[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Yep I’m not an early adopter love seeing what goes right and wrong on the new rigs.

Have to say I’m disappointed cowmeat gave in to Silver :0 too many neutral cars on the road (just kidding)

Your comment made me realize something odd about myself. I'm extremely risk tolerant seeking, love adopting technology, but always lag behind somewhat.

I think I'm just conservative with how I spend money, so by definition that means I'm not buying the latest thing, but waiting at least 1 generation for price to come down. By being frugal with money, I simultaneously decrease my exposure to risk because I give time for kinks and flaws to be worked out. While I never am far behind on technology, I'm also not on the bleeding edge working through all the problems.

On the Chevy Bolt forum, I made this comment, which if I haven't alienated everyone by now, maybe that will do it;

The Early Adopters stage [we're still in Innovators stage] still requires fairly risk-tolerant consumers. Those who are not risk tolerant should rethink their choice to adopt an emerging technology. It's not reasonable to be an early adopter of technology and expect the kinks to have all been worked out. For those who are most anxious about the fire danger and outraged by this failure of technology, they either didn't realize they were "Innovators", or they don't know the inherent risks to adopting at that stage. I am blaming the victim at least in not having set appropriate expectations and acceptance of risk, not to diminish the responsibility GM and LG have to make their customers whole.

Here's the earlier post I made on the subject;

All of this highlights my general view that EVs are not ready for mainstream, which partly explains why they are not mainstream.



In the push to get battery technology to not totally suck compared to a $100 gas tank, every limit is being pushed.



Batteries gobble up a lot of space, so they are engineered to be as small as reasonably possible.

They are heavy, so they are engineered to be as lightweight as reasonably possible.

They contain less energy, so they are engineered to contain as much energy as reasonably possible.

They degrade over time, so they are engineered to be as robust as reasonably possible.

They charge slowly, so they are engineered to charge as quickly as reasonably possible.

They are expensive, so they are engineered to be as affordable as reasonably possible.

They are susceptible to environmental extremes, so they are engineered to tolerate extremes as much as reasonably possible.

They are flammable, so they are engineered to resist burning as much as reasonably possible.



Balancing all of these attributes is a nightmare, and clearly the industry is still learning how to do it correctly. Arguing from hindsight, it seems apparent that it's not enough to demand no major defects in cell manufacturing, but to also design for when there are catastrophic defects. A design that is more resilient against fire surely takes away from several of the attributes listed above. It's going to cost more, take up more space, be heavier, etc. This all equates to an EV that is even further behind the positive attributes of an ICE vehicle (range, cost, weight, etc).



I have more enthusiasm for EVs than most anyone, but one must not let their enthusiasm get in the way of reality. Reality is that battery technology is not where it needs to be for EVs to be the mainstream choice. Reality is also that these problems are extremely difficult to solve, and it isn't guaranteed that they will be solved to the extent we would hope for.



I'm beginning to realize that EVs at the moment are not for the very risk averse. We're still in the "Innovators" stage of technology adoption. That's the area of the curve that demands the most risk tolerant people. It now occurs to me that through all of the years I attempted to get my grandfather to purchase an EV, there is likely some wisdom and increased risk-aversion with age that prevented him from taking the leap. I wish he would have before he died, but I understand now why he didn't.