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Not really. The leap from horse-ready roads to car-ready roads was virtually none at all. Even gas stations were only a matter of convenience since unlike electricity you can carry around extra cans of gas in your car. To make electric cars viable for anything more than driving within one city you'll need some serious infrastructure upgrades, such as those fancy roads that can generate an electric circuit to recharge your battery or installing 'charging stations' at parking lots.
The benefit of gasoline-powered cars is an always will be the ability to be (relatively) self-sufficient. Horses are of course more self-sufficient then cars but you're missing the BIGGEST FUCKING DIFFERENCE. There is a HUGE convenience difference between a horse and a car, such as the latter being able to go a hundred kph faster, providing shelter, and not getting tired. There is zero convenience difference between electric and gas cars. Why would a society blow billions on infrastructure when there is no motivation?
[–]GreatDrok0 points
2 points
2 points
(+2|-0)
ago
There's electricity everywhere. Seriously, it is everywhere and at significantly high amperage that here they're putting EV chargers in old phone boxes. Think about that for a second, all those old phone boxes needed power delivered to them and initially our telecom companies started putting wifi stations in them, and now they're putting 7kW EV chargers. I can drive all over the country and know that there are chargers all over the place. Sure, most of the time I drive in the city but if I need to go long haul, there are fast chargers every 100Km or so and now there are a lot of other places too.
Electric cars were the best choice when cars first appeared because petrol was difficult to source and even carrying a can of petrol wouldn't be enough to guarantee that you could get to your destination. The infrastructure to support petrol cars took decades but it is messy stuff and costs a lot to move. Electricity is everywhere and we already have wires all over the place to carry the stuff. As for batteries, they're getting better all the time and there are batteries in testing with 10x the energy density of current tech and that will allow even lorries to be electric. We're already seeing plenty of electric buses and electric motors have a lot of benefits over the ICE mainly to do with efficiency (petrol engines rarely achieve more than 30% efficiency with most of the energy you bought going straight out the exhaust while electric motors are 90% efficient) and torque range where vehicles simply don't need all those gears that an ICE does just to stay in the efficient power band. A lorry with an electric drive train would be much more effective than a big stinking diesel and it will come.
Didn't we spend billions of dollars on infrastructure upgrades for cars? Like paved roads, freeways? We also created big infrastructures for subways and electric trolleys.
Not to mention that cars, like horses, were able to provide their own supply lines. Horses and cars can both haul fuel, be that horse feed or gasoline. Not so much for electricity.
First cars were way more inconvenient than a horse with carriage, less reliable, way more expensive and were only toys intended for rich people. It was slower, uncomfortable and could not go as far. There were stables along the roads, but not garages.
Same with any first implementation of a vehicle, e.g. planes were expensive hobby of ultra-rich.
[+]AlphaWookie13 points-9 points4 points
ago
(edited ago)
[–]AlphaWookie13 points
-9 points
4 points
(+4|-13)
ago
(edited ago)
God you are stupid. Power weight ratio. Humanity moves towards tech that can do more work not less. Electric cars can not do the amount of work a gas car can or truck. The tech is just not there and then you ignore that for the majority of humanity the grid is not there for electric cars, and electric cars have been around for more than a century. You can move a 55 gallon drum of gas anywhere in the world not an electric grid at least not for a century. Africa, Asia, S. America do not have the grid and do you see signs that they will get there quickly. Also do you see Europe and N. America rushing to building the power plants need for a massive switch over to electric cars? No you do not if fact regulations are making it harder to build up the electrical grid in Europe and N. America. The electric car will not be here in mass usage for a century if not longer.
Do you have anything more to offer than a shallow retort lacking any substance?
Edit: Just so everyone knows the tech to drill on the bottom of the ocean for oil is more advanced than the best battery tech available now and it produces far more energy than batteries ever will. The smart money is still on Hydrocarbons accept that is the future for the next century and we can actually solve problems related to the environment.
Also China and India is building its own native car companies and they are not building electric car companies what does that tell you about the future of electric cars?
view the rest of the comments →
[–] SilverBanana 1 point 21 points 22 points (+22|-1) ago
All your arguments could be made in favour of horses in 1900.
[–] DeepFriedPickles 1 point 2 points 3 points (+3|-1) ago
Not really. The leap from horse-ready roads to car-ready roads was virtually none at all. Even gas stations were only a matter of convenience since unlike electricity you can carry around extra cans of gas in your car. To make electric cars viable for anything more than driving within one city you'll need some serious infrastructure upgrades, such as those fancy roads that can generate an electric circuit to recharge your battery or installing 'charging stations' at parking lots.
The benefit of gasoline-powered cars is an always will be the ability to be (relatively) self-sufficient. Horses are of course more self-sufficient then cars but you're missing the BIGGEST FUCKING DIFFERENCE. There is a HUGE convenience difference between a horse and a car, such as the latter being able to go a hundred kph faster, providing shelter, and not getting tired. There is zero convenience difference between electric and gas cars. Why would a society blow billions on infrastructure when there is no motivation?
[–] GreatDrok 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
There's electricity everywhere. Seriously, it is everywhere and at significantly high amperage that here they're putting EV chargers in old phone boxes. Think about that for a second, all those old phone boxes needed power delivered to them and initially our telecom companies started putting wifi stations in them, and now they're putting 7kW EV chargers. I can drive all over the country and know that there are chargers all over the place. Sure, most of the time I drive in the city but if I need to go long haul, there are fast chargers every 100Km or so and now there are a lot of other places too.
Electric cars were the best choice when cars first appeared because petrol was difficult to source and even carrying a can of petrol wouldn't be enough to guarantee that you could get to your destination. The infrastructure to support petrol cars took decades but it is messy stuff and costs a lot to move. Electricity is everywhere and we already have wires all over the place to carry the stuff. As for batteries, they're getting better all the time and there are batteries in testing with 10x the energy density of current tech and that will allow even lorries to be electric. We're already seeing plenty of electric buses and electric motors have a lot of benefits over the ICE mainly to do with efficiency (petrol engines rarely achieve more than 30% efficiency with most of the energy you bought going straight out the exhaust while electric motors are 90% efficient) and torque range where vehicles simply don't need all those gears that an ICE does just to stay in the efficient power band. A lorry with an electric drive train would be much more effective than a big stinking diesel and it will come.
[–] hypercat 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Didn't we spend billions of dollars on infrastructure upgrades for cars? Like paved roads, freeways? We also created big infrastructures for subways and electric trolleys.
[–] epsilona01 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago
Not to mention that cars, like horses, were able to provide their own supply lines. Horses and cars can both haul fuel, be that horse feed or gasoline. Not so much for electricity.
[–] SilverBanana ago
First cars were way more inconvenient than a horse with carriage, less reliable, way more expensive and were only toys intended for rich people. It was slower, uncomfortable and could not go as far. There were stables along the roads, but not garages.
Same with any first implementation of a vehicle, e.g. planes were expensive hobby of ultra-rich.
http://www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/1900.htm
[–] AlphaWookie 13 points -9 points 4 points (+4|-13) ago (edited ago)
God you are stupid. Power weight ratio. Humanity moves towards tech that can do more work not less. Electric cars can not do the amount of work a gas car can or truck. The tech is just not there and then you ignore that for the majority of humanity the grid is not there for electric cars, and electric cars have been around for more than a century. You can move a 55 gallon drum of gas anywhere in the world not an electric grid at least not for a century. Africa, Asia, S. America do not have the grid and do you see signs that they will get there quickly. Also do you see Europe and N. America rushing to building the power plants need for a massive switch over to electric cars? No you do not if fact regulations are making it harder to build up the electrical grid in Europe and N. America. The electric car will not be here in mass usage for a century if not longer.
Do you have anything more to offer than a shallow retort lacking any substance?
Edit: Just so everyone knows the tech to drill on the bottom of the ocean for oil is more advanced than the best battery tech available now and it produces far more energy than batteries ever will. The smart money is still on Hydrocarbons accept that is the future for the next century and we can actually solve problems related to the environment.
Also China and India is building its own native car companies and they are not building electric car companies what does that tell you about the future of electric cars?
[–] SilverBanana 1 point 10 points 11 points (+11|-1) ago
The undertaking of electric grid is so much less compared to the current gas station sprawl.