When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
More balanced articles (like http://fortune.com/2017/10/13/tesla-fires-employees/) pointed out that they have 33k employees. Anyway, I don't think this is the beginning of the end or anything, although I wouldn't rule out Telsa having serious problems down the road once Audi, MB, and other competition ships.
2015 S550 Palladium/Deep Sea Blue, 2016 Tesla Model S 70D, 2015 Volvo XC70
My bet is that we will see a multi-car-manufacturer non-Tesla charging network fairly soon in the US as well, and in a similar timeframe given the Audi, Porsche, and Jaguar introductions on the way....
What amused me about the video of the Tesla truck was the familiar sound of the car going over the expansion joints. I smiled as the camera panned forward,
2020 S560 Sedan, 2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon, '24 BMW I7 on order...
OK, you are driving on a two lane, undivided highway, going 60 mph or so. A car going the opposite direction crosses the double yellow line and a head on collision is imminent. Would prefer to be in a Mercedes-Benz S Class Sedan, produced by a company with over 100 years of experience building rock solid cars, or a Tesla Model S produced by a Silicon Valley tech start up company that has yet to make a profit?........................ Thought so.
Last edited by Streamliner; 03-21-2018 at 12:09 AM.
OK, you are driving on a two lane, undivided highway, going 60 mph or so. A car going the opposite direction crosses the double yellow line and a head on collision is imminent. Would prefer to be in a Mercedes-Benz S Class Sedan, or a Tesla Model S? Thought so.
These zealots answer:
"I would rather die saving the World from Global Warming rather then save myself in an Earth destroying ICE car".........
2015 S550 Palladium/Deep Sea Blue, 2016 Tesla Model S 70D, 2015 Volvo XC70
Originally Posted by llcd
How is electricity generated to charge electric cars?
Here is some info mostly repeated from an earlier post:
Here's some data on the sources of new electrical capacity additions in the U.S.:
So basically if the industry sells 1 million EVs over the next X years, or 5 million over the next Y years, ask yourself how much of the new capacity built to serve those cars would be fossil, based on what has happened lately.
And P.S., of the net new capacity additions that aren't based on renewables, all appears to be natural gas, which generates 25% less CO2 when burned, compared to gasoline.
5 years from now between me and my wife, I plan to have 1 EV and 1 hybrid. The latter being useful for long trips, at least until fast public charging infrastructure is very prevalent.
I've been researching solar electric & alternative energy for ~25 years. My house is even wired for solar. With few exceptions (backup water heater, electric oven, clothes dryer on high), my entire house will run happily on a 30A 120v circuit, even can run on a 15A with central air. You won't find an EV in my driveway. I actually give a crap about the environment, which is why I drive an ICE MB. Cradle-to-grave, it's one of the most environmentally-friendly cars available. It'd be more environmentally-friendly if I could get a decent diesel-electric powertrain in this country, but I digress.
EVs only shift the emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant. I never see anyone who promotes EVs talking about the emissions of the power plants *AND* losses incurred from the power plant to where rubber meets road. Fossil fuel power plants are only ~30-35% efficient, very rarely 40%. The rest of that energy is dumped into the environment as heat. At present, this heat accounts for more BTUs dumped into the environment than ALL OF the gasoline burned in the USA in cars. THEN you have transmission & distribution losses, each dumping more heat into the environment. Looking for global warming sources? Here's a big one that no one's willing to talk about.
In your own neighborhood, power's probably coming in on a 23kV or 13kV line, which has to go through a transformer to make the 110v/240v split-phase AC going into your house, releasing more heat. Then you will have a 240v-> DC charger somewhere, releasing more heat. Batteries aren't 100% efficient when charging, releasing more heat. When you go to drive, the batteries again aren't 100% efficient and will release more heat, as well the inverters and motors. ALL of these losses are on top of the 65-70% of heat lost at the power plant. By the time you're done, you're looking at about 10-25% at best from the original fuel source. Even if you're working with renewables as a source, the process of capturing, converting, transmitting, and storing that electricity still dumps extra heat into the environment.
If you really want to talk about global warming, look at the southern end of a northbound cow. For the United States, agriculture puts out the vast majority of greenhouse gasses. Yes, cow's asses put out greenhouse gasses -- more than the entire transportation sector combined.
I leave you with this: I'm sure the Tesla drivers in Puerto Rico are smugly proud of their EVs...which have sat in their garages for months, unable to be moved, due to the lack of a reliable grid.
2015 S550 Palladium/Deep Sea Blue, 2016 Tesla Model S 70D, 2015 Volvo XC70
BeachBunny,
You make a valid point that electric generation, transmission, and utilization all involve some losses. But I think you're forgetting that ICE is far from 100% efficient itself.
2015 S550 Palladium/Deep Sea Blue, 2016 Tesla Model S 70D, 2015 Volvo XC70
Following up, here is an interesting article which states:
"An example is the comparison between an electric vehicle (EV) and a fossil fuel powered car. The EV has an overall efficiency of about 60% while the fuel powered car is about 20% (or less) efficient. When one considers the total path from primary energy, the efficiency of the electric car is 60% x 40% (grid efficiency) for a total of 24% while the fuel powered car has an efficiency of about 20%. When the bigger picture is considered, the two forms of transportation are not all that different."
Well, there IS a difference in prospective CO2 generation, due to the prospective power plant additions that may come with increased EV use.
BTW in my case, I personally am not very "green"...to me, the environmental benefits of EVs are secondary to other reasons for buying an EV. I like the instant torque and relatively quiet acceleration of the Tesla. In my family, there is no doubt that the Tesla will be replaced with another EV...probably from MB or Audi, or possibly Jaguar or Tesla or someone else.
10-12-2017, 01:19 PM
