Ford demos their electric F150

[wackymac]

Where is all the electricity to charge these vehicles going to come from?

[radar]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

BTFT is right on.

Electric and self driving cars/trucks are on the way.

There is technology available to link your bank account to your drivers license. There is also technology to measure your location and speed. So if caught speeding a withdrawal slip will be printed from your dash saying the state took money out of your account and 42% went to the local government and 58% went to the state.

That will stop speeding in it's track.

But a self driving car would not be speeding in the 1st place.

I am not sure electric cars are as green as people think. What is the pollution from making a battery and throwing a battery away. But even at that they are greener than burning fossil fuels

Agreed.

Re the throwing away the battery though. We don’t throw out an aluminum can worth a nickel. We definetly won’t throw out a battery what is primarily aluminum with a little lithium and even less cobalt thrown in. There will be a recycling industry built around it just like lead acid batteries.

[radar]

Originally Posted by wackymac

Where is all the electricity to charge these vehicles going to come from?

If all the personal vehicles on the road were to magically become electric overnight utilities estimate that the total grid load would increase by 19 percent. The average commute uses 6 to 8 kw per day depending on season and conditions. But the change will happen gradually over a couple of decades so not an issue for most grids.

[BTFT]

Something to consider: 70% of ALL US oil consumption is used for transportation. 65% is used for PERSONAL transportation.



As most of the thoughtful posts here show the reality is as I said far ahead of the perception.


I agree on the battery issue. But these are not lead acid type batteries with all their environmental problems either.


As for the Electric grid issue; With the huge advances in solar and wind and so many of thees "farms" selling energy to power companies, as these become more and more prevalent in the future the issue will not be "Where will the electricity come from?" Rather how do we get rid of the surplus.


Now cars are a "durable commodity" which means essentially they have a long shelf life. There will be gas and diesel cars and trucks with us for many years to come. But they will be a constantly shrinking percentage.


I again urge anyone who thinks they know where we are with EV's to read the last six months of Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Just as an easy starting point. it's an eye opening experience. And note that we are not talking about wild "concept cars", but production models being road tested against their gas powered competition.

[tuffr2]

It will be a very interesting dynamic. As more electric vehicles are on the road the less gasoline we use. The less we use usually means lower gas prices. The lower the gas price the bigger vehicles we buy.

So I can see a lot of small electric vehicles and giant gas vehicles on the North American roads.

My goal will to be the last gasoline user.

[radar]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

It will be a very interesting dynamic. As more electric vehicles are on the road the less gasoline we use. The less we use usually means lower gas prices. The lower the gas price the bigger vehicles we buy.

So I can see a lot of small electric vehicles and giant gas vehicles on the North American roads.

My goal will to be the last gasoline user.

Meh. I think there will be lots of people that run out the clock driving liquid fuel vehicles. To each his own. There are members of our family always who believe if it doesn’t stink, have tons of moving parts like belts, hoses, pullleys etc, need regular oil changes, spark plugs, mufflers, and if it doesn’t have to shift down when they stomp it followed by lots of noise and vibration etc all resulting in mediocre acceleration, then it’s not a vehicle. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what they like. I hate gas stations, kinda miss my favourite coffee machine at the Petro-Canada though.

Right now there are about 1000 new cars per day hitting the streets without a gas tank that will never wait in line at a Costco gas pump in North America. That number will only continue to increase. At some point in the next couple decades gas stations will start to feel the pinch and need to adapt. As well, there will never need to be as many charge stations as gas stations as presently 97 percent of all charging is done at home. Most commuters don’t even use public charge stations....ever.

It’s going to be an interesting transition.

To each his own.

Cheers.

[JSM180]

Waiting in line for my turn at the charger does not sound like a fun cross country trip. Urban and daily grocery getter fine, but long distant travel for the masses is still a ways off.

For the global warming crowd, just how is all this electricity being generated?

[BTFT]

An interesting fact about this change for pickups is this; the electric motors usually put out more horsepower and torque than the internal combustion engines do.


This means that we could see much higher torque and horsepower ratings than we now have...


4 wheel drive comes standard.


No engine brake will be necessary due to regenerative braking by the electric motors. (Simply take your foot off the accelerator)



It will blur the distinction between the half ton and the 3/4 ton truck.


Trucks will get lighter without the heavy diesel engines, transmissions, drive lines and all the associated gear and we will have much more PAYLOAD.


No need for DEF or Diesel or gas just plug in at the RV Park. (and yes they will be able to reach a reasonable range under load of 300 miles in the near future (5 years) My bet is that most of you never exceed 300 miles in a day under normal traveling anyway.


So please tell me...what's not to like about all of that?

[BTFT]

Originally Posted by JSM180

Waiting in line for my turn at the charger does not sound like a fun cross country trip. Urban and daily grocery getter fine, but long distant travel for the masses is still a ways off.

For the global warming crowd, just how is all this electricity being generated?

I have seen charging stations all the way from MD to California this past spring. Many of them had as many stations as there were gas pumps.


But unless you are going more than 330 miles in a day recharging wont happen that often and if you are, you can do it during your lunch stop.


And if you own a Tesla the recharge at their stations is free.

[Papa_Jim]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

I am not sure electric cars are as green as people think. What is the pollution from making a battery and throwing a battery away. But even at that they are greener than burning fossil fuels

I think a lot depends on how the electricity is being created. Sometimes the electric car may not be as environmentally clean as we would like.


Jim

[radar]

Originally Posted by BTFT

I have seen charging stations all the way from MD to California this past spring. Many of them had as many stations as there were gas pumps.


But unless you are going more than 330 miles in a day recharging wont happen that often and if you are, you can do it during your lunch stop.


And if you own a Tesla the recharge at their stations is free.

Nope. Definetly not free. In the early days of Tesla there was “unlimited Supercharging” included. Those promotional days are gone. Now as soon as you put the connecter in the car, the car sends a serial number to the mother shop and bills your account. Usually about three times the rate of what it is at home. The idea is to encourage charging at home and not plug up Superchargers or DCFC stations.

[BTFT]

Originally Posted by radar

Nope. Definetly not free. In the early days of Tesla there was “unlimited Supercharging” included. Those promotional days are gone. Now as soon as you put the connecter in the car, the car sends a serial number to the mother shop and bills your account. Usually about three times the rate of what it is at home. The idea is to encourage charging at home and not plug up Superchargers or DCFC stations.

here is the real story:


>Tesla began phasing out free unlimited access to its supercharger network when it announced that customers who buy cars after January 1, 2017 will have 400 kilowatt-hours, or about 1,000 miles, of free charging every year. Once owners surpassed that amount, they would be charged a small fee.<


Now Used Teslas do not get the free charging.

[radar]

Originally Posted by BTFT

here is the real story:


>Tesla began phasing out free unlimited access to its supercharger network when it announced that customers who buy cars after January 1, 2017 will have 400 kilowatt-hours, or about 1,000 miles, of free charging every year. Once owners surpassed that amount, they would be charged a small fee.<


Now Used Teslas do not get the free charging.

Yah. That pretty much sums it up. If you originally bought a car with the free Supercharging promotion you still have it. If you sell it the next owner doesn’t get it.

There are still promotions from time to time that can get you 8000 km of free Supercharging. That’s worth about 350 bucks depending where you live.

[NevadaNick]

I need an electric truck that can tow 14,000 in -20 deg weather with the heater running and make it from town to town in Nevada.