bicycles are the future. and shoes. maybe sandals too.
Largely because it won't scale. We couldn't get enough bio material to make the fuel.
It was the issue with the EU biofuel mnadates that led to the massive expansion of palm oil production at the expense of the rain forest.
Also, do we grow stuff to make fuel or feed people?
I do think that all road vehicles have been getting way too heavy in the last 40 years. I'm not sure quite what drove the current MAD trend where solo drivers are taking a nearly 3 tonne car to work but it feels like everyone wants to be in their own person tank in case they crash into another tank. Confession time, I think real cars should weight around 750kg. Impractical for the school run, but lotsa fun to drive.
and on a sample of 1 (me) the car I drive now is no more economical than my first car, despite all the improvements in engine management technology in the meantime. I am sure some of you had cars with 454 police interceptor blocks in back in the day so think modern cars are incredibly efficient, and I am sure many more of you do not have my heavy right foot.
There are at least 2 EV on the market in USA that are too heavy to drive on a standard european car licence. And whilst I get how safe modern cars are I personally think they have got too big and heavy and something needs to change. As mentioned before by I think Dave ebikes are a really good use of electric propulsion just they keep exploding and burning houses down as the regulations are not stopping cheap poor quality imports (at least in UK). Escooters I am less keen on.
Yes. But. It depends on recycling cost. The problem with a lot of recycling is that recycled is actually much more expensive than raw feedstock. In any event, there's not enough of anything to recycle to meet the demand there will be if 2050 net zero promises are to be met.
Manufacturers will use what's cheapest and if we want cheap EVs it may mean either getting our hands dirty using questionably sourced material or doing things like harvesting the lithium beneath the Salton Sea...
At the moment the potential demand utterly dwarfs available supply and our ability to mine and refine raw resources.
Something overlooked in cars, or any vehicle for that matter, is the embedded energy and CO2 production in making them: steel, batteries, plastic, engines, glass etc: my understanding is that production of a passenger car, of any description, produces around 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide. That's from an EV website, by the way.
It's therefore far more effective environmentally for people to hold onto their cars for a few more years rather than buy something new.
Geoff
It's therefore far more effective environmentally for people to hold onto their cars for a few more years rather than buy something new.
Geoff
So an old article from a strongly biased "source" with no new news or data. Why should this article continue to get cited as a basis for discussion, We can fabricate "what if" fears all day but that's not science and it's not data, it's just ********.
Also, do the math. A current Tesla Y weighs around 4400 pounds, while the outgoing Mercedes GLC43 AMG, which cost around $60k and has similar performance and size numbers to the model Y weighed around 4200 pounds. For all practical purposes they are the SAME. So please, just drop it already.
As a side note, our Y is a blast to drive. I will never buy another ICE car for a commuting ever again. It's just so much better to have that instant torque, instant throttle, instant steering, instant braking, never shifting, perpetually quiet, never stopping for gas. And all this from a guy that LOVES cars, especially gas guzzling V-8 vintage muscle cars and highly tuned modified track toys where I can watch the gas needle move at full throttle, I don't even have to care about the environment- electric cars are the future and for 90% of driving there is nothing I'd rather use. Now my weekend toys- that's a whole other ball of wax.
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What's 'instant steering'?
4200lbs for a car is just silly though. Just did a check and the E34 BMW 5 series from 1984 had a max curb weight of 3100lbs. The current one (G31) is 4500lbs. Whatever the power plant how is that progress?
4200lbs for a car is just silly though. Just did a check and the E34 BMW 5 series from 1984 had a max curb weight of 3100lbs. The current one (G31) is 4500lbs. Whatever the power plant how is that progress?
Not really, it was said about an opinion based show that airs on the channel.
https://thedispatch.com/article/fact-checking-a-claim-that-fox-news/
The irony of using hit-and-run, partial facts against a channel for using hit-and-run, partial facts.
Tesla uses very quick steering ratios in their cars. The Y is 10.3:1. For comparison, the "quick" steering rack in a Subaru STI car is 13:1 (depending on model year), while many cars are 15:1. Meanwhile my F150 is something horrendously slow like 20:1. Quicker steering is easy to manage for most drivers and makes driving a lot easier and funner. If you're really old or have poor smooth muscle control then you might want a slower ratio. Personally I think car manufacturers use slow ratios the way they tune brakes and gas in average cars, in other words, like mush. I expect that within a couple years lawyers and marketing firms will infect Tesla enough to drag the steering ratios back to the misery zone that most cars have.
Regarding weights, I'm an all-out weight weenie, whether it's stripping weight from a mountain bike or a track car, light is faster, easier, more efficient. Colin Chapman was a god. On the other hand, a 2024 5 series is dramatically safer and quieter than a 1984. Areas of major improvement- crumple zones, side impact protection, and so on, are much more likely to save your life today, and well, if you don't have that... But yes, the race to heaviest car for the sake of personal safety is sad, and I do look forward to seeing electric city cars in the sub-500 kg range. If I lived in Europe where the drivers are, on average, more competent than in the US, I would buy one today.
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Walking away from a crash seems to be progress and those improvements add weight. Just look at the pillars on an 84 vs a 24. It is mind boggling the crashes that people can walk away from anymore. I knew someone that rolled a Honda 7 times and walked away. A soda can was imbedded in an interior panel from the force.
The foot and a half longer and around a foot wider doesn't help, either does huge wheels.
Cars became far to heavy and should be progressevly taxed according to excessive weigth. In the sixties, italians had small family cars weigthing 600 kg.
My "big" volvo pv544 was under 1000kg. Nowdays, a comparable car weigths 1600kg, crazy...
My "big" volvo pv544 was under 1000kg. Nowdays, a comparable car weigths 1600kg, crazy...
Has nobody here seen Planet Of The Humans by Michael Moore? The electricity has to come from somewhere.
Re “bio fuels”, since they are still contain and are subject to combustion, how do they avoid emitting CO2, NOX et al?
Then, regardless of the type of traction motor /engine and source of energy by which they’re powered, there’s the imbedded carbon cost of the multiple steps of extraction, transportation, and processing for all the materials involved in the vehicles’ manufacture. As many of those are synthetic or plastic based, and most high performance electric motors require cooling and lubrication, we’ll never complete rid petroleum based products from our transportation systems.
Then, regardless of the type of traction motor /engine and source of energy by which they’re powered, there’s the imbedded carbon cost of the multiple steps of extraction, transportation, and processing for all the materials involved in the vehicles’ manufacture. As many of those are synthetic or plastic based, and most high performance electric motors require cooling and lubrication, we’ll never complete rid petroleum based products from our transportation systems.
Were you asking me?
Not running out per se but if the needed materials are in either politically unaligned locations or ones with an unfriendly government, it might as well be rare. Lithium isn’t the only element needed for batts. It’s a big one for sure.
Even the devices on which we contribute to, distribute and view the content of our favourite websites, so it’s almost like TANSTAAFL.
As one of my favourite satirical YT channels* recently noted, we are living in the Age of Ensheetenment, which some experts opine began with agriculture.
*Aussies own Honest Government Ads by theJuice Media. Warning; no punches pulled or expletives avoided.
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