Sirsnapalot Loc: Hammond, Louisiana

Charging stations are a minor problem compared to a electric grid being supplied by green energy, which ain’t gonna happen. So it’s like the dog chasing its tail, none polluting EV’s being charged by fossil burning generators…

Sirsnapalot Loc: Hammond, Louisiana

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

It will be interesting to see what the outcome of that is...

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I think that to really be eco friendly, we need electric cars with climate friendly leather seats. Humans can’t live on eating grass and cows efficiently convert grass in to leather so what could be more “green”?

Stuff the seat cushions with hair from horse tails like in the good old days. Yes, there would be a lot of tailless horses around unable to switch flies, but everybody has to chip in to save the world, horses included.

Instead of using petroleum based paints, paint the cars with either milk based paints like the early pioneers or linseed oil based red lead or white lead paint. Not using conventional cars will free up a lot of lead wet cell batteries that can be used for paint. Just don’t let the neighborhood kids be licking your car because lead tastes sweet.

A lot of the body panels for the car could be made from wood. Old growth Redwood and Bristlecone Pine are good choices because both are quite rot resistant.

Tires could be made from natural rubber from rubber trees. Henry Ford built his own town and rubber plantation in Brazil a century ago, although unlike Henry’s vision, it would probably be best to let the workers choose their own diets instead of having to follow a Ford Industries diet. The volume of rubber needed would require clearing all those pesky rain forests.

As for lubricating oils, we got plenty of whales these days. Old time lubricants were made from whale oil so it shouldn’t be too hard to revive the old technology.

The copper for the electric car motors could be sourced from all the pennies made nearly worthless by inflation and if necessary, copper plumbing. Everybody drinks bottled water because they think it tastes better than tap water and there’s something about drinking from a bottle that makes it so much better. As for indoor plumbing, the Amish do just fine with outhouses and heating a bucket of water on the wood stove for the family’s Saturday night bath. If Amish living in the past can make it work, then surely people living for the future can make it work as well.

I don’t know why people keep thinking there’s all these problems that need to be overcome. In just a few minutes I’ve come up with all the answers!

And for those folks unfamiliar with humor, I’m being facetious. Except for the whale oil part, you can wring oil out of cod fish as well.

BebuLamar

When you burn the hydrogen you get water.

Woodworm65 Loc: Lombard, IL

Cargo ships produce more pollution than cars look it up.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

If you stepped in it, you weren't watching where you walked.

lyja17 Loc: hawaii

We own a Tesla model S and a Nissan Leaf. Love them both, no problems with either car and would never go back to ICE powered cars.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

That's good. I am assuming that you make no long trips.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

No.

Hydrogen is an energy storage medium. You put energy into water and you get out hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen goes to storage and the oxygen either goes to storage or enriches the atmosphere.

There are two ways I know of to extract the energy from hydrogen. (1) use it in an internal combustion engine (ICE). In that case you burn it with air (or maybe the oxygen you stored). If you burn it with air you get the same problem as current IC engines: nitrogen oxides, a major component of smog. In this scenario, the byproduct is water. (2) you 'burn' the hydrogen in a fuel cell. That uses a chemical process to extract the energy you put into the hydrogen to extract it from water. The byproduct might not be water directly, but it will get there eventually.

mtbear

Disposing of the spent batteries is also a major issue.

djsteul

Well normally I just read some of these posts and chuckle and move on. But this time I am going to respond to the 'comments' on EVs.


Just a little disclaimer: In October 2022 I bought a Tesla. Why, was I trying to save the planet, reduce GH gases, no - I bought one because I loved driving an EV. No one forced me to do it. I will never go back to a gasoline/diesel car again. But that's me! My other vehicle is a Hyundai gas car. It is a great car.

Some points:

EVs are less likely to catch on fire than an ICE vehicle. Media reports every EV fire, ICE fires aren't newsworthy.

The comment that to replace a EV battery costs $55K - $60K, I don't even know how to respond. Either your friend got taken or she doesn't know what she is talking about. For comparison a Tesla 100 kWh battery pack replacement would be under $30K. And the Tesla warranty is eight years. Very few Tesla battery packs have ever needed to be replaced 10 -12 years later. What year was her EV, size of battery?

Lithium Carbonate prices have cratered. In late 2022 prices lithium pricing hit $600,000 per metric ton. Today pricing is a little below $100,000 per metric ton. Mines around the world are throttling back production. Too much production was brought on. Funny how markets tend to self correct! Concerning mine reclamation, absolutely as it should be. Do some foreign materials come from questionable locations, yes they do. So does many products we use everyday in our life. Not right, but it is what it is.

The statement that a women spent more time charging than sleeping - I don't even know how to respond. What type of EV did she have, and where was she charging, was she on a trip? Did she have a dedicated charger at home? With a dedicated Level 2 charger you can fully charge overnight. Without telling the rest of the story you skew the narrative.

Almost all new EVs have the ability to plan your road trip and tell you where to stop for charging and how long. I haven't taken a 1000 mile trip yet, but I've taken a 440 mile trip. I plugged my destination into the Tesla navigation system and it told me where to stop and how long. I started with a fully charged battery and made my first and only stop three hours later around noon time. We hooked up our EV to a supercharger, and walked across the street for a sit down lunch. When we came back 45 minutes later the car had sufficiently charged to make it to our destination. If I had had my ICE car (Hyundai) we would have also stopped to have lunch.

I freely admit their are disadvantages to owning an EV. Purchase price is generally higher than the comparable ICE vehicle. If you live where there is not overnight charging, than yeah, an ICE vehicle might be better. There are far more gas stations than EV charging stations. If you are traveling 2000 miles, and only want to stop for refueling (charging) and go, yes you are going to be disappointed in the time it takes to cover 2000 miles.

With a few exception, range anxiety is not a concern. If you run out of juice it is your own fault. The EV is going to do everything to prevent that from happening. You have chosen to disregards its guidance.

The positives: Driving an EV is awesome. If you have charging at you home, you just plug in at night, and in the morning when you leave; a charged battery, good for the day. Charging cost - I live in Alabama, not the friendliest EV state. I pay a 'slightly' reduced kWh rate from 9pm to 5 am. The reduced rate is for the whole house, not just charging. Not taking the whole house reduction into account I pay the equivalent of $0.95 - $1.05/gal of gasoline.

Look, in summary, If you don't want an EV don't buy one. It's that simple. No one is forcing you to buy anything you don't want. It comes down to what works for you. For me, I will keep my EV and I'll keep my ICE car because it is paid for and is a great auto.

There is no need for misinformation on this site. We are all passionate about our hobby - photography. You all have helped me with my passion - thank you. So let's leave the politics out and present accurate information to the best of our collective abilities.

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

I'm from the Government & I'm here to help you............

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

That happened to a car of mine about 30 years ago. VW diesel, lots of vibration. I came out of the supermarket, turned the key & BANG...small cloud of vapor came up from the hood. Towed the car home, washed it down and sprinkled backing soda over everything & hosed it down again. Put a new battery in & drove the car another 50,000 miles.

imagextrordinair Loc: Halden, Norway

For Norway and most of Scandinavia and Europe, EV's are now the norm. They do well now because of the charging infrastructure that took more than ten years to establish. (Foresight)

Some like Tesla are very common everyday brands and some like Kia are actually competing now with high end luxury models like BMW, Mercedes and a few others.

Performance is crazy fast and most are loaded with the very best features. Charging is only a small fraction of regular fuel prices because of hydro- electric abundance. Many EV's will out perform fuel cars especially in acceleration.

Though skeptical, take note here they are a complete success and some new models are getting ranges of 500 miles on a full charge. In 2025 it is over with fuel car imports for many EU an Scandinavian countries.

The USA has too much cheep fuel I think, so expect another ten years before any real changes take place there...