Quote:
Originally Posted by El Duende
Uh-huh, in what quantities are we talkin' here? Let's say, for the sake of the matter, that the battery powered personal transport will be so "effecient" that it'll replace all of our CO2-pumping machines that we're driving now. How many plants will it take to power all of our cars then?
|
That's a red herring, because it's never going to happen. Electric drive will be a small
part of the transportation mix, and probably not even close to the dominant component in our lifetime. Basically they'll be toys for the rich, and urban runabouts for 2+ vehicle households with other ICE vehicles.
EDIT: there's also the option of time-of-day usage. Power co's are shifting to pricing schemes and technological arrangment that will strongly encourage people to shift their optional power-intensive behaviour to off-peak times when the grid has spare capacity. EG: the car gets charged in the evening/night, unless of course you want to pay 2x more for the day time juice. This is coming regardless of the impact of EV's.
Quote:
|
Have you read about the risk posed to the blind?
|
Yes, and I don't buy it as a serious issue. (And neither is is technologically insurmountable: Expect some kind of noise maker in production EV's at "idle/crawl" speeds. )
There are numerous models of ICE luxury cars that are virtually silent at low speeds as well. (Where's the outcry against quiet-as-the-breeze Lexus luxobarges? ) Where's the epidemic of blind people being run down by stealth bicyclists?