Recent Comments

1. 38 minutes ago on B.C.

   Great points!

2. about 1 hour ago on B.C.

   No. HVAC units only added about 12% to home energy usage. That doesn’t include industrial usage. EVs would double the total usage. 12% is a lot easier to adapt to than 100%.

3. about 1 hour ago on B.C.

   First of all, there aren’t more charging stations than gas stations “of all types”. There are fewer EV cars per charging station than there are IC cars per pump. However, you have to factor in the time it takes to charge vs the time it takes to pump. Also, given that there are still way more pumps than charging stations in general, there are typically more pumps available per square mile. In other words, if you need to fill up, you can pick most exits and still find a pump. Not quite the case for charging stations.

   Second, I don’t know where you’re getting the $50G +. For one car, I might be in $25G over 20 years for gasoline. Compare to an EV: You have to also add the cost of electricity. Today’s costs to charge are about half. So it’s not just the cost of a battery we’re talking about. IF the battery lasts 20 years (and I manage to keep the same car for that long) the cost of electricity (IF the cost doesn’t increase, which it certainly will – refer back to my comment earlier in this thread) will be about $12G. Next, let’s add the cost of my time while I wait for the car to charge. Over 20 years, that’s about $20G. (I haven’t even added the fact that I live in the country and spent a significant amount of time on the Interstate between home and town where EVs are less efficient. Let’s just kind of ignore that, though I wanted to point out that it’s going to be worse than we’re figuring here. So that’s an unknown.) But you also counted just the cost of a battery. EVs are more expensive in all respects than any gasoline vehicle I’ve ever owned. So I’m paying more up front whether it’s a Leaf or a Tesla. I usually get used cars around $2G-$4G.

4. about 2 hours ago on B.C.

   Pretty close. That doesn’t include maintenance, though, but I do a lot of my own maintenance and I pick cars that have inexpensive replacement parts. (I’ve rebuilt engines, replaced timing belts, suspension, transmissions, etc. I’m not a mechanic – just handy.)

5. about 2 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   I’m a sucker for puns.

6. about 5 hours ago on B.C.

   Leafs are definitely a different price point than Teslas. Leaf batteries average about $4000. That’s not bad. They are covered by warranty up to 8 years or 100,000 miles. I still have a 2000 Focus I paid $1900 for on the road over 15 years ago that gets 32 miles a gallon. I’ve never bought a new car and don’t ever intend to. In order to capitalize on the warranty, I would need to buy a Leaf new at nearly $30G. Even used ones in my area are at least $15G. The difference in energy costs to me still doesn’t present a cost benefit to switch. I’m certainly not buying a Tesla – that’s way outside my budget. If the government forces the cost of gasoline to go up in order to force me (and everyone else) to switch to EV, by then the cost of electricity would be unmanageable, even to heat my home. I’d have to go back to wood burning to survive.

7. about 5 hours ago on B.C.

   At this point one battery is about what I’ve spent on automobiles my entire adult life, and I’m nearing 60.

8. about 5 hours ago on B.C.

   As the demand increases, they will become more plentiful. However, the infrastructure will need to be improved dramatically which will dramatically inflate the cost of electricity. If the infrastructure isn’t improved, then the demand for electricity will cause the system to fail. Look at Germany and California both. Even though they are not yet completely EV dominated, the demand for electricity already has caused them to purchase extreme amounts of electricity from outside sources, largely from fossil fuel generator plants in places like Russia or Utah. In general, they have increased pollution, not lessened it. I’m sure it makes EV owners feel good about themselves, but it isn’t providing the promised environmental results.

9. about 5 hours ago on B.C.

   If the States were to replace the energy from the gasoline used for road transportation with electricity (assuming a similar loss of energy from usage – internal combustion is a much higher energy density but loses more of it in heat while EVs spend most of their energy just toting around their batteries), we would need a solar farm about the size of Illinois, and about double our current production of electricity. The cost of the infrastructure required to convey that would make electricity far more expensive than gasoline. Not only would it become more expensive to drive more expensive vehicles, it would be more expensive to run your households. Wealthier people tend to care more about the environment. Making everyone poor by extremely high energy prices would ensure that more people care less about the environment.

10. about 6 hours ago on Dick Tracy

    Misty Fying – Great name for her!