
The Autowende has begun - fastned
https://medium.com/@Fastned/the-autowende-has-begun-e7c13a4c0e89#.y13l9cm1n
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stonogo
Ah, a company that produces chargers telling us that electric cars are
inevitable. Maybe it's true, but native advertising is not what will convince
me.

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Animats
Electric cars now outperform gas cars in acceleration. This has blown away the
"vroom" advantage behind much automotive marketing. Electrics can also do it
easily and routinely, without burning clutch plates and wearing out
transmissions. Elon Musk has capitalized on this, with features such as
"ludicrous mode". There are only five cars with a faster 0-60 time than
Tesla's _family hatchback._ And two of them are partially electric. The three
IC-powered supercars that can beat a Tesla can only do it by 100ms, they all
cost upwards of $250K, and they're fragile, high-maintenance machines.
(Especially the Veyron, where a tire change costs $90K).

IC cars have thus lost the "vroom" race. That's changed perception of electric
cars.

The big remaining problems are cost, and trucks. We have yet to see a good
electric pickup truck.

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riffraff
you know, I would love to buy a tesla, if I could afford it.

Sadly, I live in an apartment, without any garage, and I have no idea where
I'd be supposed to charge it.

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mikeash
If you're just finding public parking on the street then you're pretty much
out of luck for now. As EVs become more common, we might see charging stations
installed for street parking. Imagine a row of parking meters, except they're
J1772 connectors instead. Won't happen for a while though.

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yk
Speaking as someone who writes science fiction short stories sometimes, that
is putting my jester cap on: That will not happen, the other current trend for
cars is autonomous vehicles, so you can send your car to a charging station
somewhere and call it back to wait in front of your door when you need it
again.

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dreamfactory2
Europe already has these

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lwhalen
Link please?

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dreamfactory2
[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=london+electric+car+bays&s...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=london+electric+car+bays&source=lnms&tbm=isch)

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markbnj
Potential hidden motives aside, it seems to me pretty ineffective to focus on
the different characteristics of internal combustion versus electric motors.
We've known all this for a century. The only difference between the two that
has ever mattered is that in the one case you can put 400 miles in your tank
in five minutes, and in the other it takes 8 hours to put 200 in.

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rntz
Electric car engines are efficient at converting electricity into motion.
However, this neglects the efficiency of power plants at converting fuel into
electricity, and the efficiency of transmission of electricity. Taking this
into account, electric cars are generally about as bad for the environment as
ordinary cars.

Of course, this depends on the cars compared, and more importantly, on how the
electricity wherever you live is generated. The real point is: it's far more
important to improve how we generate electricity than to get more butts in
electric cars.

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mikeash
Even when your electricity is 100% coal, electrics are still pretty good. Look
at a more realistic mix, and they're much better than gas cars. And the grid
is getting more green by the day.

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_FKS_
It probably depends on the kind of car. I'd suggest you watch this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkj-
vf1_pzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkj-vf1_pzQ) (with english subtitles)
- the guy is an automotive engineer. In the first 10 minutes, he compares how
an electric car does in a coal-based electricity vs. non-coal. You can quickly
see that in a country with heavy coal electricity mix, you're better off
driving a gas car. Even Germany is break-even.

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mikeash
Do you have this in text form, or can you tell me where my numbers went wrong?
The math is simple and the numbers behind it are all pretty easy to find.

Sure, it depends on the kind of car. A Tesla running on 100% coal is not as
good as a first-generation Honda Insight. But if you compare _similar cars_
then electric is at least at parity (for unrealistic 100% coal grids) and
typically way better.

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_FKS_
[https://energieduthorium.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/la-
voit...](https://energieduthorium.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/la-voiture-
nucleaire.ppt) \- check from slide 23 on.

He compares pretty much the same car, from the same (French) maker, but with
one version of the car running on Diesel, and one electric. You can see
already that in half of EU countries, including Germany, running a gas car is
better than an electric one.

Not sure how that does work out in the US, but given that 2/3 of electricity
mix in the US are from fossil fuels (from which about 40% coal), you should be
closer to Poland. So essentialy, depending on the state where you drive your
Tesla, you could be better off with gas powered car (in terms of CO2
emissions).

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mikeash
I'm surprised that car is so inefficient. The quoted kWh/mile is worse than a
Model S, for a much smaller car. That is going to influence the conclusion a
ton, no doubt.

