The article is dripping with bias. I wonder how the author feels about government subsidies for fossil fuel producers and infrastructure?I thought this was interesting. quite the investment...
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/06/03/inconvenience-stores/
The article is dripping with bias. I wonder how the author feels about government subsidies for fossil fuel producers and infrastructure?
Brew on![]()
Slightly off topic, but I'm purchasing my son's 2017 Prius since their family is expanding by one in September and they need a bigger vehicle to accommodate the new arrival and his two big sisters.The article is dripping with bias. I wonder how the author feels about government subsidies for fossil fuel producers and infrastructure?
Brew on![]()
What do I need to know about the operation, care and feeding of a hybrid daily driver?
Zero interest in getting an electric vehicle. I don't have a 'car' since I have a full size truck.
With how limited the travel range is on these things, I can't ever see getting one. Until they come up with a way to get ~500 miles in a charge, then fully recharge again in <15 minutes for another ~500 miles at least. Even then, there's something very visceral about the sound a good size V8 makes.
I thought this was interesting. quite the investment...
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/06/03/inconvenience-stores/
Zero interest in getting an electric vehicle. I don't have a 'car' since I have a full size truck.
With how limited the travel range is on these things, I can't ever see getting one. Until they come up with a way to get ~500 miles in a charge, then fully recharge again in <15 minutes for another ~500 miles at least. Even then, there's something very visceral about the sound a good size V8 makes.
As for the swapping batteries idear... Yeah, hard pass. There's so many ways for that to go sideways it's not even funny. I can think of a handful in just a few seconds. While it MIGHT work in a perfect world/scenario where people are intelligent to follow simple instructions, that's NOT reality. People will F it up at the drop of a hat even if they THINK it's been made "idiot proof". Since everyone knows, that once something is made idiot proof, a bigger/stronger idiot comes around and negates that.
Also keep in mind, if enough people shift to electric vehicles, there will be a significant increase in the load placed on the grid. I highly doubt that's being beefed up enough to handle the increased load. Or will be in time for all these "green" initiatives to come about. Also, how many charging cycles are these batteries good for before they require replacement? What kind of cost will that have? I feel that a LOT of people going after these vehicles don't take that into consideration at all. IIRC, the cost to replace a battery bank (granted it was some years ago when I came across the info) was more than the vehicle would be worth. Which makes them completely disposable at that point.
Electric vehicles are probably "OK" for people living in cities, or close to them. I don't live in a city and place to move further away from any in the next ~12 months (hope to be able to seriously look come start of 2022).
I personally don't think EVs are ready for prime time yet, but I am not opposed to owning one either. The full electric jeep at Moab in May was really cool for example. A lot of people quote range as being an issue - yet neglect to mention most gas cars don't get a whole lot more than 300 - 400 miles to a fill. I have a F350 diesel, gets decent mileage for a truck, but it's range is 300 miles. Sometimes finding diesel isn't the easiest either. A lot of gas stations these days are being built unleaded gas only.
No, the two biggest issues with EVs are battery technology and the power grid. Scientists have recently reported they can only get around 10% more energy density out of existing battery technologies. A tank of gas is 500% more energy dense than a lead-acid battery. Lithium-based batteries are 10% less energy dense than lead-acid batteries. Lithium batteries are better because they don't lose capacity as they discharge, unlike lead-acid batteries. So, short of a battery technology revolution, increased range/capacity isn't on the horizon. That is why the recent industry focus is on charging station technology.
As for the power grid problem, you have two main issues. Most house-holds have two cars. Each car requires an 80 AMP outlet for fast charging. Most houses only have 200 AMP service. Most houses can't be increased to a higher amperage service. So, how are you going to charge all those cars? That's issue one. Issue two, as soon as most people have EVs, what do you think is going to happen to electric costs? California already has rolling black-outs because they don't have enough power. We aren't commissioning any more nuclear plants currently. That means supply will be at a premium and electric companies will have to raise rates for everyone to fund new supply sources. Except the current powers that be won't allow energy expansion, so there is no more to come by. Most power generation is still based on fossil fuels. Wind and solar won't produce the volume of energy needed to keep up with the demand from EV use expansion.
IMO, if you want to go with an electric vehicle, go right ahead. I'm planning to keep my gas powered truck (or one like it) for as long as possible.
For those thinking that electric vehicles are "so much greener" than traditional ones... Have you seen how they mine for the lithium that goes into the batteries?? What about disposing of the batteries once they're EOL?
Of course, I'm also not planning to get a vehicle that can drive itself. With hackers being hackers, there's no way in hell I'll let a vehicle drive itself. Especially when there's already been demonstrations of autonomous vehicles getting hacked and taken over. If it's a "standard feature" that cannot be removed before purchase (or at build) then I'll be looking for a way to disable it and NOT have to do that with every use.
Yeah, I'm pretty excited for the electric jeeps.
I've heard a lot of conflicting information on where batteries are going. Scientists are looking for alternatives to Lithium batteries. I don't think that many cars/trucks/SUVs need a lot better (subjective, I know) than what we're seeing on the horizon. As you said, EVs range isn't really as big of an issue anymore. What would be really helpful is faster charging times. I have a friend who loves the idea of recharging stations that use capacitors, because they can discharge into a battery so quickly. I have no idea if that would work, but it's just another idea out there that is probably being explored as a way to reduce downtime for EVs on the road.
Now, you said 80amp per vehicle, but I think a lot of vehicles are still on 40amp. 40amp does pretty well when you figure that a lot of people plug in overnight. 40amp at home, plus super-fast charging stations we're hoping to see this decade, that's a pretty good combination.
The statement that most homes can't have their service upgraded from 200amp is an interesting statement. I think it would be more accurate to say that it would be expensive to do so in the current environment. It would probably help, too, if people took a look at their homes and looked at how they can save energy. Proper insulation, replacing old appliances, etc, etc, could help reduce the need for a massive upgrade.
What's happening in California doesn't have to happen everywhere. What they're doing is massive, and not something we've seen in a lot of places. There will be a lot of lessons learned, and the next places to try it out should go a lot smoother.
the new fancy electric car you bought.
What would be really helpful is faster charging times. I have a friend who loves the idea of recharging stations that use capacitors, because they can discharge into a battery so quickly. I have no idea if that would work, but it's just another idea out there that is probably being explored as a way to reduce downtime for EVs on the road.
40 AMPs for smaller EV vehicles. Check out the charger specs for larger EVs like trucks and SUVs (Ford F150 and Bronco) that most people are going to want to drive. Bigger vehicle = bigger battery pack = larger charger required. 80 AMPs per car will be the norm.
I'm guessing your friend is not an electrical engineer. I, on the other hand, am an electrical engineer.
Capacitors don't help. The issue with charging speed is more due to the maximum speed at which the battery can safely ACCEPT charge, not how quickly the station can deliver it--at least once you get to the battery max.
Imagine you're trying to fill something with water and it can take a maximum of 10 gallons per minute. You have several options:
A 120V 15A outlet is basically the equivalent of the RO system. A 240V 30A outlet for your electric dryer is like the kitchen faucet. A Tesla Supercharger or equivalent is the garden hose.
- Your brewing RO system. In my case, it maxes out at about 0.1 gpm.
- Your kitchen faucet. Federal mandate is a max of 2.2 gpm.
- A typical garden hose. At normal pressures, that garden hose will have around a 12-13 gpm flow rate according to the googles.
- A fire hydrant. 1000-1500 gpm.
For most homes, the kitchen faucet is plenty since it charges overnight. For road trips where you need fast charging, the garden hose is a much better option.
In this case the fire hydrant [equivalent of capacitor for discharge rate] is overkill for the application. There's just no way the battery can take the charge anywhere close to as quickly as the capacitors can discharge, so it's the battery pack that is the bottleneck.
That's not taking into account the physical size of capacitors that would be necessary (ginormous banks of capacitors), etc. Logistically it would be insane, because capacitors can't store charge as efficiently as measured by space as a battery, so the total volume of capacitors would be many multiples that of the batteries they're supposed to discharge into.
I'm guessing your friend is not an electrical engineer. I, on the other hand, am an electrical engineer.
Capacitors don't help. The issue with charging speed is more due to the maximum speed at which the battery can safely ACCEPT charge, not how quickly the station can deliver it--at least once you get to the battery max.
Imagine you're trying to fill something with water and it can take a maximum of 10 gallons per minute. You have several options:
A 120V 15A outlet is basically the equivalent of the RO system. A 240V 30A outlet for your electric dryer is like the kitchen faucet. A Tesla Supercharger or equivalent is the garden hose.
- Your brewing RO system. In my case, it maxes out at about 0.1 gpm.
- Your kitchen faucet. Federal mandate is a max of 2.2 gpm.
- A typical garden hose. At normal pressures, that garden hose will have around a 12-13 gpm flow rate according to the googles.
- A fire hydrant. 1000-1500 gpm.
For most homes, the kitchen faucet is plenty since it charges overnight. For road trips where you need fast charging, the garden hose is a much better option.
In this case the fire hydrant [equivalent of capacitor for discharge rate] is overkill for the application. There's just no way the battery can take the charge anywhere close to as quickly as the capacitors can discharge, so it's the battery pack that is the bottleneck.
That's not taking into account the physical size of capacitors that would be necessary (ginormous banks of capacitors), etc. Logistically it would be insane, because capacitors can't store charge as efficiently as measured by space as a battery, so the total volume of capacitors would be many multiples that of the batteries they're supposed to discharge into.
A larger charger isn't required UNLESS it is necessary to charge the battery at its maximum charge rate. For most home users, that isn't the case. They drive around all day running errands and use 30% of their battery, come home, plug their car in, and all they want to know is that it's charged by the following morning.
Per here, a 240V 30A charging port will get your roughly 25 miles per hour of charge time. You get home at 8 PM and need your car at 8 AM the next morning? Well in those 12 hours, you can gain close to 300 miles of range.
When you're on a road trip and you want your stop to be as short as possible, then YES higher current charge capability is hugely important. At home? Not so much.
And as an electrical engineer, you are aware we don't design to minimums, we design to maximums with a buffer. You "can" use a 60 watt power adapter to charge a laptop that normally takes a 90 watt adapter, but it is not recommended because 1) it will be slower and 2) the 60 watt adapter will generate a lot more heat because it is under a greater strain. Appliances that generate excess heat that can lead to failure and potentially fires, is generally frowned upon in building codes.
Per here, a 240V 30A charging port will get your roughly 25 miles per hour of charge time. You get home at 8 PM and need your car at 8 AM the next morning? Well in those 12 hours, you can gain close to 300 miles of range.
You are missing a critical part in that calculation, the kWh of the battery pack. A 1kW charger can deliver 1 kWh of charge per hour. The standard Tesla charger can deliver 6.6kW of charge in an hour on a 220v 30A circuit. A Tesla has a 100kWh battery pack. Typically, you can only use 80% of a battery pack, so that is really 80kWh. So, that would be roughly 12 hours to fully charge that pack, or 4.5 hours for 30% charge. Though a partial recharge can take a little longer due to balancing logic being applied to evenly charge the pack.
Larger vehicles require larger packs for equivalent range. The Ford 150 Lightning has a 150kWh battery pack. At 80% capacity (120kWh) with the same 6.6kW charger, it would take over 18 hours to charge the pack. So, you need a larger charger, which requires more amps to bring down the charging time. In fact, the Ford F150 Lightning uses a dual on-board charger rated at 19.2Kw. That is a J-1772 charger, same as the Porsche Taycan, that requires a 100A circuit, 80A usable.
Where you're completely wrong is the idea that a battery pack capable of accepting a 100A or 80A charge requires it. It's just not true.
They do require it, if you want to charge it in a reasonable amount of time, such as overnight. You also completely ignore the fact that weather and driving habits affect range in a major way. You might get 220 range driving on a highway at 55 MPH. You certainly are not getting 220 miles of range driving 80+. Heavy city driving also decreases range from all the start/stops and subsequent acceleration.