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Old 05-18-2023, 12:16 PM   #46
dave22554
Established Member
 
Join Date: May 2023
Location: Stafford
Posts: 15
M.O.C. #32747
IMHO there are several issues to overcome

1. Source of the precious metals to make the batteries. These are largely controlled by China and/or other countries that wish to at a minimum do not operate on an even playing field and at worst seek to dominate us on the world stage.

2. The precious metals used to make batteries are mined largely by very environmentally destructive methods using strip mining requiring vast amounts of diesel/fossil fuels to operate.

3. The current infrastructure barely supports the demands on it today with many areas having outages during high demand periods. Add millions of vehicles to this and it will be overwhelmed very quickly. It is estimated we will need to increase capacity by ~50% to support electric cars.

4. What do you think powers the vast majority of our power grid. Yep fossil fuels. If you think that wind/solar will make up the difference you are kidding yourself. Do some research on the issues Tx had just a couple years ago when an ice storm brought its grid to it knees. Wind and Solar and even nuclear can be part of the solution will not be the complete answer. I also think there are a lot of people who don't pay an electric bill that think electricity is free. If you think I am kidding I just saw a report where people where astonished that retailers where providing charging stations and had the audacity to be charging their customers to charge their vehicles.

5. Charging times are too long and charging stations to few. Everybody says oh I can charge my car enough (not fully charged) in ~20 mins and I have to take a break anyway. Well imagine everyone else on the road is doing that too. Imagine the lines during a holiday weekend when everyone is travelling or during an emergency. To be practical the charging times will need to be cut to fully charge within 10 mins.

You might think I am against EVs, quite the contrary. I am all for our country being energy independent, not relying on foreign adversaries to provide us energy. I also don't really care how my vehicles are powered. I just want it to be convenient, cheap and as reliable as we have today. If that is EVs then great. I also think that many of our leaders have a financial interest to pushing them and nobody talks about the negatives. Energy is a serious topic with vast consequences and we need to be looking for holistic solutions not what will enrich a select constituencies.
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