It's not the Tesla Wall, which, frankly, is moronic, because it is built on old technology. Technology that uses the wrong kind of batteries.
No the killer app for electric cars is ridding them of opportunity cost, i.e. time to recharge and availability. I'm not going to spend more money on a car that is less convenient and more hassle than my current vehicle is. Cars now, for better or worse, have a fantastic infrastructure built out over nearly a hundred years to ensure we can all get to where we want, when we want and on our terms.
Electric cars built on current electricity distribution models, i.e. point source generation carried over copper wires, will never work as consumer vehicles because of their opportunity costs as practical modes of transportation. It's too inefficient to charge batteries over copper wires no matter how big you make them and how efficient you make the transfer.
But, here's the good news for electric cars...
Researchers at Purdue University may have found a work-around that makes recharging your electric car as inconvenient as gassing up one sporting an internal combustion engine.
It's called a flow-battery, which is one in which the electrolyte solution flows on either side of a membrane which continually recharges the cell. Better than standard rechargeable cells, but still has the problem of the membrane gumming up over time and reducing the efficiency of the cell.
But, what these guys have figured out is how to remove the membrane and allow the immiscibility of the two solutions to act as the charge-transfer membrane.
Now, that's freaking cool, especially to this former electrochemist.
But, what's really cool is the implication. Instead of sitting at a recharging station pushing electrons back into the solutions to 'fill-up,' you just replace the spent electrolytic solutions with charged solutions.
... and drive away.
Now, that's an electric car system I would buy.
The solutions can be recharged via renewables as off-peak demand and by the grid during peak demand... all they have to to, unfortunately, is compete with a falling price of oil because, as I pointed out in an earlier post, oil is going to be cheap for the foreseeable future.
https://steemit.com/science/@goldgoatsnguns/co2-as-fuel-new-cheap-catalyst-developed
Still, it's a great idea and one that has a chance at developing into something smart. It certainly has a place in future space exploration.
