Cost of Driving an EV
For me cost has to include everything in the life of the vehicle from purchase to disposition.
Purchase, maintenance, fueling, resale value...
Alan
This guy gets it. Current EV's have a very limited lifetime. A new battery is a major expense that totals the vehicle, and you can't park your EV for 20 years and then start driving again, you still have to replace that battery, just like conventional vehicles. Ask the older Pruis owners.... oh wait, they got the bill for a new battery and dumped the cars. Nobody considered the environmental costs of a vehicle that needs to be replaced every decade or two, whereas every car in my driveway except the wife's caliber is 20+ and still running. Well, at the moment...., But, those are all cars where environmental impact of manufacture is already done. I have to factor that CO2 cost of manufacture in with the total bill and that's a LOT of driven miles to justify making a whole new car.
All these comparisons are based on today's technology. EV is advancing much faster than conventional internal combustion technologies. And it is going to win. Hell, EV damn near won the production wars of over 100 years ago. When the next generation solid state battery technology mates with let's say hydrogen fuel cell? It's over. Even diesel will not be able to compete for highway use. (Will still be relative in heavy equipment and large rail/ship freight.)
The bottom line? Electric motors are more efficient and have a superior torque curve than fuel engines. So no sence arguing the inevitable. There will still be support for classic car enthusiasts. It's not one or the other. We can be excited about newer generation transportation technologies. As well as appreciate the "Cool" factor of the past?
Electric motors aren't the issue, and have had as many years of technical refinement as gas engines. Let's talk batteries, the true roadblock here. Many of the road blocks for batteries from 100 years ago still apply.
Today's EV demands about as much as installing a second water heater.
New housing starts effect the grid WAY more.
And if everybody in your subdivision adds two new water heaters, your infrastructure just required an upgrade. The cost of which is borne by the first generation EV drivers, right?
OK, so every new home has 2 hot water heaters, but 2 adults & 2 driving age offspring with their own rides makes 5 hot water heaters. And I'm happy with My 18yr old tankless hot water heater.....natural gas fired, thanks very much.....300 amp entrances can't be far off......
This is true and many people don't consider what people who don't own garages or private parking will do for charging.
Nor does the discussion address what happens when you run out of fuel in the middle of a field. Someone gonna bring you a 5 gallon bucket of AA's?
Or folks in colder environs. Sun doesn't shine for 6 months at a time on a significant portion the planet, and Ice build up on windmills is real.
The short answer is this. Pushing EV's to replace gas engines is a fool's game. Allowing them to take their natural course of evolution is the safest course because they're NOT right for everybody. Trying to FORCE this is foolish and short sighted, and often pushed by the same people who don't know how to function when the lights go out for a week. None of them understands that electricity (and fuel supplies) are built in a house of cards.
I guarantee you that knocking down our grid is something that China is researching right this minute, and it's very possible that they're manipulating social media to push an EV agenda, too. Why not, if you're in the EV game and we buy everything needed from you?
I use gas weed eaters for a ditch on my property, and it's a pain. But it's less of a pain than buying a half dozen batteries, or dragging an extensible cord, or setting up electric service when huge swaths of the earth don't have that. How long do I have to work to buy those batteries when the gas weed eater is paid for? Should i toss my gas model even though it works? Reduce and reuse are the other sides of the recycle triangle, and nobody ever thinks about those. How much CO2 does Amazon's delivery service cost over the postal service and waiting 3 days? I guarantee that many people pushing EV tech are also ordering on Amazon every damn day, never mind that the existing and parallel delivery network is already there. Isn't that a waste of resources and source of CO2? Oh, but the same gummint that's going to bring EV's to life can't deliver the mail on time, if at all. And that infrastructure is already in place.
And as I've said for years, one massive volcanic eruption or meteor strike will leave these people BEGGING for some global warming. What would a volcanic winter do for your solar panels?