Opinion: why I’ll never buy another internal-combustion car

Laugh all you want, but it killed 85 people and torched $16B worth of stuff.

Yes, petro-powered problems have caused many bigger problems in the world.

But it should serve as a reminder that whatever energy technology we want to use, there's going to be a a heck of a lot of it, and it needs to be handled responsibly.

 

Ah, you switched topics, my mistake.
The disaster that occurred was terrible, but had little to do with electricity as a car fuel source.

 

Agree that there is no technology that is a panacea in every respect.

But, to clear the record, everyone here should know that tragic fire had nothing to do with EVs, directly or indirectly.

 

Yeah it would be more apt to say "Fragile, painted-plastic fairing to fragile, painted-plastic fairing" .

 

DUH - that works well for you, & that's okay. We get over 80MPGe in our 2+ton plugin minivan. So - even if we only plug in ¾ of the miles - the MPG is still over 50+ - & that's ok. Occasionally liking the opportunity to haul the big stuff; ..... well, that's ANOTHER good example of DUH.

All of us here have one common thread. Efficient fuel. Beyond that - we have different wants & needs & it's good that we all find a way to make the rest of it merge with that basic fuel efficiency.
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While spewing more pollutants with that wear.

We will be sure to hear about all the minor fires for some time.

At least one brand did so; Fiat with the 500e. As a California only car and program, it was of limited impact, though the car is popular there.

That was because GM quality got better, but customers needed assurances to take another chance. I don't think Hyundai's warranty is as great as when they first introduced their 10yr/100k mile one for the same reasons.

 

Great vehicle out there on the market. Seats up to 8 and wow, what cavernous space to haul stuff.

May not have the cool factor of a snazzy truck or large SUV, but removes the no existing plug-in argument to haul all my peeps and stuff.

 

One point in the article (in the typically very stupid & ignorant comments) is true. A good size contingent of folk live near the poverty line & end up buying any car they can scrape the cash for .... meaning $1,000 to $3,000. Doesn't matter if it has 150,000 mile because that's the best that many can do. Most plugins haven't even reached that level of miles. But when they do, they'll be worth a lot more than that poverty entry level, presuming it's a phev. Now - a nissan Leaf? Yea - they may be out there with that kind of racked up miles, but FORGET it. They'll be lucky to still have 45 miles of range left. Traded ours in for a paltry $2,000 & never looked back. Sure - Nissan will sell you an $8,000 battery, + install costs, & then you'll have a $4,500 car. Thanks Nissan.

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To clarify, I am in no way trying to paint electric vehicles as a villain here, nor am I suggesting that an electric car started the Camp fire. I'm not even sure they've definitively determined the cause, though everything I've heard on the topic heavily implicates the local power utility.

So I don't think it's out of place to offer a reminder that we need to keep our collective eye on the ball, to maintain and improve energy safety overall. If automotive electrification is going to succeed, we are going to need way more electricity. More generating plants, more substations, more distribution lines... and they're all going to be busier.

 

then we can unplug all the floating oil pump drill rig potential disasters

 

There is an argument that says that electric vehicles will use energy at times that are today under-utilized, such as night time. I am sure that is partially true, but if one were to calculate the energy used by ICEs today and convert that to KWh of electrical energy we may have an idea if off-peak energy use will come close to covering the usage. I doubt it. I think we will need a lot more electricity if we hope to convert most ICE to BEV.

 

that's why the slow run up is so perfect. easier to improve the grid in the long run

 

The calculations have been done. 40% of all of the light vehicle fleet could be EVs with zero need for additional capacity IF all the charging were done in off peak hours.
I'd suggest 25% of all LVF could be EVs before this becomes a concern.
25% market share? Is that enough to call them a success? I don't know, but it isn't nearly as big an issue as some make it out to be.

Edit: Looking for the reference, it may be from UCS, however, I found another reference that paints an even better picture.
Don't Worry: US Grid Capable of Supporting Up to 150 Million Electric Vehicles

 

Yeah the Leaf sucks (I have one and drive it still) but really for most people it's still fine. I have quite a few friends in the "less than $1k/mo income" range and yeah they buy the crappiest cheapest car that gets them from A to B so they can eat. If it smokes like Uncle Buck's car or tries to shake itself to pieces as you drive, so be it. At least it will get you to your job. So a $2k Leaf that covers the 5-8 mile drive and back again with no maintenance is a no brainer of a good deal. You have to go to work to survive and it does that. Everything else you can adapt. Get groceries on the way home if it's a blizzard and 40mi range is 20mi range. And you're never leaving the city, so you're always within range of an L1 outlet everywhere you go. There are now tons of L2 (free and paid) chargers and a handful of L3 (free and paid).

One of my friends had a range limited Ford Focus hatchback because he couldn't afford new tires and speed limited because he couldn't afford to fix the steering and alignment. Every day before he drove it to work he'd sit there and pump up his tire with a bicycle pump as far as he could. Then he'd drive to work and by the time he got there about 10 minutes away, the tire was already mostly flat. After work, pump it up and you have 10minutes of range. But you couldn't go too fast because the steering column was missing a few bolts and anything over about 40mph you could turn the wheel and the car wouldn't turn... A $2k Leaf that works just fine but also has range and speed (94mph) limitations, that would be a dream.

 

Power plants are far more efficient at using their fuel than an ICE car is theirs.

 

That is obvious, but do we right now have the capacity (both generation and distribution) to go all-electric? Even with the efficiency adjustment, that is.

 

Ain't going to happen overnight, and we already have the capacity to support far more households switching than have already done so.
We have the ability to expand generation to meet demand as it comes.

 

This is the thing that gets me about vehicular electrification: if that's where we are all going, why aren't oil companies, automakers, bankers etc all racing to snap up electrical generating & distribution assets? Who wouldn't want to sell the fuel of the future?

Maybe they are and it's just not visible to me? Not like I have any special view into the business world.

 

One word. Inertia.

 

The inertia is coming
Wind, Solar Are Now The Cheapest Sources Of Power Generation | OilPrice.com
Don't look for oil companies to roll over though. They will dump the price as much as possible. Whatever it takes to remain relevant - will happen.
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