Timing and reality killed the EV. By the time they arrived, there was massive infrastructure in place to support IC engines. On the other hand, there’s nowhere near enough infrastructure to support a mass adoption of EV’s. If everyone in a given area suddenly began charging EV’s overnight, the grid would crash. Power demand is increasing even without EV’s, and AI requirements will stress supplies even more. It would take trillions of dollars to update grids sufficiently for EV’s, with a massive increase of transmission lines across the country, each line fighting a NIMBY battle in every county. There’s also the cost and red tape of installing charging stations. The infrastructure law passed during the previous administration allocated $7.5 billion to build charging stations. Only seven or eight have been built so far, and that was before the last election. Of the existing stations nationwide, 20% are usually not working. Around 20% of EV charges are unsuccessful, making “refueling” far less reliable than at a gas station. This why around 80% of EV owners also have an ICE car.
Those stats are from Google AI, for what they’re worth.
But the video is correct. From a purely engineering perspective, EV’s are a better idea. They could replace ICE’s one day: something will have to eventually. But it won’t be any time soon. There’s just no will to lay out that kind of money.
Patrick Boyle had an interesting episode on all this, I’ll try to hunt it down and link it later.
None of this bugs me. IC cars run cleaner than they ever have. Also, I can’t imagine an EV being as fun to drive as an IC manual-shift. Then there’s the romance of the ICE. Could Brian Wilson have written a gem like “Shut Down” about a 400 volt EV vs an 800 volt? “Charge it up, charge it up, Buddy, gonna shut you down” sounds ridiculous. Or a song like “Little Deuce Coupe” about a Nissan Leaf? Sure, ICE’s are in some ways technological dinosaurs. But I’m a dinosaur too, so I’m ok with them.
I don’t know if this is true, but it’s been asserted that the larger EV’s that require massive batteries offer no environmental benefit over a reasonably fuel-efficient ICE when you account for the production/eventual disposal of the battery and the extra power consumed in charging. Probably too many variables (like the lifespan of each vehicle, driving conditions, etc.) to make a call on that.
Here’s Patick Boyle on EV’s. If you don’t want to watch all of it, I recommend his tale of his sister’s EV rental experience which begins at 19:15. He’s done more recent EV video’s that I haven’t seen yet. Here’s Boyle again on the insufficiency of our power grid to handle the move to electrify everything.
I may or may not have looked up those cheap lease options.
“Jessica” from Hyundai appeared in a pop-up window at 11:30pm, happy to instant chat about separating me from my cash.
Well that puts it into perspective.
I find this topic really interesting.
Timing and reality killed the EV. By the time they arrived, there was massive infrastructure in place to support IC engines. On the other hand, there’s nowhere near enough infrastructure to support a mass adoption of EV’s. If everyone in a given area suddenly began charging EV’s overnight, the grid would crash. Power demand is increasing even without EV’s, and AI requirements will stress supplies even more. It would take trillions of dollars to update grids sufficiently for EV’s, with a massive increase of transmission lines across the country, each line fighting a NIMBY battle in every county. There’s also the cost and red tape of installing charging stations. The infrastructure law passed during the previous administration allocated $7.5 billion to build charging stations. Only seven or eight have been built so far, and that was before the last election. Of the existing stations nationwide, 20% are usually not working. Around 20% of EV charges are unsuccessful, making “refueling” far less reliable than at a gas station. This why around 80% of EV owners also have an ICE car.
Those stats are from Google AI, for what they’re worth.
But the video is correct. From a purely engineering perspective, EV’s are a better idea. They could replace ICE’s one day: something will have to eventually. But it won’t be any time soon. There’s just no will to lay out that kind of money.
Patrick Boyle had an interesting episode on all this, I’ll try to hunt it down and link it later.
None of this bugs me. IC cars run cleaner than they ever have. Also, I can’t imagine an EV being as fun to drive as an IC manual-shift. Then there’s the romance of the ICE. Could Brian Wilson have written a gem like “Shut Down” about a 400 volt EV vs an 800 volt? “Charge it up, charge it up, Buddy, gonna shut you down” sounds ridiculous. Or a song like “Little Deuce Coupe” about a Nissan Leaf? Sure, ICE’s are in some ways technological dinosaurs. But I’m a dinosaur too, so I’m ok with them.
I don’t know if this is true, but it’s been asserted that the larger EV’s that require massive batteries offer no environmental benefit over a reasonably fuel-efficient ICE when you account for the production/eventual disposal of the battery and the extra power consumed in charging. Probably too many variables (like the lifespan of each vehicle, driving conditions, etc.) to make a call on that.
Here’s Patick Boyle on EV’s. If you don’t want to watch all of it, I recommend his tale of his sister’s EV rental experience which begins at 19:15. He’s done more recent EV video’s that I haven’t seen yet. Here’s Boyle again on the insufficiency of our power grid to handle the move to electrify everything.
Thanks for the Boyle links!
I may or may not have looked up those cheap lease options.
“Jessica” from Hyundai appeared in a pop-up window at 11:30pm, happy to instant chat about separating me from my cash.