But most don't do what you do. Average cost of vehicle ownership per the AAA is now up to $12K annually. If gas prices stay high then it'll probably be $15K next year. That's fully half the take-home pay of an average salary. Cars are keeping many people poor. There's no reason why needing a license or vehicle shouldn't be the exception rather than the rule except massive failure of public policy.
Adding up insurance, gas, state registration fees, annual maintenance performed on a vehicle.... Honestly, no clue where the AAA is getting that $12K from. That is beyond ridiculously high. Even for a luxury vehicle. But if we're talking the very high end of such vehicles, the adults financing or leasing such vehicles will soon enough have their rides dangling from a repo. man's hook for failure to pay.
A personal vehicle for
most Americans is a genuine need. I know it seems very odd but simply out, NYC's public transportation system is the exception. Not the rule. Most of America is horribly underserved when it comes to public transportation.
That's disgusting. Four years for simply defending himself? I think he has a nice lawsuit though. Since NYC won't allow him to carry a weapon for self-defense the city needs to have enough police presence to prevent the kind of attacks he experienced all the time.
I completely agree with you. But he plead guilty. No chance of a lawsuit. It was either take the deal, or die in prison. Unfortunately most jurors have no clue that Jury Nullification is a thing. And, no judge will ever advise them that it exists.
It's entirely possible it could happen under the current Mayor. I want to see if I can get any feedback from the administration on the idea. In terms of infrastructure projects it's not terribly expensive. You can prefab the viaducts and mass produce them cheap, especially if China makes them. You just need to install them on site. Install support piers, then bolt on the viaduct. We could probably install 500 miles of these in a year if we make an effort.
I think our current mayor would be open to that idea. But the biggest issue will be financing it. I doubt that the city even remotely has the money for it.
Question for you since you seem big on hybrids. What exactly is the advantage of a hybrid over a straight ICE vehicle if it's not a plug-in hybrid because I'm just not seeing it?
Well, let's pretend for a moment that replacing the battery in a Hybrid wasn't horribly expensive. Minus that, you get a vehicle that is more efficent than a gasoline powered one. A vehicle that uses substantially less fossil fuels. Not a complete elimination, but a great reduction. Since a Hybrid doesn't require a charging station at all, it's ideal for the vast majority of Americans who live in apartment building. (With a Plug-In Hybrid, you still need a charging station.) No charging station is a HUGE advantage over an EV. Significantly less reliance on Fossil fuels is a HUGE advantage over a gasoline powered vehicle. Just need to find a way to get the cost of replacement batteries down. Otherwise leasing a Hybrid is the only viable option in using one.
I'm talking about personal transportation only. Obviously businesses need and will continue to use larger vehicles.
The issue is, there are individuals who also need bigger vehicles. Not just businesses. Such as Construction Workers. But that's just one example. The individual guys on the site genuinely need Work Trucks.
We went from under 1% efficiency to mid 20s since the 1960s.
We're poised to get to about 50% relatively soon. The big hurdle is getting lab samples into mass production.
Yet to this day we still lack a nationwide network of outdoor charging stations. It has been over a decade, easily. Yet, still hasn't happened. We're still at a stage where it's the same as a baby trying to run first, while it can barely crawl without falling off to the side. We're concentrating on the wrong thing.
In China they charge a fee for each swap. No idea if long-term it's more expensive than owning the battery outright.
I'm certain if those stations come to America, that fee will be HUGE.
Of course you can. They've been available for at least the last 5 years, albeit in smaller numbers in the beginning.
Well, that's the problem right there. Needs to be available in massive numbers. That hasn't happened yet.
Cancer rates are epidemic now. Until the Industrial Revolution cancer was virtually unheard of, and then only occasionally among the very old. Now lots of young people, even non-smokers, are getting cancer. Something is going on. Environmental pollution is most likely to blame. I have an aromatic hydrocarbon allergy. Things like auto exhaust affect me long before I inhale enough to potentially cause cancer. Trust me when I say our air is poison. I can't even go out in the summers until after about 10PM without feeling nauseous. I can't ride in a late model car for more than a few minutes due to the outgassing from the interior.
I agree with you that SOMETHING is going on. A ton of research needs to be done to settle the issue once and for all.
Let's factor oil wars into this. $10 trillion plus and counting since 9/11 but since we just added it to the national debt people don't notice. Had we paid as we went that would have been an extra $3K to $4K in taxes annually on average for every working adult in the US. China was a third-world country when they built out their rail system. If they did it the US certainly can. I'm tired of excuses. We used to be a can do country. Now we're a can't do country.
More like a can't be bothered. But keep in mind that China built out its rail system because safety standards were ignored. An absolute joke. Someone dies? Oh well, too bad. No compensation for the family. The government built it. Cover-up, corruption.... Just standard operating procedure in China. That's the real reason why America can't do it. Too many regulations in place, especially safety regulations.
Not FAR shorter. I'll admit in the real world EVs rarely reach their advertised range but ICE cars rarely meet their advertised mpg.
I'm sorry but gasoline powered vehicles come a lot closer than EVs do. Casual, calm driving gets to those claimed mpgs. With an EV, you have to deal with the range shrinking every year that goes by.
I'm surprised being a long-time CPF member that you don't know LFP is about 20 years old. I first bought A123 cells from Scott back in 2008 I think. I thought even then how much better these were than NMC lithium-ion in terms of safety and peak power capability. Unfortunately energy density was low at under 100 Wh/kg. That shortcoming was fixed (thanks to CATL, a Chinese company). Now we're at over 200 Wh/kg. I think 230 Wh/kg cells are starting to reach production. BYD is making the bulk of LFP EVs. Unfortunately the 100% tariffs make these vehicles uncompetitive in the US. I'm waiting for a new administration to allow them in without tariffs. $10K to $15K EVs will sell like hotcakes in this country. Far cheaper than any ICE vehicle. Lower operating costs also.
We're talking about their use in EVs. Maybe if they had been
initially in EVs, we might not even be having this conversation.
Sodium-ion is working well in the real world. The numbers I mention are what production batteries can do.
Scaled up to the size of an SUV.... Mass is going to be an issue, unless the calculations are done right. I'm skeptical that they will be.
No arguments there. Every manufacturer tries to get out of paying warranties.
If it's usually a minor thing, they'll take care of it. Major issue? Different story.
I'm glad you admit this. The markets were doing great also prior to the Iran "excursion". I lost over $50K but did recover a little last week, and so far this week. I hope Israel doesn't kill the current ceasefire with their war mongering. They've done this in the past every time peace seems imminent.
Sorry you lost that much. No one talks about it, but other Islamic nations look down on Palestine. To the point that if Israel wasn't around, those nations would wage war on Palestine to no longer have to deal with them. Those nations just figure that Israel will eventually do the dirty work for them, so why get involved?
No arguments there but NYC should get with the program and install massive numbers of curbside charging stations.
Absolutely! But realistically, it's not going to happen anytime soon. Also, two EV drivers fighting over the same charging station.... I can definitely see violence breaking out over that. We have a massive surplus of impatient drivers.
No kidding. The only thing which might stop big oil and big auto is if the war continues to destroy oil infrastructure. Given the instability of that region, good luck getting investors to bankroll replacements. Long term that means permanent high prices and a shift away from fossil fuels and cars. It also means countries where cars aren't totally entrenched, like India and China, might decide to forget the automotive age.
Oh, they're not going to forget. Especially not their Executives who want to flaunt their wealth in front of others. Basic human psychology. No worries though. Gas prices will come down next Winter. They always do.
