Electric cars

I'd love to live in your world Bob... Everything seems so simple.... Get a job nearer home, cycle everywhere, don't travel.... Have you ever seriously looked into a warts 'n all comparison between an EV and an ICE vehicle?

The new electric Golf has cheaper running costs over it's 160000k/ 8 year warranty life than the petrol version. Less parts, less service costs, faster, decent range...etc etc

Price is comparable as well.

Thumbs up all round.

Fuck the mining, the excessive travel to get the parts to assembly lines, the generation of the extra electricity, the wonder of what happens after the 8 years or so battery life is up, the lack of charger access for a lot of people...

We are supposedly trying to save this planet we live on not add to the pile of crap that won't degrade for hundreds of years.

Then there's the local cost. 50-60% of all cobalt comes from the Congo. Where they use kids to get it out.

In China they pour ammonium sulfate into an ever expanding hole before acid bathing the lot. 0.2% of the end process is kept the other 99.8% of toxic waste is chucked back into the earth.

I agree that fossil fuel is not the way forward, but neither is the electric vehicle. Not with current battery technology. It's just another rape of the planet.

The same does have to be said about modern electronics. Replacing phones every 2 years, buying a new TV every year just because, filling your house with them...it all adds up.

I understand that, as with most things in life, man wants new shiny thing. It's in our nature. But there are huge cons with buying an ev and as far as the planet goes they outweigh the pros.

Battery technology is moving on quickly though, very quickly, so in a few years this all might change.

Until then I'll continue to run my old car. It starts, it stops. No need for new shiny thing.
 
I'd love to live in your world Bob... Everything seems so simple.... Get a job nearer home, cycle everywhere, don't travel.... Have you ever seriously looked into a warts 'n all comparison between an EV and an ICE vehicle?
When they replace with lithium with sodium I will start to look at them in a slightly different light.

When governments don't use tax payer money to subsidize their cost to the consumer and the makers can go it alone I will start to look at them in a slightly different light.

When their cost is comparable to a ICE equivalent without government intervention I will look at them in a slightly different light.

When I can recharge them and have a garage that can house them and cook my dinner at the same time I will start to look at them in a slightly different light.

Above all this when I can buy one without having to burn fossil fuels to make the parts that are needed to build one I will look at them in a slightly different light.

The problem for government will be that recharging them either on the road or at home won't generate any income for them unlike the juice that ICE's need to get you from A to B and back to A.

the money they lose will have to be replaced by higher road taxes and other levies.

Just like governments are slaves to the tobacco industry they are slaves to the fossil fuel industry at least in this neck of the woods.

11 per cent of Australia's power is generated by renewable energy still relying on fossil fuels to make it this amount.

We won't be able to transition appropriately for many decades to come unless we go nuclear or hydrogen becomes commercially viable in this country and I suspect many others.

1600 coal fired plants are scheduled to be built over the coming decade that have a life span on average of 50 years.

Its about choice not intervention and jobs and in the year if you want to buy an ICE because manufacturers know its a product people of all walks of life still want than then ICE it is.

The Government built a band network costing over 80 billion to date and we are no better off than we were under adsl , mobile , microwave and satnav in fact we have more down time now than Linda Lovelace ever had as a result.

When the grid goes so does everything including the landline.
 
The new electric Golf has cheaper running costs over it's 160000k/ 8 year warranty life than the petrol version. Less parts, less service costs, faster, decent range...etc etc

Price is comparable as well.

Thumbs up all round.

Fuck the mining, the excessive travel to get the parts to assembly lines, the generation of the extra electricity, the wonder of what happens after the 8 years or so battery life is up, the lack of charger access for a lot of people...

We are supposedly trying to save this planet we live on not add to the pile of crap that won't degrade for hundreds of years.

Then there's the local cost. 50-60% of all cobalt comes from the Congo. Where they use kids to get it out.

In China they pour ammonium sulfate into an ever expanding hole before acid bathing the lot. 0.2% of the end process is kept the other 99.8% of toxic waste is chucked back into the earth.

I agree that fossil fuel is not the way forward, but neither is the electric vehicle. Not with current battery technology. It's just another rape of the planet.

The same does have to be said about modern electronics. Replacing phones every 2 years, buying a new TV every year just because, filling your house with them...it all adds up.

I understand that, as with most things in life, man wants new shiny thing. It's in our nature. But there are huge cons with buying an ev and as far as the planet goes they outweigh the pros.

Battery technology is moving on quickly though, very quickly, so in a few years this all might change.

Until then I'll continue to run my old car. It starts, it stops. No need for new shiny thing.
But you’re quite happy to pump shit into the atmosphere every time you make a journey.. the short ones are the worst.. And if you think for one second that the manufacturing process for a conventional ICE vehicle is harmless then I fear you are mistaken... The very word is deceiving.. Harmless means it harms less... there’s no such thing as a free lunch in terms of the planet and automobiles
 
From first bolt to leaving factory an electric car has a bigger environmental impact than an ICE car.
Then there’s the fuel.
Electricity just shifts the source of the pollution from vehicle to generating plant.
 
But you’re quite happy to pump shit into the atmosphere every time you make a journey.. the short ones are the worst.. And if you think for one second that the manufacturing process for a conventional ICE vehicle is harmless then I fear you are mistaken... The very word is deceiving.. Harmless means it harms less... there’s no such thing as a free lunch in terms of the planet and automobiles

As I said...something needs to change. We can't keep on burning fossil fuel. But to suggest that EV's in their current state are the future is plainly wrong. They rape the planet as much as fossil fuels. PHEV's are the worst of both world's.

Hydrogen is probably the best way forward, the source is abundant, but it's very expensive to get right.

We are better off keeping our cars for longer than 3 years, using them less (just popping to the shops?) and working out a better solution because at the moment anyone who buys a EV or PHEV because they are better for the planet is buying into a lie.
 
I miss a coal fire as it was the epicenter of familiar life. Making toast with a prong fork with lashings of best butter on a winters eve was a blessing in disguise. If I had to say one area where humnanity has regressed rather than progressed then this has to be it. I used to watch the steam train bringing our coal up the valley as a kid at 06.15 very morning and rarely missed a days viewing. They don't know there born nowadays : /


And those smogs that killed tens of thousands every year.
Why can’t we have them back too.
 
As I said...something needs to change. We can't keep on burning fossil fuel. But to suggest that EV's in their current state are the future is plainly wrong. They rape the planet as much as fossil fuels. PHEV's are the worst of both world's.

Hydrogen is probably the best way forward, the source is abundant, but it's very expensive to get right.

We are better off keeping our cars for longer than 3 years, using them less (just popping to the shops?) and working out a better solution because at the moment anyone who buys a EV or PHEV because they are better for the planet is buying into a lie.
I’ve not had a car for 7 years now, I really don’t miss it.
 
As I said...something needs to change. We can't keep on burning fossil fuel. But to suggest that EV's in their current state are the future is plainly wrong. They rape the planet as much as fossil fuels. PHEV's are the worst of both world's.

Hydrogen is probably the best way forward, the source is abundant, but it's very expensive to get right.

We are better off keeping our cars for longer than 3 years, using them less (just popping to the shops?) and working out a better solution because at the moment anyone who buys a EV or PHEV because they are better for the planet is buying into a lie.
Whatever we do it will never be a total solution... there are third world countries where the main form of transport is still the two stroke... We have to do something I agree but let’s see what developments in battery technology emerge in the coming months and years before we totally write EVs off
 
Whatever we do it will never be a total solution... there are third world countries where the main form of transport is still the two stroke... We have to do something I agree but let’s see what developments in battery technology emerge in the coming months and years before we totally write EVs off
The batteries are only half the problem though. The other half is what do you fill them with? Electricity generated by burning fossil fuels? What's the point. We have fleetingly managed to produce 50% of our *electricity* (not total energy) needs from renewables. That's when it's windy and the skies are bright. We have no chance of producing enough when it's night time and cloudy, let alone if/when we have 50x the numbers of electric cars to power. And from memory I think electricity is less than half our energy needs - about 25% to 30% IIRC. So we've managed - fleetingly - to generate half of 30% of our required energy to run the country. It's pitiful.

So unless/until we develop some step-change capability in renewable energy generation and storage, or we get nuclear fusion up and running, or we just bite the bullet and build a load more conventional nuclear power stations... then the harsh reality is we are going to be relying on burning fossil fuels in vast quantities. I cannot see how this can be avoided in the next 30 to 50 years.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.