the cost of raw material extraction for ICE vs EV. This one sort of covers the topic, but I wish it were more even handed.

 

More of his math here...yeh maths!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2IKCdnzl5k

 

Yeah maths! But, he still doesn't account for all of the emissions to get a gallon of gas into a car's gas tank. It seems one sided to say it takes more emissions to make an EV and then leave out all of the emissions it takes to make the a 13K gallons of gas my Tacoma will burn in its lifetime. That said EV's are still cleaner even without the full accounting for ICE cars.