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At the beginning of the 20th century something around 40% American cars was electric, same with 20% of the Berlin taxis. There's a wonderful book "The Shock of
by r41nbowdash 9y ago
At the beginning of the 20th century something around 40% American cars was electric, same with 20% of the Berlin taxis.
There's a wonderful book "The Shock of the Old" about the meandering ways innovation takes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_of_the_Old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_of_the_Old
- cornholio 9y agoSo much for the "big oil killed the electric car" conspiracies. The electric cars were always a contender, and the companies producing them would have loved to kill petrol cars. They were simply unable to compete with the high energy density of dead dinosaurs gushing out of the ground to be burned carefreely.
- crx087 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...
- sharpercoder 9y agohttp://documentaryheaven.com/who-killed-the-electric-car/ http://documentaryheaven.com/who-killed-the-electric-car/
- WorldMaker 9y agoI recommend the follow up film as well, Revenge of the Electric Car. (It follows the launches of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, as well as the first production run of the Tesla Roadster.)
- _red 9y agoMy good friend is a material scientist for Exxon. He is employed to find "the next oil". As he says, its all about "joules of energy per $1 landed cost" everything else is just noise. Currently, $1 (retail price) of gasoline delivers more joules of energy than any of the competition. The rise of fracking has made nat gas a contender, but gasoline is still dominates. Most comparisons to electric vehicles are actually a comparison of a car that runs on gas vs a car that runs on coal, guess which one wins?
- perl4ever 9y agoThe vast majority (70%) of electricity in the US does not come from coal, and coal is even less used in states where electric cars are popular/encouraged. Over 99% of electricity generated in my state (NY) does not come from coal. Sources: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electrici... https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4
- djsumdog 9y agoNot to mention that when you use gas in a car, a lot of it is wasted. When you use the grid to power electric means of transportation, like trains, that energy is evenly distributed as needed, and plants will increase or reduce production in accordance to estimated demand.
- WorldMaker 9y agoAlso as the energy mix in the grid gets greener, everything on the grid takes free advantage of the increased efficiency. If your state adds a giant solar array and spins down a coal plant, you don't have to do anything to get that overall cleaner energy into an electric car.
- tzs 9y agoAnother important consideration is pollution. If you burn a polluting fuel directly in the car, the pollution is released where the car is, which is generally where a lot of people are. You can reduce the emissions by adding technology to process the combustion products to clean them up before emitting them, but you are limited by the fact that your cleanup technology has to be small enough and light weight enough to include with the car. If you burn that same fuel remotely to make electricity, and use that electricity to power the car, now the pollution is being emitted at a fixed location. We can pick that location to minimize the harm from the pollution that is emitted, and we can use far more effective cleanup technology at a fixed plant than we can on a vehicle.
- vvanders 9y agoCoal? Please get out of here. 70k of the EV miles I've put on have been with 93.3% non-fossil fuel based sources[1]. If you're in the PNW EVs are a clear win both from fuel sources and the fact that it costs me $6/300mi at $0.07/kWh. [1] https://www.cowlitzpud.org/fuel-mix https://www.cowlitzpud.org/fuel-mix
- dorfsmay 9y agoSomebody once pointed to me that the reason internal combustion engines vehicle require so little gas is because half of the energy in the combustion comes from the air around it, and therefore does not need to transport it. One of the few times I felt "mind blown".