Comments 1 - 36 of 36 Search these comments
Where I live in N. California, the electricity comes from burning natural gas.
Your area sounds like the exception. When I looked at energy figures for California a few years ago, the majority still came from coal/oil.
Huh? Coal is about 1%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_California
- Natural gas - 50%
- Hydroelectric - 16%
- Nuclear - 15%
- Geothermal - 6%
- Wind/Solar/Biomass/Other - 12%
- Coal - 1%
On one side we have EV's that have failed in virtually every promise they made back in 2009, when Obama swindled American tax payers. Then gave billions to failed start up green companies. Tesla was one of them.
I didn't use wikipedia for my numbers, but as I mentioned, has been a while since I checked. But fact is California, the poster-child for alternative energy, still relies on oil.
he best idea was a natural gas Honda Civic
If the Green morons in California didn't decommission 2 of our nuke plants, we would be relying on less natural gas too. But natural gas is a good bridge energy to help reduce our emissions while improve the alternatives.
And yes, shutting down SanO because of some easily planned for and replaced pipping was assinine.
It's more about its Fukusima-like location, I believe. Building it on the beach was the original assinine act.
but Tsunami's are far more common on Japan
Now I’m interested in the Chevy Bolt!
Today driving into Santa Cruz I saw 4 Bolts within a few minutes of each other, those are evidently popular here.
http://patrick.net/post/1323735/2019-04-07-evs-are-cheaper-to-operate-and-much-cleaner-than-ice
I am on my third EV, it is so fun to drive I am not going back to that 20th Century ICE
The thing to consider is that solar and batteries prices are not static: they are collapsing.
And they are collapsing because there are people who buy these technologies now.
The people who buy early super expensive Teslas paid for investments that will allow one day electric vehicles to be by far cheaper than gas cars (they are simpler).
And - given that solar power prices are also collapsing - electric vehicles are going to be clearly the greenest.
So the rant above amount to conservative nay saying in the face of progress - progress from which everyone benefits.
The willing, fates guide them.
The others, they drag.
You should go test drive one and be sure to put it in "L" mode which give you one pedal driving. The acceleration and torque are awesome, but it is the regenerative braking which makes the Bolt such a blast to drive. I never use the friction brakes, I just take my foot off the accelerator and maybe hit the regen paddle on the steering wheel if I need to slow down more.
A friend of mine who is pretty well off just got done test driving the Tesla X and 3 and decided to go with the Bolt.
I guess the Model 3 is close in price until you add on all the stuff which really makes it expensive.
Suggest the EV haters test drive a Chevy Bolt, Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro or a Tesla if they can afford one.
How is it possible after all these years that GM still makes the most hideous looking cars
Electricity for much of the US and world is powered through coal, its just a switch to another equal pollutant. The batteries and materials used in EVs are full of heavy metals, not to mention that when the batteries in an EV combust they fill the air with pollutants, burning heavy metals that fire departments cant extinguish. Lastly, theres not enough data on current EVs to determine their shelf life, given the materials and amount of electronics, i imagine the shelf life of an EV will be significantly shorter than that of an ICE vehicle.
Given all of that, you will still be subject to the bitching and moaning of bugmen and babies who have never changed their oil in their life. The sheer panic that these people attempt to spread and their ever changing timeline of ecological destruction is obnoxious. These arent folks who attempt to clean up India or China(our leading polluters) but they want to concentrate on stripping you of your ability to choose.
The government is only too happy to comply too. The more that bloodsucking government can entangle themselves in transportation, the more control they have over you and your movement. The government gives companies like Tesla "Credits" that they can sell to ICE manufacturers who dont develop EVs, or dont develop them to the point that the government wants. This allows failing EV companies, like Tesla, to stay afloat even though they cant run a business efficiently. Honestly this type of behavior is more akin to a villain from an Ayn Rand novel, both with the governments overreach and with the behavior of many EV owners in general.