Hybrids offer major FF savings with solutions to range anxiety, electric utility distribution capacity, while increasing efficiency through regenerative braking, optimizing ICE engines for simple charging function and can eliminate transmissions by direct electric motor drive while reducing weight , bulk and expense of batteries in a smoother transition.
No wonder "Climate Emergency" crusaders trying to stampede the FOMO herd to follow the "world wide rush to decarbonize" mirage are trying to hide them as a distraction from the main targets of destroying Big Oil, Capitalism and individual choice.
Much worse than that. They are pushing an impractical, expensive shift to BEVs so as to further bankrupt the Middle Class forcing us to live in grimy, 500sq.ft. apartments in their 15 min ghettos, all owned by big finance, i.e. BlackRock. Eating bug meal for protein. A Dystopian future lies ahead for us if we don't fight back.
Question: What about electric tractors? Is anyone making them or planning to? I was covering a county commission meeting in Iowa three years ago when a commissioner asked that very question. You'd figure that an electric tractor will be heavier and more cumbersome than current tractors. And how long would a charge hold during a harvest? Long enough?
Thank you very much for airing similar ideas that I expressed in my new contribution to the Special Issue of Energy Central on Powering the future - The road to electrification. We should have taken climate change much more seriously right in the beginning. You may find another article of mine on How well do we know climate change? as well. Thanks very much.
the only 'electric' vehicle that makes any sense is diesel-electric as in some ships and rail locomotives. engine spins at best power/efficiency, motors provide variable torque. batteries will always stink 'cause they be lousy power storage. same mass charged or depleted, energy losses both charging and discharging. batteries should only be used when truly a benefit.
Not withstanding all of the social political issues around EVs, I am getting questions regarding the effectiveness of batteries in periods of extreme heat (10 or more days with temperatures over 100 degrees) or periods of extreme cold (10 or more days with temperatures below 20 degrees or a few days below zero). Typically batteries have been know to degrade rapidly in these extreme temperatures or to fail altogether. What does the research say about performance of batteries in these extremes?
Battery-powered cars are an antique technology that was superseded a hundred years ago by the much-more-efficient gasoline engine. Replacing the energy in a small tank of gasoline requires a huge, heavy battery–even in our lithium age—to approximate it, with serious loss of efficiency. Yes, electric motors are more efficient than ICEs, but batteries are much less efficient at energy storage than a few gallons of gasoline (or diesel).
But moreover, there is NO REASON to swap out hydrocarbon fuels for batteries to power transportation. The rationale supposedly is the hypothesis that CO2 emissions from burning hydrocarbons are going to create catastrophic 'global warming'. But this is nothing more than a frenetic popular delusion—there is no empirical evidence that anthropogenic CO2 has had, or will have, any measurable effect on the Earth's climate: none whatsoever. It is a ridiculous speculation, that has just been seized upon by enviro-fanatics and greedy corporate interests looking for quick bucks from governments fooled into believing into the prospect of a Climate Apocalypse. We are all fools if we fall for any of it!
My Smiles per Gallon vehicle is a 2022 Bronco with the beefy off-road Sasquatch package and all the fixing’s. My Miles per Gallon vehicle is a 2022 Toyota Camry Hybrid which regularly gets 50+ miles per.
As a lowly but very informed consumer, I have long understood the absurdity of the environmentalists’ dream of totally and quickly electrifying the transportation fleet, long obvious to non- ideologues with common sense and a modicum of research. Not enough electric generation, dependence on wind and solar sources to expand electric supply, insufficient electric grid infrastructure, EV’s necessity for rare and expensive resources and environmental damage from their capture that are probably more destructive than for hydrocarbon fuels and their uses, consumer tastes, range anxiety and real world usage patterns, over-regulation based on ignorance, unproven ideologically driven science, and the ever increasing drive for government control over citizens’ every-day lives.
Now, about the vehicles themselves. As transportation vehicles, electric cars are superior to gas and diesel vehicles if considered in a vacuum by themselves. But, so are mansions to small apartments, but not everyone can have or afford a mansion. Resources, the market and other factors combine to severely limit the percentage of mansions in our housing stock mix. Perhaps, in many decades time, when all the associated impediments to a broader adoption of EV’s are removed by advanced technology - substitution by less rare and expensive components, wholesale adoption of nuclear energy production and grid enhancements, smarter and less invasive regulation, and lower consumer prices - EV’s will be able to dominate the market. Meanwhile, I agree that hybrid vehicles are the best consumer choice, if costs for them can be generally lowered by wider adoption. I voted with my wallet at the end of 2022, buying a Honda CR-V hybrid which fits my needs, half’s my gas use, and functions seamlessly.
Battery production will be severely constrained due to resource/mining constraints. With it taking upwards of 10yrs to build a new mine. Similarly for the magnets used in EV motors & generators for Wind Turbines.
Here is the problem. Listen to B.F. Randall:
"Crude oil is like raw milk, and diesel is the cream, gasoline is like skim milk", "Diesel and jet engines combined with hydraulic fluid perform perhaps 85 percent of all civilizations work"
" diesel fuel is between 40 and 60 percent of their direct costs of farming"
" the limiting factor ultimately is diesel fuel because diesel fuel is such a small fraction of crude oil, And is needed in farming, agriculture, mining, Transportation/Trucking logistics. It's all based on diesel fuel so if you start mining for renewables. That will double or triple the world's mining, you're going to double and triple the demand of diesel fuel and that's going to necessarily result in doubling or tripling the amount of crude oil necessary to support that. It will also make diesel fuel go up and gasoline go down because for every gallon of diesel fuel we make, we make two or three gallons of gasoline. It's automatic so it you can't scale it without starving today.." So if you replace gasoline with ethanol and batteries, where are you going to get the diesel from? What are you going to do, throw the lighter distillates out? That's real energy efficiency. You could get more heavy oil from Canada. Keystone pipeline anyone? Oh, that was banned. Government idiots.
The conclusion is inescapable, for civilization to survive we need to replace diesel fuel and related heavy distillates. That means batteries, battery materials need to be conserved for replacing diesel engines. Diesel trucking, diesel buses, diesel LRTs, diesel ferries & short distance diesel shipping, diesel generation, diesel mining equipment, diesel train locomotives, diesel heavy equipment. Diesel trucks being 1% of vehicles but use 20% of the transportation fuel. And that is the cream of fuels that keeps our civilization running.
Note that the motor driving the Tesla semi-truck you can pick up and carry away, it's the size of a football. With 3 motors having more power than a big Kenworth diesel. And Tesla's semi has 3X the torque of a big diesel truck. Leaves them in the dust climbing a hill or accelerating. And hardly uses its brakes, including going downhill. With 500mile battery pack weighs 5000lbs more than the Diesel Cab. But can actually pull a couple thousand lbs more in the trailer. With 30m to 70% recharge. You will make up the recharge time easily with increased acceleration and faster downhill travel.
These big battery packs are quite capable of replacing most of the diesel loads I mentioned. That's urgent. That should be the priority for battery usage. That puts batteries to real use. Light vehicles only drive an avg of 30 miles/day, that is a piss poor application for precious batteries. i.e for a Tesla with a 300mile range, that's using 10% of capacity per day. A heavy truck will use 200% of capacity in one day.
The only place batteries for utility storage make any sense is for spinning reserve or storage on a diesel grid, especially if augmented by wind & solar. Wasting 4X the batteries of EV's to store a minimum daily amount of wind & solar on a normal gas/coal/hydro/nuclear grid is just plain stupid. An expensive idiotic waste of batteries. Gas/coal/hydro/nuclear store energy far cheaper and far more effectively than batteries. Use that storage, not waste batteries on it.
All electric vehicles might make more sense in an America of small towns in which distances are short, the cars are lightweight, and top speeds are in the 30mph to 40mph range. Of course we don't live in that America, at least not yet. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW
Seems sensible. The second best policy so long as we do not have a tax on net emissions of CO2 is to try to make other taxes mimic that. If I outlive my ICE vehicle (I hope it will just hold out), I expect my next one to be a hybrid
Hybrids offer major FF savings with solutions to range anxiety, electric utility distribution capacity, while increasing efficiency through regenerative braking, optimizing ICE engines for simple charging function and can eliminate transmissions by direct electric motor drive while reducing weight , bulk and expense of batteries in a smoother transition.
No wonder "Climate Emergency" crusaders trying to stampede the FOMO herd to follow the "world wide rush to decarbonize" mirage are trying to hide them as a distraction from the main targets of destroying Big Oil, Capitalism and individual choice.
Much worse than that. They are pushing an impractical, expensive shift to BEVs so as to further bankrupt the Middle Class forcing us to live in grimy, 500sq.ft. apartments in their 15 min ghettos, all owned by big finance, i.e. BlackRock. Eating bug meal for protein. A Dystopian future lies ahead for us if we don't fight back.
Question: What about electric tractors? Is anyone making them or planning to? I was covering a county commission meeting in Iowa three years ago when a commissioner asked that very question. You'd figure that an electric tractor will be heavier and more cumbersome than current tractors. And how long would a charge hold during a harvest? Long enough?
Thank you very much for airing similar ideas that I expressed in my new contribution to the Special Issue of Energy Central on Powering the future - The road to electrification. We should have taken climate change much more seriously right in the beginning. You may find another article of mine on How well do we know climate change? as well. Thanks very much.
the only 'electric' vehicle that makes any sense is diesel-electric as in some ships and rail locomotives. engine spins at best power/efficiency, motors provide variable torque. batteries will always stink 'cause they be lousy power storage. same mass charged or depleted, energy losses both charging and discharging. batteries should only be used when truly a benefit.
https://alchristie.substack.com/p/hybrids-are-a-pretty-good-compromise?
Not withstanding all of the social political issues around EVs, I am getting questions regarding the effectiveness of batteries in periods of extreme heat (10 or more days with temperatures over 100 degrees) or periods of extreme cold (10 or more days with temperatures below 20 degrees or a few days below zero). Typically batteries have been know to degrade rapidly in these extreme temperatures or to fail altogether. What does the research say about performance of batteries in these extremes?
Battery-powered cars are an antique technology that was superseded a hundred years ago by the much-more-efficient gasoline engine. Replacing the energy in a small tank of gasoline requires a huge, heavy battery–even in our lithium age—to approximate it, with serious loss of efficiency. Yes, electric motors are more efficient than ICEs, but batteries are much less efficient at energy storage than a few gallons of gasoline (or diesel).
But moreover, there is NO REASON to swap out hydrocarbon fuels for batteries to power transportation. The rationale supposedly is the hypothesis that CO2 emissions from burning hydrocarbons are going to create catastrophic 'global warming'. But this is nothing more than a frenetic popular delusion—there is no empirical evidence that anthropogenic CO2 has had, or will have, any measurable effect on the Earth's climate: none whatsoever. It is a ridiculous speculation, that has just been seized upon by enviro-fanatics and greedy corporate interests looking for quick bucks from governments fooled into believing into the prospect of a Climate Apocalypse. We are all fools if we fall for any of it!
My Smiles per Gallon vehicle is a 2022 Bronco with the beefy off-road Sasquatch package and all the fixing’s. My Miles per Gallon vehicle is a 2022 Toyota Camry Hybrid which regularly gets 50+ miles per.
By the end of this decade, the Copper Crunch hits and wind/solar/batteries[EVs & charging] start to wither on the vine.
Investment in Gen III+ NPPs, particularly SMRs, takes off exponentially.
Nuclear enabled hydrogen (NEH) production hits the headlines under the banner:
"...How Nuclear Enabled Hydrigen (NEH) Will Save The Planet..."
https://substack.com/home/post/p-121228909
I bought a Toyota hybrid 4 y ago. Runs on mere sip-sips of gas. Thus I never care when Bolshie leftists jack up gas prices.
By the end of this decade, the Copper Crunch hits and wind/solar/batteries[EVs & charging] start to wither on the vine.
Investment in Gen III+ NPPs, particularly SMRs, takes off exponentially.
Nuclear enabled hydrogen (NEH) production hits the headlines under the banner:
"...How Nuclear Enabled Hydrigen (NEH) Will Save The Planet..."
https://substack.com/home/post/p-121228909
As a lowly but very informed consumer, I have long understood the absurdity of the environmentalists’ dream of totally and quickly electrifying the transportation fleet, long obvious to non- ideologues with common sense and a modicum of research. Not enough electric generation, dependence on wind and solar sources to expand electric supply, insufficient electric grid infrastructure, EV’s necessity for rare and expensive resources and environmental damage from their capture that are probably more destructive than for hydrocarbon fuels and their uses, consumer tastes, range anxiety and real world usage patterns, over-regulation based on ignorance, unproven ideologically driven science, and the ever increasing drive for government control over citizens’ every-day lives.
Now, about the vehicles themselves. As transportation vehicles, electric cars are superior to gas and diesel vehicles if considered in a vacuum by themselves. But, so are mansions to small apartments, but not everyone can have or afford a mansion. Resources, the market and other factors combine to severely limit the percentage of mansions in our housing stock mix. Perhaps, in many decades time, when all the associated impediments to a broader adoption of EV’s are removed by advanced technology - substitution by less rare and expensive components, wholesale adoption of nuclear energy production and grid enhancements, smarter and less invasive regulation, and lower consumer prices - EV’s will be able to dominate the market. Meanwhile, I agree that hybrid vehicles are the best consumer choice, if costs for them can be generally lowered by wider adoption. I voted with my wallet at the end of 2022, buying a Honda CR-V hybrid which fits my needs, half’s my gas use, and functions seamlessly.
At some point a hybrid may make sense as a second car in the city and suburbs...
Battery production will be severely constrained due to resource/mining constraints. With it taking upwards of 10yrs to build a new mine. Similarly for the magnets used in EV motors & generators for Wind Turbines.
Here is the problem. Listen to B.F. Randall:
"Crude oil is like raw milk, and diesel is the cream, gasoline is like skim milk", "Diesel and jet engines combined with hydraulic fluid perform perhaps 85 percent of all civilizations work"
" diesel fuel is between 40 and 60 percent of their direct costs of farming"
" the limiting factor ultimately is diesel fuel because diesel fuel is such a small fraction of crude oil, And is needed in farming, agriculture, mining, Transportation/Trucking logistics. It's all based on diesel fuel so if you start mining for renewables. That will double or triple the world's mining, you're going to double and triple the demand of diesel fuel and that's going to necessarily result in doubling or tripling the amount of crude oil necessary to support that. It will also make diesel fuel go up and gasoline go down because for every gallon of diesel fuel we make, we make two or three gallons of gasoline. It's automatic so it you can't scale it without starving today.." So if you replace gasoline with ethanol and batteries, where are you going to get the diesel from? What are you going to do, throw the lighter distillates out? That's real energy efficiency. You could get more heavy oil from Canada. Keystone pipeline anyone? Oh, that was banned. Government idiots.
https://bfrandall.substack.com/p/crude-oil-is-like-raw-milk-and-diesel
The conclusion is inescapable, for civilization to survive we need to replace diesel fuel and related heavy distillates. That means batteries, battery materials need to be conserved for replacing diesel engines. Diesel trucking, diesel buses, diesel LRTs, diesel ferries & short distance diesel shipping, diesel generation, diesel mining equipment, diesel train locomotives, diesel heavy equipment. Diesel trucks being 1% of vehicles but use 20% of the transportation fuel. And that is the cream of fuels that keeps our civilization running.
Note that the motor driving the Tesla semi-truck you can pick up and carry away, it's the size of a football. With 3 motors having more power than a big Kenworth diesel. And Tesla's semi has 3X the torque of a big diesel truck. Leaves them in the dust climbing a hill or accelerating. And hardly uses its brakes, including going downhill. With 500mile battery pack weighs 5000lbs more than the Diesel Cab. But can actually pull a couple thousand lbs more in the trailer. With 30m to 70% recharge. You will make up the recharge time easily with increased acceleration and faster downhill travel.
These big battery packs are quite capable of replacing most of the diesel loads I mentioned. That's urgent. That should be the priority for battery usage. That puts batteries to real use. Light vehicles only drive an avg of 30 miles/day, that is a piss poor application for precious batteries. i.e for a Tesla with a 300mile range, that's using 10% of capacity per day. A heavy truck will use 200% of capacity in one day.
The only place batteries for utility storage make any sense is for spinning reserve or storage on a diesel grid, especially if augmented by wind & solar. Wasting 4X the batteries of EV's to store a minimum daily amount of wind & solar on a normal gas/coal/hydro/nuclear grid is just plain stupid. An expensive idiotic waste of batteries. Gas/coal/hydro/nuclear store energy far cheaper and far more effectively than batteries. Use that storage, not waste batteries on it.
All electric vehicles might make more sense in an America of small towns in which distances are short, the cars are lightweight, and top speeds are in the 30mph to 40mph range. Of course we don't live in that America, at least not yet. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW
Seems sensible. The second best policy so long as we do not have a tax on net emissions of CO2 is to try to make other taxes mimic that. If I outlive my ICE vehicle (I hope it will just hold out), I expect my next one to be a hybrid