Full Electric Autos Aren't Ready for Primetime
 

Full Electric Autos Aren't Ready for Primetime
By Sarah Portia

The head of the brand believes that EVs are not quite ready to proliferate the globe just yet, so what is the better choice?

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Okay, I can see his point. Turnaround time at recharging stations can be the fatal flaw for an EV, and I've heard elsewhere that super-fast recharging is really tough on cells.

And yes, no matter what fuel source in the future, the car will no doubt be at least partially hybrid so as to capture as much kinetic energy on deceleration as possible.

I don't know much about hydrogen as a fuel. Is this a mature technology, just waiting for a refill infrastructure to be practical? If hydrogen contains a lot of energy per unit volume and if it can be made cheaply on a very large scale via, say, nuclear reactors, then it may turn out to be a great alternative to gasoline.

Something like 90% of the population travel less than 100 miles a day, and most travel less than 50 miles a day - such that they would only do a frequent "slow" top-up every night at home anyway - hence the Tesla Model S's success, and why all the major players are scrambling to develop EV's.

Current EV technology needs frequent top-up charging, as opposed to infrequent total recharging of a near9 fully depleted battery!

With gasoline, we competely refill weekly, but with electric, we merely top-up daily!

Notice how both the frequency & degree/extent of refilling/recharging is different from gasoline vs electric.

Ultimately with electric, we are recharging daily, and because most people & most trips are only short - we are merely topping-up - albeit on a daily basis.

Current EV technology is obviously not suited to long distance & interstate driving, nor is it suited to refilling a near empty battery only once a week.

The presumption that most drivers do long distance driving, so need rapid charging, or only once-a-week rapid full charging of a near fully depleted battery - both of which obviously accelerates battery degradation - is wrong.
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How about hydrogen is that ready for prime time? You'll have a much easier time charging your electric versus trying to fill your hydrogen car.

Not only is hydrogen production, transport & storage infrastructure poor, but hydrogen fuel cells are slow & inefficient in generating electricity such that a Toyota Mirai has a paltry 152 bhp with 0-60 in a sluggish 9 seconds.

That's why there is very little global interest in Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell technology - meanwhile all the major players are scrambling to develop EV.

The main problem with full-electric cars, IMO, is not necessarily with the cars themselves, but that there simply is not enough places where they can be recharged. That can be a real problem for people who live in apartments, multi-story condos, retirement communities, and other places where you can't just get out of the car each night, shut the garage door, and plug the cord into the nearest wall outlet or recharger. Not only that, but how many teen-age (or younger) kids, with nothing better to do in their spare time than pull pranks, would go around unplugging the cars being charged just for kicks? :uh: You'd come out in the morning expecting a full 100% charge...and have maybe 50% or less. Then, there is the ultimate question......how to address charging interruptions in areas with power failures. :uh:

You can't fill your car with gas when the power goes out. Electrics currently have their drawbacks no doubt about it, but for a city commute they are ideal. And the limitations are going to go away eventually, probably within a decade or a bit more.

hydrogen fuel cell is a glorified over complicated battery

Especially the complicated part. The entire process is hilariously wasteful.

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The big issue with EV are the charging infrastructure and batteries more importantly. Batteries lithium batteries last longer if you fully deplete and recharge and constantly having it plugged in to top it off really kills the battery. That last 10% really takes a lot to top it off. If everyone at a 100 person office adopted EV chances are only 5 people in that office would nab those charging stations at work, everyone else is SOL especially when you need that charging station for a charge to get home and everyone else beat you to it.

i talked to someone who has a model x and she said it’s just nice to have for going around town but for long trips they got two other cars. So is it really worth the investment in order to save the environment and gas cost?

True.
EV top up every night won't work for those who park in the street, and the like.

Presently, there simply is no one size fits all.
There are about 10 different drive line designs, each with their pros & cons.

There's a lot of misinformation about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Hydrogen filling stations are opening up:

http://www.itm-power.com/news-item/n...t-beaconsfield


The hydrogen is generated on site and the ultimate aim is to use surplus renewable electricity from windfarms that cannot be stored elsewhere.

So basically you'll turn up in your FCEV and fill up like a normal car. The only emissions will be water. So clean generation of the hydrogen and no environmental problems. Who wants an EV now with their limited range and recharging problems?

Moronic, use the electricity to charge a battery directly. I love the company that is pushing the hydrogen fueling stations.

This makes good sense. Electricity sourced from renewable resources, like solar or wind, and unlike gas-, coal- or nuclear-fired generating stations, cannot be turned off when the demand is not there, so it has to be stored.

You can store it by converting to a fuel (by generating hydrogen) and store in fuel tanks or store electricity in batteries. It is probably easier and cheaper (especially considering the large quantities that may need to be stored) to use the electricity to generate hydrogen and store the hydrogen. And since gasoline and diesel refueling stations already have the infrastructure in place to store liquid / gaseous fuels, the generation and storage of hydrogen looks like a good fit.