And so it begins...

[Swoop]

So, the eco-mentalists' are stopping exploration.

The lunatics are running the asylum.

[Katman]

So, the eco-mentalists' are stopping exploration.

Great move.

The days of fossil fuels are drawing to a close.

[Swoop]

Great move.

The days of fossil fuels are drawing to a close.

So you can accept a world without the other uses of oil and petroleum products?

As for vehicles using alternative fuels, we have a long way to go yet.
Some fools think self-driving cars are "here and now", but we also have a LOT of progress to be made in that department too.

[jasonu]

Great move.

The days of fossil fuels are drawing to a close.

Tell that to your Kraptanna.

[Katman]

So you can accept a world without the other uses of oil and petroleum products?

Have you ever looked into what is able to be produced using hemp?

[Swoop]

Have you ever looked into what is able to be produced using hemp?

There is one, outstanding, sensible reason to avoid the stuff. "Axle".

[Akzle]

Electric vehicles make up a tiny percentage of the total number of vehicles in NZ due to their cost and limited run time plus new battery cost. When they make up over 50% of the vehicles in NZ only then will your thinking be correct.

you're a fuckwit

[Voltaire]

Do we have enough Hydro to run the fleet or will my roof become covered in solar panels?

[TheDemonLord]

The funny thing is - I'd love an Electric car: Constant Torque all through the Rev range - sign me up.

Problem is that the technology is not capable of beating a Petrol car in terms of distance or speed of recharge/refuel. Me personally - if Car manufacturers standardized the form factor for Battery Packs and made them accessible - one way to solve both of the above issues is to have it so that when you visit a recharge station, instead of the traditional method of recharging your battery, you simply swap out the empty one for a full one - like you do with the LPG Gas Bottle swap.

Would require a fair amount of co-operation, but concievable would deal to the short coming.

[MarkH]

The funny thing is - I'd love an Electric car: Constant Torque all through the Rev range - sign me up.

Problem is that the technology is not capable of beating a Petrol car in terms of distance or speed of recharge/refuel. Me personally - if Car manufacturers standardized the form factor for Battery Packs and made them accessible - one way to solve both of the above issues is to have it so that when you visit a recharge station, instead of the traditional method of recharging your battery, you simply swap out the empty one for a full one - like you do with the LPG Gas Bottle swap.

Would require a fair amount of co-operation, but concievable would deal to the short coming.

It's been tried and fizzled. It is totally unnecessary anyway, we just need the batteries coming out over the next few years that will give plenty of range. Hell, Tesla have announced a car with 1,000km range - sure it's fucking stupid expensive money, but if cheaper cars can have half that in a few years then we will be able to do pretty much everything we want with electric cars.

There are also technical issues with swapping battery packs that weigh from quarter of a tonne to well over half a tonne.

[Ocean1]

The funny thing is - I'd love an Electric car: Constant Torque all through the Rev range - sign me up.

Problem is that the technology is not capable of beating a Petrol car in terms of distance or speed of recharge/refuel. Me personally - if Car manufacturers standardized the form factor for Battery Packs and made them accessible - one way to solve both of the above issues is to have it so that when you visit a recharge station, instead of the traditional method of recharging your battery, you simply swap out the empty one for a full one - like you do with the LPG Gas Bottle swap.

Would require a fair amount of co-operation, but concievable would deal to the short coming.

And contrary to most green fuckwit's imagination they don't, in fact run on unicorn farts either.

All that nice clean electricity you pour into 'em when you get home from work is far more likely to be oil/gas/coal generated than hydro.

I could respect a regulated or tax driven reduction of transport fuel use. Would hammer living standards across the board, but it's the correct response to over-consumption. Placating fuckwits by promising not to dig up any more in NZ and simply importing the balance in future is purely political capital trading.

[husaberg]

Have you ever looked into what is able to be produced using hemp?

Katman levels of paranoia......

[Graystone]

It's been tried and fizzled. It is totally unnecessary anyway, we just need the batteries coming out over the next few years that will give plenty of range. Hell, Tesla have announced a car with 1,000km range - sure it's fucking stupid expensive money, but if cheaper cars can have half that in a few years then we will be able to do pretty much everything we want with electric cars.

There are also technical issues with swapping battery packs that weigh from quarter of a tonne to well over half a tonne.

Tesla had a drive-on, drive-off demo of a battery swapping station at a trade show a while back. Seems like the real world must have got in the way of that becoming mainstream.

I think they are taking the right approach with regards to pushing the tech forward, but still delivering very useful products. As you say, heavy investment in strange recharging infrastructure will only be superseded in a few years anyway.

[Graystone]

And contrary to most green fuckwit's imagination they don't, in fact run on unicorn farts either.

All that nice clean electricity you pour into 'em when you get home from work is far more likely to be oil/gas/coal generated than hydro.

I could respect a regulated or tax driven reduction of transport fuel use. Would hammer living standards across the board, but it's the correct response to over-consumption. Placating fuckwits by promising not to dig up any more in NZ and simply importing the balance in future is purely political capital trading.

It'd be interesting to see some lifetime efficiencies compared, obviously your fixed power plant makes better use of the fossil fuel, but then you've got transformer and line losses getting it stored in the vehicle, plus the losses getting it out of the battery to the wheels again.
Service/production cost would be another interesting one, very low maintenance for electrics, but a high cost in service items when the batter comes due.

I think in NZ we might be ok on grid percentages, but it's where the extra comes from that will be real resource usage, takes a lot longer to bolster production using renewable energy as electric vehicles drain the grid than it does to throw some more coal into the furnace!

[Akzle]

... to throw some more coal into the furnace!

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