You have 13 yrs 11 mths left to buy a GM gas or dsl vehicle

RoyJ wrote:
We should all agree for 95 - 99% of daily use, EVs are completely adequate. This will be the future whether we like it or not.

However, there will always be enthusiast uses for IC engine:

- I love LONG back-country overlanding. It's nearly impossible to bring a large enough battery pack. I'll stay with my old truck, or bring a big tank of diesel and 240V generator

- I love the sound and feel of IC engine in my sportscar. No, I will not take simulated screaming V8 through a Bose

- Long range boating / offshore fishing. Unlike cars, planning boats are extremely power hungry. I just don't see any battery tech that can replace 600 gallons worth of gasoline within 20 years. Motors aren't the problem.

Most enthusiasts though, will own multiple cars. We can have an EV doing commuting duty, and save IC for "special occasions"

Yep, no doubt I will own an EV some day but gas is never going away completely from my life. Harley's Livewire is a neat bike and will eat my Heritage Softail for lunch (at least in a drag race) but the sound and soul of that V-twin can't be replaced.

time2roll wrote:
I don't think we will ever stop burning all hydrocarbons. Although much could eventually stop. We are still picking the low hanging fruit.

Agreed, let future generations figure out where it all went. Cheap energy is good for us now. It will last forever.

(Might want to look up the definition of "finite")

I don't think we will ever stop burning all hydrocarbons. Although much could eventually stop. We are still picking the low hanging fruit.

We should all agree for 95 - 99% of daily use, EVs are completely adequate. This will be the future whether we like it or not.

However, there will always be enthusiast uses for IC engine:

- I love LONG back-country overlanding. It's nearly impossible to bring a large enough battery pack. I'll stay with my old truck, or bring a big tank of diesel and 240V generator

- I love the sound and feel of IC engine in my sportscar. No, I will not take simulated screaming V8 through a Bose

- Long range boating / offshore fishing. Unlike cars, planning boats are extremely power hungry. I just don't see any battery tech that can replace 600 gallons worth of gasoline within 20 years. Motors aren't the problem.

Most enthusiasts though, will own multiple cars. We can have an EV doing commuting duty, and save IC for "special occasions"

Reisender wrote:
Well, it comes down to GM (and other companies) speculating on wether there will still be a market for anything with a tailpipe in 2035. Does GM sell vehicles in Western Europe. I actually don’t know. But I can guarantee you, in 13 years and 11 months nobody in western Europe is going to be interested in buying some stinky high maintenance expensive to run ancient technology clunky gasser with a tail pipe vehicle. We travel a lot in Europe, and the people in cities already hate vehicles with tail pipes and many down town areas are already closed to any vehicle with a tail pipe.

Like I say. I have no idea if GM sells vehicles in Europe so not sure if this is relevant.

Well, no you can't guarantee anything. It's possible that ICE will be out of favor by the deadline, but it's also possible there will be issues cropping up in the next 15 years that preclude complete changeover to EV.

Since I doubt you are actually omniscient or even prescient, trying to guarantee statements made by governments is impossible.

Yes I still meet people that think the EV charges continuously when plugged in.
They seem to be very surprised when I tell them the charging stops and the wall unit turns off power completely.

SPRey wrote:
Don't EV require between 50-100 kWh to fully charge the battery (0-100%)? Multiply that by 100 million, and it is "danger danger Will Robinson".

There are over 200M gas/diesel powered cars in the USA today - if all of them tried to fill up their tanks in one day, they'd consume more than the world's total output of oil.

That doesn't happen, of course, for the same reason that not all EV's will need to charge a completely depleted battery every day.

Yes the net metering works good until you become a net generator. As a net generator you can get paid at the low wholesale interchange rates paid to power plants. Payment of 2 to 5 cents per kWh may not provide an adequate return for a home system install. The real return comes from eliminating the top 80% of your usage.

If you end up as a net generator it would be a good idea to consider moving gas appliances to electric such as heat pump for furnace and water heat, electric cook top, oven etc. Not to mention getting an electric vehicle.

Many installers do tend to oversize the project for their own benefit. Still good for the grid. Just a lower rate of return.

time2roll wrote:
There are continuous outages from equipment failure or needed upgrades. There is a lot of equipment. Just as there are vehicles failing every minute that need repair or maintenance. This is different from inadequate supply. 19 years since, not every year.

You can talk about related issues all day and still it had been 19 years since generating capacity was inadequate. And actually there was adequate supply until a natural gas generator when off line due the peak demand day last summer. If that plant kept running that day CA would have exceeded the historical maximum demand.

I was on CAISO monitoring that day and watched it unfold.

Could the grid in CA be better? Yes. They are working on it every day. Not a static situation.

And the rate of the state going. into 100% renewables will be faster if they allow homeowners with solar to get payment for what they supply back to the grid.

When I was in SoCal a few years ago, I would have gone solar but my electricity bill was low. I would have excess that I can supply back to the power company but would only get credit that would just accumulate in their books.

Lantley wrote:

What is also confounding to me is that Tesla is a USA company but we don't seem to embrace or take pride in the fact that Tesla is American Engineering at its finest.
Tesla technology rivals the achievements of NASA yet we are slow to embrace it as a country.

It's no one is a prophet in his own town.

When I was in Europe wearing a Tesla hat, everyone I met would ask me if own a Tesla pointing at my head.

I told them no, but my daughter does but my hat was from my son who worked for Tesla.

I'm not sure what impressed them more. Indeed, Tesla is a dream car in Europe and sells everything that reach their shore with very long waitlist.