Battery Powered Electric Vehicles are not the future
However, that is not to say that electric vehicles are not the future.
Electric powered vehicles have tons of advantages:
- Fewer moving parts, and no reciprocating parts.
- Doesn't waste fuel just sitting their idling.
- Regenerative breaking. Doesn't waste energy every time it stops.
- Far better traction control
- Very quiet.
However, the battery powered electric vehicle has drawbacks that are not able to be overcome.
- Lithium and Cobalt mining. So dirty, it most assuredly doesn't happen here.
- Copper is already really expensive
- To meet any of the goals that "green" politicians have put forward, we would have to double and triple our mining output in a short amount of time. Something that has never been done.
- The electric grid is at its limits. A hot day in California has the electric grid shutting down. A cold day in Texas does the same. Nor do we have the fuel supply to build more power plants.
- We are adding 1,000 lbs (453kg) to each battery powered electric car. This decreases fuel efficiency and makes accidents worse. Going the exact opposite direction of making more fuel efficient car.
- Batteries are BAD in an accident. If that potential gets in contact with the metal body, and a tow guy touches it, dead tow guy. If the batteries catch on fire, you really cannot put it out.
Battery Powered Electric Vehicles.
Until batteries get 10x better (lighter, tougher, able to hold more charge, be charged faster) battery powered electric vehicles are only a niche case application. Around city, short excursion, stop and go traffic. Anything other than this, and it is a poor replacement for an ICE vehicle.
Further, the vaunted Tesla is only viable because we have 3rd world children killing themselves to mine the cobalt and lithium for their cars. The Tesla also has huge govern-cement kickbacks helping cover the cost. If we actually put all the costs (all the pollution from mining, all the diesel burned in all that equipment... ) it is estimated that each Tesla may be $1,000,000 each.
So much for the "green-ness" of battery powered electric vehicles. Each one has produced more pollution by the time it hits the showroom floor, than an ICE will produce over its lifetime.
The reality just does not match the hype.
So, why is so much hype being pushed on these things?
Diesel Powered Electric Vehicles.
I am not quite speaking about hybrids, but they could get better, and then be included.
The hybrid uses an ICE (internal combustion engine) because we have developed those such that they can handle differences in torque and speed. "Just stepping on the gas" is a really complex thing that took decades to get to work well, and reliably.
However, if we can run an ICE at specific RPMs with specific inputs, it can be sized to match the power need, and not have any excess/wasted power that comes with your typical vehicle engine. So, the engine can be exactly sized to the overall power needed without waste.
An example, a big V8 is great in a sporty car, because you have lots of power off the line. However, most of that power isn't needed for freeway cruising speeds. Cadillac worked on a V8 that turned off half of its cylinders while freeway cruising. (but, it still had all that extra metal being lugged along). So, we really only need a 3 cylinder engine (to match a V8) to power a vehicle over its commute. We just need to store the excess power so the driver can stomp the "gas" at the stop light.
Further, we can use engines that are not good at changing speeds / torques. Like turbine engines. Turbines are very efficient because they just spin. No reciprocating action. No back and forth. No explosions, but a smooth burn.
We may even see the Tesla Turbine being used.
Tesla boasted a 10 HP per pound output for this thing. Which is really amazing. You know, that 500 HP Mustang engine that weighs a ton... it could be 50 lbs. You know, almost light enough to put under your arm...😝
The problem with it is that it doesn't do well varying in speed/torque. Further, it likes to spin at high RPMS, like 10,000+, and thus makes gearing really, really hard.
But, if we attached it to a genset, we would have the electricity we need to power our vehicle. We do not have to worry about gear boxes and power trains and all the things that makes high RPMs such a pain.
Edison motors is doing this with log hauling trucks in Canada.
https://www.edisonmotors.ca/
energy from a box, for free...
And of course we might create a box that generates electricity all on its own. When we do that, of course we will have electric vehicles everywhere.
We will be replacing internal combustion engines as fast as we can knock out these boxes. At that point it will be a no brainer. Keep wasting fuel, or put one of these things in your car, and it just goes.
Of course, if this box uses silver, the price of silver is going to go sky high.
Right now it is science fiction, but there are too many experiments that are showing that we will soon have flying cars.