Towing with an EV

[dfb]

Originally Posted by mlh

Chevy just today announced the Chinese would be supplying sodium ion batteries for their EVs. Cost is 50% Lion. Things are moving along.
Lynwood

Not me man... Ill buy a horse first..

[wed]

They are not ready for me

[mlh]

Mack truck has an assembly plant three miles from our home. It’s about a half mile from where I go by every day. They built mid duty trucks there. They will start building electric trucks in the third quarter this year. The range will be 210 miles with a charge time of 10 to 12 hours.
Lynwood

[Lee-CI]

Originally Posted by dfb

Not me man... Ill buy a horse first..

At least one wouldn't have to wait in line to feed a horse. Just sayin.....

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Lee-CI

At least one wouldn't have to wait in line to feed a horse. Just sayin.....

Funny guy

[dave22554]

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.

[mlh]

I agree with most of what you said. The next thing in batteries probably will be sodium ion. They don’t require any precious metals and have almost as much power as the batteries now in use and are far cheaper. China already has a car with sodium ion batteries. But still where will the electricity come from to change them. I’m like you I’m against EVs but there are some serious problems to be worked out.
Lynwood

[BB_TX]

It’s an evolution.

There is a very promising new source of lithium in California that could potentially supply all US needs plus a large part of world needs. All while being “green”. And with a big name like Berkshire Hathaway involved gives it more credibility.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/04/the-...t-lithium.html

The charging infrastructure is slowly growing. But needs to pick up speed. But like most things, supply typically lags behind demand as companies wait to see when it is financially feasible.

Power generation is a problem area. That demand was growing before EVs really began to appear in any significant quantities. But the multiple $billions required to build each power plant and the permitting and the “not in my backyard” are major hurdles to get past.

[mlh]

“Not in my back yard”. Everybody wonts clean power but nobody wonts it anywhere near them. A company wonted to install solar panels near us. It would have impacted me. A friend grows the best sweet corn I’ve ever tasted. I wasn’t opposed to this solar farm but you should have heard the out cry over it. It would ruin the neighborhood cause babies to be born necked. Oh my it would be worse than awful. Sure enough the board of stupid visers put off the vote and the company withdrew its application.
Lynwood

[scottz]

I wonder how many charging stations have RV friendly lanes?

[rohrmann]

Just think about how pitiful the electric systems are in most RV parks to just power our rigs, and then what it will cost to upgrade the utility power to feed the parks and the cost to upgrade the parks to provide super chargers at each space to charge the tow vehicles. The tow vehicles will be electric but the trailers will have to have generators to keep the tow vehicles powered.

[AZ Traveler]

I stopped at a place a couple of weeks ago - $30 a day extra to plug in a car. I think they are just part of the anti-EV crowd.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by AZ Traveler

I stopped at a place a couple of weeks ago - $30 a day extra to plug in a car. I think they are just part of the anti-EV crowd.

Well someone has to pay for the electricity

[77cruiser]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Well someone has to pay for the electricity

Those from clown world seem to think it should be free.