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Featured Long-Range EVs Are The Antithesis Of Efficiency And Sustainability

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Prius Pete, Jun 20, 2019.

  1. Prius Pete

    Prius Pete Active Member

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    "...our planet can’t produce enough technology metals to accommodate a widespread transition to electric drive. Making a few hundred thousand or even a few million EVs a year isn't a major problem, but a global transition to an all-electric future is a pipe-dream, a quantum leap from the possible to the absurd, a fairy castle in the sky."

    Long-Range EVs Are The Antithesis Of Efficiency And Sustainability | Seeking Alpha

    This article agrees with Emissions Analytics that hybrids are a better way to go than long range EVs. Batteries and the materials to make them are limited. From the climate change and overall sustainability points of view, Toyota is right to push mass-market hybrids instead of EVs.
     
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i have to disagree

    the problem with these authors is that they are always thinking in the present. just like the ones who say 'increasing bev use from fossil fuel produced electricity is not reducing carbon.'

    well duh, everything works in concert. electricity production keeps getting cleaner.

    battery and motor technology will keep improving. it is not going to happen overnight, which works out perfectly

    keep in mind, seeking alpha is a shill for the oil industry, the author is shorting tesla, and hopes to sway investors away from them.
     
    #2 bisco, Jun 20, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2019
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  3. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    I think that is what people said a few decades ago about a phone small enough to fit into a shoe.
    But their calculations were off and they missed it by that much.
    [​IMG]
    Mike
     
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    So a self-admitted antagonist of sustainable energy technology cherry picks data to prove his point and then disqualifies his points with anti-objectivity claim like "I’ve been a vocal critic of electric vehicles for almost a decade because..." Funiest part is he presents his own disqualifications as thought they are virtues.

    If this guy was an actual alternative energy enthusiast and not an armchair Malthusian naysayer he would be knowledgeable a whole new raft of scientific papers and battery technology conventions where advancement of less resource intensive battery packs is being pushed with a moon shot level of interest and funding.

    But if you're on his side, then go ahead and troll away... Because when there's too much demand capitalism never solves the limited supply problem right? And there's no way that advancements in battery technology will ever solve that problem and make a far less expensive resource intensive battery pack right? Great thing about a stick in the mud is you never have to worry about it going anywhere.

    Meanwhile VW and others will very quickly and eagerly sign billion dollar long-term contracts to anyone showing promise with advancing performance and decreasing costs. The fury of investment at even this early is like nothing we've ever seen before, but perhaps something similar to early days of the dot com investment rounds. Automakers know the "shots fired" of Tesla leaping several years ahead of them with technological advancement is something they absolutely have to catch up to and surpass. And whoever figures this out will continue to build cars and whoever fails will no longer be building cars in a decade.

    Meanwhile Mr. Perterson will keep writing the exact same message in a different way again tomorrow... Seriously, did you look through all the anti-alternative energy articles this dork has written? He's a total tool... And for sharing his link that makes you a tool too!
     
  5. Prius Pete

    Prius Pete Active Member

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    Nice ad-hominems on me and Peterson, PC! The article's point is that, at the present time, with current technology, with current global constraints, smaller battery electrified vehicles make more sense than larger battery ones. A Tesla/Leaf/Bolt consumes a lot of battery and, most of the time, is driven in a way that does not need all that battery. Meanwhile, the real problem is the 95% of cars that still use conventional, inefficient drivetrains. Some say that problem will be solved when longer range EVs come out. I say we need mild hybrids, full hybrids and small-battery plug-in hybrids now and for the next few years.
     
  6. jb in NE

    jb in NE Senior Member

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    So, to be clear on the rules for posting links to articles that may be of interest. Run them all by you to ensure you agree with them? We certainly wouldn't want to expose anybody to an article with which they might disagree. That would be unthinkable!
     
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  7. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Not at all... But fact is fossil fuel industry tools like to troll hybrid and EV help websites... And if your posts looks like a troll and the nature of your post acts like a troll, than don't be surprised if people treat you like a troll / tool anti-alt energy.
     
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  8. jb in NE

    jb in NE Senior Member

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    Now I'm very clear on this. No dissenting views welcome. Toe the alt energy line or be a troll, or a tool. I'm not sure which is worse...
     
    #8 jb in NE, Jun 20, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2019
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  9. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    There were articles back in the 70's about studies saying we would be out of oil by now.....
     
  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    You don't convert billions of fossil fuel vehicles to electric or semi-electric with today's technology. You build it with rapidly advancing manufacturing technology of tomorrow. It's a total red herring to project forward into the future based on how cars are being built today, because that's technology that's from many years ago...

    But if you'd like to have a conversation about Capacitor-based battery tech and talk about why Tesla bought the world's most innovative capacitor building company... OR if you want to talk Sodium-Ion batteries that can be shipped at 0.0v, or Lithium-sulfur batteries, or solid state batteries that could actually be built into micro-channels in the frame of the vehicle itself, we could have some really fascinating conversations about where all this is going.

    But if you want to promote trolls who are solely interested in discrediting all of it even though they've never even learned about most of it, don't worry, no one will think you're a troll. Your secret is safe with me...
     
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  11. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    No actually you aren't clear on it.... But please do your best to try not to take online social media so seriously and you'll enjoy your life much more that way.
     
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  12. jb in NE

    jb in NE Senior Member

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    Hmm. One of us posted a rant in reply to a linked article. I didn't. Nor did the first responder to the thread, nor the second.
     
  13. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    It wasn't a rant... My rants are way more crazy than that.

    I was simply taking a few minutes to express my opinion and I can type fairly fast... You're the one who's making the mistake of giving it much more value than it deserves. It's just the simple perspective of one person, take it or leave it. There's no reason to get so uptight about it.
     
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  14. jb in NE

    jb in NE Senior Member

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    You might consider leaving out the personal attacks in your replies. That will provide a more receptive audience to your comments.
     
  15. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol.... Why so sensitive? It's social media dude... Deal with it!

    When the person I'm writing is receptive the tone of the conversation is much different than when the person I'm writing is unreceptive. Guess what side you're on?
     
  16. Prius Pete

    Prius Pete Active Member

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    Hey man, I've been driving a Prius for almost 15 years. Hey man, this is a Prius web site which I've belonged to for almost that long. I ain't no pro-oil troll. I saw Peterson's article from my Google news alert on "Prius". I often see pro-EV websites dissing Toyota for pushing hybrids over EVs. Even in this very forum, I often see EV owners, or would-be EV owners criticizing Toyota for their technology choices. I think Toyota is doing the right thing to push its hybrids into the mainstream at this time. They finally have no-compromise, cost-justifiable hybrids across pretty well their entire product line. They are very aware of current technology and current battery supply.

    Of course technology will advance and things may well be quite different 5 years from now. Personally, I'm excited about the new flexible solar panels now becoming available. Once they can crank those things out on big rollers the price of solar will plummet.

    I think most of us on PriusChat are pretty much in agreement on the importance of the environment. The best way to support that environment is to encourage mainstream adoption of lower carbon vehicles. Now is the time to push hybrids, not to muddy the waters by saying they are no good compared to EVs.
     
  17. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Well Mr. Peterson has been posting incorrect crap for years. I remember reading from him how he was shorting teals and buying a battery company that is now bankrupt.

    10 Reasons Why Electric Drive Is Stranded On The Bleeding Edge Of Transportation Technology | Seeking Alpha
    Note he thought in 2012 plug-in technology wouldn't advance much in a decade let alone by now. I thought he would be gone by now. One of the original Tesla shorters that put out misinformation to try and make their investment work. I don't think its a personal attack on someone if you are saying they are putting out misinformation because they have a financial stake in things going down, or that his power of prediction are really flawed.

    I posted in another thread, global constraints have to do with time to build mines and battery plants, there is plenty of raw materials to build the battery packs. JPM is predicting that mild hybrids - those 48 V systems that can't run far at all on electric alone will grow rapidly because of european regulation. Battery pack prices have already fallen from the $1000/kwh toyota was saying in 2010 to bellow $200/kwh today and probably $100/kwh by 2025.
     
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  18. Prius Pete

    Prius Pete Active Member

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    It's still ad hominem. Attack the argument, not the person. On the other hand, I did not know all this about Peterson.
     
  19. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Well its tough to attack all the misinformation from the shorters like peterson, but I thought I did attack his argument. They will keep trying to baffle you with new bs, but I thought he had gone away after losing a great deal of money. Sure its ad hominem but when a guy is that bad, sometimes you just need to call him out so others are not fooled.

    He said in 2012 battery prices were at $500kwh and weren't likely to fall much, well they have fallen, to $176/kwh on average in 2018 according to Bloomberg. In this new one he continues there isn't enough metal but here again - 2012 they were mining approximately 40% of the metals used in these batteries, and predictions are by 2030 we will have only mined about 1%. That doesn't sound like we are running out of metal, mining will simply get more expensive, but these metals like lithium don't make up a great deal of the cost of batteries.

    Now it is true these mines and battery factories can not be built over night, but if you see the demand 5 years from now the cars can be designed, mines dug, processing plants and battery factories built.

    At $100/kwh a pack in a 12 kwh phev is only $1400, in a 300 mile bev $7500.
     
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  20. Prius Pete

    Prius Pete Active Member

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    My personal requirement is for 500 km winter range and good cargo capacity. I have a rental property in another city and I carry all my tools in the trunk. So I'd need a $7500 battery then? If its capacity drops 20% after a few years, I'm not making it. $7500 buys a lot of engine and gas, which also weigh a lot less.

    The AC in my 04 stopped working (I tried a recharge) and I considered a new car. A Prius Prime would give me the range I need, great long distance mpg and no fuel in my city driving. But it lacks the cargo space of my Gen 2, where I have removed the trunk floor over the spare. I'll get the dealer to fix the AC. For me, today, an EV does not make sense and neither does a PHEV.

    Regardless of his investment history, I think Peterson is correct to say that vehicle battery supply is limited at this time. Sure, that may change in 5 years. The raw materials may or may not be a problem. I also think he is correct to say that 75 Prius hybrids save more gas and CO2 than one 300 mile EV, especially when that EV rarely takes long trips, even on a zero carbon grid.

    I never thought I'd get so much flack for promoting Prius on PriusChat!
     
    #20 Prius Pete, Jun 21, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2019
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