Thursday, April 20, 2023

Electric Cars: Where Are They?

Electric Car: A verhicle that carries a large mass of expensive batteries a short distance to which you must add additional massive and expensive batteries if you want to go further. 

Just back from a two-day, nineteen-hundred-kilometer road trip in my old Saab. Try that in a Telsa. 

Back in my office I am looking out over a sea of cars and trucks in the Home Depot parking lot. Not a single electric vehicle to be seen.  

Clearly, the great transition to electric vehicles ani't gonna happen any time soon. 

So what, anyhow? 

Most of the power to recharge electric cars comes from carbon-dioxide-emitting coal- or natural-gas-fired power plants. 

The only electrification of personal transportation that makes sense is of (a) short-range vehicles, such as postal delibery trucks*, city commuter cars, bicycles and scooters, and (b) hybrid vehicles with an electric drive for short trips and a gas engine for longer distance travel. 

But what about the carbon emissions from gasolene powered vehicles? No problem, just add a direct air capture (DAC) charge to gasolene and use the funds collected to do direct air carbon dioxide capture. Currently the charge would be in the order of $3.00 per litre of gas, but twith developing carbon capture technology this could fall to less than a dollar. 

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* China produces these by the million, but in Europe and North America, such low environmental impact vehicles are for some reason unavailable. 

Related:

Biden Struggles To Convince People To Buy EVs, Only 12% Seriously Considering


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