Electric cars

[kinkyblue]

Comedy post...
I am thinking of replacing my electric car with a petrol one and have a few questions..
1. I have heard that petrol cars don’t refuel at home while you sleep, which seems a bit inconvenient. How often do you have to refuel elsewhere ? Is this several time a year ? Will there be a solution for re-fueling at home ?
2. Which parts will I need service on and how often ? The car salesman mentioned a box with gears in it, oil filters, oil changes... What are these?
3. Can I accelerate and brake with one pedal as I do today with my electric car ? This makes driving easier and stops my brakes from wearing out.
4. Do I get fuel back when I slow down or drive downhill ? I assume so but I need to ask to make sure ?
5. The car I test drove seemed to have a delay from the time I pressed the accelerator pedal until it began to accelerate. Is that normal in petrol cars ?
6. I currently pay about 2-3p per mile to drive my electric car and do about 20k miles per year. I hear petrol can cost 5 or more times so Iet’s hope more people will start using petrol so prices go down.
7. Is it true that petrol is flammable ?! Should I empty the tank and store the petrol somewhere else while the car is in the garage ?
8. Is there an automatic system to prevent petrol from catching fire in an accident. What does this cost ?
9. I understand that the main ingredient in petrol is oil. Is it true that the extraction and refining of oil causes massive environmental problems as well as conflicts and wars that over the last 100 years may have cost millions of lives ? Is there a solution to this ?
10. I have heard that cars with internal combustion based engines are being banned to enter more and more cities around the world, as it is claimed that the tend to harm the environment and health of their citizens ? is that true ?
11. For a few grand can I install a zero carbon petrol refinery on my roof to replace the solar panels used to recharge my current EV?
12. Can the petrol be recycled/reused once used up just like the batteries in an EV can?
I may have more questions later but these are the most important ones to me at the moment. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Brilliant

 

[bluealf]

Maybe we really need to focus engineering solutions much more on medium to longer term solutions, like hydrogen fuel cells or some other renewable energy vehicles. EV vehicles alone simply cannot be the only solution. Easy to say I suppose.

 

[crublue1]

Maybe we really need to focus engineering solutions much more on medium to longer term solutions, like hydrogen fuel cells or some other renewable energy vehicles. EV vehicles alone simply cannot be the only solution. Easy to say I suppose.

Easy to say, because it's probably true. Batteries will just be a stop gap, there's no way they will be our go to power source for vehicles in 20- 30 years time, not a chance. When you look at battery development over the last 100 years they have pretty much remained the same, save for the way they are packaged. They may be smaller and slightly more efficient due to advances in chemical engineering, but the principle remains the same. To be a viable solution they would have to be half the weight and produce twice the power. Neither of which has ever happened since their invention, so we can assume it ain't happening anytime soon.

It's not the magic solution they want us to think it Is.

 

[ganganvince]

Easy to say, because it's probably true. Batteries will just be a stop gap, there's no way they will be our go to power source for vehicles in 20- 30 years time, not a chance. When you look at battery development over the last 100 years they have pretty much remained the same, save for the way they are packaged. They may be smaller and slightly more efficient due to advances in chemical engineering, but the principle remains the same. To be a viable solution they would have to be half the weight and produce twice the power. Neither of which has ever happened since their invention, so we can assume it ain't happening anytime soon.

It's not the magic solution they want us to think it Is.

Think we will also have to rethink the way we travel as self driving cars become common rental by the hour could become common place similar to cabs but without the expense of a driver.

 

[knuckles]

Easy to say, because it's probably true. Batteries will just be a stop gap, there's no way they will be our go to power source for vehicles in 20- 30 years time, not a chance. When you look at battery development over the last 100 years they have pretty much remained the same, save for the way they are packaged. They may be smaller and slightly more efficient due to advances in chemical engineering, but the principle remains the same. To be a viable solution they would have to be half the weight and produce twice the power. Neither of which has ever happened since their invention, so we can assume it ain't happening anytime soon.

It's not the magic solution they want us to think it Is.

All good points, I think for me the hydrogen fuel cell seems the best medium term (maybe short term?) solution, in terms of infrastructure we already have plenty of petrol stations, obviously updates would be required to them, but that's what happened when LPG became more popular. I read the other day that they can now use nickel as the catalyst and not platinum which has been a sticking point because of cost and scarcity of platinum - yet again an engineering problem overcome, nickel is widely and cheaply available. It's more of a will by manufacturers to create demand for these fuel cell powered vehicles now. On another note there are some universities that have created fuel cell boilers for heating homes, maybe that's another piece of the solution to climate change and the energy crisis?

 

[knuckles]

Hahaha great films, and the new one is out soon! Just got to follow the white rabbit and all our problems will be solved!!!

 

[crublue1]

All good points, I think for me the hydrogen fuel cell seems the best medium term (maybe short term?) solution, in terms of infrastructure we already have plenty of petrol stations, obviously updates would be required to them, but that's what happened when LPG became more popular. I read the other day that they can now use nickel as the catalyst and not platinum which has been a sticking point because of cost and scarcity of platinum - yet again an engineering problem overcome, nickel is widely and cheaply available. It's more of a will by manufacturers to create demand for these fuel cell powered vehicles now. On another note there are some universities that have created fuel cell boilers for heating homes, maybe that's another piece of the solution to climate change and the energy crisis?

Good post.
I think we are currently in a race where no one can see the finish line, it's a bit of a blind rush, but we all feel the need to be in it. And quite rightly so. I think it's being done for the right reasons.
We are definitely in the awkward stage of realising we need to do something, but we don't really have the knowledge or will to actually achieve it. But as humans we strive to accomplish the sometimes seemingly unachievable goals we set ourselves.

In fifty years or so we might just look back on this era and say to ourselves yep, that was the turning point, the time when we realised, and the time we took action. Let's hope so.

 

[knuckles]

Good post.
I think we are currently in a race where no one can see the finish line, it's a bit of a blind rush, but we all feel the need to be in it. And quite rightly so. I think it's being done for the right reasons.
We are definitely in the awkward stage of realising we need to do something, but we don't really have the knowledge or will to actually achieve it. But as humans we strive to accomplish the sometimes seemingly unachievable goals we set ourselves.

In fifty years or so we might just look back on this era and say to ourselves yep, that was the turning point, the time when we realised, and the time we took action. Let's hope so.

I hope you're right, also that'll mean I ended up living to be well over 100 so I'll take it :)

 

[crublue1]

I hope you're right, also that'll mean I ended up living to be well over 100 so I'll take it :)

Ha ha it was a random figure, but thinking about it, me too!
I'll take it as well...

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Think we will also have to rethink the way we travel as self driving cars become common rental by the hour could become common place similar to cabs but without the expense of a driver.

Certainly in towns and cities I think you are spot on. Things like ulez will make car ownership unafordable and the thing you describe could take off as quickly as Uber or deliveroo. The technology is essentially already here - Tesla's can do it now, just not legal yet.