Who will come out on top with the best battery technology for cars, trucks, busses etc?
Future mobility is going electric. Energy storage density, quick charging, safety, longevity are factors to consider
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ANSWERS: 3
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Since I asked this, every major car company now is coming out with an all electric vehicle. This is huge. Much less maintenance, better performance, clean. Imagine driving by every gas station with a big smile.
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mushroom Sooner or later, you will spend time at a charging station. The biggest issue is planning: you can't call AAA and get a gallon of electrons to move you along. -
Roaring Very good point about road maintenance. Tesla does offer roadside assistence. For longer trips, they also have an app that helps you plan your trip based on the charging stations between you ande your destination. -
Linda Joy Gallon of electrons! Haha! The poor golf doesn't go far on a charge! Did you see where Tesla set a distance record: https://gizmodo.com/tesla-model-3-sets-record-distance-on-a-single-charge-1826367596 It was a manipulated track, but I think it went twice as far as the battery was rated for. And they're only going to get better. -
mushroom A VW bug with the wind on its tail and the slipstream behind a semi-trailer could do the same, or so I've been told.
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I don't really think this is a matter of brand. Eventually you will have high performance with high price and the lesser performance with a lower cost. Just like they do with the AA's. I have to ask, though, where this power is coming from to power the batteries. Where I live the power comes mostly from hydro or nuclear power, but by and large most of US electrical sources are still coming from fossil fuels. Besides the fact it takes more power to build and produces more greenhouse gasses than ICEs. Also how do you justify depleting limited resources for these batteries? I thought you were an environmentalist! Then there's the humanitarian in you. Did you know the minerals are often mined in countries where human rights are being violated? I'm on the fence with this one. Convince me.
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Roaring
Well lets see. Fossil fuels, strip mined coal, fracked natural gas, oil and their related wars and environmental damage, tar sands and their pipelines. I think you are being informed by the very lobbists that will be less and less relevant as renewable sources of energy are added to world grids, battery technology's also are renewable after initial extraction. This next fact will not be pointed out by these self serving oil lobbyists: Fossil fuel is burnt and the exhaust goes into the atmosphere, and you will need more fuel to burn, and burn and burn. Crude being extracted(some spilled into the environment) sent often half way round the world to the highest bidder via huge polluting supertankers to refineries that burn a great deal of energy to make gasoline etc. Distribution by diesel burning tanker truck after tanker truck day by day, mile after mile. Are these costs factored in to the day to day consumption that is not renewable(unless we make war and dominate the lands were the remaining sources are) How that for a summary? I'll mention the benefits in the next comment: -
Roaring
With electric powered transportation and general use, as electricity production gets cleaner and renewable, so do all electric powered devices/vehicles. Once a battery is made, it can be fully recycled and made into a new battery. As for the construction of an electric car, there is no transmission, no combustion and no exhaust pipes, no oil, no gas and no gas tank, and a much much simpler, more efficient, longer lasting brush-less electric motors that deliver immediate torque to the wheels and will generate power as the car decelerates(regenerative braking) Tesla's commitment to minimizing rare earth metals has, with Panasonic produced a longer lasting, higher capacity battery for their Model 3's and on. And their commitment to safety has their Model 3 tested with the highest 5 star safety in all tests in the history of safe crash-testing cars. This current development and the demand for these and other electric cars is already disrupting the existing infrastructure based on gas & diesel ice engines. hope this helps. ; ) -
Linda Joy
I've come to the conclusion I'll just get one used. I thought this article was fairly unbiased: https://www.dw.com/en/how-eco-friendly-are-electric-cars/a-19441437 I like that they showed the pros and cons. I think the key really is getting the electric power grid off fossil fuels concurrently. And they did point out that electric cars can act as a backup to the power grid in the evening when demand is high and many of the cars aren't being used anyway. In effect they can store energy and give it back during peak hours. Cool! Thank you for this question. I enjoyed learning with you. -
Linda Joy
I don't know if I made it clear that how the power used to charge the batteries is produced makes all the difference. If you're charging the electric cars with power made by burning fossil fuels it is just as bad as driving an ICE. -
Linda Joy
Our city buses are natural gas and they have a city wide bike program where solar panels charge the bikes. Some are power assist and some are not, but you can buy a membership and use them to zip around town. And the buses accommodate bikes as well. They put them on a rack on the front of the bus. Back in Calera there was no city bus! I remember hitchhiking 6 miles to work and back for a month when my car tore up. And later I had to limit my work to the little city of Calera because I had no car. I worked as a substitute teacher and at Hardees during the summer. I could walk to both until I got sick. If it was rainy out or I was running a little later I'd ride my bike. -
Roaring
Thanks for the link. I read the dw article you referenced and the said. so true there is a right way and a wrong way to produce electric vehicles/batteries "Yoann Le Petit, an e-mobility expert with the Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment, says there is a wrong way to go electric - and a right one. "Manufacturing an electric vehicle today is more energy-intensive than manufacturing a conventionally fueled car," he confirmed to DW. Once in use, however, electric vehicles are much cleaner and energy-efficient. In terms of the environment, the electric vehicles of today are already performing better than internal combustion engines, he points out." Tesla led by Elon Musk is miles ahead of the other e-car brands, All the practical engineering questions are being actively tackled and improved. And add home solar it gets really good. The major disruption is to the current fossil fuel energy profit structure.
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not sure
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