This may (or may not be!) interesting, about lithium production and the affects of.. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...ium-is-fueling-technology-today-at-what-cost/
The three key ingredients for most current BEV tech are Lithium, Cobalt and Aluminium (LCA). All three are plentiful and, like everything else, there's a cost to extraction. It's then up to everyone up the supply chain (governments, regulators, manufacturers and users) to ensure that the whole extraction and supply chain respects worker rights and minimises environmental impact. And that's not necessarily an easy job, but we do see other industries moving towards that model (e.g. Apple).
Not found a used EV in the £2000 to £2500 range yet but it's early days. I'll keep looking. Where is lithium mined? It's the third most common element in the universe, I suspect we can find it everywhere so we won't be reliant on countries with, ah, sketchy human/workers rights records. Cobalt is interesting, looking at the Top 10 global producers of that somewhat nasty element (although a necessary component of vitamin B12 - weird huh?).
you've hit on a valid point, the medium used re: current battery recharging methods favours removal for recharging or replacement with fully charged units. This is relatively easily achievable for motorbikes and small vehicles but currently a stumbling block for cars.
Yep: fine for scooters and e-bicycles, distinctly marginal for motorcycles and I really don't fancy lugging around a 478kg Tesla battery pack! Tesla did experiment in California with a fast battery swap station for impatient Tesla owners, but dropped it due to minimal uptake.
Rest assured, EV is the future of personal transport. We are a resilient, inventive species and we overcome obstacles. EV may be technologically difficult, present infrastructural challenges and be too expensive for many, many ordinary folk ... but for those that can afford it, it is the way forward.
I would still interpret “dropped due to minimal uptake” as the jury still being out rather than a definitive ”no” as an option*. It all depends if electric cars are to ever be adopted by the man in the street. The thriving acceptance of scooters with their removable batteries is evidence for me that this is an option not to be ignored despite the obvious obstacles of weight et cetera. It would be good to read about the pros and cons of charging in situ versus replacement. Sorry if the latter seems ludicrous to you * I appreciate that I have wandered off-Tesla, probably needs raising in a separate thread for electric cars in general.
Yes but it’s still hypocrisy to conveniently forget that the source power for EVs comes from burning fossil fuels at present. A better solution has to be found, the answer is new tech hydrogen but the car companies won’t let that happen & any government endorsing it now in in the future would fall because of telling us to buy electric & before that, diesels the last 20years. I’m not a technophobe or a Luddite, I embrace technology everywhere, I just feel that no one, even the “experts” either knows what they’re talking about or are telling the whole truth.
I left a trap in my previous post which seems to have gone unnoticed. The trap is, the end of ICE is the end of affordable personal transport for ordinary, less well-off folks. It will be available only to upper echelons in society. That is, unless there is an option that presents itself that is currently not being widely discussed. "Hydrogen power" is fraught with peril although I accept it may be possible to present it with risk comparable to the current hydrocarbon model. My own, tinfoil hat view is that it suits the establishment to place controls on personal transport and thus restrict personal liberty. Thus the models for EV and self-drive cars, and thus the demise of private ownership of personal transport, etc. Yeah, yeah, conspiracy theories. Ignore me.
Exactly that The charger wasn’t long enough from the Tesla to my house and it would have to cross a main walkway Nearest charging point Asda then Waitrose with a charge of 7kw an hour 8-9 hours to charge It was only a test drive but there was no 1 problem the main path and trips/falls plus feral kids
The scooter thing could work in cities. Providing someone can stop all the thefts. Or most of them! And companies relax their dress codes, councils provide suitable parking arrangements and employers are happy with the additional cost of employees charging their batteries in the office/shop/factory
I heard of someone charging their car at a place of work, the boss has a electric car and they were told it wasn’t for workers Nice eh I can’t see our council putting charging points in any streets soon
If they do, you can guarantee a big hike in tax to pay for it! And another revenue stream catching those charging without permits
Council tax. Locally governed and controlled. So every single district will have its own rules and regs and make it as confusing as possible for anyone just happening to entree the area...!
If you believe that the burning of fossil fuels is as bad as it is made out of course (I may be biased) Hydrogen seems to be very expensive (energy intensive) to produce and will suffer from leaks when stored at high pressures. Liquids are hard to beat for convenience. EV's are being sold on local pollution issues, which is a good thing in big cities - which is where most of the recharging issues are
That sounds much more fun than Central Government being able to control the means of personal transport through licencing of charge-points and taxes/duties.
Are you suggesting that the cronyism that is clearly present in HS2 is an aberration and is absent any/everywhere else that Government has influence on infrastructure/the economy?
