When do you think you will buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?

[herbicide]

Perhaps they are planning to die in the next decade? Or perhaps they don't understand that they're going to have a similar issue with gas stations in the future that they're complaining about for charging stations now. Once this transition happens, gas pumps are going to become more and more scarce until you get to the point of having to plan a trip based on their availability.

That is simply not going to happen in the next 10 years. Maybe in 20-30 years or beyond.

 

[herbicide]

See, this is a perfect example of someone that should keep driving an ICE car. They are not for everyone. Just like some people need a pickup truck because they pull a horse trailer. My wife on the other hand has put 60k miles on her VW in the last 5 years and the car has never been further away than Omaha.

Yes, and I certainly don't consider myself a 'naysayer.' I have a company provided vehicle, their choosing of the model. If I had a choice, especially at my own expense I would probably look a bit closer at all electric or at least a good hybrid.

 

[KnappShack]

That is simply not going to happen in the next 10 years. Maybe in 20-30 years or beyond.

By then we won't be actively driving anyway. Car does all the work. We watch stuff of our Apple VR glasses and just arrive at our destination

 

[NickTheGreat]

No, you will need them to be like gas stations if as many people have them as some people want them to be. That is not feasible. You would basically need a substation to set them up like a gas station is currently set up. Unless you want there to be a line, who knows how deep, waiting on the charger to open up.

You could set up diesel generators

 

[Farnsworth]

I'm driving my focus till it dies. Hopefully a few more years. It's a 2010

 

[simply1]

I'm driving my focus till it dies. Hopefully a few more years. It's a 2010

That’s not an answer though, what will you buy after it dies?

 

[nfrine]

Nuclear fusion has been making some cool breakthroughs recently

Nuclear Fusion Breakthroughs Suggest Limitless Energy is Closer Than Expected

Achieving practical fusion power has been a longstanding challenge... until now.

www.barchart.com

I remember seeing articles similar to this in the early 1970's. Yes, I am old.

 

[KnappShack]

I'm driving my focus till it dies. Hopefully a few more years. It's a 2010

Sex on wheels, baby

 

[mramseyISU]

These cars run on lithium batteries. The US has a grand total of 1 lithium mine in its borders so we are still going to rely on foreign entities for our vehicles.

Also, child labor in the DRC, as far as getting cobalt is concerned, is disgusting.

You are essentially trading one evil for another. The whole “it’s better for the environment” is a joke. Everything has a price on environmental issues, we just haven’t fully understood the ramifications of mining for these battery resources yet. All it is, in my opinion, is another avenue for these companies to sell vehicles. If this wouldn’t be profitable for the industry, it wouldn’t be getting pushed.

So for lithium, most of the lithium mined in the world is coming from Australia, and I'm fine with sending some dollary-doos to them down there. It gets processed in China which is a bit more problematic but the Aussies are working on ramping up large scale processing to compete with China. The cobalt mines in DRC are a different issue all together. Fortunately most EV batteries are phasing out the use of cobalt in their batteries. Tesla hasn't used it for a couple years and Ford will have it gone by next year.

 

[BCClone]

So my math is wrong? How are we going to go from 20% renewable to 100% by 2035? 26 million a lot different than 120 million.

I think the bigger question about electric vehicles is not the electric grids but silicon. We are behind on new vehicles due to lack of chip production which require silicon. So if we push to just 50% EV, which have batteries requiring silicon, will that slow new car production even more. Car lots will be a ghost town if so.

 

[Clonefreeeek]

I think the bigger question about electric vehicles is not the electric grids but silicon. We are behind on new vehicles due to lack of chip production which require silicon. So if we push to just 50% EV, which have batteries requiring silicon, will that slow new car production even more. Car lots will be a ghost town if so.

Absolutely, we have a major dependency on China. If China one day says hey were keeping this for ourselves we are F**ked

 

[Clonefreeeek]

So for lithium, most of the lithium mined in the world is coming from Australia, and I'm find with sending some dollary-doos to them down there. It gets processed in China which is a bit more problematic but the Aussies are working on ramping up large scale processing to compete with China. The cobalt mines in DRC are a different issue all together. Fortunately most EV batteries are phasing out the use of cobalt in their batteries. Tesla hasn't used it for a couple years and Ford will have it gone by next year.

Graphene batteries look promising, its still lithium but it appears to charge faster and hold a charge longer.

 

[ricochet]

I think the bigger question about electric vehicles is not the electric grids but silicon. We are behind on new vehicles due to lack of chip production which require silicon. So if we push to just 50% EV, which have batteries requiring silicon, will that slow new car production even more. Car lots will be a ghost town if so.

I don’t think the chip shortages have anything to do with shortages of the silicon element though do they? Isn’t silicon one of the most common elements there is and available basically everywhere?

 

[mramseyISU]

Graphene batteries look promising, its still lithium but it appears to charge faster and hold a charge longer.

Lithium seems to be a pretty consistent component in the next gen batteries after lithium-ion gets moved out. Lithium-Iron seems next up for automotive.

 

[cycloneG]

I don’t think the chip shortages have anything to do with shortages of the silicon element though do they? Isn’t silicon one of the most common elements there is and available basically everywhere?

Silicon is the second most abundant element on the planet. It's everywhere. The shortage in silicon chips isn't a lack of raw materials but a shortage in domestic manufacturing capacity. The Chips Act will hopefully alleviate some of the current shortages in this country.

 

[BCClone]

I'm guessing I've said this before but electric vehicles don't work for everybody. My wife drives a Mach E. I have an F150. If I want to go to Ames it's about 200 miles. If its winter I'm taking the truck because the 180-200 mile winter range isn't going to cut it in the Mach E if time charging matters to me. Right now when I make trips to Ames? Mach E all the way. Eat lunch at El Azteca and in that half hour I can go from 10% battery to 80% battery (240 miles) for roughly $8-9.

If you do a lot of towing long distance electric doesn't make sense right now. I towed my mower yesterday and my mileage fell 35% or so. The same thing happens with an EV truck.

Cost to drive to Ames and back for us:
400 miles / 3 mi/kwh = 133 kwh * $.1/kwh = $13
400 miles / 22 mpg = 18 gallons * $4 = $72

Ford getting access to the Supercharger network however is absolutely a game changer.

I’m more impressed with your 10 cents per kilowatt than anything. I want your company to take other the two o deal with.

 

[BCClone]

Silicon is the second most abundant element on the planet. It's everywhere. The shortage in silicon chips isn't a lack of raw materials but a shortage in domestic manufacturing capacity. The Chips Act will hopefully alleviate some of the current shortages in this country.

Yes and now, unless you severely ramp up the production of silicon to have the product to make the chips, we are still dependent on China and Russia (a little) for the materials even if we want to make the chips. I believe the chips act just involved chip production, did it involve silicon production.

 

[IcSyU]

I’m more impressed with your 10 cents per kilowatt than anything. I want your company to take other the two o deal with.

I think our power is $.09/kwh in Rochester but I think it's $.15/kwh to charge in Ames.

 

[cycloneG]

Yes and now, unless you severely ramp up the production of silicon to have the product to make the chips, we are still dependent on China and Russia (a little) for the materials even if we want to make the chips. I believe the chips act just in love chip production, did it involve silicon production.

The Chips Act and Inflation Reduction Act both had provisions to begin addressing the dependence on raw materials from China. Increasing production domestically while also building an alliance with other Western nations to increase their production as well.

 

[BACyclone]

Our record of taking care of these kind of large, difficult, expensive problems BEFORE they are a problem is poor. But our record of getting them fixed eventually is pretty good. That said, one reason I put solar on the house was case of grid issues in the midwest...

"Winston Churchill once famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else."

This is one mitigating factor to the documented issues I posted about the grid before. There are significant, known issues with the capacity (and declining capacity curve due to aging) of the power generation. Bringing renewables online is not likely going to solve this, in my view...at least not on the scale that's required in huge public projects. The resources and scale are too large to be able to replace existing plants that efficiently produce many more megawatts than a renewable project that consumes a lot more real estate.

However, if residential projects gain a lot more steam, people progressively taking their own house off the grid with private systems could really bend the curve in the other direction. You have to meet the replacement demand, plus population growth, PLUS this new demand for vehicle charging. That's daunting for the existing system.