Are you gonna get an electric car anytime soon? (Or do you already have one?)

[Steve Guttag]

Normally, for long transmission, you get the voltage WAY up. losses in the wire are due to current. Power is power that is, the simplest electrical expression is Pin = Pout. Power in a wire is i²R. That i² is what gets you on transmission lines. So, you want to get the current as low as possible for a long distance where R is going to go up linearly instead of current going up to the square. Getting the voltage up lowers the current which dramatically lowers the current in the transmission lines.

I could see how wind will fluctuate. That said, think of your car's electrical. Your engine speed fluctuates too. The battery will, essentially smooth that out. One would think that:

• The wind farms are smart enough to catch the wind reasonably well (and automatically rotate to catch the wind the best.
• The choice of location is such that there is normally a good supply of wind and that its average output is reasonably well known over a period of time.
• That the design of putting the power on the grid is well thought out to minimize fluctuations and be at a suitable voltage to work with the infrastructure.

Renewables are not the stand-alone answer, at least not at this time. But there is no reason that they cannot contribute to the solution. Coal is problematic in that it is a consumable and not a renewable so it isn't something one would want to depend on indefinitely. It is dirty from start to finish.

Wind and solar are not completely clean...considering their manufacture and disposal and that can have other unintended environmental impacts. Nuclear has the potential for the greatest, longest lasting power generation. It does have, at present, the side-effect of what to do with the spent rods and how they behave when things don't work as planned. There are sufficient examples of what that is a strong concern. There are other reactor types that can be explored that can address those concerns, however.

[Leo Enticknap]

Wind and solar are not completely clean...considering their manufacture and disposal and that can have other unintended environmental impacts.

Disposal is about to become a big headache. There was an investigative piece on a talk radio station I listen to while on the road about this issue in California. Typical rooftop panels have a useful life of 20 to 25 years before their output declines significantly and they require replacement, meaning that the first ones, installed in the early '00s, are now reaching EOL. It literally costs more to recycle a panel in compliance with California law than it does to buy its replacement. Apparently this is largely due to the chemical adhesives used to bond the photoelectric materials to the chassis, and the anti-UV treatments applied to the glass outer cover. As a result, vendors and installers are simply refusing to haul away used panels when they replace a set, leading to increasing reports of panels dumped in freeway rest areas, etc. If that's a problem now, imagine the scale of it in a few years time, when panels start to hit EOL in significant numbers. It is now legally required that all new residential structures have photovoltaic panels on their roofs. If a more economically viable means of recycling them isn't developed soon, this will become a huge problem.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Truth be said... This actually happened to a friend down in Alabama that has a Model, S. He was driving to Chicago from Dothan. Unfortunately he did not have an alternator in his trunk... But he does now...

[Mike Blakesley]

That video must have been staged, there's no way that many people could be that stupid about what a Tesla is and how it works.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

That video must have been staged, there's no way that many people could be that stupid about what a Tesla is and how it works.

Could have very well been stages. But none the less the same thing happened to my friend from Alabama. He now carries a similar generator on long trips. L<ike I said he was going from AL< to Kankakeel, IL< and ran out of juice in Southern Il,. He even went by the standard Tesla range calculator to know where to stop and charge.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

That video must have been staged, there's no way that many people could be that stupid about what a Tesla is and how it works.

Could have very well been stages. But none the less the same thing happened to my friend from Alabama. He now carries a similar generator on long trips. L<ike I said he was going from AL< to Kankakee, IL and ran out of juice in Southern Il,. He even went by the standard Tesla range calculator to know where to stop and charge.

[Leo Enticknap]

The bottom line is that the charging infrastructure simply does not yet exist to make EV ownership viable for someone who does not have off-road charging at home, and/or regularly makes long road trips, unless those trips are only along high traffic volume corridors (e.g. between the LA Metro and the Bay Area), that now have just about viable charging options. If you have a garage at home and very rarely take your car more than 100 miles from it, then a current state of the art EV could make sense. I know four EV owners, and they all fall into both of these categories.

I had two scheduled service calls yesterday, and had to shoehorn in a third emergency one at the end of the day. If that hadn't happened, my home to home mileage would have been around 200. It ended up being 312. There were no EV chargers that would have been available for me to use at any of those three calls. If that situation has changed in three years' time (when I anticipate next replacing my car), if the cost of EVs has declined to near parity with equivalent ICE-powered ones, and if the risk of a fatal fire following a minor collision has been seriously mitigated by that point, then I'll consider an EV. But that is what needs to happen, as a bare minimum.

[Lyle Romer]

That video must have been staged, there's no way that many people could be that stupid about what a Tesla is and how it works.

I would bet anything that was staged. The "acting" was terrible.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I would bet anything that was staged. The "acting" was terrible.

It merely represents what people have taken to doing if they take the Tesla on a long trip.

But these next two pictures are not staged... Tesla obviously has some serious design flaws in their battery packs. And never ever get a Tesla battery pack submerged in either fresh or salt water. Even the dealerships are going up in flames...

[Martin McCaffery]

Mark: Sure that's not the Twitter factory?

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Try this one out for a hybrid incendiary.

Sister in law's Prius just south of St. Louis MO

[Leo Enticknap]

Thermal runaway is a known issue with all lithium ion battery packs, not just Tesla or Prius ones. That is why you're not allowed to put them in checked airline luggage. Homeowners' insurance policies often exclude coverage for any fires started by an EV in your garage or driveway (or charge a hefty premium to include that coverage). Chevy advise against parking their EVs in enclosed structures. The fire risk is a major reason why I would be reluctant to buy an EV in their current form.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I have yet to hear of a Prius catching on fire although those battery packs are tiny compared to a Tesla pack...

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Mark,
The fire started in the engine and eventually led to the explosion of the fuel tank.
There is a recall for correction of this defect.

Everyone got safely out of the vehicle before it blew up.

[Leo Enticknap]

I have yet to hear of a Prius catching on fire although those battery packs are tiny compared to a Tesla pack...

Yeah, but as Kenneth notes, in a Prius (and any other hybrid, for that matter) you have both a li-ion battery pack and a gas tank - so from a risk management perspective, you have both a Tesla and a Ford Pinto rolled into one!

That having been said, I read stories about hybrids going up like the Hindenburg a lot less often than pure EVs, which may suggest that the thermal runaway risk increases in proportion to the size of the battery pack. I also can't remember ever reading about a Nissan Leaf blowing up, and they have very small battery packs, with about the same capacity of those in a modern hybrid.