The Breakroom > The Water Cooler

Ban of sales of IC engined cars to support electric cars by 2040

<< < (6/11) > >>

vtsteam:
Trying to filter my comments away from the political and toward a physical/mechanical discussion because I think the thread can be of value.

I totally agree that both the supply/transmission side and the storage side problems argue against pure electrically driven transportation. And on the other hand air pollution and fossil carbon injection into the atmosphere are real issues.

I think the LED is a good example of a solution to those issues which is outside the "best fuel" box. It simply reduces the need for energy by a big factor, rather than promotes energy production.

If thought was given to reducing energy used in transportation by a similarly big factor, then the pollution and carbon emission (and consumer cost) problems are greatly impacted.

awemawson:
In the UK practically every small town, every city, and many villages were connected by a rail network. Each station had a 'goods yard' and the major part of transport of most goods was rail, with only the 'last leg' on roads.

It saddens me that the branch lines were swept away in the name of 'progress' - yes the network was very run down after the privations of WW2 but a more enlightened view would have been to retain at least the 'permanent way' to enable more efficient trains of the future to use. Whereas most are now gobbled up by housing developments, supermarkets with the occasional 'preserved' heritage line run by volunteers.

A very big 'missed opportunity' in my opinion.

vtsteam:
Hybrid vehicles are an approach that, to me, at least makes sense. If energy storage requirements can be minimized or even eliminated, I think electric motors at least, are a good idea. And if IC engines can be reduced in size, and increased in efficiency, as in hybrids, that's a good thing, too.

But thinking larger, about how vehicles are used.....probably 80% of my driving does not use a fraction of the capacity of the vehicle I own -- a pickup truck. To buy anything at all in rural Vermont, I need to drive 5 miles to town and 5 miles back on mountain roads. Do I need to move nearly 2 tons of vehicle 10 miles over hills to do that? Yet when I need to pick up concrete or tow a trailer, yes I do need most of the capacity of that truck.

We do own two vehicles, a compact fuel efficient car, and the truck, but often the smaller vehicle is busy running errands, so the truck gets used inefficiently.

So what are possible solutions to that? Get a third car? It's too expensive, takes too much space, etc. Motorcycle? Not in Vermont winters, no.

Outside the box, if instead of owning a heavy vehicle, I could use one only when needed from a community owned pool of vehicles, that might be a solution. I could own a smaller car, and trade it for the day to use the larger. Even if there was a charge for that, it would be cheaper than the yearly costs of maintaining a larger truck driven daily on unnecessarily small jobs.

And in fact, community pool ownership of smaller vehicles might make sense in some areas.

Another assistance would be community pooled delivery services, rather than driving to town myself to pick up something small. This is already actually happening via online ordering on an international basis (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.), but it doesn't happen on a pooled local basis, which seems backwards and counter productive. It also disrupts local economies, rather than fostering them.

Jo:
Lets say I buy myself an electric car, in theory I already have the solar panels with which to charge it.... They peak at 4KW output, and in the summer I often get 20KW a day = I can have free travel  :ddb:

HOWEVER during daylight hours 5 days a week my car is not at home where it could be charged for free or used as an electric storage facility, no it is sat in the work car park (see comment above).  :poke:

Jo

awemawson:
Solved by a removable 'battery pack' and a spare :)


(Quick find more Lithium deposits - we've just doubled the number of batteries needed! )

As it happens there was a recent article in 'The Telegraph' regarding re-opening the 'South Crofty' tin mine in Cornwall as new mining techniques should allow them to remove more and lower deposits, BUT interestingly someone has already bought the water rights for water removed from the mine working as apparently it is rich in Lithium !

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/07/29/poldark-legacy-tin-mining-could-return-cornwall/

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page