jfkmk wrote:
John & Angela wrote:
jfkmk wrote:
garyemunson wrote:
For the foreseeable future, I expect the cost of the chargers will be spread out over all the customers through higher prices at the businesses that supply free charging.
I agree this is what is probably happening, but I don't necessarily agree with. Why on earth should I subsidize someone else's transportation? Why should the store treat one customer better than another because of the type of car they drive?
I remember talking with an electric car owner at a restaurant. He said he taught at a university near where I worked. Knowing it was about a 100 mile round trip, I asked if he saw any real benefit to electric due to the high mileage of the commute. He told me he got to charge his car for free at the university. Great, so I was subsidizing his commute too (it was a state school). I really don't get subsidizing others like this.
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. I suppose the pretense is that an electric vehicle emits no pollution......
Perhaps, but don't forget the electricity needs to be generated somehow. Most electricity in the US is produced using coal and natural gas.
That is true and a good point. But lets not forget that the amount of power world wide produced thru less polluting methods is continually on the rise. I'm not familiar with power production in the US but many countries produce more and more of their power from hydro, thermal, wind and solar. Solar is now on the verge of producing power cheaper than coal and there is a point of use power production revolution around the corner. More and more of the DC fast charging stations are being built as self powered units, eg, solar powered and then the power stored. Both Tesla and Generic although Tesla is more aggressive on this front.
Also, lets not forget, it takes six kilowatts of power to produce one gallon of gas, above and beyond the other processing costs of petroleum for fuel and bi products, plastics etc. So essentially, both ICE vehicles and EV's both use power, however that 6 kilowatts will push and EV a further than an ICE vehicle. We need petroleum and will for years as there are many important bi-products that are produced from the black stuff.
Also, if a power plant has a controlled exhaust emission it is considerably cleaner to produce power for a 100,000 EV's than 100,000 tail pipes and catalytic converters, and is considerably easier to regulate.
The whole "climate change" buss word usage is setting us back as a society. Keep it simple. If it emits pollution that poisons our air or water we need to make efforts to reduce it or find a better way. That way is here now. Those ways are being discovered every day. Lets hope our governments man up and take responsibility from a planetary point of view and not just a monetary point of view. Yes we all need to make gradual change but we all live on this globe together. Lets try and keep it alive for future generations.
