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What if.... We all drove EVs

9K views 16 replies 13 participants last post by  ampera_jed 
#1 ·
#5 ·
Saw that one too, but it's very subjective and opinion based, it does convey very important points though. He also has good videos on autonomous vehicles, batteries and solar that go with the same speech.
 
#6 ·
I think that if everyone owned/drove EV, that the charging systems would be "reversible" so that the car(s) would also act as a whole house UPS in the event of power failures or brownout events.

Ideally such a system would dramatically reduce the impact of severe weather events and so forth as well as smoothing out the spikes in draw on the grid. (but hey, I'm a dreamer and a bit of a tech optimist on this sort of thing).
 
#7 ·
I really don't like this idea. The Volt isn't really big enough to supply a house with power for more than a couple of hours, and for any vehicle with a bigger battery, every hour you're powering your house, you're losing evacuation capacity. If you want backup power, a 8 kw generator, transfer switch and the electrical work to manage your furnace/heat pump, fridge, freezer, and a couple of essential outlets will set you back rather less than $5k, and you can still drive away if you have to.
 
#14 ·
What if.... We all drove EVs.....

.... every town would need its own nuclear power station?

At the hub of this is commercial transport. A rig would need 50 tonnes of battery to replace its fuel tank, but if that's impossible they are still selling fuel for commercial transport then there will still be fuel processing and therefore a market for ICE passenger cars with similar long distance needs. Ergo, until someone can make a 1,000kWh pack that weights a ton or less, plus millions of recharging points that can simultaneously deliver 1MW for a 50% top up to go with them, then there will always be a market for liquid fuels and therefore a market for ICE passenger cars.
 
#15 ·
Instead of making a band-aid to fit the current norm ("because that's how we've always done it"), you would instead improve the process.
The current model of millions of trucks everywhere is highly inefficient. It should be rail or other structured distribution that can be electrified from a grid, and short range trucking to distribute from there. If you're super attached to the individual truck from start to end, there have also been experiments with electric highways in that trucks are connected to overhead wires like electric streetcars - no need for battery when on that highway. Once you arrive at the local delivery area, a small battery is all that's needed to get you to deliver your payload and return to the powered highway on to the next stop (recharging any discharge of battery at the same time).

There are so many better options out there, but people are resistant to change. Mimicking an old/existing process gives the worst of both worlds as you try to appease stubborn humans. Electrification of all automobiles should be used as an excuse to improve the system, not an excuse to hold it back!
 
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