Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[Gale Hawkins]

There's an interesting article in the October 2021 National Geographic about EV transportation.

That's where I saw the item about how much electricity and battery weight it takes to move an airplane.

It would take 4.4 million laptop batteries to get a 747 off the ground, but they'd weigh 8X the weight of the airplane.

Pound for pound, liquid fuel is and alway will be the winner for power to weight ratio. It's not even close.

And airline travel is not going away. So the focus has shifted to more efficient aircraft, engines and cleaner fuel from recyclable sources. Right now, that type of fuel is 6-8 times more expensive. Until it is mandated, there's no money in scaling up to produce it.

All this can be applied to automobiles. Costs vs benefits. "Average" people can't currently afford the costs of EVs.

Electric planes the battery weight is the same on takeoff as it does landing. Jet fuel gets lighter and lighter and lighter the further you go so the landing is less impactful.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Sandy on Tesla's Hertz deal.

 

[3930dave]

Thanks this helps me better understand why some people hate on EVs. People tend to get uptight when they know they're going to lose some of their freebies.

That may be a factor in some cases/sectors.

Myself, I'm mostly Agnostic when it comes to technology..... if it does what I want, when I want, at a cost and reliability level that suits me, then I'll consider it.

IMO, a lot of the push-back at the moment is along the lines of Hate The Game, not The Player though....

..... meaning..... if the perception is:

Thou Shalt Do THIS, not THAT.....

It doesn't matter so much (IMO) what THIS is, rather that the delivery of the edict rubs people the wrong way.....

Current (pun intended) EVs would suit me for local running around, but not my bank account.

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

That may be a factor in some cases/sectors.

Myself, I'm mostly Agnostic when it comes to technology..... if it does what I want, when I want, at a cost and reliability level that suits me, then I'll consider it.

IMO, a lot of the push-back at the moment is along the lines of Hate The Game, not The Player though....

..... meaning..... if the perception is:

Thou Shalt Do THIS, not THAT.....

It doesn't matter so much (IMO) what THIS is, rather that the delivery of the edict rubs people the wrong way.....

Current (pun intended) EVs would suit me for local running around, but not my bank account.

Rgds, D.

Good points. I think we're just living in a Time of anti-everything.

If major institutions start banding any investments in the fossil fuel industry we could possibly see gasoline going to 8 to $10 a gallon over the next 10 years which would be a game changer.

One positive should be a very nice ICE car a few years old could perhaps be bought for $0.30 on a dollar of retail.

 

[3930dave]

Doing it now will simply cater to the elite while destroying the economy.

Well, if I were to place a bet based on the last 40 years.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

We cannot trust people to drive yet we trust them to build systems that can "protect us." Gotta love human hubris...

Many people are bored by/pay no attention to History.... Why Bother ?

I can't imagine ground transport getting more scrutiny..... just look at the lethal products that Boeing got "Approved" by the FAA.....

Rgds, D.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Self-drivers don't have to be perfect, they just have to be better than a human. That is not a high bar. A self-driving school bus would never have run a stop sign.

Well, I beg to differ.
Everyone here has had the experience of a computer crash or experienced an electronic failure. Imagine relying on THAT driving a bus, truck or car. And yes, I know people drive drunk, have heart attacks or strokes while driving...still hard to beat the creative brain though. As I say, I committed two traffic violations yet here to tell the story, one of several instances.

 

[Fixastuff]

Well, I beg to differ.
Everyone here has had the experience of a computer crash or experienced an electronic failure. Imagine relying on THAT driving a bus, truck or car. And yes, I know people drive drunk, have heart attacks or strokes while driving...still hard to beat the creative brain though. As I say, I committed two traffic violations yet here to tell the story, one of several instances.

The way to go from 2 lanes to one and not have to slow down is to double the speed as you downsize lanes. A computer knows this

 

[MossRoad]

Electric planes the battery weight is the same on takeoff as it does landing. Jet fuel gets lighter and lighter and lighter the further you go so the landing is less impactful.

Yes, but you still can't get a battery powered 747 off the ground.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Yes, but you still can't get a battery powered 747 off the ground.

That should be self-evident.