Yes, he does make some good points. But why let that get in the way of a good poke? I'm sure some of our fellow members will understand that.
My point, apart from being a bit of a payout, was one about the fact that he was repeating arguments used by the majority of horse owners when the automobile made its way into our history.
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Yes, and at the time the automotive industry was a gimmick as well.
It took the likes of true genius to develop a vehicle that could meet the consumers need, be functional and reliable enough to replace the horses.
Do you know just how close we came to steam powered vehicles instead of the current petrol/ diesel vehicles we now drive?
Dont get me wrong.
I dont think we will NEVER have battery powered vehicles, or at least a less polluting system than we have now.
But not with the current technology.
I feel we are missing an important step here.
The mining industry (for which I have been working for over 30 years) uses hybrid vehicles for heavy hauling.
There huge vehicles have a diesel generator running electric motors in all the wheels.
They are much more reliable and economical than could ever be achieved with other systems.
And electric vehicles are being tested and developed as we speak for transportation and some work.
In fact, I am involved in this at the moment.
The battery problem was quite an issue, then the motors, suspension and the structural requirements for all these issues.
Its kept several engineers very busy for the last 4 years with still a few to go.
And the cost?
Well, lets just say I wish i had 2 months worth, I could retire very comfortably thank you.
But for the general public, electric vehicles are in the distant future.
One of our engineers explained to me a single problem that will make electric vehicles impossible for the short term.
It revolves around supply.
A house uses a certain amount of power (not sure exactly what he said)
But to charge an electric vehicle, twice that power would be required at least.
If there are two, or three vehicles in a house, you could draw up to 4x the current power load.
Now, while that may be OK for one house, what if everyone in the street has 2 or more electric vehicles, all coming home and charging up for the next day.
Then there are the delivery vehicles, taxies etc etc.
Now multiply that by suburbs, and cities.
We can barely get enough power now, what if suddenly we needed 4 times what we currently use?
Infrastructure could not handle the load, the power cables would be glowing red (no need for street lights)
Before electric vehicles could be the norm, infrastructure would have to be seriously upgraded, power stations increased several fold.
What's that I hear?
Solar panels?
again, you will need up to 4x your current use, most solar panel installations produce much less than that.
And at the same time the greenies oppose new power stations, dams and basically everything else.
I wish they would stop smoking the grass and do something constructive.
We may all have to revert to horses just to get to work, because our old dilapidated and obsolete power stations have reached their use by date, the solar panels have stopped being efficient and our electric cars have no means by which to be charged.
Again, with feeling.
In the short term, battery powered cars are a gimmick.
One that the wealthy and virtue signallers will spend a great deal of money on, good on them.
One day, perhaps they will be viable.
But it will take a great leap of science to do so.