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"Are Electric Cars the future of Low Carbon Transport?"

(677 posts)
  • Started 14 years ago by chdot
  • Latest reply from Baldcyclist
  • This topic is sticky

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  1. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    Forget the glass, those sledgehammer-proof body panels surely can't be 'safe' (in a very relative sense) to the vulnerable road users that these limited-vision Mad Max machines are going to hit.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  2. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "To solve sustainable energy we have to have a pickup truck,” he said."

    Ford are on it....

    https://www.ford.co.uk/cars/mustang-mach-e

    Not a truck, but as the manufacturer of the best selling truck model in the US I'm sure it's in their sights as they enter the 'E' market...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  3. jdanielp
    Member

    Ford have already confirmed that they will be making an electric version of their F-150 truck, although the most interesting electric truck to be announced so far is the Rivian from another eletric vehicle start-up company like Tesla... Their truck has weirdly designed headlights but otherwise looks like a relatively normal truck. It does have some quite interesting features: https://rivian.com/

    Posted 4 years ago #
  4. neddie
    Member

    The thing is, having bullet-proof glass and presumably extra-secure doors that are locked shut means things are going to get 'interesting' when the vehicle ends up upside-down, on fire, with occupants still inside...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  5. MediumDave
    Member

    Perhaps Tesla have taken design cues for that...thing from old Soviet military hardware:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRDM-2

    Posted 4 years ago #
  6. jdanielp
    Member

    They specifically referenced Blade Runner and the Lotus Esprit.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  7. Frenchy
    Member

    They watched Blade Runner and thought "Yes, the world needs to be more like this."?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  8. chdot
    Admin

  9. chdot
    Admin

    Rise of SUVs 'makes mockery' of electric car push

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-50713616

    Posted 4 years ago #
  10. LaidBack
    Member

    Really 'good' bad stats.
    We can all see this with our own eyes of course.
    EVs in the city are too rare a sight. Porsche and Jaguar 4x4s more common. The all electric buses have disappeared at moment too.
    To make an impact the whole world really needs a break from buying any new vehicles, phones, PCs and any other non essential bric a brac.
    No idea how that could gather support though and contrary to having a shop of any sort.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  11. acsimpson
    Member

    It's a clear sign that fuel duty has been frozen for too long. People are clearly willing to spend more per mile than they were so it's time to increase the cost.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

  13. neddie
    Member

    “If people are willing to drive an hour to work, why not fly 15 minutes to work?”

    (Or why not fly an hour to work?)

    ^^^ This is why electric planes (and cars) are not going to save us.

    Because of Jevon's paradox:

    Posted 4 years ago #
  14. Frenchy
    Member

    Overheard in the pub in Fortingall: "I commute to Los Angeles."

    True story.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  15. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Frenchy

    The Voujon restaurant in Newington used to boast that the chef commuted from Mumbai.

    Did you go to see the yew? Or the stones on top of the gateposts to the kirk?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  16. Frenchy
    Member

    I went to get a pint!

    (I did also see the Yew. I didn't notice the stones on the gate at the time, but have subsequently read about them, I think in some book about cycling across Scotland.)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  17. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The Yew is mental. It has real power. In my mind anyway.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  18. amir
    Member

    Lots of old stuff around there

    Posted 4 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

  20. chdot
    Admin

  21. chdot
    Admin

  22. paulmilne
    Member

    This posted by @chdot in the Climate Change thread seems apposite - powering electric cars at the scale of the current mass of petrol cars is unfeasible. Not that powering petrol cars at the current mass of petrol cars is feasible either ...

    https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/leading-scientists-set-out-resource-challenge-of-meeting-net-zer.html

    Posted 3 years ago #
  23. jdanielp
    Member

    A 20% increase in electricity generation is unfeasible? That sounds fairly reasonable to me, especially given that renewables have been ramping up increasingly over the last decade despite the relative hostility of the government. I suppose that if we seriously try to transition from all dirty power sources at the same time (which we clearly should), then the challenge does become significantly harder. The issue of raw materials does sound rather more problematic, in comparison, although it seems likely that newer technologies will at some point shift (and hopefully reduce) demand for the rarest...

    Posted 3 years ago #
  24. neddie
    Member

    Yes, at least EVs can be charged at night or off-peak (and they should pay more for peak-time electricity, to drive efficiency)

    The problem is going to come when we electrify all domestic heating & everyone turns their heating on at 6pm - which coincides with low solar output & highest demand & hence carbon emissions from the grid

    Posted 3 years ago #
  25. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @neddie

    I am a big fan of pumped storage for that reason. Only three schemes in the country currently? Cruachan, Foyers, Glen Doe....

    Posted 3 years ago #
  26. neddie
    Member

    Pumped storage good, problem is we’ve exhausted all suitable locations for building any more

    Let me know if you know of one...

    Posted 3 years ago #
  27. chrisfl
    Member

    What's folks feeling on these weight based systems such as https://gravitricity.com/

    Posted 3 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

    If only all the coal mine shafts hadn’t been filled in!

    Numbers like this always make me suspicious -

    $620 Billion Market Opportunity

    Posted 3 years ago #
  29. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    “ Pumped storage good, problem is we’ve exhausted all suitable locations for building any more

    Let me know if you know of one...”

    Not saying they are suitable locations, but Coire Glas and Glenmuckloch (that one courtesy of our old friend Dicky Scott in an ex-open cast mine - is there no end to their depredations?) are under consideration

    Also this: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1958144/controversial-625-million-red-john-hydro-scheme-on-banks-of-loch-ness-to-go-before-public-inquiry/amp/

    Posted 3 years ago #
  30. acsimpson
    Member

    What's folks feeling on these weight based systems such as https://gravitricity.com/

    I've sometimes wondered about this and come to the conclusion that it needs too much space for a single house solution to work. Interesting to see it being developed on a neighbourhood scale.

    It's comparable efficiency to pumped storage and even quicker power on time.

    Posted 3 years ago #

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