In Defense of the Electric Car – part2


The demise of the Western auto industry: Part 2 – the problem

By John Hardy

Part 1 of this series here, expressed the view that regardless of “the environment”, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are poised to inflict a massive disruption on the automotive industry, and outlined the strengths of the technology and some of the reasons that it is happening now.

In Part 2, I outline what I see as the main issues for Western automakers. They need to wake up and smell the coffee: the history of technology is strewn with examples of once-great companies that failed to adapt to a technology advance and went to the wall. Traditional Western automakers may just do the same. They appear to have failed to realise that gearing up for EVs is not just business as usual with a different drivetrain. In particular they have until very recently shown no sign of thinking about fast charge, sourcing the cells that go into batteries, the dealer network or maintenance.

Fast charge

First of all, fast charge*. Most privately owned cars spend most of the time parked, and most of their journeys are short (in the UK private cars average around 21 miles per day)[1], but are occasionally called on to go cross country (think commuting in the week and visiting granny on occasional weekends). The comparable figure in the US is about 30 miles per day [2]. Overnight charging at home handles most driving.

Fast charge capability is however critical to cross-country driving; and most people require this capability, even if they don’t use it much. The fast charge standards supported by the major Western automakers have been inadequate (pitiful power levels), coverage spotty and use cumbersome. By contrast Tesla built their own supercharger network with twice the power levels of most public stations: and the sat nav in the car knows their location. Tesla cars are internet connected and do over-the-air software updates like laptops, so presumably the fast charge locations the car knows about stay up to date. If the major automakers do not take ownership of the fast charge issue they will remain at a disadvantage compared with those who do. Relying on a publically-funded infrastructure won’t do. Generic commercial charging stations after the style of the present auto fuel infrastructure may become viable on busy routes (with profit coming from the cake and coffee sold to drivers sitting for the 20 minutes while their cars charge) but most charging will be at home, and with electricity so cheap it may never be very attractive commercially.

*There is some terminology confusion here. By “fast charge” I mean charging from a DC source at 40Kw upwards. This is also sometimes called “rapid charge”.


Next, cells (a battery is composed of many cells wired in series like the battery in an electric toy is composed of a few AA cells in series). In 2013, world output of lithium ion cells was said to be a little over 30 Gigawatt-hours (Gw-hr) per year [3]. A Gw-hr is a measure of energy. A high powered household device like an electric kettle or electric fan heater might use 3 Kilowatts (Kw). Leave it on for an hour and you have burned 3 Kilowatt-hours (Kw-hrs). If you do half an hour of vacuuming with a 1 kW vacuum cleaner, you will have used half a Kw-hrs. A Gigawatt is a million kW, so if you do the maths, if you took all the lithium battery output of the entire world for 2013, it would (in theory and neglecting losses) power a million 3Kw electric heaters for ten hours, or ten thousand for 41 days (a thousand hours).

More pertinently, an EV burns 1 Kw-hr every 3 – 4 miles; so a 300 mile range EV would need 75 – 100 Kw-hrs of cells, so world output of lithium ion batteries in 2013 would at best be enough for around 400,000 EVs with a 300 mile range. Worldwide car production in 2016 was probably about 72 million. To electrify all of them to that range would require (again ball-park figures) roughly 200 times the 2013 production of lithium ion batteries.

The majors seem to be waking up (arguably too late and too slowly) to the fact that the supply of cells for battery packs is an issue. In June 2017 Ulrich Eichhorn of VW, went public with a statement that the whole VW group (Audi, Seat etc.) would need 200 Gw-hr of battery cell production by 2025 [4]. They have not announced any definite plans for sourcing these cells. Meanwhile, Tesla have once again thought ahead of the pack. They broke ground on their gigafactory in Nevada in 2014 with the initial target of 35 Gw-hr per year capacity: at the time this was roughly equal to existing global output from all manufacturers (love him or hate him, Elon Musk can’t be accused of timidity). More gigafactories are planned.

The problems for the traditional majors are illustrated by the GM Bolt. The Bolt is a 200+ mile range EV, which is seen by many as competition for Tesla’s new Model 3. However the Bolt uses cells from LG Chem (a Korean company). LG produce cells for the Bolt in a plant in Michigan which has a capacity projected to rise to around 3 Gw-hr in the next year or two [5]. Even if we assume that all these cells go into Chevy Bolts that is going to constrain Bolt sales to a fraction of what Tesla can achieve: 3 Gw-hrs is enough for about 50,000 Bolts. Tesla’s stated intention is to ramp up to ten times as many Model 3s.

For the next few decades at least the traditional majors need to think of cell production the same way they think of engine plants and put serious money ($billions) into it. There are trade-offs in the chemistry and packaging of cells that potentially affect battery management, charging, heating and cooling of the pack etc. This in turn has an impact on the cost and performance of the car.

Sales and maintenance

The standard sales channel for new conventional piston engine cars is via dealers, and the dealers do much of the maintenance, especially on new cars. The profit on the sale of new cars is low; the dealers make much of their money on maintenance [6]. This model probably won’t work with EVs, because they need so much less maintenance; no oil and filter changes, no exhaust replacements, no intake air filters, no spark plugs, no cam belts, even fewer brake pad and disc changes because of regenerative braking. Add to that the preference of the rising generation to do everything on line, plus the move to disintermediation across the commercial world [7], and the dealer model is probably dead.

There is another potential dealer-related issue for traditional automakers where the dealer is selling a mix of EVs and conventional cars. If a savvy dealer has two cars on the lot, one a high maintenance conventional piston engine car, and one a low maintenance EV, which vehicle is that dealer going to push [8]? Tesla have no dealers; they sell direct on the web and have in-house service centres (they also do software upgrades wirelessly and don’t do conventional advertising)

The Chinese aren’t just putting in lots of new coal fired power stations; they are developing EVs and lithium battery capacity. One forecast suggests that Chinese production of lithium ion battery production will increase by a factor of five between 2016 and 2020, making it easily the largest producer worldwide [9]

Figure 1 The all-electric Nio EP9 (photo Wikipedia)

China’s indigenous auto industry is also flexing its muscles. For a brief period in May the production car lap record at the Nurburgring was held by the Nio EP9 (Figure 1) [10]. It actually held the record for just two weeks and then a McLaren took the record. With a hybrid.

If this doesn’t make the CEOs of the traditional Western automakers wake up screaming at 2:00 a.m. then they lack imagination. Here is a company few in the West have heard of, from a country with almost no previous performance car pedigree, strolling onto one of Europe’s most iconic circuits and beating all-comers with a pure electric car.

Finally consider this statistic: plug in hybrid and pure EV sales in China in 2013 were under 20,000. In the US in the same year sales were about five times greater: close to 100,000. By 2016, US sales had reached about 160,000: a respectable percentage increase, but less than half the sales in China. Over 350,000 EVs were sold there in 2016 (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Sales of Battery EVs and plug in hybrids in China and the USA for 2013 and 2016. Note that China’s growth rate is vastly higher than the US’s

A lot of the growth in China was a result of subsidies which were reduced in 2017 [11], leading to a slowing of growth in sales in Q1 of 2017, but in one sense that hardly matters: the capacity is being developed. No US or European automaker (apart from Tesla) could get anywhere near 350,000 units even if they wanted to.

In conclusion

Much of Western economic activity relates to cars: apart from the automakers themselves there are all the parts suppliers, and much of Big Oil is focussed on fuel for road vehicles. EVs will have a big impact on all this. It may already be too late for the Western automakers: they should have been breaking ground on cell production and rolling out fast charge years ago. But we are where we are, and maybe some will survive. If they don’t, our children will inherit even more of an industrial wasteland than is coming their way already.

In part 3 of this series I will take a look at several misconceptions about EVs


[1] 7,800 miles per year for privately owned cars = 21 m.p.d. Company cars 18,900 = 51 m.p.d. but they are a small percentage of the total number of cars

[2] dataset VM1. 11,244 miles per year is about 30 miles per day












592 thoughts on “In Defense of the Electric Car – part2

  1. I take exception to…


    I own a conventional piston engine car (BMW X3). I would not describe the car as high maintenance. Most of my shop visits are to change tires (summer to winter to summer), checking the brakes etc, things that an EV would also require.

    My low maintenance piston engine requires an oil & filter change every 25,000 km. I also have my mechanic check fluid levels (including brake and transmission fluid). Do EVs not have transmissions, turning parts that require lubricants, brakes and tires?

    • Your typical car doesn’t need service until around 100K miles any more. And that is to change the plugs. Around 150K starter motors and water pumps go out – but it isn’t like the EV won’t have to replace parts and batteries at 150K. I would rather pay $400 for a water pump than $4000 for a new battery pack.

      I guess if you throw in the 15, 10 minute oil changes a modern car needs over 150K and you might have a slight point. Put that dwarfs the extra time you would need for “quick” charging of the EV car batteries.

      • My ’95 Dodge truck has only needed a starter, O2 sensor and a water pump replaced since it was new. At $18K brand new, It has cost me average around $100 a month to drive it over 22 years, gas, tires and insurance included. (Yes, it’s loosing paint and rusted on the door bottoms, but a 318ci just runs too good to put out to pasture.)
        When EVs can match that ownership cost, I will spend the necessary dollars to get one.


        Wait until the cows come home and spend your money on really useful stuff.

      • Um, well, isn’t everyone forgetting the major overhaul every electric car requires when the batteries give up the ghost? What, in 5 years? And that cost is….$5,000? So all the savings you had on oil and maintenance go out the window in a lump sum payment.

      • Geoman November 7, 2017 at 9:22 am

        Batteries in the Mitsubishi PHEV have a 10yr guarantee in france. However, if a cell fails. That’s 700€ but putting one good cell among 9 other less good cells will have consequences.

      • @ Geoman

        You’re comment is ridiculous.

        There are 10 year old Prius Battery Packs still going strong.

        And the battery in my LG G3 has been through at least 1500 charge discharge cycles (many where the battery was completely depleted) over the 3 years I have owned it — and is still going strong.

      • How can you even have ANY charging if you park on the street? MANY MANY MANY UK homes are rows of terraced houses with on-street parking only. Where could you even put the charger? Wirelesss induction? Dig up EVERY terraced road in the UK, You think? Maybe swing-out arm from the house? The local kids are going to have a field day, if they don’t swing on the arms, they are simply going to unplug/cut the cable.
        Charging is going to ensure that EVs do not make it to mainstream. Here is a first dig at the power requirements too:


    • It all comes down to THIS: Unless and until EV’s can show clear, distinct mechanical and financial advantages over conventional vehicles, in the absence of subsidies they will remain a fringe market, primarily of interest to those who want to make a certain “statement” via what they drive.
      Which is pretty much where things stand right now. So far, no one has given me a reason to want one.

      • I am still waiting for an electric vehicle pusher to answer my questions.
        1) If 50% of the cars in America were electric and the other 50% were internal combustion engine vehicles, how much will we have to enlarge/extend the national electricity grid?
        2) How much will we have to increase our fossil fuel and/or nuclear power generation, assuming the grid is ready for the increases power needed for electric vehicles?
        3) Where will we get the money to accomplish expansion of the grid and our reliable power plants?

        I hope the author thoroughly researches these questions and acknowledges that they are more costs to expansion of electric vehicle use than just the vehicles themselves. Otherwise, we are discussing characteristics of vehicles and ignoring the electric power supply problems.

      • You do know that the tax credit disappears 1.5 years after 200,000 cumulative US sales (by manufacturer).

        Has not stopped Prius non-plug in hybrid sales.

      • That home solar PV system comes for free? How many PV panels are required when 40-80 Kwh daily are needed mainly during nighttime??

      • @ non Nomen

        what 40-80KWh?

        The Average US home uses 1100 kWh/ month = 36-40 a day

        Based on average daily drive, the kWh needed to recharge the average car is 10-11 Kwh

        Sell the power during the day when you get paid more for it, then recharge at night when it’s cheaper

        Lot’s of people already do it.

      • MPGe: Miles per Gallon Equivalent: 1 gallon of gasoline=33.7 kWh. Do you get along with one or two gallons per day?

      • “It all comes down to THIS: Unless and until those new fangled automobiles can show clear, distinct mechanical and financial advantages over the horse and buggy, in the absence of subsidies they will remain a fringe market, primarily of interest to those who want to make a certain “statement” via what they drive.”

      • 0x01010101

        If you’re going to try employing sarcasm you might need to avoid things that are objectively true.

        Automobiles DID remain a fringe market until they showed clear, distinct mechanical and financial advantages over the horse and buggy.

        Someday EV’s will solve their most pressing shortcomings and take president over ICE vehicles. But that time is not now, and it isn’t soon.

      • @Leonard

        Just adding to your argument –

        If EVs ever get up to 50% market share, then additional electricity infrastructure will push up the price of electricity while reduction in demand for oil will push down the price of oil.

        I have to laugh at the author’s concept of “fast charge” – 20 minutes for 200+ miles. I get close to 400 miles in 5 minutes. Until EVs are comparable on this factor they will always be a fringe for long distance driving.

        PHEVs make a lot more sense than EVs. PHEVs have a smaller battery than an EV to lug around the city most of the time. PHEVs use gasoline for the long distance drive. Best of both worlds. But even a PHEV costs $10,000 to $15,000 more than the same model ICE.

        This article is a puff piece for Tesla.

        Tesla’s Supercharger strategy is going to be an albatross when the majors roll out a faster charging network to serve all EVs rather than just Tesla. VW is committed to building a charging network due to its settlement of Dieselgate.

        Tesla’s Gigafactory is another albatross if new battery technology to reduce charge times ever become economical. Pansonic only agreed to build the Gigafactory because Tesla guaranteed Panasonic’s profit.

        Service charges on Tesla’s are very high due to Tesla’s inability to manufacture a quality car.

    • The savvy dealer would push the car that is going to make him the most profit.

      It’s a complete myth that piston cars are high maintenance.
      The fact that EV lovers have to keep pushing this lie is just more evidence that they know how weak their other arguments are.

      • It is not so much a myth as a outdated knowlege. For the last 15 years or so 100K service, for plugs, and O2 sensor has become standard. 10K oil changes are now standard. Even in the 1980’s the O2 sensor had to be changed every 30K along with the plugs, and oil changes were 3-5000 miles. Water pumps and starters blew at 50 – 80K miles.

        Cars today, are so much better, but you still get repair places advertizing for the old standards – change your oil every 3000 miles – because by convincing you to come in more often they get more money. And old car folks seem to remember the 3000 mile from the 70s and 80s.

      • Just like the myth that EV skeptics keep repeating about EV battery life, which has been proven to be demonstrably false.

      • Model S curb weight: 4673.3 LBS
        Lexus LS curb weight: 4234 LBS

        Honda Fit curb weight: 2381 LBS
        Honda Fit EV curb weight: 2940 LBS

        Yes, EVs are heavier – but not significantly so. Most EVs have regenerative braking which saves lots of wear on the entire brake system. Some Model S owners have reported going 100,000 miles on the original brakes. Some taxi services are also using the Model S and reporting very low maintenance/ownership costs:

      • 10% heavier and 25% heavier. That’s significant.
        If it mattered, we could put regenerative breaks on ICE vehicles as well.

      • Yesterday took our son’s PU and got 3/4 of decorative rock. Weight makes a difference.

        Our motor home carries 90 gallons of diesel and 60 gallons of water. It is one heavy rig, but it is hard to tell the loaded weight because of its design. It has very expensive tires to carry the load.

        Here is the deal with tires that carry a heavy load. They come apart and do lots of body damage. If you are going to fast, you will die. Going fast makes them fail.

        I keep bringing up RVs because in the US they out sell BEV in the world.

        Our MH is now 20 years old. A new luxury MH with diesel engine and Allison transmission like ours runs $300k.

        The reason you will never see 20 year old BEV is batteries are heavy. Batteries are expensive to replace. The novelty of a BEV is over at the first big bill.

      • While everybody writes about the regenerative braking on EVs they seem to mysteriously forget that an ICE engine provides compression braking.

      • @ Mark W

        My daughter’s Prius has the original brakes and has 115,000 miles — last oil change (which is the only maintenance needed) the tech said the brakes were fine

      • “But that compression Braking still uses gas”

        No it doesn’t, modern fuel injection engines don’t inject when the throttle is shut on overrun.

      • Then your daughter’s breaks are either seriously over built or she doesn’t do enough braking when she drives.

      • Zerofoo – I don’t doubt that folks love to drive their Model S’s, and have accumulated 100K miles. I doubt that they are driving 20-30 miles per day.

    • EVs may be low maintenance, but they’re high hassle for most people. Furthermore the only real maintenance my ICE car has is changing the oil and air filter (instances measured in months). That pales in comparison to the every day hassles of EVs

      • You said it. High Hassle. I don’t want to have to plug in a car every single day or worry how the temperature and accessories shorten the range. This whole EV thing was foisted on the consumer by a radical regime with their market distorting subsidies of Tesla et al.

      • Imagine having an EV, but not having a garage.

        New EV owner without garage: “I’m so excited. My new EV is parked in the driveway, I bought a beefy extension cord to run out the window from the house, now let’s check the manual to see how to charge this thing.”

        Chevy Bolt Manual: “An extension cord should not be used to charge the vehicle. Use of an extension cord may increase the risk of electric shock or other hazards.”

        New EV owner without garage: “Derp!”

      • Imagine having an EV, but not having a driveway.

        New EV owner without driveway: “I’m so excited. My new EV is parked on the street/parking.lot, I bought a long, beefy extension cord to run out the window from the house/apt, now let’s check the manual to see how to charge this thing.”


        New EV owner without driveway: “Whatever, I’ll just ignore that”

        [weeks later]

        Letter from from law firm Dewey, Cheatum, and Howl: “Dear Mr. So-and-so. This letter is to inform you that our client is suing you for being injured after tripping over the extension cord you had placed across the sidewalk.”

        New EV owner without driveway: “OH SH!T!”

        [Alternate scenario]

        New EV owner without driveway: “Hello, is the police dept?”

        Police dept: “Yes it is. May I help you?”

        New EV owner without driveway: “Yes, I’d like to report the theft of my $200 extension cord.”

      • Alternate scenario

        Local newspaper: “So-and-so was murdered last night during a home robbery. Police said that thieves gained access to So-and-so’s apartment after noticing that a window was cracked to allow passage of an extension cord that was charging an EV parked in the parking lot.”

      • 70% of Americans live in a house. 75% of those have a garage or carport. So there are 10s of millions of potential EV buyers that will not face the issues you bring up.

      • Chris,

        (1- (0.7 X 0.75)) = .475

        By your numbers 47% of Americans (I assume you mean USA) cannot reasonably take advantage of the subsidies that they themselves pay for.

      • Chris, I’d bet that a very large number of those carports are the temporary square tube and sheet metal kind that sit away from the house and are secured to the ground with 1/2″ re-bar stakes. Doesn’t make sense to spend money to run electrical service to one of those. Also, a very large number of those who live in houses are renters who are not about to invest thousands of dollars to install electric service on properties they don’t own.

      • 70% of Americans live in a house.

        I would venture to guess that those that live in a single family dwelling also have a higher percentage of children than those living in multi family dwellings making the 70% a bit dubious.

      • What about resale value? Sounds like zip when you’ve got aging batteries at let’s say, 70,000?

        Awful. Just awful:

        So I went back to my dealer contacts, who told me that many major franchise dealers either immediately send their electric trade-ins to auction or they list them for a very short period of time before sending them to the next large-scale auction. And then, as the apostle once said, the scales fell from my eyes. vAuto was measuring time to sale, but iSeeCars was measuring time to removal. In other words, iSeeCars could easily be counting cars that were dumped at auctions as “sales”.

      • The only difference between a driveway and a carport is the addition of protection from the rain.
        All of the problems with charging in a driveway still exist when charging in a carport.
        PS: not all garages or car ports are connected to the house or have power run to them.

      • Unless that carport has been wired for very high current, then you won’t even be able to trickle charge your EV.

      • Don said: Chris,

        (1- (0.7 X 0.75)) = .475


        And your point is? Do you actually think that all subsidies can be taken advantage of by all taxpayers? 35% of Americas rent their home. It’s not fair that they don’t get to take advantage of the home ownership tax write off, correct? So therefore that should be removed, along with the dozens of other tax credits that are not available to all.

      • To the comments about the % of houses that are suitable for EVs – yes, the figure is not 100%. Maybe its 70%, maybe its 50%. So what? It’s still a massive market.

      • Chris said:


        Yes, next question. And it’s not a home ownership tax write off (unless you’re talking about a rental property and depreciation), it’s a mortgage and possibly property tax write off.

      • Tsk tsk said:


        I’ll join you on Planet Dreamland when that statement becomes a reality. Trump’s tax plan was supposed to take away all the big deductions – the mortgage deduction stayed in, and many others will as well.

    • Teslas use a single reduction gear on the output of the electric motor. The lubricant for that reduction gear is changed in 5 year intervals.

      Teslas have battery coolant. This coolant should be replaced every 4 years/50,000 miles.

      Teslas also have traditional hydraulic brakes – that brake fluid should be changed every 2 years.

      Teslas do not have anything that relates to a traditional ICE – timing belts, engine oil, spark plugs, air filters, O2 sensors, catalytic converters, fuel injectors, diesel particulate filters, fuel filters, valve cover gaskets, oil pan gaskets, EGR valves…etc.

      Many Teslas are reporting 10 year old batteries with 90% capacity remaining or better. Tesla’s newest “drive unit” has a design lifespan of 1 million miles.

      In the short run (while under warranty) the electric car is probably a bit cheaper to maintain than an ICE. In the long run, an electric car is way cheaper to maintain than an ICE.

      • Gee, I’ve just replaced the rear brake pads on my ICE car – at 101,000+ miles. And I change the oil, and filters, regularly. 5 minutes at the gas pump still beats a “fast charge”.

        BTW, I doubt that we in Southern California drive 30 miles per day – before I retired, I was driving closer to 100 miles per day.

        I have recently found out that our house was wired with just enough power, barely, to run the house (it is a tract home). Any electrical upgrades will require a new circuit-breaker box, new wiring to the street, new grounding rods – $6400. Would I have to do that to be able to charge my plug-in EV in the garage every night?

      • “Many Teslas are reporting 10 year old batteries with 90% capacity remaining or better.”
        Only if they are driven infrequently and kept charged when not in use. But when used as a daily driver, no way, no how. Five years, tops.


        Links to support that assertion?

      • @ R E J

        If you put in a Solar PV system you technically would need no House related electrical work. The panels could be routed to only the EV charger.

        But you could also grid tie it with net-metering and make money when you’re not charging your car.

        Not to mention the 30% tax credit, the increase in your property value, and if you intertied to your house, some electricity where you get a premium paid back to you.

        You did say you live in California

      • It’s true zerofoo, an electric vehicle inherently should require lots less maintenance than an ICE powered car. If everything else was equal, electric cars would be a slam dunk.

        However everything else is not equal. First of all there is range. I am not talking about advertised range, I mean real world range. Range for instance, in Boston in the winter when the temperature is 20F and you need the heater, or Dallas in summer, when the temperature is 95F and you need air conditioning.

        Another is recharging. I don’t just mean the time, I mean where. A great many people would have no place to charge their car. Sure if you live in a suburban style neighborhood, with a driveway and maybe a garage, you can run an extension cord to your car. But what if, like many apartment dwellers, you park on the street?

        Then there is the matter of initial cost.

        So it’s not just operating cost (maintenance plus fuel), but lots of other things where the electric car does not have an advantage that will keep the electric car from becoming a significant percentage of the on-road fleet.

      • @ Paul Penrose

        I watch my neighbor drive her original 2006 Prius on the original battery pack EVERY DAY

        yes way yes how

        Oh, my LI-ION phone battery (3 years old) has been through at least 1500 charge discharge cycles

        yes way yes how

      • Chris: OK, I’ll retract my statement slightly. It really depends on the number of miles you drive daily, how and when you charge the batteries, and how you drive the car. If you have a short daily commute, don’t allow the charge to get below 50%, and don’t drive it hard, then yes, a 10 year old Tesla Model S could still have 90% capacity on the battery. Which is a good thing for those owners because it’s not a cheap pack to replace. But put more miles on it a year, like the 15K that is typical in the Midwest, take the battery often down well below 50%, drive it hard in cold winter weather, and you won’t be seeing 90% after 10 years and 150K miles.

        Karl: The Prius will still run with a battery well below 90% capacity since it is a hybrid. So just because it is still going means nothing. And as above, there are a lot of factors to battery life. And your cellphone battery life is irrelevant to this conversation.

      • Paul, do you have links to support your revised assertion? Here is a very detailed article publishing the results from hundreds of Tesla owners. It shows that the battery capacity at 100,000 remains between 91 and 96% (just one respondent was at 91%). Above 200,000 km, where there are fewer data points (but still about 10), the numbers range from 90% to 93.5%. So really no issue at all.

    • Well, an electric drive train apparently has only 3 parts, an ICE 1,000

      There’s a lot less engine, exhaust, fuel pump, etc to need fixing on an EV…??

      • An electric drive train does not only have three parts. Far from it. First you’re going to need a differential to compensate for the different diameter circles the left and right side of a car will track on a turn. That differential will comprise a large spiral bevel ring gear which will support three (planetary?) bevel gears set in bushings and which will, in a compensating manner drive two large beveled ring gears each set on its own shaft. Each shaft will be supported by ball bearings comprising inner and outer races, the cage, and the individual balls. And then there’ll be seals. The drive to each wheel will be through half shafts which will be splined to permit the shafts to telescope to different lengths depending upon suspension travel. The splines will be lubricated with grease and covered with rubber boots to prevent dirt and water from entering. Of course the EV doesn’t have magical rubber boots that are incapable of failing any more than the ICE car. Oh, and then each shaft is going to have inner and outer Constant Velocity joints to permit them to drive the wheels at the different angles suspension movements will require. These CV joints are lubricated by grease and covered by rubber boots that are no more magical than the boots covering the splines. And, now we get to the outer wheel bearings …

      • @ REJ

        Comparatively, relating to the powertrain and drivetrain, and fuel/air induction system — relatively few

      • Tom Judd lists quite a few relevant parts, now let me step in with a few more.. the control system electronics are both the weak and the strong point of modern ICE cars. I’ve faffed around trying to resolve computer issues with my last ford, an Aussie 95 Fairlane, and after being through the hands of numerous auto electricians and mechanics unsuccessfully I resolved the problem myself – but I can say, tracking and resolving electrical issues in cars becomes worlds harder as cars add more and more electronics onboard. It’s with great relief I find myself driving and working on and old 1971 Dodge Pheonix (US= Plymouth Fury) with a few hand tools and the only electronic complications being the door lock servos I added myself.

        Each (tin) solder joint becomes a risk of failure, each overheated transistor a risk of complete collapse – this isn’t just ‘my headlights dim when I put on my right blinker’ with an oily crimp increasing resistance, this is ‘ohshit my drive-by-wire steering has decided to throw the wheels 90 degrees sideways” or ‘the thermistor monitoring a battery pack has gone on the blink and allowed the pack to overheat catching fire’.

        I’m not saying this is a ICE versus electric issue, I’m saying modern cars rely too much on automated electronics to be able to last the 40 + years that say an old Fury can manage.. and electric cars probably have way more electric control circuitry than ICEs do. I haven’t done the math on the environmental ‘friendliness; of maintaining a 40 year old car versus scrapping one every 5 years for a new car, but somehow my gut tells me longevity comes with a built in economy of sorts.

        And chatting to folks who’ve been locked out of their cars by the electronics (or locked in), or unable to open the door to open the hood to replace the dead battery that drives the door locks, or who’ve had to leave their car untended with the windows down because they wont go up, or any number of other reasons that make me roll my eyes, I’m rather OK with manually winding my own windows, turning a key or pulling a lever every now and then.

        Or to put it another way, I’d hate to be trying to trace electrical faults on a modern electric car in the future.


        Yet modern cars with all their electronics are two- to three-times more reliable in all respects than that 40-year-old Fury. Most easily go 250K miles with little more than oil and tire changes. How many 40-year-old Furies made it past 100K miles w/o an engine overhaul? You have to take into consideration trying to control emissions w/o computers too:

        Run away screaming: 1985 Honda CVCC vacuum hose routing diagram×900.jpg?itok=hcgOx7Cx

      • I drive a 2005 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. At 160,000 miles, it has had spark plugs replaced exactly once, tires twice (though the latest set will easily last me 30 years), and just $60 bucks or so every year for oil change and filter change (almost unnecessary). It gets 18 mpg highway, but I can tow a 5,000 pound trailer and get 17.5 mpg. It has never once broken down.

        I’m 63, and although I don’t plan to retire for 13 years, this is probably the last motor vehicle I’ll ever own. I put 104,000 miles on that truck while living in Southern California, from 2005 to 2008. Then I moved to Maryland, and put 51,200 miles on it from 2008 to 2014. Since moving to Virginia, I’ve put 4,800 miles on it from 2014 to today. I stop at a gas station once a month. At this point, there is absolutely no economic reason to go to any other form of transportation.

    • Steve: no oil and filter changes, no exhaust systems, no catalytic converters, no induction air filters, no fan belts.. Tyres certainly , and brakes yes but less wear on these

    • The dealers are going to die regardless of the technology. I agree with the google concept that as self driving cars become reality, more and more people will opt out of car ownership. No garage, no insurance, no fuel, no maintenance. If you want to go on a long trip, rent a car. It will be 2 car families will not replace an old car because they don’t need 2. Then they will not replace the second one. It might take a while, but it will start in the next 10 to 15 years.

        You forgot NO FUN!

      • People could do the same thing today by using taxis.
        Yet they don’t.
        They idea that vast numbers of people will give up the convenience of having their own car for the expense and inconvenience of renting someone else’s, is sheer lunacy.

      • I have an associate at work. He’s a full on Global Warming alarmist. He’s also fanatical about electric vehicles and in particular self drive cars. His favorite thing to say when this topic is brought up is “You get into your self drive car and the windows go up, the doors lock and it takes you to the police station because you have an unpaid fine and there’ll be nothing you can do about it. Won’t it be so good”? I am deadly serious. This is his vision of the future.

      • The very same moment you are connected to the internet your freedom of unsupervised personal mobility is gone. Road tax, government restrictions -be they ridiculous as hell- open door to hackers who might offer you to bite the dust off the road if you dont pay and pay, insurances checking and fining your way how to drive, the list is an endless one. I’ll stick to my old motor that I know and that I can Fix Or Repair Daily or whenever necessary and drive without supervision by big, fat brothers.

      • Then it will be noted that the “poor,” who cannot drive a car now, are at a disadvantage. There will therefore be a government subsidy for, say, 10% of the self-driving “community cars.”

        Then it will be noted that transportation is a basic “right” for all citizens. There will therefore be a government takeover of the industry, to ensure that all people have this basic “right.”


        “You wish to reserve a car for Wednesday morning? I am so sorry, Comrade – at last week’s neighborhood meeting, you were observed to be the first person to stop applauding the Assistant Deputy to the Deputy Assistant to the Subminister for the Replacement of Golf Course Divots. I’m afraid that it has been determined you do not need a car on Wednesday, or any other day, considering that you do not use it to meet your obligations to society. Have a nice day!”

    • Yes Teslas do need oil changes in the driveline. This is generally ignored because it doesnt fot the narrative. Brakes should be less frequent but still there, tyres are tyres on any car (perhaps wearing more on heavy cars) suspension, steering, a/c , basic electrical all need care.

    • Steve..
      Thanks for that accurate correction. Unfortunately inaccurate statements like that destroy the credibility of the author and the entire article.
      I have a 2013 Cadillac CTS coupe (love it) and all scheduled maintenance including oil changes and a full bumper to bumper warranty was included for 4 years and 50,000 miles. I paid less for it than the price of a BOLT EV. I paid nothing for 4 years and have not had the car back to the shop yet since the free maintenance expired with a little under 50,000 miles.
      The maintenance claim for ICE is nonsense along with the many claimed benefits of EV’s!
      Since we have finally achieved independence from energy from unfriendly foreign nations via fracking, etc, why would we return to dependence on an unfriendly foreign supply for our materials for an Electric Vehicle?

      • The simple reason is to feel good about themselves. Guilt is not my thing. Before retiring I would sometimes stop in front of my house out in the county.
        I would think that If a young person and came to visit another kid who lived like that, I would think they were really rich.
        Our son who went to high school in that house now takes public transportation into Washington DC. He lectures me about Trumps’s policies on rust belt inter city schools. I will give him another year out of college before explaining why he never spent a day in those schools. Not to make him feel guilty but to recognize the use of guilt and but to avoid manipulation by politicians.

  2. An electric car produces twice the CO2 of a petrol driven car!. Also the loss of revenue to the UK treasury is estimated to be 328 billion( Edmund King President AA reported in the Times)

    • My estimate of the CO2 emissions resulting from my local utility’s fuel mix (43% coal, 44% natural gas, 1% oil, and 9% wind and solar, and 2% “demand-side management”) is about 1.5 lb CO2 per kWh delivered to the outlet after a 3.03 multiplier for energy-conversion and transmission loss. For a 4 mi/kWh Chevy Bolt, that’s 0.375 lb/mi. If my estimate is right, and if burning gasoline liberates 19.6 lb CO2 per gallon, that’s equivalent to a 52 mpg car. Of course, that doesn’t take into account charger loss, so it may be a little high. Still, I’d say the Bolt is respectable from an emissions standpoint.

      Not respectable enough to justify the Bolt’s relatively high cost, in my opinion, though. I understand that GM loses $9000 apiece on them, which presumably gets passed on to Tahoe buyers. And other taxpayers contribute to buyers’ subsidies.

      • EVs only save significant CO2 in countries which have a high percentage of nuclear or natural hydro such as Norway and Switzerland.

      • @ Joe Born, you are forgetting CO2 emissions during battery manufacture. 150-200kg of CO2 per 1kWh of storage IF 50% renewable energy used in making the battery . Typical EV battery equates to around 8 years of driving a normal ICE car, and of course CO2 emissions from electricity to power this add far more.

        IVL Swedish Institute study published July 2017.

      • Old England:

        Good point. If your 200 kg/kWhr number is correct and a battery is used for 100,000 miles, then if my calculations are right the equivalent mileage falls to 30 mpg. And that’s before charger loss.

    • …the loss of revenue to the UK treasury is estimated to be 328 billion…

      Where does that money go to when the treasury can’t lay hands on it any longer? Is it spent for other purposes and might fire up the industry? Or are the ducats rolling into China in exchange for Lithium?

      • UK gov has been salivating at the thought of pay-per-mile for many years now. The loss of fuel taxes from EVs will provide the perfect excuse.

  3. This post makes a number of very reasonable points. In a way it reminds me of what happened to the camera industry, with beautiful and brilliant mechanical cameras going the way of the Dodo in less than a decade once digital cameras got up to a decent resolution, price and quality.
    The real objection to EVs is that they are horridly expensive, wasteful of scarce resources and I a, not convinced they are intended to do much more than provide transport for the very wealthy while the poor can go hike.

    • The ‘beautiful and brilliant mechanical cameras’ are not going the way of the dodo. They are coming my way and at silly low prices even I can afford. Long live film.

      • Yes Peter and I have my old mechanical cameras too. But show most people under 30 a mechanical camera and they probably won’t know how to use it. For that matter I bought up a whole load of incandescent light bulbs cheap in the week stores were getting rid of them while switching to mercury contaminated eco bulbs. Fortunately my stock has lasted through beyond the hiatus into the bright and better LED bulbs, avoiding spoiling my eyesight on the early eco-babble products. Hopefully we’ll miss the rubbish battery electric cars and see sense with hydrogen driven engines with nuclear power filling the world’s energy needs renewables never can provide.
        Basic human premise : show people a better hole to crawl into and they will.

    • Who developed, manufactured and sold the first digital cameras? Kodak. Remember them?

      Being too early is as bad (or maybe worse) than being late. Big investments and no revenue.

      • That’s not true. Kodak developed the first digital camera in their labs. When the inventor, Steve Sasson, pushed for them to introduce one to the market, management resisted for fear of hurting their film sales. So you have it exactly backwards, Kodak lost out on the digital camera revolution by being late, not by being early.

      • In order ,,,

        John Hardy wrote, “Sony Mavica actually.”

        Actually, according to Wikipedia the Sony Mavica and Sony ProMavica, produced between 1981 and 1992 were analog, not digital cameras.
        Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera) was a brand of Sony cameras which used removable disks as the main recording medium. In August 1981, Sony announced the Sony Mavica as the world’s first electronic still camera.
        It was not a digital camera, as its CCD sensor produced an analog video signal in the NTSC format at a resolution of 570 × 490 pixels. Mavipak 2.0″ disks (later adopted industry-wide as the Video Floppy and labelled “VF”) were used to write 50 still frames onto tracks on disk. The pictures were viewed on a television screen.

        Chris wrote, “When the inventor, Steve Sasson, pushed for them to introduce one to the market, management resisted for fear of hurting their film sales.”

        Again, according to Wikipedia, not true.
        The original Kodak DCS was launched in 1991, and was based on a stock Nikon F3 SLR with digital components. It used a 1.3-megapixel Kodak KAF-1300 sensor, and a separate shoulder-mounted processing and storage unit. The DCS 200 series of 1992 condensed the storage unit into a module which mounted onto the base and back of a stock Nikon F-801s SLR. The module contained a built-in 80 megabyte hard drive and was powered with AA batteries. It was followed by the upgraded DCS 400 series of 1994, which replaced the hard drive with a PCMCIA card slot. The DCS 400 series included the 1.5-megapixel DCS 420, and the 6-megapixel Kodak DCS 460, which retailed for $28,000 on launch. In common with Kodak’s later 6-megapixel models, the DCS 460 used the award-winning APS-H Kodak M6 sensor. A modified version of the DCS 420 was also sold by the Associated Press as the Associated Press NC2000. In parallel with the DCS 400 series Kodak also sold the analogous Kodak EOS DCS range, which was based on the Canon EOS-1N SLR. With the exception of the original DCS 100, these early models did not include LCD preview screens.
        … more stuff …

      • It was not a digital camera, as its CCD sensor produced an analog video signal …

        Just so there is no confusion. CCD’s (charge coupled device) are analog in nature. A digital camera digitizes the output of the CCD with an A to D converter.

      • rovingbroker,

        Nothing I said is untrue. I did not say that Kodak never announced a digital camera, I said they were not the first to bring a commercial product to the market. I am correct in that statement. And I am correct in that there was a very long gap (1991 – 1975 = 16 years) between when Kodak invented the digital camera and when they brought a product to the market. Here is a much more detailed history than the wikipedia link:

      • John, no it’s not. Until there is a breakthrough in battery technology no renaissance is happening. The recent advancements in battery technology are lipstick on a pig, so to speak.

      • I’d say 1.2 Million plug in sales in 2017 is a renaissance — especially when exponential growth is taken into consideration. (in 2012 it was 134,000)

        Not to mention the 103GWh Current Lithium Battery production capacity

        With another 200+ scheduled to come online in the next 5 years.

        EV are inevitable — and are quickly becoming a disruptive technology

        In retirement communities and golf courses around the world — small EV are replacing gasoline BY MANDATE because IC vehicles are loud, stinky, and wasteful

        Why drive to the petrol station when you can plug-in?

      • That 1.2 Million plug in sales renaissance is due mostly to tax subsidies. Once those go away the EV industry will the one getting disrupted.

        Golf carts in retirement communities have been the norm for decades. Nothing new there.


        That’s not true. There are 600,000 deposits on the Model 3. Tesla will cross over the 200K total cars sold milestone very soon, an issue that the folks who made deposits are well aware of. They’re still buying.

      • “IC vehicles are loud, stinky, and wasteful”

        Their minimal loudness is helpful to pedestrians. They aren’t stinky. They’re much less wasteful (fuel-efficient) than they were, and further big improvements (from Mazdsa & GM) are in the pipeline.


        The resale price of Teslas is low (depreciation is high), suggesting that demand is a mile wide and an inch deep.

    • Digital cameras were a new technology. BEVs are very old technology. A century ago, my great grandmother owned a BEV, so did Mrs. Henry Ford Sr., and one third of the cars on the road were BEVs. ICE powered cars drove BEVs off the market 90 years ago. Modern BEVs are differ from century old BEVs solely in having Lithium Batteries. But, Modern ICE vehicles are far superior to 1927 ICE vehicles. BEVs cannot win a free market competition with ICE.

      • And modern EVs are far superior to old EVs, there are many other differences besides the battery. Have you heard of regenerative braking? All wheel drive? Over the air updates? You have the exact same mindset of folks who said PCs would never threaten mainframes.

  4. Rather impressive plans for expanding Lithium battery production in what appears to be a relatively short timeline. One wonders who exactly is going to produce all the required lithium.

      • If Cobalt really becomes a major factor, I imagine that “they” will quietly switch some models to a different battery chemistry. There seem to be a variety of usable Lithium and non-Lithium chemistries — each with it’s own advantages and disadvantages. Not surprisingly, there’s a huge literature on this. e.g.

        Usable EV batteries probably don’t absolutely have to use Lithium either.

        FWIW, older Prius hybrids use Nickel-Metal hydride batteries, not Lion. That may be why we don’t see many stories of Prius battery packs bursting into flames

      • Cobalt already is a major factor. There’s a reason why almost all EV’s currently use cobalt oxide cathodes…

        Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2 or NMC)

        Specific energy (capacity) 150–220Wh/kg

        Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (LiNiCoAlO2)

        Specific energy (capacity) 200-260Wh/kg; 300Wh/kg predictable

        And not…

        Lithium Iron Phosphate(LiFePO4)

        Specific energy (capacity) 90–120Wh/kg


        NCA, LCO, NMC… C=Cobalt.

        Undoubtedly, human ingenuity will find a way over or around the “cobalt cliff”… But that’s not likely to happen quickly.

      • And who needs so much cobalt? And where it is?
        Its not alone a problem with the batteries:
        “Electric motors often use permanent magnets based on so-called rare earth metals, which have a high energy density and are lighter than comparable magnets made from other materials, but there is a high degree of dependence on suppliers such as China for substances such as dysprosium.” To prevent supply bottlenecks when expanding electric mobility “We have to think about alternative machine types, develop recycling processes for particularly scarce raw materials and look for alternative materials,” says Matthias Klötzke, project coordinator of the study at the DLR Institute for Vehicle Concepts. ”
        Problems over problems, which ar not metioned in the above post. Aside also a problem with the workers, an EV needs much lesser manpower to build it. But, I forgot, in the newer brighter world, we will all be feed bei the “KI”, no work ist needed-/double sarc

      • The “funny” thing is that wind and solar power require far more workers per unit of energy produced. So, future unemployed automakers will just have to learn how to install solar panels… /Sarc


    If they end up behaving like Windows 10 with their updates (Which I don’t have a choice and simply breaks stuff on my laptop. Even my Bose QC35 headphones had an update of over 100Mb) and more recently Apple iOS with an initial 1.8Gb update, then followed by 3 ~270Mb and then a fourth~380Mb update I think most owners will find a way to disable updates.

    • A lot of people think over the air software updates are a nifty idea. I can only assume that they have little or no hands on experience with software QA.

      • Don, almost all the redox equations for batteries were in your first year high school chemistry book. By weight Nickel metal hydride is much less dense than lithium. Lithium is used because it has the most energy dense combinations by far. Yes maybe cobalt can be substituted, but Nickel would make the cars unviable again.

        Of course my car uses approximately 3.5 kw per mile, but it uses an energy dense liquid that only weighs about 4 lbs per gallons and is easily replaced.

      • marque2: “By weight Nickel metal hydride is much less dense than lithium” … ahem … no. .. Nickel and Nickel compounds are quite dense whereas Lithium is about as dense as softwood. It’ll float although that’s probably not something one would want to try as metallic Lithium is said to be pretty reactive. You’re right about redox. Lithium cells have a lot higher voltage than Nimh. But the greater physical density of Nickel and its compounds apparently largely offsets that? Anyway, the energy density of Nimh and Lion is said to be roughly comparable. But there are numerous other considerations apparently including some sort of patent nonsense. Lion appears to be the chemistry of choice for cars and electronics. … if you don’t mind your batteries occasionally exploding.

      • Most modern cars ALL use over the air updates for their navigation systems, as well as On-Star or whatever other safety service is installed

      • @joelobryan thanks – the real miracle is not that has is 6lbs vs the 4 I guessed. It is the energy density of about 5.5 kWh per pound and is easily transportable, accessible, and allows for rapid recharge at relatively long intervals.

      • “Apparently Apple or Microsoft haven’t either.”

        If I remember correctly, Microsoft laid off thousands of QA testers three or four years ago.

        The results were… unsurprising.

    • Teslas have an open door to any kind of manipulation. The company itself may do it if you didn’t get your instalments paid right in time, hackers may do so to make some extra money by extortion, which, thanks to Bitcoin et al isn’t a real problem any longer. Some governments might feel inclined in regulating traffic as >>they<< deem appropriate or might stop or restrain private transport at all, whatever the reason may be. Governments are prone to nonsensical rules and regulations. If connected to the internet, a simple, undetectable software can tell where you are and what you are doing and what you are talking about, at any time. Some sort of Huxleysian Brave New World I personally do not like at all. I want my freedom and love to go in an antique ICE that I know and can fix myself if necessary.

  6. Give me the sound of a muscle car V8. Electric cars sound like a vacuum cleaner or food processor.

  7. This come across a bit as cheerleading for Tesla.. Western car manufacturers are just going to wipe the floor with Tesla, they are in no rush to crash and burn with immature technologies, they have spent a fortune on r and d for zeV concepts and prototypes. They will bring ev cars to market, when the tech is viable enough, for an ev car to be used as a regular car, no compromises. Look up Audi q-tron and Jaguar I-pace.. the Ipace will steal very many Tesla sales. Dealer networks, a brand that will still be around in decades, and the proven ability to manufacture and develop volume car production. Andwhen Tesla has any competition, itt’s finances will collapse.. however good it’s cars are. Electric motors are fantastic in cars, instant torque, hardly any moving parts, etc.. the only real issue has been been ‘fuel’ . Ie the battery.. faster charging and/or 300-400 mile range will make ev cars viable for most people as it’s primary function.. being a car.

    • Kodak needed a cheerleader too. And Polaroid. But they are more like the carbon industry than the car industry.
      Nikon, Olympus, and Canon seemed to recover, but only after Sony, with their electronics lead, kicked them around for a bit.

      • Don’t forget Panasonic.. their Lumix GH5 takes incredible video for a camera less than $2K USD and to me beats anything on the market.

      • EVs are nothing new like digital photography was to film. Remember, we started with, and then abandoned, that technology. That’s why it needs cheerleaders regurgitating (over and over and over) the same incessant inane talking points. ICE technology’s capability speaks for itself.


      Uh, Tesla couldn’t have built anything, much less a vast network of charging stations, without $Billions in subsidies. Taxpayers like myself built it.

  8. If a savvy dealer has two cars on the lot, one a high maintenance conventional piston engine car, and one a self igniting EV


    Tesla can’t get there either… at least not in the short term. Mineral supply chain issues, primarily cobalt, cap them at about 250,000 units per year.

      • Then what is the point? If CO2 isn’t the issue, we have tons of cars around that run successfully with proven technology off of energy dense liquids.

      • But for that sort of money, you could buy a classic car which would be fun to drive, and would appreciate in value.

        The problem with EVs is their second hand value. In Europe most EV’s have lost about 85% of their value within just 3 years. Obviously, things will improve with better battery technology, but until battery packs are cheap and reliable, EVs will struggle to make much of an inroad, unless they are heavily subsidised or the IC engine cars banned.

      • Richard Verney,
        I own a ’65 Corvette coupe. There is a workaround for the 105 octane gas that it was designed to run on.. However, I’m beginning to get concerned about how long I’ll be able to get stock tires for it, or if I’ll be prohibited from registering it to drive on public roads. In the future, there may be a market for museum quality muscle cars, but I’m not sure that ‘drivers’ will continue to increase in value.

      • @ David Middleton, I’m a lifetime Jeeper too. Wish they’d try an E-SUV.
        Here’s a CJ-7 I bought for $2K that I’ll restore this winter.

        It’s got an early 70’s 304ci bored out and hi-torque cam, with an Edelbrock 500cfm ‘performer’ 4bbl carb.
        Was a junk yard phoenix used for mud pulls in southern MO.

      • @ Dave Middleton

        EV’s make sense because they don’t waste the BEST feedstock for hydrocarbon based plastics, polymers, specialty carbon molecules, carbon nanotubes, and graphene.

        Burning crude and coal for energy is STUPID — not because of CO2, but because they are more useful being used to MAKE THINGS

  10. The article makes a thing about Telsa creating (and the expense) a supercharger network.. well the had to, or nobody would buy their cars. all EVs.. the existing manufacturers will not, nor need not do this.. they can bring EVs to market when they are ready, starting with cars like the – Jaguar I-pace a£60k suv vehicle.. .. as the market expands, they and other manufacturers will just work with existing fuel station providers, and/or maybe new entrants to fuel/charging’ supply market for cars. . To add charging points at existing fuel staions, which are placed where people need them, where oil powered cars have a 300-500 mile range (on av) .. maybe in a decade or 2, half, or more fuel pumps will be replaced by very fast charging, charging points… Car manufacturers currently, do not explore, refine petrol, nor seek to supply it and maintain the fuel infrastructure.. Tesla had to.. (this costs)

  11. The problem with electric vehicles is that they don’t address any of the electricity supply issues. Imagine a motorway services with 300 cars in the car park, taking 50kW each to fast charge in say 1 hour (that isn’t really sufficiently short or enough charge capacity). That is 15MW, and would need a grid connection, big substation, and a great deal of power station capital. OK there are hundreds of services, and the total cost would be billions of pounds. Who is going to pay for that? The crash has yet to come to the attention of politicians, although they have been warned by me amongst others. It is not the service costs which are the problem it is the infrastructure to allow widespread electric vehicle use. A levy on each car sold of say £20,000 would probably pay for its support costs, but then the whole idea is seen to be uneconomic, rather than being hidden as at present.

    I would like to make a point about the protagonists of electric vehicles: they say that pollution kills 50,000 people per annum. This is due to complete misuse of statistics. It is suggested that each person in the country lives a few weeks less (although they cannot prove this), totalise the hours this represents and change the total to lifetimes! Such a procedure is invalid by definition, and a deliberate attempt to deceive the public. No one has yet had a death certificate with the cause as “general air pollution” because the present levels have yet to kill anyone, although they may exacerbate the symptoms in a few with serious lung diseases.

    Electric cars are not any kind of silver bullet, and almost everything around the machine is partially untrue. The only thing which is true is the performance of the most expensive Tesla, as long as you don’t do it very often as then the range is tiny!

    • Local authority area with longest life expectancy in UK = Kensington and Chelsea

      Local authority area with shortest life expectancy in UK = Blackpool

      Kensington and Chelsea is in central London, where they regularly have “air quality emergencies”. Blackpool is by the seaside, and no-one who has been there would say it is short of fresh air.

      Richmond on Thames is third in life expectancy, also in London.

    • Dave Zawadi

      The current claim for air pollution is that it “contributes to the premature deaths of 4.2m people” none of whom have a death certificate saying ‘air pollution’. The reason might surprise you: attribution of contributions is a public health function and a cause of death is a medical diagnosis. Public health and medicine are not well-connected. They involve two very different sets of people with different agendas.

      Thus it is technically incorrect for someone to change a claim for premature deaths into ’cause of death’. Something as subtle as a health policy tool (global burden of disease) being fundamentally different from a medical board of inquiry is lost on the average reporter who writes the most scary story they think they can justify. Thus attributions of contributing causes for cohorts already dead is transformed with the delete key into cause of death claims.

      There are people who die of air pollution, like those who run a generator inside the house when the power goes off. Or the coal stove chimney is blocked. But that is rare.


    Annual production of 72 million EV’s would consume about 100% of global proved cobalt reserves and about 70% of global lithium proved reserves… every year.

    • Dave: you make a good point about cobalt. Reportedly it worries Tesla more than lithium. However cobalt isn’t an essential ingredient in EVs. I converted a diesel car to pure electric using lithium iron phospate cells (my favourite chemistry) and an induction motor. Modern LFP cells handle high C rates – the ones in my car do 6.5C no trouble and will reportedly handle 10C

      • Cobalt oxide cathodes are currently the key to long range. There are always work-arounds… But right now all the EV makers are focused on cobalt – because range is very important in selling EV’s.

        There isn’t a shortage of cobalt; but it’s mostly a secondary product of copper and nickel mining. It’s not something that can be ramped up easily. There’s also the “ethical cobalt” issue, which bothers some people.

        This doesn’t kill EV’s… not by a long-shot. But it does throw ice-cold water on forecasts of EV’s dominating the market by 2030 or even 2050.

      • LFP cells have much lower power density than those using Cobalt. No car manufacturer is going to bring an EV to market using LFP cells. Even the best NCA cells aren’t really dense enough, which is why EVs are still a niche product. Until battery density at least doubles, that will continue to be the case.

      • There isn’t a shortage of cobalt, because you don’t care about children being enslaved to mine it in the Congo.

      • MarkW November 7, 2017 at 4:46 pm

        0x, are you a complete idiot? Or are you just paid to make yourself look like one?

        You should re-read some of your stupid comments a few days later. What a complete idiot you are markie boy.

  13. I actually think that both scenarios considered here will not be what actually happens.

    What I see is a new urban/suburban class who dont commute, arising. And they will use driverless electric taxis, or electric bicycles, which will replace buses simply because they will be more versatile, and electric trains will link the cities.

    And remote working will become the norm.

    Outside in the country, more than 50 miles from a railway, fuel cars – possibly synthetic fuel cars – will still be in operation.

    Ships will be nuclear, and planes will either be fuel or electric depending on whether or not lithium air batteries turn out to be achievable.

    We are so close to it, that we dont actually see how the widespread access to fuel cars changed the way cities worked. And their lack will have a similar effect.

    Cities arose because of trade and work. Communications between cities arose for the same reasons.

    But cities today are simply dormitories. Their reason for existence has in many cases collapsed. Think Detroit.

    There is even less reason to need transport than at any time since the industrial revolution.

    • Electric cars do not resolve traffic jams. I think the electric car just in the big cities is a mere eyecleaning. There are better solutions. This includes a better expansion of the secondary transport network with railways, a cab lift system in the air would be worth thinking. But replacing one evil (ICE) with (EV) would be counterproductive, especially in big cities.

    • Leo Smith
      ‘Ships will be nuclear’

      I can hear the “watermelons'” high-pitched screaming from here, and they’re in Moonbeam’s California . . . . .

      It will need a sea-change.

      Some – possibly a few – although, outside bragging projects – like ‘Savannah’ and the Russian Ice Breakers, ‘Lenin’ onwards – they seem conspicuous by their absence, outwith the military (where not needing to refuel every month is a very positive attribute; a big container ship will use hundreds of tonnes of Fuel oil per day [at 25 knots; the most modern are slower, and more efficient, with the Maersk Triple-E class – 400 metres long, 60 metres beam, reportedly under two hundred tonnes per day at 19 knots, and that is still 5,000 tonnes or a bit more each month!]).

      Add in the real difficulties of getting trainable/trained crews, willing to work with nukes, spend months away from home [and currently with poor, slow – or non-existent – Wi-Fi], never mind the security issue – would State A allow a ship flagged in [or owned or operated or manned by] State B (which has an ambiguous relationship with State A) bring a nuclear reactor into one of their main ports?

      Try it with POTUS, especially if you suggest that State B might be Iran – let alone Fat Boy Kim’s Gulag, just to the north of Seoul.

      Not so much, I think,. nuclear.
      LNG – that may well be a “half-way house” – the infrastructure for LNG Bunkering is, likely, going to be built [by a variety of players – ports, owners, governments, operators, oil-and-gas majors].


  14. I’m thinking the “long trip” problem could be solved with a gasoline powered generator. This would be something one would rent from the dealer for the trip. It could be mounted on a one wheel trailer (For easy backing) and clamped to the ev rear bumper with a pair of clamps. The clamps could also serve as power contacts for electrical power.

    Now you have converted your ev to a hybrid with a fair amount of range.

    • Clever to mix engine and batteries together in some sort of Hybrid vehicle. If only GM would invent the Volt or Toyota the Prius!

      • Not exactly. These cars have parallel IC and electric engines, both motors can make the car run. We are talking of ICE that are NOT directly connected to the wheels, just generating electric power in their optimal power range. Whether on board, or on some tender.

    • My cocktail napkin says you probably need something on the order of a 10kw generator. That’s likely to be a bit bulkier and heavier than a breadbox. Maybe 250-500 kg (500-1000lb) Too big to fit in the trunk? Need a forklift to put it on the roof?

      • That said, an add on generator for long trips is not a dumb idea. Maybe with a Wankel engine and modern motor technology and some dumb luck it might be workable … maybe….

      • Mazda is working on a dedicated rotary (original Wankel) micro ICE generator. Just for charging, no direct drive to wheels. Solves a lot of the problems with charging where there is no charging locations, or long haul trips, and provides auxiliary heat for maintaining cabin heat and battery heat. Or A/C. This option or one like it is one I would have to have to buy one. A PHEV should be the goal, not a pure EV, at least for now unless maybe a little pure EV for a run about chore car only in town.

      • Why not tow a small windmill, so the slipstream will spin the charge generator? Voila! Perpetual motion machine.

    • Mazda and Toyota (in partnership) will bring one out in 2019 using a rotary engine running at constant optimum speed (no seal-leak issues).

  15. Terri Jackson: the CO2 emitted by an EV depends greatly on the carbon output of the electricity needed to charge it. In the UK, the CO2 per MWh figure claimed by the electric industry in very recent years makes the EV CO2 emissions highly competitive: the equivalent of well over 100mpg.

    There is a problem of course, and that is the CO2 per MWh figure is manipulated by claiming that woodchip fuel is low-carbon. Woodchips have replaced coal at most large plants in the UK. But we all know this was a fiddle.

    • They also ignore CO2 costs of manufacturing, installing and maintaining wind mills, and pretend the cars are all charged from these windmills at night when there is no wind.

      • What about the CO2 output to harvest then transport all those wood chips from North America to Britain?

      • Yeah, we need more CO2 to grow more trees faster, to burn for electricity and create more CO2, to grow more trees … Ain’t Mother Nature brilliant?

    • Wood is high carbon. That’s the sad irony. The progression from wood to coal to oil to gas is increasing hydrogen and decreasing relative carbon in the hydrocarbon fuel.

      • I don’t know that order is correct Gabro. However the woodchips replacement for coal is definitely dodgy. Trees are cut down in N America (it’s not “waste wood” as some claim), energy is used to transport, convert to woodchip and ship to UK. Meaning the carbon footprint conceivably exceeds that of coal.

      • Especially as the DRAX power station was built on a Coal mine to take advantage of it.
        Plus you need twice as much, it’s energy density is approximately 50% of coal and it burns much dirtier.
        DRAX was recently slated by some Greens for increasing Polution and I don’t mean CO2.

  16. As long as we have cheap fracked oil, electric cars won’t make economic sense. The biggest constraint on electric cars is the price of the batteries and the necessity of replacing them on a regular basis. link

    Some years ago Clayton Christensen wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma. One of the things he points out is that companies facing disruptive technology are usually done in by their value chain (ie. their very structure). It’s hard to change. The best strategy for a company in that position is to start a new company and keep its current management and its processes as far away from the new company as possible.

    We’ve been working on batteries for a very long time so all the low fruit is probably picked. There probably won’t be a significant breakthrough any time in the near future. Elon Musk may be able to reduce the cost of batteries in his gigafactory, but not enough that electric vehicles will be attractive to the average consumer, all other things being equal.

    One thing that has the potential to disrupt Elon Musk is the use of ammonia as fuel. It can be used in an internal combustion engine or it can be used to supply hydrogen for fuel cells. Ammonia can be produced using surplus electricity from wind or solar farms. If the cost of oil quadruples it may become attractive. link

    • I wouldn’t rule out simple hydrogen fuel-cells either. Electrolysis has the capacity to generate the hydrogen in situ without need for a hydrogen distribution network. Advances in hydrogen storage and fuel-cell technology seem just as likely to me as do advances in battery technology. Possibly more so.

      Sure, predicting future technologies is a mug’s game. Perhaps the only certainty is that somebody is going to guess wrong bigly, and that government is at least as good at guessing wrong as anybody else, if not better.

      • When predicting the future, the best bet is usually to assume that whatever is happening now, will continue to happen, with small improvements along the way.
        Truly disruptive technologies are few and far between.

      • Indeed “Truly disruptive technologies are few and far between”, but they have tremendous effect. LED is not a small improvement of old oil lamp, nor is ICE a small improvement of Watt engine,

      • LED’s are a small improvement over incandescent or florescent bulbs.
        Incandescent bulbs were an improvement of kerosene lamps, but not a revolutionary one.
        ICE engines are easier to maintain and less dangerous than steam engines, but the difference once again is evolutionary, not revolutionary.

      • LED’s are a small improvement over incandescent or florescent bulbs.

        The Chinese fully agree and applaud. There are no production lines for LED’s in Europe any more except one…Thank you, EU.

      • You think you got ICE and LED by evolutionary change of steam engine and fluorescent bulb? You are utterly wrong. Both are completely different technologies.

      • MarkW… “Incandescent bulbs were an improvement of kerosene lamps, but not a revolutionary one.”

        What a low IQ statement to make. You must feel some embarrassment for some of your statements, or are you here just to be a troll?

      • @paqyfelyc the internal combustion engine is a variant of gas lamp engines which were used largely in textile manufacturing in Europe. It allowed the use of gas the cities provided for gaslamps to be used for mechanical energy. Those in turn were based on more complex steam engines which used pistons themselves. This has engine was appropriated for use in automobiles. The fact that the has engine can also produce energy is no different than the way a traction engine could be used to generate energy. It was an incremental change.

      • Whether they are different technologies isn’t relevant. The fact is that they do the same job. That is what the consumer cares about.
        ICE did the job better than steam engines, which is why they replaced steam engines. However they were still doing the same jobs.

        E2, I know that you like to embarrass yourself, but should you really try that hard?
        LEDs do the same job that incandescent and florescent did, they just use less energy in the process.

      • well, i guess that, since engine are doing the same job than ox and others animals, YOU can tell that engine are just evolution from animals. Only YOU will say that,

      • MarkW said: “Whether they are different technologies isn’t relevant. The fact is that they do the same job. That is what the consumer cares about.”

        No, that’s not what you said. You said “LED’s are a small improvement over incandescent or florescent bulbs.

        Which is a preposterous statement. Incandescent bulbs eliminated the household pollution issue, the risk of fire, and the need to transport fuel to the home and top up the lamps. If that’s not revolutionary, then nothing is. Modern medicine is not a revolutionary improvement over shamans making poultices because, you know, it’s just fighting disease.

    • Batteries are not interchangeable. No chance of powering a Renault ZoE with Teslas clumsy cubes. Fuel IS interchangeable, as long as you don’t mix Diesel with Regular. Refuelling an ICE takes 5 minutes or seven, if you dawdle. How much energy can be packes in a battery during that period?

      • For most folks with EVs, they will charge at their home overnight, so the wait is 0. On the occasions where folks drive longer distances in a single day, they’ll have a 20 minute wait to get an 80% charge.

    • Commie Bob
      Your link gives zero info on how ammonia is used. Anhydrous ammonia is too toxic to use as a transportation fuel. Ammonia is use for many things in an industrial setting including fertilizer.
      You have to ask where surplus electricity or stranded natural gas is used to produce ammonia. It is more cost effective to transport ammonia to a fertilizer plant, than to use it a transportation fuel.

  17. I like the EV’s, except for the Cost, Subsidies, Rare Earth requirements and mining horrors of same and their resource supply, range of EV’s especially in hot or cold weather, Battery Pack replacement cost, and charging.

    • Good points but you missed a return to dependence on unfriendly foreign countries for our energy distribution, just when we broke our dependence on foreign oil from unfriendly countries

      • We broke the dependence by inventing lateral drilling which opened up many gas and oil fields that were formerly tapped, or unviable. It wasn’t because we suddenly started driving electric cars. Note that Australia has a huge play in oil by Coober Peddy,and even England has large gas fields which can be accessed with lateral drilling. Coober is done in by lack of water, but in Europe where they could have been independent of gas from Russia by now, fell for all the eco whining about lateral drilling and how the world would implode like a rotten tangerine should Europe start doing this. So they are still dependent on Russia and the middle east.

        If they stopped being babies, in two years they could be independent.

      • +1 marque2
        Except that they are not babies, they are frightened old women.
        European countries have roughly twice the population they had before WWI, but lower count of living babies born (HALF as much for Germany, Spain or Italy; France boast a particularly high count, that is … almost as high, but still lower, than a century ago). The difference is mainly made of old people that just care to not be disturbed.
        Life expectancy almost doubled, so that the old people that didn’t matter at all, are now the prominent political force. This obviously has political consequences. “Left” only survived by turning even more reactionary than good old fashioned conservatives.

      • MarkW (message below) I meant “we” as in humanity. A minor nit to you, the oil companies wouldn’t touch it. It was created and developed by new independent companies that didn’t exist 20 years ago.

    • You guys spent far too much time worrying about chemical batteries. The future is solid state (ceramic) super capacitors which do not require lithium or cobalt. They also can be made from common materials.

      A top drawer super cap weighs about 1/25th of a lithium battery. There is no contest. They can be charged millions of times and the charging station can also be a super cap with a 24/7 connection to whatever renewable or other sources are available.

      Super caps are a disruptive technology and will be the solution to the whole distance and fast charging issue. No doubt the capacity will double every five years or something Mooreish.

      • No doubt the capacity will double every five years or something Mooreish.

        Just as battery capacity has doubled every five years since the debut of the production EV in the late-1800s. That’s why ICE cars never really caught on because EV battery capacity increases were oh so Moorish.

  18. John Hardy has missed entirely the fast charge situation. Tesla Motors DC fast chargers(Superchargers 120KW) do NOT use what is certain to become the standard protocol, which is CCS Combo, used currently by all German and American automakers and shortly by Nissan, largest EV automaker and the remaining Asian automakers. Tesla is out in left field – NO automaker except them uses their Supercharger protocol (or ever will) . There will be well over 120 electric car models coming to market within the next 3 years. In Europe, two things are happening : Royal Dutch Shell acquired a charger company and will begin installing fast chargers in their gas stations (CCS protocol). And most German companies have banded together to build fast charge stations on the highways of Western Europe. They use the 350KW CCS power level and can recharge more than twice as fast as Tesla superchargers can – they will build 400 stations and , since they can handle more than twice as many cars as a Tesla charge station, they will equal over 1000 Tesla supercharger stations. The first new electric that we know can handle 350KW input is the upcoming Porsche Mission e – it can recharge to 80% in under 15 minutes. Such a vehicle already exists and is in testing.
    Since Porsche is part of the VW group, we can assume al of their electrics will also have such fast charging capabilities. CCS Combo also supports a 500KW charger, which would reduce 80% recharges to less than 10 minutes in most cases (battery size is obviously a factor in recharge times). Tesla’s Elon Musk made a huge strategic mistake in attempting to build a proprietary charging network and then forcing other automakers to buy into it. When all of the automakers banded into two camps, Musk realized his blunder and last year rather pitifully begged the other automakers to use his charging protocol,no licensing fee required. None took him upon that either. So now Tesla has to go it alone building their network, which they can never even remotely match against the density of the upcoming CCS network, which may get some start up help from automakers (along the major highways), but more likely will be built by the oil companies, using their gas stations, which are the best locations and have the best economics for recharging one can imagine.
    Complaining about a lack of public fast charging stations is rather out of place – until it was certain that the fleet is moving towards electric propulsion, along with the knowledge of which charging protocol will be the standard and at which power level, investing in fast public chargers was unlikely by the major players (the oil companies).

    • But does any of this make economic sense? Or are they doing it all because of a combination of pressures from government officials and from subsidization? When the average person starts switching to an electric vehicle because it’s cheaper than a conventional car (without subsidies) and performs about as well overall, then it will be economic. In the meantime, a lot of auto companies will be flushing away stockholders’ money, including Tesla.

    • “There will be well over 120 electric car models coming to market within the next 3 years.”

      Most of those will be hybrids, which are really not EVs. They are ICE cars with electric assist/optimization.

    • It is the lack of easily accessible charging stations. The energy required for a charge or even a quick charge is immense, and the power grid couldn’t take it w/o considerable improvements: cables underground, thick as an elephant’s leg, made of copper. Is copper going to be the next cliff? Recharging takes more time, and, let’s assume, just for the sake of the argument, that a fuel station has as many charging facilities as it has petrol pumps, that wouldn’t work either. Battery charging done at home? Garage owner – may be, but some investments into a charger must be made beforehand. Street parking and street charging? Forget it.

    • … but more likely will be built by the oil companies, using their gas stations, …

      Locally we have 3 sorts of places to refuel: (a) stations owned by major ‘gas’ companies, (b) neighborhood stations selling packaged and hot food, milk, beer, and gasoline, and (c) interstate node travel plazas (many services for long-haul trucks and a dozen or more gas pumps for autos. Here is a photo of a plaza:

      As EVs grow and grid power expands, all these places can add chargers, and charge for the product.
      30 years from now a photo such as this one will look remarkably similar.

      • No the photo there shows a very light day with fueling taking 5 minutes. Now imagine the days with queues and cars circling looking for available pumps. Fast (sic) charging even by the most optimistic EV supporter takes 10 minutes so now double the queues or outlets. Now work out the continuous load that has to be supported by the electricity supply to just that one service station then multiply it by all the service stations and the country power generation requirements and local distribution required. Anyone who believes this is just a case of putting in a few sockets and all will work is in the realms of ‘Magical Thinking’. UK is already so close to the edge with its power capacity that if the winter is bad it is likely to get rolling brownouts. There just is not the power capacity available and arm waving will not magically make it appear.

    • Now I am thinking barbeque. Specifically, a propane fired barbeque. I don’t worry about fast charging the tank when it gets empty, I just hand it over to the local grocery store and they give me another one, filled and ready. Each tank is tested and refurbished at the actual filling station, and there is a ‘dead date’ stamped in the metal beyond which the tank will not be reused, but it is a pretty fast charge system.

      Can we not do the same with an electric battery? You want a full range refill, you buy a couple of battery cartridges. You want a quick emergency refill, just buy one. The car can be designed to accept battery ‘cartridges’, use them in sequence , and ignore them when empty. Those emptied, can be recharged by the roadside, or by a cartridge charge and redistribution network. Onsite inventory would cover peak demand rather than sizing the electric supply to cover fast charging. Charging is offline and maybe offsite. It might need some handling equipment or the size of the individual battery packs could be made small enough to be man handled.

      Think like the old days where soda pop came in cases of refillable glass bottles and empties were driven back to the bottling line.

      • Sure that could be done. But first, all the car manufacturers in the world would have to agree on a battery standard which specifies not only physical size and shape, but voltages, charge/discharge rates, interconnects, etc. And remember, these packs are not light; they weigh hundreds of pounds. So you are not going to just pop it out and then back in. Some sort of mechanical device to remove and reinstall the battery pack will be required. Standards will need to be established for that as well. All doable, but it would take a lot of time and money.

      • The only wear and tear on most propane tanks is the discharge/recharge cycle.
        The quality of a battery pack depends very little on it’s age, but how many times and in what manner it was charged and discharged.

    • Arthur: current CCS is I thibk 50 – 90 kw, with I think. the first two 350kw chargers unveiled in July this year. Chademo are also planning 350kw or so . and the Chinese already have bus charging stations at this level. May the best standard win

    • Leaf is a much smaller car. You know, the biggest way I could get my ford focus to have the efficiencies of an EV, is to reduce the engine size to the equivalent of the EV. Replace my 160HP engine with one half the size/weight, and HP and I would have an eco rocket easily able to get 60mpg. Why we have to contrive an electric vehicle, and play around with numbers, and pretend the energy going into the vehicle is much less than needs to be produced, etc, is beyond me.

      When gas gets expensive enough, people will naturally demand smaller horsepower vehicles, and when gas costs get dire, without government intervention, inventors will figure out ways for us to locomote, and may even settle on electrical vehicles as the best option. Today, they are a waste of economic effort.

      • This weekend I saw a big rig that had coverings over the well in each of it’s double tires. I assume this was for aerodynamics. I’ve also been seeing a lot of trailers with skirts and whatever those weird contraptions that hang off the back are called.

        In cars, removable panels that cover the rear wheels and airplane style door handles would also improve aerodynamics.

      • Tractor trailers are also going to single-wide tires (looks pretty cool) on aluminum rims. Better fuel economy, better rolling resistance, virtually no tire failure, and increasing cargo capacity by about 1,000 lbs.

      • MarkW November 7, 2017 at 7:00 am and John F. Hultquist November 7, 2017 at 9:40 am Those side skirts help with the aerodynamics, but also create a bigger surface when they get broadsided with a strong wind going 60+mph can shove them off the road or into the next lane and cause roll overs. Those contraptions on the back of these trailers control the Draft as the air comes around the rig and catches some of Draft that helps push it down the road giving better fuel mileage. Back in the late 1980s I had a VW bug that I could get behind a big rig and being a CB enthusiast I’d contact the driver and ask if I could Draft behind them. Some would let me. I could go from Phoenix to Tucson and back with my bug in neutral most of the distance doing this. By the way, it is rude to do this without the truck driver’s permission and I see lots of this being done by people these days and the trucker will hit their brakes on them.

  19. Cars should (and, i think, will) go the same way than trains, boats, trucks:
    on-board generator + electric motor.
    electric motor, small battery (barely enough for, say, 10 km), energy provided by on-board small, high efficient, generator (something that burns 3 liter per hour fuel will provide enough). Diesel or gas turbine generator will do perfectly.
    Makes much more sense that big batteries with out-board gas-generator
    Some kind of zinc-air or aluminium-air, non rechargeable (*), batteries emerges
    (*) you dump and collect the used metal oxide, and replace it by a fresh charge of metal, as you do with gasoline

  20. A couple of the problems EVs will need to address are the need for heat and defrost capabilities in places that have cold and snowy winters and the need for air conditioning in places where it becomes uncomfortably warm. Both of these will take energy from batteries; energy that would otherwise contribute to extending the vehicle’s range.

      • So could a nat gas furnace in millions of homes around the world. Very rarely do you hear of problems, but it does happen from time to time. A small safe propane heater would make sense for an EV. Maybe older readers will remember when the VW Beetle had an optional gasoline auxiliary heater, because the air cooled VW engine didn’t supply enough heat in colder locations.

      • Your house heater doesn’t suffer from the environmental abuse that a car heater has to endure.
        Nor do you have to worry about the fumes from a properly vented house heater being blown back into the house. While a car at a stop light could easily have that problem depending on wind direction.

  21. Hardy seems out of touch all over the place. First was his invalid claims about fast chargers now he seems unaware that today’s battery cells are facing obsolesce from several potential directions.Toshiba has disclosed a superior cell and , just as likely, solid state cells are apparently only a few years away. By the time these new cells appear (or others) electrics will comprise a relatively small percentage of the fleet. Fears about battery cell supply will have become, most likely, of historical interest only.

    • I’m optimistic about solid state batteries as well, but we are in the early days. As far as battery tech as a whole, I think we are somewhere in between the “Peak of Inflated Expectiations” and the “Trough of Disillusionment” in the hype cycle. John Goodenough had an interesting Q&A with Bloomberg last week in which he states that an electric car that is competitive with the internal combustion engine will be here in 10 years.

      Hopefully we’ll see progress in the phone sector in the next few years.

      • Included in the Q&A link above were a couple of head scratchers. One was with regard to a battery running on ambient heat. Steingart discusses this comment here:
        View story at

        Goodenough also mentioned that they haven’t licenced their technology yet, although a few months ago there was a report that 90 companies had expressed an interest in investigating it. Not sure how long it should take between investigating and licencing. I’ll give a few more months before I declare my optimism as being misplaced.

    • Arthur: thats a bit unkind. I dont think I am that far out of touch. If you want to keep up to date on battery developments, John Goodenough’s solid state battery is one to keep an eye on

  22. There is a good case to be made that “cars” per se will run into a use constraint in the not too distant future. While population growth is trending towards a peak of ~10billion, the growth of large cities will absorb much of that growth. If peoples desires and needs keep cities growing they simply won’t have the room for surface transport by and parking of small vehicles.

    That is fortunate in a way because lithium is not an abundant element- iron is ~6.3% of the earth, lithium about .5-^7 %. What lithium exists is found in small deposits, mostly in small amounts- 10-30ppm. And 2/3 of the lithium currently goes into other uses such as ceramics, glass. Lithium batteries currently are cheap, but all the supply constraints(scarcity, limited supply, environmental and social damage, pollution) are going to complicate production and battery supply. In the end, lithium powered electric cars are going to be an even shorter term solution than gas powered cars have been.

  23. Electric cars may one day be practical. At the present they are anything but. Many commuters can find the modern day electric car able to fulfill their daily needs. If their commute is short enough and they have a long enough time to recharge they can find the electric car suitable. However they are not economic. The premium for batteries and the need to change them out makes the economics on the electric car problematic.

    For the rural driver or someone that takes their automobile on vacation the electric car makes little sense. The short range and long recharge time makes driving none workable. Moreover, the cost of most recharge stations is more expensive than gasoline.

    Only when batteries can give a 500 plus range a day and/or a recharging time of under an hour and a equivalent price equal to a gas powered car will they become anything more than a rich person’s novelty.

  24. Elephant in the room.
    17.4 million new vehicles in USA in 2016
    Top 20 link

    Top seller, Ford F-Series pickups.
    #2 Chevy Silverado pickup
    #3 Dodge Ram pickups All with increased year over year sales.
    There is a hybrid pickup being marketed
    which may have some practical applications, but reading the PollyAnna, electric car, musings of the author, . . . I just have to shake my head and laugh.

    Imagine a contractor, running around town from job to job bring men and materials to where they are needed and suddenly, he has to stop for a 20 min + recharge, assuming he doesn’t have to wait? Even better, a rancher with a load of haybales pulling a horse trailer, how far will that get on a full battery charge, 50-100 miles, maybe?

    Keep dreaming, but don’t put blinders on and think the rest of us will magically adapt to your 20 miles perday commuting, compact, rolling coffin, “see electric cars work if you change your lifestyle to mine”, world view. I like my big truck, don’t ever plan to change.

    • Matthew – don’t misunderstand me – I’m not in favour of the government or anyone else forcing you out of your truck. My concern is that this stuff is coming and complacency may result in vehicle manufacturing leaving the West for good

  25. A few weeks ago I was reading an article in a classic car magazine (EV’s will never replace classic ICE cars, fortunately and they will never sound as good as my V8 Mustang). The article was discussing cars built in the late 19th Century,1895 to be precise. There were three types of vehicle: Steam, ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and Electric. They were all, initially selling in similar numbers, steam fell out of favour, due to the time it took to heat the water in the boiler before the car could be propelled. Electric vehicles were bought by women, because of the difficult task of hand-cranking to start the petrol engine. These early electric vehicles had Lead/Sulphuric Acid batteries and a range of 100 miles, which in those days was probably enough, because social mobility was very limited. Modern ICE vehicles are economical, reliable and cheap to run and the hand-cranking issue is no longer a problem.
    Over the years there has been interference by governments and the State of California that have invoked the Law of Unintended Consequences on many occasions. In the 1970’s California banned the sale of leaded petrol for all new vehicles, the result was poorer performance of ICE’s. Customers were not happy about this at all, so the motor manufacturers made their engines more powerful by increasing their displacement (Jensen who built the Interceptor increased the engine capacity from 6.3 litres to 7.2) so fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emissions both increased. This was fine because petrol was cheap and CO2 was not a problem, then the Arab oil crisis happened and petrol was no longer cheap. Our government in its wisdom in 2010 decided to offer subsidies for the purchase of new diesel vehicles because they emit less CO2. Anyone who has been following a badly maintained diesel vehicle would realise that their emissions are far worse and far more toxic than CO2. So, now we have a diesel scrappage scheme (those that bought diesel cars received two payments from the UK taxpayer, one to buy a car and five years later another one to scrap it) and a promise to ban all new ICE car sales after 2040. No-one has thought how this huge amount of electricity is going to be generated, distributed, or supplied. Closing down coal and gas fired power stations is going to make things worse as is relying on renewables. It is economic vandalism, based on scientific ignorance and gross stupidity in believing that an increase in concentration of a gas, vital to life on our planet, that an increase in concentration by 0.0012% has changed our climate..

  26. The fast charge issue is the ultimate Achilles heel of the EV. Consider that an average house has 200 amp service at 240 volts…a rough absolute maximum power capacity of about 48,000 watts. No house will ever use this capacity. It is there for “dark” start capacity (ie everything on, power cycles, transient in seconds).

    Now, fast forward to fast charge…I am seeing values of 40,000-over 100,000 watts. Ok, a local arbitrary grid system can undoubtedly handle a few of these at the same time. Now, lets go to the real world…a highway charging station on Friday….hmmm….thousands of EVs….40kw plus….sun is setting, wind dying down.

    Sorry, I have not seen any plausible mechanism for fast charging more than a relative handful of EVs at any given location. 20 Minutes apiece…take a look at a busy highway gas station…now replace the 5 minute fill up for 300-500 mile range with 20 minute fill-ups for less than 300 mile range. Lines anyone? And what exactly is providing that massive power capacity?

    Power outage anyone? Maine just endured a storm which took out over half the states power for nearly a week. ICE vehicles kept right on going….either because of their inherent long range, or a lowly generator (to run the gas pump) at the filling station on some back woods road.

    EVs in the winter? Sorry…they will be parked, and the ICE Ford F150 will be doing what it has been doing for decades…providing reliable transportation in almost any circumstance with almost no infrastructure.


    EVs will be used for 2nd and 3rd commuter cars…with slow charge overnight or at urban work locations. And as wealthy play things. The rest of the world (the vast majority) will continue to enjoy the convenience of long range and convenient and truly “fast” recharge (ie filling the gas tank) of the ICE.

    Let’s try a “social” experiment….let’s offer a $7500 tax credit on a Ford F150 (for example), and none on an EV. Now switch the credit and see want sales do. Oh wait…we already did this…:)

    Ethan Brand

    • You are right. 200 amp at 240 V are 48 kW. I very much doubt that average home has so much. None of those i know has. Rather 3 to 10 kW, that is, ~10x less. Basically, a single EV needs about as much energy and power (at low charge speed, i.e., a full night to fill her up) than an entire home.
      Moreover, the local grid may be not the “smart grid” talked about, but it isn’t completely dumb either. At night, electricity is charged lower price, but not at the same hour for every one, so that peak power is not concentrated and the grid can cope. Obviously, having everyone in the neighborhood charging up cars every night would change much the distribution equation, more than doubling the demanded power.

      • An electric demand such as the EV charging at night would sure change the spot market pricing for surplus electricity in the middle of the night. Definitely be some low hanging fruit there for the early adopters. But then the cheap price on the spot market in the middle of the night will disappear. Plus the neighbourhood electrical infrastructure will only charge so many cars at once. Perhaps the Smart Meter can help coordinate charging times, but ultimately whole neighbourhoods would have to vastly upgrade the distribution capability. All the more reason for starting with a Plug In Hybrid EV (PHEV.)

      • Apologies – didn’t explain well. Fast charge would not happen at home but on long distance routes at locations with an industrial power supply


      The vast majority of people who have EVs will charge them at home. So 90% of the “fill ups” that you can’t do at home with an ICE, you CAN do at home with EVs. For long trips,people will charge during meals. And if the economics don’t work out for long distance travel, that’s fine. Then EVs will be limited to roughly 1/2 the market, since most families have 2 cars. The EV will be the commuter car, and the ICE for weekends and longer trips. This is no different than families who have a big SUV which they mainly use on weekends, and a small, fuel efficient car they use for commuting and errands.

      • How many people eat every three hours?
        Most families have 2 cars, both for commuting. You want them to have three.

      • How many people drive more than 600 miles per day? 1%? Good grief, you are looking for any reason to trash EVs, even to the point of saying it would be a massive inconvenience for you to stop one time for 20-30 minutes on a day when you are driving 500-600 miles. Oh, and the EV mfrs are constantly working on extending the range, so the idea that we’ve hit a wall at 300 miles max range is preposterous. A 2011 Nissan Bolt had a range of 75 miles, a 2017 Chevy Bolt has a range of 238 miles.

      • “When on vacation, lots of people do.”

        Links to support that statement? 600 miles is 10 hours of driving. So in a worst case scenario, you would need to stop twice for around 20-30 minutes to do a fast charge. That would get you 700-800 miles, or 12-14 hours of driving time. And if doing that for the few days per year that you’re driving more than 600 miles per day is a massive inconvenience, fine, don’t buy an EV. Most people buy vehicles based on what they’ll use it for 95% of the time, not what they’ll use it for 5% of the time. Clearly you’re different.


      Wrong. China is pushing EVs in a big way, in part due to terrible air quality in their cities. That’s 25% of the world market right there. Europe is too, also in part due to urban pollution, as well as reducing CO2 emissions. That’s 20% – and remember, Europe has expensive gas, so car owners will save a lot of money this way.

      You completely ignore the emissions and pollution reasons that are causing many urban areas to push to restrict gas and diesel vehicles.

      • Europe has expensive gasoline ONLY because of taxes. Do you really think their socialist governments will just smile and do without that revenue to “save the planet” with EV’s? The poor suckers will have limited range transportation AND ridiculously high taxes.

      • Another MarkW post with zero supporting links or data. That’s what, 15,000 posts without including a link to supporting data?

        I bring data, you bring claims backed by nothing. “The common sources in almost all cities are coalburning emissions and vehicle exhaust emissions, among them: coal-burning emissions contribute more in the northern cities in winter. Since the motor vehicle exhaust is one of the largest pollution sources, severe technical and manage measures should be taken to decrease its emission. Finally, policies and technical advices are put forward in order to provide a theoretical basis for PM2.5 pollution control in China.”

        PM2.5 pollution in major cities in China: Pollution status, emission sources and control measures (PDF Download Available). Available from: [accessed Nov 07 2017].

      • “China’s pollution isn’t coming from cars or coal plants.” Really MarkW, do you really think that cars and coal fired ‘plants’ don’t cause pollution? Then what is causing pollution in China..tell us? Do you even read what you write before posting comment? And why is Chris a troll, and you are not?

      • A couple of good points Chris. I note that you were insulted rather than having your points answered…

      • E2, did I say that cars and trucks don’t pollute?
        Regardless, the pollution that China is suffering isn’t do to cars and trucks.

      • No markie boy, you said “China’s pollution isn’t coming from cars or coal plants.” And then you said “E2, did I say that cars and trucks don’t pollute?” You can’t even remember what you just said in the same thread, and then you try and refute it. What an idiot. You should get a sign and put it around your neck that says ‘I’m an Idiot.’ Just read above what you wrote, and then try and tell all of us here you are not an idiot. Geesh…get of the pot.

      • Still waiting for links from Mark2 on proof that cars, trucks and coal plants are not a major factor in China’s urban pollution.

    • Great points, Ethan!

      The EV folks must be concentrating upon local emissions of evil gases while ignoring basic thermodynamics and electrical engineering and then mechanical/civil engineering to get all that electricity to a charging station at home or on the highway.

      The infrastructure required to have zillions of charging points is the long pole in the tent, best I can see. Oh yeah, where is all that electricity coming from? So without nukes or hydro or millions of square miles of panels and millions of bird-slicers, we have to get the volts and amps from someplace!!!

      So I see the EV vehicles as great for high population cities and such, and mainly moving the polution from the city to the desert or forest. The doggone things are great if you drive 5 or 6 miles to work and then stop at the pub or grocery on the way home. ‘course, your 200 amp x 240 volt electric service could be a problem, especially if you live in Phoenix or Miami and want air conditioning. Suckers are great for the golf course and around a large wharehouse or factory as lifts and basic movement of personnel.

      I live in a subdivision with maybe 3 or 4 dozen homes in a 1 square mile area. So right now we could not charge the batteries if only half of us had EV’s. The electric cables are just not big enough. And think about high density abodes such as apartment houses and the cramped housing we see in our older cities. The electric cables would have to be 3 or 4 inches thick. I simply don’t get it. I don’t think the greenies and others understand basic engineering – electrical, mechanical and civil engineering.

      And lastly, even with a ten minute “quick charge”, look at pictures of the Florida highways in early September hen many folks tried to leave south Florida!!!

      Gums sends…

    • The range of an EV in the winter will be greatly reduced, due to the need for lights, de-misting heating/aircon. Plus of course a battery uses a chemical reaction to produce the electricity and most chemical reactions slow down when it is cold, so recharging will also take longer.

    • I do not know about the US, but in the UK, our motorways (freeways) are very heavily trafficked and there are service stations approximately every 20 to 35 miles. The fuel at these service stations is at least 10% more than at a garage off the motorway, and yet these service stations do not go out of business. There is plenty of demand for their fuel, and this is with cars that have a range of about 300 to 500 miles per tank. This suggests that cars driving on motorways need fuel, not simply that fuel is a convenience. This suggests that every day there are tens of thousands of people driving hundreds of miles per day.

      • Richard, just take your local Tesco station, there is a queue at any time of day.
        To get the same throughput they will need 4 times as many Chargers as Pumps, therefore they would have to expand the forecourt by 400%.
        Of course they could put some in the Car parking spaces.
        But you can’t do the same thing in a corner Garage.

  27. The demonstration in Florida, on the 24th of November at 4pm Florida time,
    Might make a difference to how EV are powered.
    Stirling powered generator’s, maybe?

  28. There is a possibly relevant essay on the history , present developments and future prospects of Li batteries by consultant George Blomgren in a recent issue of Interface , published by the Electrochemical Society (ECS) :
    The abstract reads :
    -“This year, the battery industry celebrates the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the lithium ion rechargeable battery by Sony Corporation. The discovery of the system dates back to earlier work by Asahi Kasei in Japan, which used a combination of lower temperature carbons for the negative electrode to prevent solvent degradation and lithium cobalt dioxide modified somewhat from Goodenough’s earlier work. The development by Sony was carried out within a few years by bringing together technology in film coating from their magnetic tape division and electrochemical technology from their battery division. The past 25 years has shown rapid growth in the sales and in the benefits of lithium ion in comparison to all the earlier rechargeable battery systems. Recent work on new materials shows that there is a good likelihood that the lithium ion battery will continue to improve in cost, energy, safety and power capability and will be a formidable competitor for some years to come. “-
    This is an open access article so you do not have to be a member of the Electrochemical Society to read the full text , but a college knowledge of inorganic crystal chemistry would be useful. (It is not confined to automotive batteries , there are other articles in other ECS journals for that , but you may be asked for a membership or institution password).
    The link below is to the abstract but you can click on the full text from that page :

  29. The EV crowd loves to keep using the “30 miles” a day…as the “coup de gras” as to why the EV can replace the ICE.

    Consider this: I live in northern Michigan. Retired. I usually us my 2003 Chevy Avalanche to drive about 3-5 miles a day. Awful mileage, no doubt about it. I’d love to have a nice cheap electric motor which could be trickle charging away…..

    Now, tomorrow, I need to move some logs for my Saw Mill. I’ll hook that old Avalanche up to an 8000 lb trailer loaded with logs and drive to the mill…a couple miles away.

    The next day I might drive up to the UP to enjoy some winter sporting activity. Snow, cold, 200 miles, towing a trailer.

    What world, exactly, has a EV doing this?

    Don’t get me wrong…I love battery powered things…my weed wacker…my leaf blower, my electric deer fence…my flashlight….my Avalanche starter battery….


    Ethan Brand

    • So if you only own 1 vehicle, then an EV is not for you. No big deal. No different than someone who has a pickup truck because they need to haul stuff. A pickup truck is impractical and expensive for someone who lives in a city and has to navigate tight traffic and small parking spots, but great for someone outside the city who needs to haul stuff. Horses for courses.

      It’s amazing the lengths to which EV skeptics will go to criticize EVs.

      • It’s amazing how tone deaf EV fanatics are to taxpayers’ complaints about being forced to pay for said EVs.

      • Hi Chris

        The difference is that I am not expecting you in any way to subsidize my PU. If you want to buy a EV…go for it. Just leave my pocketbook out of the equation.

        OBTW, being in small town, I’d happily give you a tow after your battery goes kaput…..will you be able to do the same when the gas guzzler empties the tank?…nope, didn’t think so…no towing capacity.

        I have no issues with EV. Just EV preachers.
        Ethan Brand

      • I keep on hearing that “if you own 1 vehicle, then an EV is not for you. No big deal.” This isn’t flying any more. Either there HAS to be an electric vehicle solution for everybody, every situation, every time, every use condition or we cannot outlaw the ICE.

        My former boss owns a Volt and his wife loves it. But he drives a Jeep everyday, has a motor home and he would drive the 23 mile one trip to work in his beloved diesel Jetta if he would ever get the brake pump fixed. But he hasn’t went out and bought 2 more Volts for his family.

        Point is, EV’s are a niche market. Until the range issues, battery supply issues, heavy hauling, electrical supply issues are figured out, we will see the ICE in use in huge numbers for a long time (>20-30 years). Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. Come back when you have an electric solution for the mining dump trucks that run 24/7/365 mining all those minerals to make the batteries for all those Telsas.

      • MarkW said: “There goes Chis with yet more lies.
        This time trying to invent non-existent health issues.”

        Lol, there goes MarkW claiming there is no link between automobile pollution and health issues with zero supporting evidence. According to MarkW, the researchers in all the countries that have done studies on this – the UK, China, France, the US, etc – are all wrong. Nope, MarkW is correct. No proof provided or required, he just knows there is no correlation.

      • @all the whiners

        If you don’t like what the gov’t spends revenue on — elect other officials — period

      • — elect other officials —

        You seem to have missed that this has happened last year. Fortunately, the Hilarious C. didn’t make it.

    • They do love averages (I guess you need a starting point for discussion), but gloss over the mass of people doing well over the average that make up that number. Cities are getting larger, commutes longer (often now inter city/inter region/inter State) and public transport stays rooted in the 1990s. I dont see EVs as a grand transition, just another vehicle choice that will fill a niche.

  30. I made this comment for part 1, and will repeat it here: no DEFENSE is necessary for a well designed, well built, useful product. If a Tesla (or other electric car) or hybrid fits your needs and you can afford it, you will buy one. If it doesn’t, you won’t. Ford Motor Company launched one of its most expensive ad campaigns attempting to convince consumers to buy an Edsel – it didn’t work.

    Currently, government mandates and/or subsidies are needed for wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars. These need to be stopped as they represent massive wastes of money. The market should be allowed to determine winners and losers for consumer dollars.

  31. Electric cars might sell if….
    The cost is equivalent to similar gas powered cars
    One can recharge the battery 80% within 15 minutes
    The cost to charge a battery is not more than the cost to fuel a car with gasoline (this includes infrastructure and taxes)
    Range is at least 300 miles
    CO2 emissions are significantly less than a gasoline powered car
    Electric cars pay a similar tax as gasoline cars for roadway maintenance…..

    I don’t think it is possible that all these can be met.

    • All but the last are well onto their way of being met in the next 5 years if not sooner, with the last one likely once EV volumes increase.

      • You bet?
        Easy : in 5 years or later, i will buy an EV, and you pay the difference between its price and the same with ICE.
        If the EV cheaper, you win the difference.
        If it is the same, you neither win nor lose.
        If it is more expensive, you lose.
        Ready to bet?

    • We may have to use 20 minutes to charge, but the others will happen quite soon and with good margin. Five out of six is not that bad?

      Electric cars use less than a third of the energy of a combustion car per mile and we can expect the fuel cost to reflect that.

      Electric engines have far fewer moving parts and maintenance points compared to combustion engines and we can expect that this will have an impact on both the production price and the total cost of ownership.


        Keeps getting thrown out there. We “expect” why is this not the case now? ICE is mature techology and most users dont look under the bonnet from one month to the next, the roads are not littered with broekn down cars. When will renewable benefits be here and now, not just forever coming, expected , just over the horizon? Wind power has been around for decades with these sorts of statements and is a costly, destablising disaster

      • We “expect” why is this not the case now?

        The cost off batteries are dropping quickly and the drop is expected to continue for several years.
        One example is the use of the expensive cobalt. The battery in the 2008 Tesla Roadster contained eight times as much cobalt per KWH as a modern Tesla model S. Batteries without any cobalt at all is expected to take over soon.

        Another factor is that we have not seen the full effect of mass production in the same scale as for the combustion engines. Production prices per unit becomes lower when millions of engines are produced than some ten thousands.

      • The claims of energy efficiency are only true if you only look at energy from the output of the battery to the motor.
        When you factor in getting the energy from the power plant to the battery and back out of the battery, EV’s turn out to be the real losers in the efficiency game.

      • @ yarpos

        Denmark gets 40% of it’s electricity from WIND — and frequently has to sell it’s excess production to Germany and Scandinavia. (that’s how interconnected grids are supposed to work) —

      • You happen to forget to mention that Denmark has the highest electricity prices in the world. If that’s the effect of wind turbines and PV, then it is the end of the line

      • Non Nomen, you are a lttle out of date, South Australia now has the highest prices and yes you guessed it, due to Wind & Solar.

      • Lets not kid ourselves. In mind of the general public, c02 reduction is the rationale for switching to EVs. At least that’s what they have been told by the MSM. Now I know, and you probably know, that there is no real need to mitigate c02, and that EVs won’t make much of difference even there was.

        So why indeed?

      • With most new ICE cars there is very very little polution from the exhaust and the Tyre Noise is louder than the engines.

    • one thing I am not reading on any of the comments is how well Tesla’s drive; fast, low to the ground feeling, quiet, safe. This is a big advantage, granted in the lower end EV’s, it may not be as much.


        It would be highly astonishing if a Tesla would not have all these features, especially when you look at it’s exorbitant price.
        But the more gadgetry and electrickery they integrate, the more error- prone these EVs are.
        A friend of mine just three days ago spent more than half an hour on a rainy and windy late saturday evening trying to unlock her Tesla, where the door handles showed extremely erratic behaviour. She finally managed it when another friend gave her a helping third and fourth hand.

  32. If the numbers of EVs on the road increase significantly, then the price of electricity will increase with greater demand, probably significantly as well. (and a greater % of wind and solar will significantly increase the cost of electricity all on their own) The relative inflation adjusted price of gasoline and diesel will also probably decrease a bit further if demand slacks off a bit. A point of equilibrium between ICE being less expensive, and more practical, and EVs being not too expensive, will probably be reached, that will put a ceiling on EV numbers. The EV market will likely be a limited market assuming it survives the pulling of subsidies which is probably just around the corner.

      • Because like the climate, there are many things that impact the price of gas most of them much more important than the one you fixate on.

      • “There are more ICEs globally now than 10 years ago. So why has the price of gas gone down and not up?”

        Increased inventory/capacity coupled with decreased demand. Economics 101. More cars doesn’t equate to more driving (ie, fuel consumption).

      • MarkW on November 7, 2017 at 8:25 am

        You mean the law of “supply and demand”? If you want to accuse us of “fixating” on facts I’m okay with that.

      • Because average fuel economy has increased in the last 10 years, keeping demand from surging. Also, increased production of oil has kept the price of gasoline down.


        Yes, and if EV increases power demands, why can’t additional electricity production be the answer?

    • In terms of supply and demand, greens are pursuing policies that reduce the supply of stable grid electricity, while at the same time pushing policies that increase demand of the same energy supply. And at the same time pursuing policies to restrict accessible ICE personal transport or make it a too expensive alternative for most.

  33. I didn’t see much about how the electric utility infrastructure will have to adapt. Residential homes, apartment complexes, businesses will have to add capacity, modify existing services, etc. Time of day metering? More power plant capacity? I figure the typical response will be to scoff and dismiss these concerns (like the auto industry) based on little understanding of the complexity of power generation, transmission and distribution. “They only “use” 70% of the capacity anyway.” Don’t bother finding out why.

  34. ‘Tesla’s stated intention is to ramp up to ten times as many Model 3s.’ given that any stated intention ‘ from Tesla needs the application of 10 years of production from the worlds biggest salt mine. On its own this is hardly proof of anything .

    Who is best placed to mass manufacturer EV cars , those who already mass manufacturer cars and have disruption, marketing and supply networks etc already set up for a range of cars they sell , of which EV could and for some already is one part. Or some one with none this network manufacturing base of knowledge of managing a supplier network on a large scale ?
    It is mythology that current car makers are opposed to EV, what they are for is making money and if that can be done selling EV cars or ones powered by Hamster sweat then that is what they will do.

    Every year thousand of people put the wrong type of fuel in their car , which indicates that generally most people care little what what fuels their cars.

    Charging time

    are the three killer elements involved.

    No ‘conspiracy’ is holding EV sells back , the current large scale manufactures will be the future large scale manufactures, and the idea that they cannot or not want to invention is BS . Remember Tesla himself is a user of others ideas not a maker of new ones .

    While EV cost savings are merely a product of low tax due to low numbers, once the numbers stop being low then the low tax is ‘gone ‘ has was seen with LPG.

  35. Is now the opportunity to rebuild Puerto Rico as an all EV Island? The range limitation of EV’s would be less problematic.


    Lost me here. Do we like GM’s chances to scale up to 50K or Tesla’s. Call me when Tesla gets to 5. They need to spend a few more billion for the tooling to get to 10K. GM probably actually pays their suppliers occasionally too, so there’s that.

      • by the capacity of their current cell supplier, should demans increase GM is probably capable of making arrangements dont you think?

      • LG just added 150 jobs and a 4th production line at the Holland Michigan plant in Feb. 2017

        As demand continues to grow for the BOLT Jan 2017 –1200 sold

        Sept 2017 2600 sold

        14,000 sold JAN-SEP 2017

        LG will build another Factory

        EV are inevitable

      • 14000 sales in 9 months.
        Ah Ah Ah.
        2017 New car sales in the UK, 1.8% EVs, what a massive market intrusion.

  37. I think the fast/rapid charge argument needs some reality/practicality testing. Assuming, as suggested in the article and in some of the comments, that rapid charging minimally requires a charging capacity per vehicle in the 50KW range, then at 240 VDC, the current flowing in the charging cable will peak (for 10s of minutes) at ~ 200 A. For comparison, single-family houses built in the US since the 1980s typically are equipped with 200 A at 220-240 VAC service from the street.

    To handle current that high requires a cable made of wire of (at least) 2-0 AWG copper wire (70 mm2). The insulated diameter of one such wire is ~ ½”, it weighs ~ 0.45 lb/ft., and a cable of 2 such wires (minimally) is needed. So, roughly, a cable weighing 1 lb./foot that is 1” inch in diameter is needed. Using typical gasoline fuel hose lengths as a guide, 15 feet of cable would be needed.

    And such cable is very, very stiff. These are the kind of cables that run from utility poles (or underground) to single-family houses.

    For reference, Amazon offers a Ford EV charging station supplying 32 A at 240 VDC with rated capacity of 7.2 KW.

    So, aside from what the figures mean for capital investment and real estate needed for delivering widely available public/private rapid EV charging, humping the charging cable and connecting it to the vehicle could be a problem.

  38. In today’s WSJ …

    One Laker’s Antidote for L.A. Traffic: His Tesla

    … I decided to buy a Tesla because it is an electric car, so I could go in the HOV lane when I am by myself, and because it has an autopilot function, so the car is supposed to basically drive itself.
    [ … ]
    The process of buying the car was unlike anything I have experienced. You go online and pick out what you want—the color, the color of the rims, how many seats you want. [The car can come with five, six or seven.] A few weeks later, the car is ready.
    [ … ]
    Also, the Model X is really comfortable for tall people.

    He has a charger at home and the Lakers have a charger at work. And he can afford the $115,000 price.

    It’s not just the car, it’s the whole package.

  39. I doubt electric cars will not be cheaper than traditional ICE cars, on the west side of North America.
    I have pointed out on WUWT before, that California Oregon Washington, and British Columbia are planning a mileage taxes / road use fees for electric cars, to make up for the loss of gasoline taxes not collected at the gas pump.

    • There is no way to get around such fees: these cars are traceable on the internet. You’ll have to pay for every darned yard, which is just fair, taken into account the taxes on petrol and Diesel.

  40. Bottom line: the market for EVs is a niche one, despite the hype, hoopla, cheerleading and spin. What China may or may not be doing is pure misdirection. We are not China, so don’t care. If people want to buy an EV, for whatever reason (and I suspect feeling pious and virtue signalling are tantamount), then fine, go ahead. Just don’t expect taxpayers to help with the tab, and that includes the infrastructure needed for them.

  41. Let us compare an electric car to an elevator.

    Huh, what, you ask? Well, consider standing in the elevator listening to the piped in muzak. Consider standing in that elevator for the same amount of time as a commute or a trip. Torture, eh?

    Now, consider, for that same amount of time whooping it up at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Or, if your tastes run different consider being at a stadium listening to Aerosmith, ZZ Top, or Springsteen. Or maybe Lady Gaga. Or being at the Opera.

    Real music. True Music. Passion. Life.

    Or … muzak.

    That folks is the difference between an ICE powered car and an electric car.

    Picture rowing that shifter lever: snapping it down from 5th to 4th to execute that passing maneuver. Imagine double clutching that transmission to synchronize the gears as you snick it down from 5th to 4th to 3rd gear in preparation for that upcoming ‘S’ turn. And, all the while listening to the melodious sounds of that free breathing engine as it changes its notes to match its speed: the soft metallic clapping of the tappets; the burbling intake; the staccato exhaust; all blended together in a symphonic ripping noise.

    An ICE engine can also be called a motor. But, an electric motor can never be called an engine. The ICE engine is a symphony, a concert, the real thing. An electric motor is muzak.

    You will tear that shift knob out of my cold dead hand.

    • I de-snorkeled my 2003 Boxster just to get the throatier sound. So yeah my gas mileage went down because I love driving it at between 4000 and 5000 rpm now going down the highway. ;-)

    • Tom: no reason why anyone should tear any controls out of your hands. ICE probably won’t disappear. People still race warbirds and I love the sound of a Merlin. No one uses them for serious transport though

  42. EV sales will only surpass ICE sales when they can compete price-wise without subsidies, and also deliver comparative convenience and performance. As yet, that’s just a pipe dream.

  43. Seems to me that just standardizing batteries so that they can be quickly swapped is a better solution than trying to solve the “fast charge” problem. Surely that would make for more efficient refueling.

    • 1) Think about how long that would take and the infrastructure required to pull that off.
      2) Only a fool would exchange their new battery for one that is years older and at much lesser capacity.

      • That’s not completely impossible. Just check the overall remaining capacity and the state and age of the battery and then refund money if it is better than the one that comes in in exchange or charge money if it is worse than that.

      • You are assuming that such an analysis is possible. Plus you are relying on the honesty of the dealer in reporting it accurately.

    • They are just trying to standardize the plugs, CSS and CSS2 protocol, as mentioned above. There are not going to be stadardized battery packs like A, AA or AAA…evah.

    • There was lots of talk about that early in the game but nothing materialized because there are too many obstacles to overcome.

  44. If electric vehicles are not subsidized with tax payer dollar$ and are fairly taxed to pay their share of road construction and maintenance costs, they will need no dissembling, disingenuous ‘defen$e’.


  45. Although I have found this series to be interesting, I tend to tune out when pejorative terms like “much of Big Oil” are used. Sound more like a slick political presentation than a technical discussion.

  46. Two big problems not addressed by the author:

    1. A gas or diesel engine gives you 100% performance through the last drop of fuel. But a battery-powered car gets more and more feeble until it just won’t go anymore. People hate that. I don’t want a car that can go 300 miles on a charge, but for the last 100 miles, it can’t climb a hill or keep up with traffic on I-95.

    2. There is not enough generating capacity in America to energize millions of electric cars. We can’t build coal plants. We can’t build nukes. There is no more hydro power available. Windmills and solar panels simply cannot carry the freight. That leaves natural gas as the sole available energy source for your “electric” cars. So the real outcome is that cars will be switching from gasoline (and some diesel) to natural gas. That being the case, are electric cars really better than burning natural gas directly in the car?

    • pkhsinc – I’ll bear that in mind. We will need aviation fuel for the forseeable future: an honourable profession but EVs are a threat to part of their business and they sometimes regrettably act accordingly and not always honestly

    • Bro.steve. Your point 1 is not my experience of driving an EV. Are you extrapolating from milk fliats and golf carts?

      • John Hardy, you asked, “Your point 1 is not my experience of driving an EV. Are you extrapolating from milk fliats and golf carts?”

        No, from reading early on-line reviews of a Tesla. The driver was a little too aggressive in his driving, he said, and sucked the battery flat too soon. His description may have been misleading, but left the distinct impression that the performance was pretty sick for the last few miles. If that’s a mistaken impression, that would be good.

        FYI, I work for a power company, and we would love, Love, LOVE to see EVs become successful. I just don’t see battery technology ever becoming truly competitive with gasoline short of a revolutionary breakthrough in energy storage density. If Americans were being powered everywhere by batteries, and some guy invented gasoline just this morning, it would be proclaimed as the greatest energy miracle since the Almighty created sunshine.

    • “are electric cars really better than burning natural gas directly in the car?”
      You’ll know they are when they’ll sell more (without subsidies)

      • Too bad that the US makes it almost impossible to buy natural gas-powered cars, which are so common in South America.

        I suspect it’s because they are hard to tax. You can refuel them from your household cooking gas source.

      • “I suspect it’s because they are hard to tax. You can refuel them from your household cooking gas source.”

        But aren’t natural-gas-powered fuel tanks pressurized? If so, special equipment is needed to fill them.

  47. Big manufacturers realize EVs are a niche vehicle and are only putting enough effort into the market to say “me too”. 1% if the market after almost a decade doesn’t excite them. Get real.

      • The car-makers’ decision to invest heavily in EV manufacturing was made when it was assumed that policy-makers in the U.S. would continue to be gung-ho for CO2 reduction measures and for increasingly tough CAFE requirements for IC engines. Since that was a wrong guess, they may now be throwing good money after bad.


        GM sells more cars in China than in the US. China has made it clear that EVs are their future. If you want to sell cars in China, they had better be EVs. Europe is doing the same as well. Those two markets, plus the folks in the US that want EVs regardless of what Trump says or does, are more than enough demand to justify the EV investments car makers are making.

      • In China – like most countries – the electric grid is owned by the State (country) so those owning EVs and charging them are paying directly to the government. In the USA our electric is from companies that in part are subsidised by government, but are mostly capitalism/corporatism.

  48. We have a great local bus service which takes me to many of the places I would typically want to go to.

    It also goes to the local train station enabling me to readily travel further afield.

    However, neither method can take me to most of the other places I would want to visit, some like Dartmoor up to 30 miles away, others like visiting my son in Cambridge, some 250 miles or going on holiday or for the convenience at night or in bad weather.

    So what I need is not a SECOND car but a reliable FIRST car.

    That means it must be able to go the distances I need, with passengers, luggage, wipers, heater, radio and headlights on, or aircon in the summer.

    It needs to go up steep hills and not involve me in lengthy halts to recharge it en route.

    Fortunately I could charge it in my driveway but many properties round here do not have this facility.

    I can also buy a reliable second hand petrol car for well under £5000. EV’s are much more expensive new, drop dramatically in price after a couple of years (so a terrible investment) and need arrangements made for the battery replacement and for a charging point.

    All in all no EV I know of can fulfil my criteria for a FIRST car at the present time.

    Probably hybrids are the way to go for the next decade or two rather than pure electric.(goodness knows where all the electricity is supposed to come from anyway)


    • “Probably hybrids are the way to go for the next decade or two rather than pure electric.” This is what makes sense to me, is a dedicated micro ICE generator. Solves a lot of current problems on every front, including smaller batteries.

      • My older D4 Cat is only about 77 Hp, so entirely conceivable that one of those EV electric motors would work. The electric motor would just drive the torque convertor, and the gearing down is what does the work. But the diesel engine is just working fine, so I will probably skip electrifying my bulldozer.

    • How bout an electric mining truck? Say 400 ton? It would probably have to recharge after every load or carry 200 tons of batteries.

  49. Little voice pipes up..

    The headline says:

    …demise of the Western auto industry

    Is there really going to be a demise of cars. Surely it’s a demise of the internal combustion engine.
    Cars of some sort will surely go on?

    And is that why this (is running) and Pt 1 ran to such huge discussions.

    The word ‘demise’ threatens boys with one of their main ways of attracting a mate. Of getting laid basically.

    Because, size does matter when it comes to ‘romance’ and, girls cannot do as their prehistoric sisters did, measure a man’s ([potential) fathering ability by the amount of food he could bring home.

    They need another measure and if an F50 pickup doesn’t convey the idea of ‘size’ and ‘quantity of stuff’, what does? Best Selling auto do we hear endlessly on here. There’s your reason. Size Matters.

    Isn’t the internet great, allows so many people to say so many words without directly mentioning what is going on in their minds.

    Its not looking good for mankind, is it really?

  50. Convoy driving behind a snow-plough is common in Norway in the winter. Vehicles assemble at a collection point where there is a fuel station. You have to have winter tyres, full tank, proper clothing etc., and keep up with the convoy when it sets off. Some convoy managers are apparently refusing to take EVs as they can’t perform. It’s not clear if this is a range issue (diminished by waiting with heaters on) or drivers trying to go too slow to eke out the battery’s charge, or the battery simply not coping with the demands of going uphill with lights, wipers and heater on.
    Whatever the reasons, probably all three, this a practical reaction to the fact that current EVs are not good enough for the stresses of remote winter roads, as so many here have pointed out.
    EV’s will be fine in town, IF you have a private parking/charging space wherever your car spends its ‘down time’.
    But then in town, you could always walk, cycle, or use public transport.

    • You could also use the only EV that is actually proven in the market: a golf cart!

      Without any government subsidies, or massive funding of battery research, golf carts serve very well as neighborhood transportation.

  51. How old is this article? Because it would appear the author isn’t up to date on the state of Tesla. Which is to say, pretty poor. They are incredibly far behind schedule with “normal” production of the Model 3 (normal being cars that contain no hand fabricated parts). Beyond that they’re production limited by their paint shop (that’s almost funny). Tesla’s battery plant is a mess at the moment, and the head of the department quietly left over a month ago. They’re burning through cash like it’s nobody’s business and have no doubt already spent all the deposit (i.e. profit) money of hundreds of thousands of Model 3s, which they currently are physically incapable of building and delivering.

    For them to remain an automaker in the long term they desperately need the head start they had over most “conventional” automakers in building EVs. The problem is, that by the time they sort out Model 3 production issues everyone else will have comparable EVs available for sale.

    And if anyone wants to know about long term expenses for a Tesla Model S I’d recommend checking out Car and Driver’s 40,000 mile review. The car was far from inexpensive to maintain.

  52. Hardy is right, of course, adoption of EVs depends almost entirely on the battery problems (production and a needed breakthrough to double cell capacity and halve charging times) and the societal infrastructure needed to support transferring of all the energy used to move automobiles from fossil fuels (gasoline/diesel) to electrical — that’s a lot of energy and it has to come from somewhere and be easily and conveniently delivered to where it is needed — peoples garages and charging stations conveniently located.

    These problems are not trivial and will not solve themselves.

    Ask yourself:

    How many convenient corner automotive propane fueling stations are in your neighborhood?
    What would your local gas station look like if every car took 20-30 minutes to fuel?
    How many of your friends would be willing to wait around for 30 minutes while their car charged at a public charging station?

    • May be a new market for itinerant Vaudevilles? “The 30 minute goon show” or “The charge of the Light Brigade” or even a 30-minute quickie brothel?

      • Nope it will ultimately be

        Home charging (most likely)
        @work charging

        Just like most electric signs, and many of the lights on interstate highways now have small PV solar arrays, so to will parking lots have a plug for each space — most likely connected to a PV array on the lot covering or building roof

      • That might work, provided no more than 2 or 3 EV’s show up needing to be charged.
        PS, I love how the EV fans are always imaging ways other people can spend money to make their lives easier.

      • What other people are spending money?

        If an employer does not offer free EV charging they are not competitive — free market economics.

        1 parking spot is ~18 square meters — which in the Southwest is 116 KWH/day – take a 12% efficiency factor for panels and inverter if it’s not a DC draw and you get 14kWh of — enough to drive 50 miles home– from each and every parking spot.

        Mark — do you do maths? or are you just anti progress?

      • @ Mark

        admittedly the rest of the US averages about 6-7 kWh per parking space, but building integrated PV, and UTES combined can get the job done for about 85% of CONUS.

        Not to mention that at 35-40% market penetration, every big box retailer will have free charging — heck — the average Super Walmart could power a lot of their served area with PV panels on the roof and the parking lot.

      • Come on, do the real math. You made the claim, you make the numbers work.

        How many cars over a full day (6 hours of solar power) can a WalMart-sized building power?
        Latitude 44 north. On March 22. On June 22. On Sept 22. On Dec 22.
        Now remember, if you are assuming tracking solar panels, say so.
        If you are assuming fixed solar panels, say so.
        If you are assuming seasonally moved solar panels, say so. Say how mauch money you’re putting on that roof.
        Parking lot? You cannot even pay for simple, non-electronic, shades/raincovers over the cars to get a return on your investment! Much less far more expensive solar collector arrays, wiring (easy to steal), electronics, and the charger stations.

        How much per charging station, installed and ready to plug in?
        At a “profit” of 4% after taxes, how much sales do you need to pay off 10 charging stations?
        You made the


        I usually let my car make my employment choices for me. Makes sense.

      • @ tsk tsk

        Lots of people base their employment decisions on the transportation benefits their prospective employer offers, like:

        close to the Metro
        paid Metro Cards
        company shuttle to/from closest metro station
        monthly stipend for use of mass transit

        Yes — these are benefits that many Washington DC companies offer to compete for employees

    • The local gas station would look like a Starbucks on steroids with people quaffing coffee and noshing cake whilst waiting for a bell to ring or their phone to receive a message to say the car was charged and to move it quickly as there was a long queue.


      • I understand that a Tesla is capable of driving w/o driver. So unplug it automatically and let it drive to a free parking space in the vicinity. Then the internet connection coupled with GPS steps in and tells the driver where he can pick it up. I just hope it is not going to be another geocaching event.

      • Tony ==> Yes, my thought exactly — remember the gasoline lines during the 1973 gasoline crisis?

        Won’t get that far though, people will not flock to EV ownership if they will have to wait in long lines for charge-ups at the places offering the service — and be late to work, late for a date, etc. American’s just won’t do it.

        I suspect that many two-car families might replace one with an EV, the local kid carting car — grocery store car — Mom’s car. Maybe even an EV van in suburbia. But ONLY if they can reliably charge the car overnight in the garage without spending too much on new electrical connections, re-wiring, new electrical drops to the house, etc.

        You won’t find many in rural America — or in the America that wants 4WD SUVs in every driveway (even though they never leave the city limits).

      • That is a particularly ridiculous and myopic post.

        Did you actually try hard to come up with such a failed simile?

        If one had to posit what a commercial charging station would look like it would have 40 -50 charging docks, served by underground ultracapacitors instead of underground fuel tanks.

        The Vehicles charged per hour would be comparable to the same rate as wheicles per full fill up at 16 pump petrol stations today.

        My my my — how people forget science when they are blinded by clinging to what they believe won’t work.



        Now what was that you were saying about science?

      • 9 times out of 10 – if not more – people will charge at home. Many companies will offer it at work. You really don’t think companies that are going 100% renewable for their energy consumption will roll this out? So the demand for public charging slots per EV will be roughly 10% of what it would be in an ICE world.

      • karl

        errr…some of us have a sense of humour. Perhaps it might be helpful if you allowed yours to emerge a little more?

        Presumably these 40 dock charging stations will mostly be new as they would take up a vast amount of space? 16 pump petrol stations are a fairly rare beast due to space restrictions. A 40 dock one would need loads of space, not generally available in towns and still don’t get away from the fact that each person would have to wait x number of minutes for their fill, irrespective of whether turnover of the whole site is as you say.



      • chris

        Karl raised an interesting aspect, as do you. In the UK some 50% of properties do not have direct access to their own driveway/parking space. As for charging at work, 95% of all companies have less than 10 people and many do not have parking spaces.

        I am not against ev’s at all, but as I wrote above I need it to be a first car and not a second car with all that implies in terms of range and capabilities. I am also concerned as to where the electricity is actually going to be generated as in the UK at least we are close to capacity


      • NomNomen

        Thanks that real world calculation. Which makes my humourous suggestion of the need for a coffee shop on such sites seem necessary as drivers are not going to hang around doing nothing. 80 cars waiting is also something that requires loads of space.

        So perhaps an answer is to site such facilities at locations where people habitually spend an hour or so anyway? This implies such places as retail parks and supermarkets.

        The trick would be in ensuring that cars do not outstay their allotted time. Service stations alongside motorways are also obvious candidates where typical stays are around 30 minutes or more.

        Perhaps dedicated petrol stations as we currently know them will need to evolve to accommodate ev’s and they might become rare beasts in space constrained towns and migrate to such locations as I mention above.


      • You are very welcome.
        I’ve had similar ideas before:
        Non Nomen November 7, 2017 at 11:09 am


      • @ tsk tsk

        Ultra-capacitors are fast discharge specific —

        Most large gas stations have 200,000 plus gallons in 3 or 4 tanks tanks — that is the equivalent of approximately 1 million pounds

        Using 500,000 kg of ultracapacitors would give you a million of something like this BCAP3400 P285 K048

        3.84 Wh storage max power 14,000 W/kg – weight 520 grams

        a max power discharge of ~7 GW

        and a storage capacity for burst of 3.84 MWh — enough to charge 1100 30kWh vehicles, before that array needs to be recharged

        That is easily do-able today — but like I’ve repeatedly stated, — there will be plenty of places to charge your vehicle

        Home, school, office, shopping — or like smart cars — use it and drop it off

  53. The author should disclose his deep involvement in electric vehicle technology business.

    He’s not a disinterested party.
    “John Hardy
    Director and Chief Technology Officer
    Company NameIntercal(UK) Ltd
    Dates Employed Jul 2014 – Present Employment Duration 3 yrs 5 mos
    Location West Midlands
    Intercal (UK) has IP in the area of Battery Management Systems and extends the evidence base by an ongoing programme of testing part funded by an EU grant”

    And he has a book touting EVs:
    ICE Free: Electric vehicle technology for builders and converters Paperback – February 22, 2012
    by Mr John Hardy (Author)
    “A final chapter makes the economic and social case for EVs and gleefully demolishes a number of myths about the problems of electric drive.”

      • The issue is Hardy’s blatant bias for his unicorn battery dream machines. Readers should know that he has a financial/career stake in the electric vehicle battery industry.

        If you know up front that the writer has a financial interest in the electric vehicle battery business, you are better able to evaluate his opinions.

        Readers assume neutrality if a writer does not disclose his personal/financial biases up front.

        Failure to disclose a financial interest in the industry is a blow to credibility.

      • He did not disclose it himself, he had been disclosed which is a pretty embarrassing outing. But he is far fom Mikey Mann and his notorious hockeyschtick, where disclosure of methods and data did not even happen when ordered by a Canadian court. Thank you for your perseverance, Dr Ball!

  54. hybrid gas/electric vehicles are the only solution. Fully EV cars are a 2nd car, commuter car solution. They are horrible for long trips beyond 200 miles. You cannot expect a stall to be readily open along I-5. Many California local Tesla owners drive their Model S/X to the local I-5 fast charger, and go shopping, leaving their car for several hours longer than needed in the stall, blocking others.

    Modern hybrids have regenerative braking. The brakes last as long as any fully EV car. Commuting around town at low speed the battery does most work, while the gas engine helps accelerate and shuts off when the car stops or the wheels need little torque.
    The battery pack replacement cost is 1/3 to 1/4 that of a full EV battery pack. There is no need to tether the car to a fossil fuel powered electricity grid.

    Fully EV cars are bad joke as a replacement for liquid fueled ICE cars unless you have lots of cash to burn.

    • Micro hybrids with a small battery pack to drive accessories. Once you harvest the start/stop idle losses and regenerative breaking the gains from full electric just aren’t warranted. Sure, the electric powertrain is superior in just about every way to ICE engines (except for waste heat in cold climates), but batteries are so much worse than gas/diesel that is still isn’t close.

  55. Slight error in the article. EV electric battery cells are connected in BOTH series and parallel so both the voltage and current outputs can be achieved. Connecting cells to series increases the voltage but does not increase the current capacity. Connecting cells in parallel increases the current capacity but does not increase the voltage.

  56. I see no defense needed. What I see is a battle to prevent the government wasting our tax dollars on them. Let the producers produce and sell what they want and if their in the business of making a profit they will produce what the consumers want. There will probably always be those that are willing to pay for a less cost effective and capable electric vehicle and I say let them do it. Just don’t force me, and the vast majority of consumers to do so nor to pay for any of it. If it is economically viable it will stand on it’s own. And BTW, I’m against any politician anywhere that tries to skew the market by giving advantages to those that buy what THEY want them to. IOW special HOV lane access for “inherently low emissions vehicles” and preferred parking at government facilities for the same have got to go.

    • You do realize that the tax credit disappears after 200,000 vehicles per manufacturer are sold — hence why Prius hybrids don’t get the tax credit — and soon neither will Teslas

      • You do realize that there should NEVER have been any form of subsidization. If the market wanted it, then there would have been no need for it. At no time should a dime of tax payers money been used for any way to give advantage to one type of propulsion over another.

    • Apply your statement to the US Nuclear Power Industry, every single Plant operating in the US was subsidized by a production tax credit, cheap fuel produced by and for the US Government, loan subsidies, loan guarantees etc etc etc.

  57. That is issue attracted so many comments and debate should tell us all something about the average person’s love of their automobile (their horse.) One of the great miracles of of the 20th Century was the gasoline/ diesel distribution system. We transport one of the most explosive materials all over the country. We is very few accidents and rarely a catastrophic accident. Replacing that system will take a large expenditure by someone. In this day and age it probably means the taxpayers. What happened to hydrogen fuel cells? Seems like a far more viable option. It would also allow energy storage at distance electricity production sites instead of batteries. “Fueling stations” could be operated by wind or solar. The only problem has been the Hindenburg effect which could certainly be overcome by good marketing. Mercedes for a while had a comparison of a hydrogen car and a gasoline car both catching fire. The hydrogen car basically went poof and was soon out. The gasoline car basically “melted.” Somewhere back when I was digging in on a regular basis several people had applied for solid state storage.

    • “explosive materials”

      Edwin has been watching too many TV shows. Flammable yes, explosive no.

      Propane and methane can explode, hydrogen detonates, anhydrous ammonia is extremely toxic.

      Everything has risk. You can drown in water, but water can not be used fuel.

      • Gasoline will explode! It is not just flammable. That is how an internal combustion engine works. Atomize it, hit it with a spark and boom. Years ago in a Florida city a tank truck got out of control on a very hot day, crashed, gasoline was sprayed everywhere, vaporized and boom it exploded. Tank trucks early in the game, early 20th Century, both caught fire and exploded. Air-gasoline mixture has to be about right.

  58. The interesting thing about BEV and PV advocates it there is a lack understand of work, power, and electrical power.
    Let me start by talking about the Kiddie fire extinguisher recall. I have 4 new ones on the way. I have fire extinguishers because I worked in the power industry and was in the US navy.
    I am a trained firefighter. Electrical fires are an expected hazard. Why? Simple as pie.
    Power = IE, that is current times voltage. Or P = I^2R that is current squared times resistance.
    So the flow of electricity creates (waste) heat and heat starts fires.
    This why LED are so cool (not literally). I measured a LED I installed in a China cabinet O built. The metal holder was 110 degrees F. I also measure two 12 v lights in the motor at the light socket. 130 degrees F. for the standard automobile incandescent bulb that you would buy at an auto parts store and 90 degrees F cooler for the LED in the same type socket. The biggest TV I have ever owned uses 30 watts and is also the cheapest with the best picture.
    Great, sales through the roof.
    Of course there is no analogy for application where doing work are involved, for example pumping water or driving a motor home up a hill.
    Using a rule of thumb, doubling the speed of doing work increases the power required by the cube, or 8 times the power requirement. This presents an interesting design problem. It will take a mechanical and electrical engineer to figure it out.
    If you BEV is a bicycle going 20 mph with pedal assist going a short distance, not much weight or fire risk is added added. Same for something a golf cart.
    “Electric Vehicles (EVs) are poised to inflict a massive disruption on the automotive industry…”
    This not going to happen because it will add 2000 pounds and $40k. Economy of scale will not make basic engineering requirements gpo away.
    When it comes to fire safety, BEV may be doomed. Electrical things that can start a house fire like hot water heater have to meet one in a million safety criteria. Fire marshall will start banning BEV chargers that do not meet safety criteria.
    The Kiddie recall only involved one possible fatality. A man was trapped in a burning car and the fire extinguisher did not work.
    I am not suggesting the ice does not have safety issues. I am suggesting that BEV will have to meet the same standards. This will put the BEV out of business.

  59. My take is that a pure EV is not the way to go, yet, unless you only need a small runabout town car that only has a range of 40-50 miles and can be recharged overnight via a 120 VAC 15 Amp plug. Something that weighs under 1500 pounds and costs maybe $15K, and will work with all existing current infrastructure. That would be a place to start for a pure EV for wide adoption in the near future. That is what cities like Manila are planning for, since you literally can’t breath the air from all the 2 stoke tuk-tuks. Those are being electrified as we speak. I will buy one of these smaller runabout EV’s as a 3rd vehicle, since I still need my diesel 4×4 Jeep for long haul highway use, and a dually 1 ton Ram diesel for work/pleasure RV.

    For a full sized sedan car like the Model S, it should have an option for a micro ICE dedicated generator to be able to supply electricity for charging for extended range and/or heat/AC in weather. That gets rid of a lot of the technical issues mentioned constantly by so many people here. Why Elon Musk has failed to develop a nifty small, powerful, fuel efficient, dedicated ICE or Turbine generator, I don’t understand. The PHEV is the solution that could be adopted right now, price notwithstanding. I wonder if any EV makers are even reading any of this, or conducting their own analysis of what is realistic, or what people really want right now?

    But the cost is too high for wide adoption now anyway, so will probably stay a niche market compared to the entire auto industry. Plus the subsidies will come off at some point, price of electricity is going up big time in some locations, and a road tax will have to implemented at some point to make up for the lack of a gas tax.
    The EV, and probably more like a PHEV is here to stay, but it won’t be displacing ICE vehicles anytime soon.t At least not until the next petroleum crisis hits, which may be some time off now.

    • recharged overnight via a 120 VAC 15 Amp plug.
      over 12 hours this will supply the energy of 2/3 of a gallon of gasoline.

      it costs pennies to refuel because you are only getting pennies worth of energy.

      • 10 hours of charging at 15 Amps x 120 VAC = 1.8 Kw x 10 hrs = 18 Kw/hr. At a base price of .10/cents a Kw/hr, that is $1.80. Lots of pennies, 180 to be exact. At higher electricity prices of .20 to .25 cents at Kw/hr where much electricity is much higher priced around the world, probably more like $4 to $5 on average over a 10 hour charge, although probably wouldn’t be consuming 1800 watts for the final 2-3 hours.

        Totally feasible, and a small light weight runabout EV would be getting the equivalent of 100 mpg+, so would definitely be able to recharge overnight and run around town all day for a 40-50 mile range. All on a 15 Amp 120 VAC plug…an extension cord just like anyone using a block heater all night consuming 600 watts just to keep an ICE block warm so it will start in 10 below.


        You haven’t actually driven a car built after about 1995, have you? -10F (assuming worst case because you didn’t list a unit) is irrelevant to a modern, fuel-injected car. How do I know? Well I do it for many weeks every year. And don’t forget that those precious TSLA battery packs have their own internal heaters for those cold days as well…

      • Tsk Tsk…not sure what you are talking about, but if you are saying you shouldn’t plug your ICE block heater in below -10F, then you are just doing premature damage to your engine. Sure, your fuel injected car may start in that weather, but you are definitely adding additional wear and tear on the ICE engine with an extreme cold start. I have mainly diesel engines in various vehicles and heavy equipment, so much more important to do so especially if you need to get moving anywhere, since the lead acid battery does lose a lot of cold cranking amps. At a minimum, at least have a oil warmer of some type, since that first 45 seconds of running has some metal on metal with many moving parts. You probably don’t know what I am talking about.

    • You forgot the cost of fuel to get to the Petrol to the service station, and the cost of fuel to drive to and from the petrol station

      • Please note that the infrastructure of new and improved wiring to and from the charging stations or the PV panels has to be paid for. The infrastructure for petrol lorries exists and has been paid for already. Compared to that, the price of transportation of petrol is a “quantité négligeable”.

      • Non

        The cost has to be paid every time that big truck damages the road, and burns petrol – just to deliver petrol.

        My prediction is that by 2030 there will be more EV (including hybrid) in operation worldwide than IC — perhaps sooner

      • The special EV electricity grid still has to be built and henceforth requires maintenance and repair – as a petrol lorry as well. How many petrol lorries are rolling on highways and streets? Compared to the number of other vehicles it is yet another “quantité négligeable”. They can not be hold responsible for each and every pothole.

      • your. average lp battery. costs more than the gasoline to drive the total number of miles the EV can drive during the lifetime of the battery.

        lipo batteries cost more to build than the cost of energy the can store in their lifetime.

        EV’s are a great replacement for bicycles because they have a similar range and can be powered off. the existing grid when small.

      • That cost is paid by trucking companies via of a road use tax. Ever see truck weigh stations alongside interstates?

      • “My prediction is that by 2030 there will be more EV (including hybrid) in operation worldwide than IC — perhaps sooner”

        So 13 years away perhaps sooner? Some rough numbers. Total number of vehicles in the world 1.5 billion, annual production 90million. So in rough terms you are saying 750 million cars (lets just go for 50% not a majority) replaced in 13 years or sooner even. Thats roughly averaging 57 million cars a year for 13 years (more if you reckon sooner). They are slightly shy of that at the moment so they better get a wriggle on over the next decade.

        Like most of these fan boy pronouncements, it defies common sense and even the most basic of sanity checks.

      • Even if we banned IC cars today, and somehow, magically the production of EVs jumped to match the current rate for IC cars, that prediction still wouldn’t come true.

      • @ yar..

        Don’t discount exponential growth — and yeah that’s my prediction

        A 1 seat EV or a converted 3rd world moped to EV counts, as does any IC that integrates an EV motor to enhance performance and reduce use of fuel

        Didn’t read very closely did you — I said EV or hybrid vehicles — that counts EV bicycles as well

      • @ Mark W

        dont reed two guud do you

        I included hybrid — which includes conversions — yeah — all those 3rd world moped/motorcycle smog factories — slap an EV motor and you get a hybrid — same with bicycles

      • @ferd

        So WRONG!!

        Prius battery pack replacement — at dealer $2500 after core discount

        But Ferd was talking about EVs not hybrids.

    • ferdberple : except that it is the other side of the Carnot cycle, or to put it another way the electric motor is vastly more efficient

  60. By “fast charge” I mean charging from a DC source at 40Kw upwards
    your average ICE car engine can supply this. park a bunch at every gas station and hook them up to the gas pumps. someone needs a charge drive to the gas station.

    • Matthew, Yep. One problem is going to be getting us rednecks out of our trucks. Can’t imagine seeing an F350 King Ranch with an electric motor…

  61. I’m a bit of a car guy…69 GMC truck, 86 Pontiac Fiero (future project car), 61 Volvo PV544 hot rod project (currently in work, about a year left to finish), and my daily driver is a 2010 Subaru STi SE. Here is my take on EVs: I would buy an EV to replace my STi if- I can find an EV that will perform like my STi for an equal or lesser price than my STi ( I paid $32k in 2010) and have equal or less operational costs and maintenance. That’s it. My days of owning and driving an 84 Tercel are past so why would I buy a an EV that performs like an 84 Tercel or spend $100+ for a cool EV?

  62. Thank you for an excellent article.

    I have used an electric vehicle in my daily commute for the last three years, and 80 000 km, and I am very satisfied.

    It is the preferred car for all family members simply because it is so pleasant to drive because it goes so smooth and noiseless.

    A plus is also that the interior heater starts immediately, no need for waiting for the engine to warm up. This is important since I live in a cold country.

    Almost no maintenance and harassment; it is just to fill up with windscreen washing fluid and to plug in the power at home is done in an instant and comes just as natural as locking the doors.

    I am fully convinced that electric vehicles will dominate in a few years simply because they are better and soon they will also become cheaper than combustion engines.

      • And who thinks that the Chinese will save the world is taught by numbers of the better:
        New vehicle registrations in China 2016: 24,079,000
        of which pure EV or hybrid: 300,000
        Although China has given the goal from 2030 only hybrid or pure EV to allow, but until then, the Middle Kingdom will still be flooded with combustion engines. And as it is with promises in the future, even goals can change, not be attainable for the sake of the snow of yesterday or otherwise.

      • Yesterday California got about 21% of total electricity energy from renewables:

        I should note that the figures exclude Sacramento and Los Angeles.

        For CA to achieve its ICE-free goal, it will have to install lots more electricity generating capacity than it has now, more than it is planning to. It will be even harder to charge the cars completely from renewables.

        My son has a Nissan Leaf (whose purchase was subsidized, or he would not have bought it). My other son has a Toyota Prius. I like driving both cars. But right now, my VW Jettas and similarly sized and equipped cars are better value for the money.

        I think that this is a slow story, fascinating though the daily details can be.

    • DO you discount that compressed air exhausted through a piston can provide useful work?

      Do you deny that windmills can compress air, and also store the adiabatic heat of compression in an Underground Thermal Energy Storage system to be used to level the load for Utility scale Wind farms?

      If a person had a windmill and compressed air — and stored the adiabatic heat of compression in a heat sink that was used to heat the home and water and also heat compressed air to do work, are you saying such a vehicle cannot function as described?

      Be careful — I have personally seen a compressed air exhaust vehicle work (piston based)

  63. Wonder how people who live in 2 – 4 story apartment buildings would handle their recharging. 100’s of extension cords coming out of one building?

    • would look the way telephone and power distribution looks in some Asian cities with hundreds of cables tied of to poles into the street. I am sure retrofitting and rejigging the streets can happen at great expense over time. This is one of the constraining factors in widespread use and uptake.

      They are an ideal city car, where is the provision of power for charging points most problematic? in cities. It will get glossed over, but the same people will say the cars spend most of its time stationary. This is true but they imagine company car parks and houses/garages because that what they have (the wealthy EV buyers of today)

  64. While I don’t doubt that EVs will become more prevalent as time passes, unless the manufacturers can market models that sell for the price of a car like the Honda Civic, and without subsidies, they’re going to take much longer than their proponents care to admit. Right now, they’re simply overpriced.

      • Thats big price drop in 3 months folks, keep an eye out for it. Elon will reall be looking to drive that Model 3 price down next year. That sounds right doesnt it, or as they say in my country, nah that doesnt pass the pub test i.e. people know BS when they hear it

    • The Nissan Leaf is 30k — that is barely a 15% premium for a comparable vehicle — not to mention a 125 mile range and 30 minute charge at 440V


    No, it is not happening now, your assertion not withstanding.

    • Then why does every major vehicle manufacturer in the world have at least 1 if not more EV.

      If it was not disruptive, they wouldn’t

      Remember — they manufacturer gets dick for making an EV — and only in certain countries and in certain circumstances are tax credits available.

      It’s already disruptive.

  66. It’s always interesting to read comments from those who’ve never owned an electric car or hybrid yet are experts on everything about them.

    As stated in pt 1, we own a 2012 Mitsubishi MiEV all electric, a 2008 Prius and a 2007 Camry. Last year the Camry main battery failed. Dealer cost to install a replacement: ~$4300 I opted to buy a Dorman reman for $2500 + $200 to install; 3 year unlimited mileage warranty. So, after all the money saved it was completely lost when the battery failed.

    The Prius battery failed this year. Dealer cost if we do it is $2600. Aftermarket can be had for less than half that. The car has 220,000 miles and used on a mail route. While it has been a reliable car, the weak link is the front wheel bearings which have failed twice now. They seem to last about 100,000 miles give or take and about $900-1000 to replace. I’m debating whether to get another battery because the car is really showing its age from the mail route. Either way, the battery cost outweighs the cost of a similar sized class car for maintenance and life cost.

    Back to the PEV. Sorry people, but EV’s are a PITA for anything but running errands and short trips. You’re always afraid to use the factory heater because it runs at 5kW and drains the battery faster. Plus the fact that cold temperatures alone are a strain, the range can drop much below the rated factory “fantasy quoted” range. There may be 10 year warranties on them, but that is telling me that EV’s are basically dixie cups. Mine is 10/100,000 on the battery. It will never ever see 100,000 miles. By then it will be a rusted hulk and everything else failing.

    Resale value? Ha! Who wants to buy a car at 9 years 11 months knowing they will be spending $3000-4000 soon. So you buy an EV that has lost its resale value by 75% within 4-5 years with the only selling point being “well you still have 5 years left on the battery”. What you aren’t told is the battery is allowed to degrade a certain percentage and still be considered acceptable. Ever read the warranty for the battery? The list of disqualifications is LONG. My battery will only charge to 54 miles now, when just a few months earlier it was over 70 miles. I think some of the cells are going bad, yet, the dealer says it checks out fine.

    Once they find the dilithium crystal mines and make the batteries last forever, increase the range (to like forever) safely and affordably (without nanny state giveaways), I’ll be all in. For now, this EV I have is a toy that is nearly useless in cold weather.

    Oh, it’s time to go to work, gotta fire up the electric blanket, sit on the seat warmer, put my hood on, breathe shallow for no frost on the windows and hope there’s enough battery to get there and back (40 miles, factory claims 62 average; reality, maybe 50 on a good day) as the temps are dropping below 30F.

    Been there, done that.

    • interesting comments

      not really EV related but I was stunned by “the weak link is the front wheel bearings which have failed twice now. They seem to last about 100,000 miles give or take and about $900-1000 to replace” maybe even more stunned of they are USD.

      I have a classic 80s BMW. Just did the front wheel bearings ( in a workshop) $550 supply and fit. Those Toyota ones must be made of Unobtainium

      • @yarpos

        What you may have missed on the wheel bearing issue is ‘because the car is really showing its age from the mail route.’

        Mail routes infers aggressive stop and go driving often on dirt roads. The best way I can think of to destroy a car without hitting something.

        I do not recall when Toyota switched to sealed wheel bearing. On my 1980 Tercel, I discussed this the local dealer. I was driving dirt roads in the Pennsylvania mountains and repacked the wheel bearing on my American made trucks.

      • I once got 93 mpg on an 8 mile trip with the Prius my daughter now has. If you know how to hyper mile — the epa MPGe are actually low.


        And if you use a scrub board and a hand-cranked ringer you can do your laundry for less than 50¢ per load. It will just take you a full day to do it.

  67. This is just one example and other links are available in it.

    I brought this up in part 1 of this series. Challenging people to look up free energy. There are many videos the people have posted by using a small electric motor that once it starts a flywheel turning, it can power a larger electric generator that can run the motor and provide more electricity for other things.

    The main issues with EVs is charging yhe depleted battery pack. Everyone tends to not see the forest for the tree’s. Because the technologies are available to create onboard charging that eliminates the need for exterior charging.

    If you have an onboard charging system that can maintain the equal amount of output, stabilizing the optimum working range of driving. The battery would not be depleted or require external charging. No infrastructure would be needed.

    There are many examples online being done by people in depressed countries using available materials to make these systems. Where there are engineers that can take those ideas and incorporating more advanced technologies to reduce size and increase reliability. Regenerative braking just lacks the means to obtain the level of input these EVs require. Batteries work best and last longer if they are not drained and charged repeatedly. A proper system would actually be running on the onboard charging system if input and output is balanced. That would reduce the size of the battery pack needed, which is only there to provide a longer/farther driving time and not the requirements of the drive motors.

    That is just one application of these technologies. If all those windmills and solar farm’s had used their millions using these technologies… There wouldn’t be any need for large capacity battery storage or for many of the fossil fuels generators, hydroelectric or nuclear. Because once a system like these are running they are self sustainable until parts go bad…and a simple small storage battery is all that it would take to start it going, like a geared starter for an ICE. The other plus side is no emissions.

    • There is no such thing as free energy.
      Additionally flywheels will never work as a form of energy for cars for the simple fact that you cannot undo the gyroscopic affect.
      If your fly wheel has enough energy to drive your car several miles, then your had better hope that there are no curves ahead because your car will flip if you try to turn it.
      Not to mention that in a crash that fly wheel will fail, catastrophically, with all that energy being released in milliseconds.


        Had one of these when I was a kid. It was a gyroscope disguised as a flying saucer.

        If you held it in your hands and tried to tilt it it would flip 90 degrees. Would be a real bad idea for a car.

      • Kind of ignores the FACT that every single IC vehicle actually has a FLYWHEEL attached to the driveshaft, now doesn’t it?

        That Flywheel is what transfers energy from the engine to the TRANSMISSION.

        [??? And that “flywheel” has how much energy stored, compared to a flywheel storing transportation energy? .mod]

      • ICE engine’s have Harmonica Balance Wheels that dampen the wobble of the Crankshaft from the turning of the engine and piston action…in short explanation. The flywheel is where the gear is mounted for the starter at the back of the engine on the Crankshaft, that is where a Torque Converter is mounted in an automatic transmission or the Clutch for Standard Transmissions. None of these Flywheels actually act as a Flywheel to add power. They are there to provide balance. The Torque Converter on Automatic Transmissions is also a dampening device by fluid exchange through the channels, but acts as a Flywheel convering the energy to the transmission into higher RPM. A Variable Speed Transmission that is most popular today has replaced old style Automatic Transmissions. VST have a Planetary type fuction that did away with shifting gears and smoothy converts the RPM to Torque at the driveshaft end as speed is increased. The Nissan LEAF uses a VST.

        Once more…the Flywheel is not a function of the drive train in what I am talking about. The weight of it would be small to the gross weight of the vehicle and not effect it as you are implying.

      • I assure you my FLYWHEEL equipped vehicle turns just fine.

        As far as energy storage on a large scale — magnetically levitated flywheels that rotate at extreme velocities and have extreme mass — stored underground — have been identified as a potential energy storage medium.

        They would be used to create a dynamo effect — and slow as the rotational energy was converted to electricity

        It’s all about the amount of energy — after all, the EARTH is a giant flywheel, the gravity well of the SUN keeps us in orbit..


        Terrible idea. Horrible specific energy. Pumping water up a hill remains our best bulk energy storage, which tells you why there’s no real grid energy storage.

      • “karl November 7, 2017 at 6:22 pm

        That Flywheel is what transfers energy from the engine to the TRANSMISSION.”

        No. The flywheel keeps the engine running smoothly between power strokes, esp at idle, storing rotational energy to keep the engine turning. It’s the reason why race tuned engines, with lightened flywheels, have a rough “tickover” and won’t idle at 800 RPM. The crankshaft transfers the linear motion of the pistons into rotational motion, through the clutch and input/main/counter shafts and final drive, to the wheels.


        First, the flywheel is not connected to the drive shaft, it is attached to the crankshaft. In the grand scheme of things it is relatively small.

        Second, numbers matter. It is one thing to use a flywheel to smooth out the energy fluctuation of a piston engine. It is orders of magnitude larger if you want to use a flywheel to store energy to move a car.

        Do yourself a favor and take a physics course.

      • It is obvious you don’t realize that a flywheel would probably be less than 10% of the vehicle weight. It is kept in motion by a small electric motor and not storing energy. The flywheel would only be increasing the horsepower needed for the generator. That it is mounted to the vehicle and secured by bearings to keep it in place without a gyro effect when vertical to the length of the vehicle, the vehicle would have to be at near roll over before any effects would be felt…if at all. That an EV uses about 3 to 5 kw in approximately 3 miles as explained in the article the size of the electric motor, flywheel and generator does not need to be as large as these systems in these videos to maintain the battery. Or is that concept too hard to understand? Again, these examples are using antiquated technology that new technologies can improve. I have my own ideas to work out. But why should I give those away here?

      • “have been identified as a potential energy storage medium.”

        Ah!…. Karl takes a trip down make believe land.

        Don’t eat the wrong mushroom, little karl. !

      • “There is no such thing as free energy.”

        Without getting technical. If the energy going in is 1 kw and it produces 5 kw and 1 kw of that is used to run the 1 kw it leaves 4 kw available. How is that not 4 kw of free energy? Watch the videos. A 1 hp electric motor is turning the flywheel and powering a 220 Volt generator that would normally require a larger electric motor or gas engine.

    • Every professional investor who has looked at Tesla’s financial’s understands that Tesla cannot maintain a stock value north of $60 for any foreseeable future revenue scenario. Yet many have invested anyway hoping to bail-out before the bubble bursts. But make no mistake, many have already bailed out and banked a tidy sum on the TSLA bubble.

  68. This may be a stupid question, but why not exchange the battery for a fully charged one instead of recharging? We do this with small devices, why not cars? If the “fuel” companies lease the batteries to customers, then car owners don’t feel the cost upfront, and charging is like filling a tank. Is there some reason the batteries can’t be popped in and out?

    • “Is there some reason the batteries can’t be popped in and out?”

      Yes, PEV batteries weigh more than a car engine.

    • If you think rationally, they are popped in and out — The Toyota Dealer will charge you 3.7 hours of labor to swap a Prius battery pack — even though it can be done in under an hour.

      Like I said — design is the only issue.

      • karl shows he has NO IDEA about the physics of storing large amounts of energy in a small confined place.

        DOH !!!

      • Yes, they take out your lovely discharged new battery and give you a 5 year old one, what a great deal that is.

    • Oops, I over-charged this battery, used it in sub-zero temperature at high speeds, then over-discharged it climbing steep hills. No problem, I’ll exchange it. LiOn’s can be wrecked which is why there are about 100 disclaimers in the “10/100,000” warranty.

      A Prius battery weighs about 75 lbs IIRC. You can quick charge a PEV battery to 80% capacity in ~10-30 minutes. Then there is the matter of a LiOn essentially being a bomb. I’ve seen (and done) what happens when a LiPo battery decides it wants to self mutilate. Many houses are burned down each year.

      Personally, I’m about ready to sell my MiEV; have driven it about 6 weeks. It’s been fun, but I don’t see a future enjoying it longer than 8 weeks (winter is almost here). My employer has not approved installation of a charging station nor simply plugging in for 4-6 hours (for a nominal deduction from my pay) to make sure I have enough battery to get home. Right now with the cold, I have 15-20 miles to spare. The thought of no heat (unless I install a diesel water heater) and relying on an electric blank and the heated seat is less appealing each day.

      Some tree hugger college student in Ann Arbor will gladly pay a premium for my EV. I’ll be happy for making a nice profit and he/she will be happy for saving the planet. For them it may be more practical on a serious note.


        But batteries do not like being discharged too much. That gives you, in this case, a battery efficiency of let me say, about 30-40 % of its nameplate capacity. I call it P*ssed Poor Performance.

      • Absolutely. I explained this in part 1. Draining a battery and fast charging overheating the battery for long trips creates longer charging time to get a full charge. There is a reason the charging plug has several connectors that communicates between the car and the charging station to determine the state of charge and the temperature of the battery. The hotter the battery the less amperage at the starting point and as the battery charges the Amperage going in is constantly lowering. So that “20 minute charging time” can take over an hour to reach the “80%” that people are repeatedly saying on here.


      • Would it then make sense to cool the battery during its recharge? IMHO cooling is more energy-consuming than heating, I suppose, so the input/output ratio would be from bad to worse.

    • Then there’s monthly lease charge for a battery exchange program. that would easily be a serious outlay of several hundred dollars or more a month. EV owners like to fool themselves that they filled up/charged-up for pennies their batteries, and that depreciation and overhead costs can be ignored. But overhead and depreciation coasts get baked into a monthly lease payment by the financial considerations of the leasing company.
      A battery swap lease system would blow away that mirage. And then if you participate in a battery swap lease program, what incentive is there is charge at home overnight?

      It would be far more practical to convince people (from a behavioral standpoint) to lease a Tesla by the hour or by the day. All of their personal customizations such a seat position, environmental settings, music and news radio selections would be either downloaded via wireless-internet (cell data) from the customer database (or from a personal USB stick inserted by the customer, but that would have virus/trojan horse software issues).

  69. Y’all are starting to sound desperate. I think I’ll wait for the closeout/scrap sales after the subsidies and loan programs run out.

  70. I have not found any information about recycling of EV batteries exept one pilot recycling plant, built/under construction by Lithorec in Germany. Cobalt and nickel are of greater importance than lithium. It seems as if the manufacturers are trying to postpone recycling -not extended use as buffer-station below the 80% margin- until Kingdom come. Are the manufacturers squandering resources?

  71. The major point overlooked with electric cars is that not everyone has a driveway or garage to charge them. That, and parking spaces in cities are always a valuable commodity, and as soon as you put in a charging point that’s one less parking space, since you can’t leave your car there -electric or no- unless it’s actually charging.

    Which raises another issue; that if you go somewhere distant by electric car you have to be prepared to split your visit between charging the car and moving it away to other parking when it’s charged. If you can’t return to the car when charging completes (maybe you are on foot and several miles away) then the car might get ticketed or towed for blocking a charging point. All in all, not very practical.

  72. Sorry but Tesla will go under financially within 3 years. It will have been about as successful as the original Tesla companies that burned through jp Morgan’s investments before pulling the plug. Tax reform within the next six months will be one of the nails in the coffin but unresolved production issues will be the main death blow. Of course Musk can blame the coming bit coin market crash and Trump, not his own issues. Send in the the UAW demolition crew to finish him off.

  73. The main reason many automakers are developing EVs is that California will require large sellers of cars to offer such an item in their lineup. It’s NOT that they anticipate a big, rich market for them, or that they think EVs are the future. One story I read quoted an auto bigshot as saying he anticipated losing nearly 10,000 on each EV sold.

    • Also a requirement in the EU and China (in EU case there’s a restriction on average emissions across whole of manufactured fleet coming in)

  74. One little problem that “home charging” for Evs that th advocates are missing is multiple car families, some have as many as 3, 4or more cars, one for each Adult and 1 for each of their 2 children.
    Everybody knows about queing for the Bathroom, well that will have nothing on “queing for EV Charger”.
    Of course you say why not have 4 chargers, so for fast chargers and additional $28,0 dolars over an FF car.
    Plus the power requirements for 4 chargers would require massive re-cabling and wiring.

  75. There are problems, and Engineers usually come up with solutions.

    New battery technologies are already making headway and have improved charging speed and capacity. It takes a few years to implement any new technology.

    The grid will become distibuted by multiple smaller sources of power, from convetional heat engines to solar, wind, hydro, anything, as long as it as local as possible, solar in New Mexico, , hydro in the Cascades.

    Battery storage will be at every house and at every filling station, so power will not just be available from the grid but from batteries that are charged up when demand is low.

    Power saving, even as simple as insulating your house, will improve, especially in old buildings.

    It can work, it may not be perfect to begin but somebody once said “Perfection is the enemy of progress”.

    • …”hydro in the Cascades.”
      I’m not sure about that. New hydro projects in Germany and Switzerland get very strong opposition *from the greens*.

      • Opposition to dams here (Washington state) too, mostly for the sake of salmon. They’re being dismantled.

    • Too much pessimism. Problems are for solving. Mankind usually finds a way.

      Interesting that the main benfits of renewable power is price, not the AGW hysteria.

      And you dont need dams for small scale hydro, just a pipe running alongside or in a creek bed. What matters most in mountains is the head, because head X flow gives power, and in the Cascades/Sierras/Rockies there are creeks with thousands of feet head.


    Edwin apparently does not understand difference between safety and property damage. First and and foremost safety is about not killing people.

    I do not need to do a test to know that hydrogen detonates and kill people. I just have to read the fatal accident investigations.

    It is the speed of the shock wave that kills. Hydrogen detonates while gasoline wooshes. It is also the range of concentrations that make hydrogen so hard to mitigate risk.

    I am an expert at designing systems that handle hydrogen.

    When a test is done to show how safe hydrogen is, point at the idiot doing the test and shout liar. Yell I am going to put you in jail.

    Making misleading statements is the same lying. If you are a safety profession, it is criminal.

    It does not matter how many nice people like Edwin you convince. It is the local fire marshal you have to convince that HFC of BEV are not a danger to their neighbors.

  77. Based on observation, I am skeptical of those who say would spend the extra money for a BEV to actually do the things they will do.

    I am an environmental professional. I have been trained in protecting the environment and paid to do it. This is different than being a silly rich person who claims to be an environmentalist.

    So let me start with free things that rich environmentalists will not do very often:

    – Compost

    – Use a clothesline to dry cloths.

    – Drive conservatively and slow down on the highway

    – Turn off a light when they leave the room. Yes they will brag about saving money by purchasing expensive LEDs.

    BEV advocates like to make the argument that plugging in a BEV is more convenient than going to the gas station.

    It is not!

    My daily commute was less than 20 miles a day because that was one of my criteria for buying the house. I only needed to buy less than 15 gallons a month and there were numerous stations along the way. Since I had the PU on the block, neighbors would borrow it and bring it back with a full tank of gas.

    So I think BEV owners will find plugging in too be too inconvenient over time and stop doing it.

    Just for the record plugging in is inconvenient. It is one of the chores that come with owning a motorhome. I try to get the handyman to do it. I wait I am the handyman.

  78. “Lol, there goes MarkW claiming there is no link between automobile pollution and health issues with zero supporting evidence.”
    There are lots of ‘links’ just an absence science to support the links.
    The second part is that air pollution issues have been solved in the US.
    What are BEV advocates claiming? Good air quality below the threshold of health issues is going make a new category of air quality. ‘Gooder air quality’

    Let me second that! Think about the number of cars that either the power company has or employees have. Nothing like a pictures of 30 cars parked in front chargers in-front of the home office to send a message.
    The problem is there are too many of us that have to perform a ‘pay back period’ calculation for every suggested improvement.
    The front office like to put out ‘Earth day’ quizzes that knowledgeable engineers always fail. The front office seems to think the NYT or USA Today knows more than than those who make power.
    I was taking a foo foo training close. I asked how much a saving program cost and how much was save. What do you mean, the instructor asked? You folks put a color sign on the wall by are black and white copier telling us to make less color copies to save money.
    When you see engineers at the power company driving BEV on there own dime, BEV will have arrived.


    “Never mind those electric-car bargains we told you about mere months ago. Prices have been on such a steep downward trajectory that there’s already an entirely new, sweeter set of deals to be found. You might find a five-year-old vehicle with relatively low mileage, very low operating costs, and nothing wrong with it—for the price of a beater. The asterisk: That car would most likely be a Nissan Leaf, and you’ll only be able to go about 60 miles before needing many hours plugged in—unless you’re fortunate enough to have fast-charging hardware nearby. Apparently most people aren’t willing to live with that asterisk or the few others that accompany life with a used electric car. According to the pricing authority Black Book, retail values for the used 2013 Nissan Leaf are at an average 22 percent of the original MSRP—in the range of $8000 to $8500—while that five-year-old Leaf is selling at just 11 percent of its original sticker. A three-year-old Leaf—a $30,000 to $40,000 car new—returned from lease gets sold at wholesale auction at $6000 to $7000 or, on average, just 18 percent of its original price. For gasoline vehicles, a three-year residual is typically in the 45- to 65-percent range. “To be under 20 percent is fairly telling,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s senior vice-president of operations. “A lot of it has to do with demand.””

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