Electric vehicles and the evacuation of Florida
American Thinker,
by
Thomas Lifson
Original Article
Posted By: Magnante,
9/29/2022 9:36:36 AM
Large swaths of Florida’s heavily populated Gulf Coast have been ordered evacuated. (snip) It is fortunate that as of the current moment, electric vehicles constitute only about 100,000, out of nearly 8 million vehicles registered to drive on Florida’s roads. What if they all were electric? (snip) cars from southern Florida would start running out of juice after 100 – 250 miles. They would then have to spend hours at recharging stations, which would rapidly be clogged with other cars and trucks waiting their turn (snip) Cars waiting to be charged would spill onto the highways (snip) Those cars that ran out of juice on the highway would block traffic.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
seal010101 9/29/2022 9:51:10 AM (No. 1290890)
I'm not a fan of electric cars, but I've posted a suggestion to solve the range problem before: swap battery packs at a "fuel" station like we refill our gasoline tanks. Design electric cars to have 2 or more batteries, and buy a subscription at a battery provider. Pull in, drop one pack, install a fresh one, and be on your way in minutes. It sounds a little bit like "you'll own nothing and be happy"; but think of them like large AA batteries for your car rather than your TV remote controller.
11 people like this.
And evacuations of Florida are a regular occurrence. And not just Florida, but nearly any state along the east coast. All EVs are a terrible idea.
35 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Hazymac 9/29/2022 10:04:01 AM (No. 1290906)
What I want to see is for Americans to turn against this boutique transportation and abandon it. (Make California and other leftist Democrats eat their words about outlawing carbon based energy and gasoline or diesel powered cars and work equipment.) It's insufficient to society's needs, and so is the entire Green energy industry. We can do without land intensive, energy poor solar and wind installations which are all eye sores, and worse. Make Al Gore lose his breakfast--ban Green energy. We can't afford any of it.
28 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 9/29/2022 10:05:36 AM (No. 1290909)
Ignorance is a simple lack of knowledge that leads to wrong conclusions.
Stupid is knowing and still coming to the wrong conclusion… over and over and over again.
The people pushing all electric are stupid.
It simply isn’t ready for prime time.
28 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
planetgeo 9/29/2022 10:10:43 AM (No. 1290912)
#1, your post gave me a chuckle. You obviously have no idea how big the batteries in an EV are, and you apparently think they're about the size of your standard car battery with maybe a few of them in there. FYI, the Tesla Model S battery weighs about 1,200 lbs. Yes, 1,200 lbs. Good luck having "fuel stations" stocking dozens or hundreds of these and taking a day or two to remove and replace them as each EV rolls in.
43 people like this.
#1 so this battery drop off station runs out of its stock of about 10 charged batteries in roughly an hour and then has no electricity to recharge the drop offs. Great plan.
When will these leftist geniuses admit that all of their ideas are broken down. Horrible for safety, horrible for the environment (with batteries and wind blades filling up the landfills), horrible for convenience, horrible for jobs.
25 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
bighambone 9/29/2022 10:17:18 AM (No. 1290923)
When the power is off for a week or more after a disaster, how would people recharge the batteries in their electric cars even if they had access to a private or public recharging station?
28 people like this.
#1 has the right idea but as #4 says, that aspect of it is definitely not ready for prime time. I once read that Musk's vision is the ability to pull into a charging station, drive onto a lift where robotics swap out the battery (yes, plenty of unsolved details involved), and you're back on the road in less time than it would take to fill the tank with liquid fuel. Granted, these would have to be enormously charging stations to accommodate all those fresh batteries but the vision is there. IC engines in vehicles were successful because of the huge leap in technology over walking or horse riding. EV's don't offer a similar leap. If they did, everyone - EVERYONE - would have their order in for one but all they really and practically do is transport you from Point A to Point B. A Model T will do that.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Rather Read 9/29/2022 10:31:19 AM (No. 1290942)
I have a battery powered leaf blower, weed eater, push mower, and stick vacuum. I like them, but when one runs out of juice, I have to wait for a couple of hours to charge them. 40V batteries aren't very big and it's easy to swap them out, but cars? We aren't there yet.
16 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
john56 9/29/2022 10:37:15 AM (No. 1290947)
Why the Hybrids (gas/self-generating or plug in electric) cars aren't the focus is beyond me (aka Prius). Maybe it's the worst of both worlds, but it does have the advantage of a fuel-powered motor when electricity is not available.
Somewhere I once read what type of physical plant you would need to operate a fast charging station ala a modern big-city gas station. The physical size and power plant would be more than a city block and eat as much power as a small town.
And guess what? Charging those electric cars isn't free. I was speaking with a hotel owner friend recently. He was approached by a vendor offering to install charging stations at the hotel for no cost. The hotel owner would have to pay for the power, but the vendor made his money by charging the customer charging the EV and sharing part of the profits with the car owner.
Somewhere else I read said that the cost of charging (especially when away from home) is close to the cost of gasoline, depending on the locality.
12 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Twinkle93 9/29/2022 10:37:59 AM (No. 1290948)
Look at the bigger picture. All response vehicles require fossil fuel as well as the generators for hospital etc.
15 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
EJKrausJr 9/29/2022 10:39:06 AM (No. 1290952)
Until you can recharge an EV in the time it takes to pump gas into an ICBV, EVs are impractical. A complete Dolt knows that. Evidently our Government are beyond being Dolts.
24 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
felixcat 9/29/2022 11:11:28 AM (No. 1290999)
US fossil fuel companies here in the US and overseas drilling, fracking, etc do all this under the strictest environmental controls of any nation in the world. We don't use child slave labor digging for rare earth minerals in huge mines while devastating the local environment. This is what Republicans politicians and the gas companies and their spokespeople appearing on any news show should keep repeating over and over.
9 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 9/29/2022 11:15:21 AM (No. 1291013)
I'm not going to ever buy an electric vehicle, but I eagerly await the first electric fire truck, the first electric ambulance, the first electric presidential "Beast," the first electric Air Force One and the first all-electric rocket to blast off into space. Call me when these happen successfully.
16 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
rytwng 9/29/2022 11:17:34 AM (No. 1291018)
Battery powered are not the answer. Until they can run on 3 AA batteries they might work.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
qr4j 9/29/2022 11:19:18 AM (No. 1291020)
Reply No. 1 has some good ideas. That's the sort of thing that makes more sense than the current model of charging electric cars. I wonder whether our electric grid has enough capacity to keep enough batteries charged. Charging could occur at night when electrical demand goes down, I suppose.
Why is there not more development of hybrid cars, to take advantage of the best of both worlds, electric and gas-powered?
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 9/29/2022 11:22:30 AM (No. 1291024)
We know where the oil is and how to get it. Oil works and in case anyone has forgotten, it takes mere minutes to refill an auto. I'm sticking with Big Oil!!
13 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
javaboy 9/29/2022 11:28:12 AM (No. 1291035)
It wouldn't matter if there were 2 million electric cars stranded on the roads with no power trying to flee a disaster and every person on the road died a horrible death. The greenies would blame global warming (or whatever ridiculous name they have at the time) and still refuse to take any responsibility for their own bad ideas.
16 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
mc squared 9/29/2022 11:32:29 AM (No. 1291039)
Most people can carry a 25 pound gas can in an emergency. Try that with a 1,000 lb lithium battery.
10 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Omen55 9/29/2022 11:43:51 AM (No. 1291050)
Meanwhile all of dem pushing EVs will have their gas powered escape all set to go.
Count on that!
11 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
MickTurn 9/29/2022 12:23:38 PM (No. 1291089)
Wait for it, all Junkyards will be filled with EV's, COUNT ON IT!
8 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
3XALADY 9/29/2022 12:32:25 PM (No. 1291103)
I wondered how long it would take for someone to think of that.
2 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DVC 9/29/2022 12:33:19 PM (No. 1291104)
To add to #5's excellent post, the Tesla battery basically makes up the bottom 6-8 inches of the entire car. Here is a photo of a Tesla battery. It appears to be essentially a part of the whole car frame. It appears to have a substantial metal structure around it that bolts to the entire bottom of the car, and likely provides a good bit of structural strength.
https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/VZ7BL/s1/researched-data-how-long-should-a-tesla-battery-last.jpg
And still.....it contains about the same energy as a 2 gallon gas tank. And you have to "refill" that gas tank with a teaspoon.
Pathetic.
9 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
hershey 9/29/2022 12:46:25 PM (No. 1291123)
Didn't really realize Florida had 100,000 stupid people in residence...
8 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 9/29/2022 3:09:54 PM (No. 1291275)
As 18 mentioned, hybrids work, but I have a friend who has one, and he says it works out to about 35 MPG. My IC Camry gets 32 on the road, so I really can't see much saving of the planet there. His Prius is old, however, maybe they have improved a lot.
1 person likes this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
DVC 9/29/2022 3:25:01 PM (No. 1291289)
If EVs had been widely used, it would have been a disaster. I wonder what happens when a 300 to 400 volt EV battery gets wet with salt water...which is conductive? I'm betting that it would be an out of control electric arc welding demonstration, followed quickly by an unquenchable lithium battery fire.
3 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
DVC 9/29/2022 3:33:05 PM (No. 1291299)
Re #27, the only part of the driving cycle where a hybrid has an advantage is in braking where a substantial portion of the braking energy can be put back into batteries rather than turned into heat in the brakes as on a normal car. All other portions if driving, the extra weight of the hybrid electric motor generator and battery and associated wiring and control systems just are dead weight.....costing higher energy use on acceleration and steady state driving.
So, the application where hybrids would shine the most is in all day stop and go city driving. This is why we built and tested a prototype of a hybrid city bus in 1974-5. A Prius would be good for a taxi....but too small for most cabbies to want one. On highway driving, say from KC to Denver....the extra stuff is just dead weight. Commuting in heavy traffic if you get up to say 30+ mph between stoplights, it would be good. In inching type "stop and go", the regenerative braking doesn't kick in until above 10 mph or so.
Hybrids work, but are pretty niche cars. For mostly highway driving.....pretty far outside of their area of usefulness.
1 person likes this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 9/29/2022 3:54:13 PM (No. 1291324)
EVs are a study in stoopid. Brandon means to put us all afoot.
1 person likes this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
Hazymac 9/29/2022 4:39:56 PM (No. 1291351)
In an evacuation zone e-cars are absolutely useless, worthless. They're stones, paperweights. With the power lines down, where are you going to charge your boutique car? How long will it take? Do you have that much time before the big one rolls in with twelve feet of storm surge? In no conceivable modern world would I own an electric car. They're Nineteenth Century technology. We've moved beyond that now. Give me gasoline, preferably Sunoco 260. And a car that needs it.
0 people like this.
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