I'm serious as a car fire.
Gasoline cars catch a light all the time. It just does not make the news, because its so frequent.
But you're going to have to start making peace with electric cars sooner or later, as they are dominating the new car market at a very rapid pace.
Probably very few new gasoline cars after 2030 - 2035.
Yeah right. Because it's so often that you see cars doing this when they have proper coolant and oil. All it takes for a electric car to burn is to get too much charge and the battery to overheat.
https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/exploding-car-gasoline-tank%E2%80%99-during-heat-myth-experts-sayBut fuel and auto experts said the “exploding gasoline tank” is a myth.
Never tell me "You gonna have to switch to (this or that technology) anyway," those are the words of a tyrant. And they're often not true. "Everyone is going to have to use punch cards eventually." Until they basically went obsolete, and data was processed some other way. They're telling my nephew that everyone will use some programming method, and getting him to learn it at age eight or nine. What do you think the odds are that this code will still be the big thing when he is an adult? I'd say about 5%.
As for EVs, actual car manufacturers are rejecting them.
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/07/30/toyota-actively-lobbying-to-slow-down-ev-revolution/So are customers.
The only way that such technology is "inevitable" would be if we have a tyranny, and it is quite literally forced down our throats. And tyrannies have a nasty habit of falling.
Here's what we know of EVs from history.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-electric-carHere in the U.S., the first successful electric car made its debut around 1890 thanks to William Morrison, a chemist who lived in Des Moines, Iowa. His six-passenger vehicle capable of a top speed of 14 miles per hour was little more than an electrified wagon, but it helped spark interest in electric vehicles.
The early rise and fall of the electric car
To understand the popularity of electric vehicles circa 1900, it is also important to understand the development of the personal vehicle and the other options available. At the turn of the 20th century, the horse was still the primary mode of transportation. But as Americans became more prosperous, they turned to the newly invented motor vehicle -- available in steam, gasoline or electric versions -- to get around.
Steam was a tried and true energy source, having proved reliable for powering factories and trains. Some of the first self-propelled vehicles in the late 1700s relied on steam; yet it took until the 1870s for the technology to take hold in cars. Part of this is because steam wasn’t very practical for personal vehicles. Steam vehicles required long startup times -- sometimes up to 45 minutes in the cold -- and would need to be refilled with water, limiting their range.
As electric vehicles came onto the market, so did a new type of vehicle -- the gasoline-powered car -- thanks to improvements to the internal combustion engine in the 1800s. While gasoline cars had promise, they weren’t without their faults. They required a lot of manual effort to drive -- changing gears was no easy task and they needed to be started with a hand crank, making them difficult for some to operate. They were also noisy, and their exhaust was unpleasant.
Electric cars didn’t have any of the issues associated with steam or gasoline. They were quiet, easy to drive and didn’t emit a smelly pollutant like the other cars of the time. Electric cars quickly became popular with urban residents -- especially women. They were perfect for short trips around the city, and poor road conditions outside cities meant few cars of any type could venture farther. As more people gained access to electricity in the 1910s, it became easier to charge electric cars, adding to their popularity with all walks of life (including some of the “best known and prominent makers of gasoline cars” as a 1911 New York Times article pointed out).
Many innovators at the time took note of the electric vehicle’s high demand, exploring ways to improve the technology. For example, Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the sports car company by the same name, developed an electric car called the P1
in 1898. Around the same time, he created the world’s first hybrid electric car -- a vehicle that is powered by electricity and a gas engine. Thomas Edison, one of the world’s most prolific inventors, thought electric vehicles were the superior technology and worked to build a better electric vehicle battery. Even Henry Ford, who was friends with Edison, partnered with Edison to explore options for a low-cost electric car in 1914, according to Wired.
Yet, it was Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T that dealt a blow to the electric car. Introduced in 1908, the Model T made gasoline-powered cars widely available and affordable. By 1912, the gasoline car cost only $650, while an electric roadster sold for $1,750. That same year, Charles Kettering introduced the electric starter, eliminating the need for the hand crank and giving rise to more gasoline-powered vehicle sales.
Other developments also contributed to the decline of the electric vehicle. By the 1920s, the U.S. had a better system of roads connecting cities, and Americans wanted to get out and explore. With the discovery of Texas crude oil, gas became cheap and readily available for rural Americans, and filling stations began popping up across the country. In comparison, very few Americans outside of cities had electricity at that time. In the end, electric vehicles all but disappeared by 1935.
This article has an overly rosy picture of electric vehicles, so let's point out the key part of all this.
Electric cars quickly became popular with urban residents -- especially women. They were perfect for short trips around the city, and poor road conditions outside cities meant few cars of any type could venture farther.
The electric cars of back then were structurally identical to the golf carts of today. Okay for short trips around town.
This is like saying that you use your computer just for email and Facebook. Like, you don't even have the technical ability to use Paint and Word. That sort of person would be fine with an iPod or something. But here's the thing. They can't possibly justify the price of an iPod for casual use. Same here. Get a cheap used car, not a $40,000 luxury hobby car. Or do get one, I don't care (though if you ask me, if you're only driving short distances, it's completely impractical), but don't tell me what I should be able to drive.
That you have the absolute nerve to tell other people what they can and cannot drive... Nuhh, sod off.
I use a Kindle because unlike a "smartphone" it doesn't constantly charge me for minutes every month. I don't wanna call anyone, and I don't want anyone to call me. So paying $60+ a month for some plan (read: $720 a year, and $7200 over ten years) is not cool. I don't even have $7200. It was a birthday present, and I get a fair amount of use for it. What's so elitist about that? The average Kindle is about $115 or so. The average iDevice approaches $1000, and it is probably completely unsellable due to the phone contract.
Hybrid-powered cars were involved in about 3,475 fires per every 100,000 sold.
Gasoline-powered cars, about 1,530 per 100,000 sold
Electric vehicles (EVs) saw just 25 fires per 100,000 sold.
Someone just showed me the potential of electrical fires.
Also, if hybrids are 3 times as likely to burn, doesn't that mean some component in hybrids accounts for the other 2/3? Gas is common to both, so why don't the gas burn more often than the hybrids?
That we only have 25 fires, isn't it more likely that this statistic is based on incomplete info? Like that on average, people don't buy electric vehicles enough for them to sell 100,000?
More likely your statistician has an axe to grind.
From the Electric Madness article.
To suggest, as some ignorant people have, that electric cars ‘emit no CO 2’ is
absurd because the power stations that charge them do. To charge an electric
vehicle (such as a Tesla), just once, requires the burning of 43 kilogram of coal. A
petrol car will require about 20 kilogram of petrol for the same distance. It
follows that the electric car is emitting more than twice the CO2 of a petrol car.
Here are the sums:
Drax uses about 0.31 kilogram of coal per KWhr generated.*
A Tesla battery is rated at 70 KWhr and fast charging is only 50%
efficient. It will need 140 KWhr of electricity for a single charge; this works out
as about 43 kilogram (0.31 × 140) of coal for a full charge.
The cost of electricity for the range available in a Tesla—200 miles in
summer; 100 miles in winter—works out at £22.50. The petrol for 200 miles
costs very little more and most of that cost is tax (currently about 60%) - about
£28. In winter, for 100 miles, the petrol costs just £15.
During trials between 1927-30 of British steam locomotives a typical result was that, for a 500
ton express train, coal was consumed at the rate of 20 kg per mile.† Over 200 miles therefore
4000 kg was consumed. Scaling down to a 2 ton car: 4000÷250 = 16 kg coal. Even allowing for
economies of scale, compare this to the 43 kg required by a Tesla.
Further issues
• Battery cycling - the deterioration of the capacity of a lithium battery with
charging - must be allowed for costing about £3 per cycle.‡
• Fire: even small lithium batteries are liable to catch fire or even explode. The
huge dangers for occupants in event of an accident are obvious. Firehoses would
only exacerbate the problem, causing electrocution of victims (A gas fire, even if it did happen as often as you say, would be able to be snuffed, whereas electric cars are a nuisance to put out)
* www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/f/fuelcomparison.htm ; figures from Greenpeace are higher: 0.7
kg/KWhr www.energydesk.greenpeace.org/2013/02/14/much-coal-burning-will-keep-burning/).
Windturbines take 25 years to pay off their CO2 debt (concrete, metal mining and refining etc). They seldom
last more than ten years.
† The British Steam Locomotive 1925-1965 by O.S.Nock, Ian Allan 1966. p67 Dynamometer Car Tests 1927
on LMSR Engine Royal Scot No. 6100.
‡ Incidentally, battery ‘swopping’ is unviable. An average garage refuels 1000 cars a day; how are they going
to recharge 1000 batteries every day @ 5-12 hours each?
The Tesla battery weighs 800kg—that’s nearly a ton—equivalent to 10 people.
Battery/petrol equivalent weight ratio—in summer 50:1, in winter 100:1.
In winter, in severe conditions, electric cars become death traps. Firstly, the
battery power halves every ten degree drop in temperature, so you are likely to
get stuck in a snowstorm. Then there will be no heating in the car and a blizzard
outside. You will freeze to death inside and, outside the car, you’ll die seeking
help. This would not happen in a petrol car. A petrol car’s engine remains at full
power down to the last drop of petrol and has plenty of heating. The electric car
loses power almost immediately as the battery drains—and has no heating.
As most of the numpties, who think electric cars are viable, live in towns
the above point doubtless passes them by, but the huge potential for traffic
clogging due to ‘dead’ electric vehicles has not been considered*, nor has the
issue of time to recharge. Currently an average petrol car takes about 5 minutes
to fill up with petrol and depart. If an electric car takes a minimum of 75 minutes
to recharge, the queues are going to be astronomical and the time wasted also
astronomical.
* One type of electric car is called a Leaf. This will give a wholly new meaning to ‘leaves on the road’!
The BBC tried to take an electric car from London to Edinburgh. It took more
than three days, slower than a stagecoach. Strangely, people sometimes need to
get to places quickly.
In case anyone thinks that there is a miracle battery just over the horizon,
I can absolutely assure him or her that there is not. Battery technology is mature,
and, to quote Mr John Hume, “Miracles do not happen.” (at least in technology).
The Climate Change Act requires that by 2050 all gas heating be replaced by
electric heating and all cars be electric. Besides the stupidity of turning huge
amounts of electricity back into heat, clearly no one in government has done the
maths. The results are horrendous!
43 kilogram (0.31 × 140) of coal for a full charge. For one car.
And in winter, you freeze to death because car efficiency goes down since it tries to save power.
That's that 50Hz power for you.
And how many Hz does a EV run on? It's gotta be more than a Kindle.