Someone worked out that if even a third of the cars involved in the Washington, D.C. traffic jams of a few days ago were electric, the cars would still be clogging the highway. Supposedly, the occupants would either use their battery to run the heater/heat pump, or save it to move the vehicle when the traffic cleared. This guy posited that most would choose to avoid hypothermia and frostbite and would opt to run their battery down. When the traffic started moving, these cars would not have the juice to make it to a charging station. I know all-electric cars don't work well here except for commuter vehicles. What do you think?
I think there's a place for electric cars but their dominance should not be encouraged at this point. Their environmental impact at this point should give pause to environmentalists
They should start making electric cars as cheap commuter cars for short runs in and around town for work and doing errands; using the same philosophy as Hitler's "People's Car", the Volkswagen instead of cars like the high end Tesla. Ford's Model T was a car for the masses too.
As to the cars in the traffic jam, seems to me it wouldn't matter what type of fuel the vehicle was using. Gas or electric, the occupants would still run the engine and heater as long as the "fuel" held out and then be unable to drive anywhere. I think the move to electric cars is absurd as long as the power grid is already overwhelmed and having brownouts during extreme weather. The electrical infrastructure is not in a place to support all the proposed "upgrades." Just like morons in some cities not allowing natural gas connections in new construction. Positively idiotic. (And I'm not giving up my gas stove, gas furnace, or gas water heater.)
The gas tanks last much longer than the batteries in cold weather...unless you don't keep 'em full....
Isn't Texas a stand alone state when it comes to electric power. It's not part of the national grid which led to problems as I recall.
My son has a Prius and my daughter has a MiniCooper, and both of them can use either gasoline or electric. When they use gas as fuel, then I think that it charges the battery. With both options, a person that was stranded would at least have a chance that one or the other still worked. When we have had the snowstorms and pileups between Huntsville and Birmingham, and people were stranded for hours, they ran out of gas from keeping the car warm, and I am sure that the electric ones used up their battery as well. I think that having an electric vehicle just for short trips around town, like back and forth to work, or shopping, would be a great idea. What Elon Musk was doing was building charging stations with solar power, and this way, it didn’t use up electricity for people to charge up the battery. They would be along the freeways and at truck stops so that a person could stop for a meal or a break, and have their battery charging while they ate lunch. He also said that Tesla would be happy to work with other companies to help them make cheaper electric vehicles because he knew that not everyone can afford an expensive Tesla model. Way back in the mid-80’s (when I was selling insurance and traveling) one house where I stopped had a VW bus that was electric battery that they were selling. They said it worked fine but only went around 40 miles before needing to be charged. I always thought it was an early model electric car, but couldn’t find anything like that when I searched, so I think that someone must have modified the VW to be an electric one. I would have liked to have bought it, but I was constantly on the road traveling, and the 40 mile limit would not have worked for me at all.
Yes, Texas has its own power grid. I don't believe that's what led to a problem, however. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellist...-water-crisis-is-psychological-not-political/ The USA grids are insufficient for the demand and power outages are widespread. Texas is not unique in this regard.
.Exactly Don! Electric cars in a traffic jam in either hot or cold weather would create a massive problem.
I was just watching something on Elon Musk and his plans for a FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR Tesla. I still don't think green is the way to go yet if government subsidies fund everything. But a decently priced car will have lower income folks and cheap people like me voting with their feet.
Hybrid plug-ins are fine, even up here, but the all-electric cars don't wok here at all unless you use them only for commuting and you have an employer with a place to plug them in. There were plans for a plug-in hybrid truck published in the 1970s in Mother Earth News. Solar-powered cars wouldn't work at all here in winter.
I only have to imagine myself evacuating when a hurricane is approaching, and I know which I would rather be in.
...and it recharges to 100% almost instantly, assuming you can get to a fuel station (which are far more plentiful than charging stations.).
Kinda why I don't want the gov't into green energy. They started experimenting here. In the eighties, we got a BIG rebate to put in a solar array on our roof. It did not work well at all here in Wisconsin. They they put up a couple of wind turbines along hwy 41. Wind we got. So they started paying farmers to put turbines on their land about 25 years later. Quite a few. Lots of them break down. So now they are trying to force a solar farm onto a small town where the citizens don't want it. Did I mention that did not work so well in Wisconsin for the money?.... But it is OK to waste because we can spread the loss out...