The Electric Car Pre-Order Problem

Comments

• sj_zero ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  I've wanted an EV since before EVs were really a thing, but there's an obvious problem that needs to be solved -- and I think I have a solution.

  The biggest problem is that they're really expensive and not very useful.

  Now, some people will say "But a Tesla is only $40,000!" -- well that's great, I drive a used Toyota Corolla because I'm not a Mr. Moneybags movie star or investment banker. I don't have $40,000 to dump into a vehicle. I make fun of people who go out and buy vehicles that expensive for no good reason.

  Second, people will say "But a Tesla can go 700km!" and that might be true, but I can fill up my car at every single town along the way to the next major city, and it takes about 30 seconds to get another 700km of range. I live in the second biggest country in the world, and among the most sparsely populated country in the world so if I'm travelling between cities I need that kind of dependable range.

  Moreover, I live in one of the coldest countries in the world. -40C is a reasonable expectation in winter, -45C without windchill is not unheard of where I live. I see Telsa bragging that they test their cars in Alaska or Norway, but here's the thing: the video they inevitably show shows cars leaving the heated garage to drive on a track. That's not most people's reality.

  Finally, if hypothetically everyone bought a Tesla to replace their ICE car, the electrical grid would collapse off of the massive increased load of charging tons of high capacity batteries.

  So it's an unusually expensive, unusually useless car.

  Now I said I have a solution, what is that? Simple: Stop trying to recreate an ICE automobile and start working on making an electric vehicle. Something small, lightweight, with a limited range and speed that you can buy for no more than a couple thousand dollars, maybe run without insurance or with very inexpensive insurance, that can maybe live outside, and maybe even run a heater or something so you can use it around town all year round. Probably with a battery you can slip right out and take in your home so it doesn't need to live in -40 weather all the time.

  That'd require someone to build and market it, but it would also require governments to make such vehicles legal. It would require some compromises, but I think it'd immediately mean a lot of people who can't afford cars suddenly have transportation, and a lot of people who can afford cars would choose to use their cheap EV instead, and even if everyone brought their little LiPo battery in the house and charged it every night, you wouldn't be talking about increasing loads on the power grid that couldn't be managed using existing infrastructure.

  • realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    What's an ICE car?

    I'm seriously thinking about getting a hybrid. I like the benefits of an electric car--lower "refueling" costs (which can be free if you can be near a free charging station is a particularly appealing perk. However, that benefit isn't enough to survive solely on gas because, well,not every place has electric chargers. The hybrid Ford Fusion and Ford Focus for example are really appealing to me.

    source

    • sj_zero ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      ICE is Internal Combustion Engine.

      Right before the world ended I rented a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Really nice car, heated and cooled seats and heated and cooled steering whell.

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