All electric vehicles?

2edgesword wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Strange that they can do peak demand for several hours without significant problems. Is there something special about doing a peak at 11:00 a.m. vs 6 p.m?

2edgesword wrote:
There is a lot of power generation between 10am and 4pm but not a lot of infrastructure to deliver it.

I think there are two issue involved.

The first is electric grid infrastructure. Everything I've read on the issue I the grid is already stressed to the breaking point. Generation may not be the central issue but delivery.

Second, solar may be part of the answer to number one in some areas but I live in the congested, crowded northeast and there is no way in many, many places that solar is going to be the answer to the power generation issue. I do not envision massive solar panel fields up and down the I-95 corridor replacing a significant number of the thousands of gas stations along that corridor anytime in the near furture (10 years). This means much of that area is going to be have to served by major remote areas of solar power generation that is transferred via an efficient electric grid to get to places along that corridor. I don't see a significant portion of it being transmitted over the existing power grid that is already under stress, especially at certain peak power consumption time during the year.

Beyond that I'm still interested to see a study that confirms EV from raw material to end of life disposal are a net benefit to the environment or that battery technology that rivals the internal combustion engine is really here in a way that is cost effective on a mass production level.

BTW, I am in no way biased againt EV. I'm an electrical engineer and have been involved with numerous corporations working on solar energy applications for over 20 years. Some tremendous advancements have been made in battery technology and solar collection but as said I still don't see a signficant percentage of the automobile industry being taken over by EV for another 20 years or so.

I tend to agree with most...if not all your post. Re the cradle to grave footprint, I do seem to have read something somewhere that indicated even in the worst case scenario of all the power being provided by coal, the EV is still a considerably lower footprint. However I can't remember where I read it and am too lazy to google it.

The big advantage is getting large numbers of ICE engines out of the city. This will clear up the air in big cities as has already been proven out in Norway. In twenty years if the majority of the auto fleet in LA is zero emission...at least from the vehicle itself...then the air is going to be considerably cleaner.

The other thing is, if their is price parity and all things equal, many will choose the EV just from a convenience and performance point of view...and this is from experience of driving nothing but EV's for almost 4 years. Test drives are very effective in generating sales. Just riding in one of our cars has generated half a dozen sales in the last four years.