Vancouver Canucks Messageboard

Per wrote:Fossil fuels cars are about to become obsolete.

Volvo will become the first major car manufacturer to go all electric, with the Swedish company saying that every new car in its range will have an electric power train available from 2019.

The company said the announcement marks “the historic end” of cars solely powered by petrol or diesel and “places electrification at the core of its future business”.

...

Premium car manufacturer Volvo ... will launch five fully electric cars across its range between 2019 and 2021.

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The rest of the company’s range will be available with “plug-in hybrid” power trains and 48-volt "mild hybrid" systems, which give an extra "kick" to the acceleration of normally powered cars as well as operating as a sole power system.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... -electric/

This is all fine and dandy but how the fuck do you go on roadtrips in an electric vehicle?

Until they find a fuel source that is longer lasting and quickly refillable there will be a need for fossil fuels. Especially in North America where long range road travel is still very prominent!

Aaronp18 wrote:

Per wrote:Fossil fuels cars are about to become obsolete.

Volvo will become the first major car manufacturer to go all electric, with the Swedish company saying that every new car in its range will have an electric power train available from 2019.

The company said the announcement marks “the historic end” of cars solely powered by petrol or diesel and “places electrification at the core of its future business”.

...

Premium car manufacturer Volvo ... will launch five fully electric cars across its range between 2019 and 2021.

...

The rest of the company’s range will be available with “plug-in hybrid” power trains and 48-volt "mild hybrid" systems, which give an extra "kick" to the acceleration of normally powered cars as well as operating as a sole power system.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... -electric/

This is all fine and dandy but how the fuck do you go on roadtrips in an electric vehicle?

Until they find a fuel source that is longer lasting and quickly refillable there will be a need for fossil fuels. Especially in North America where long range road travel is still very prominent!

Well, I agree. That's why I drive a plug-in hybrid. Let's me run errands and other daily stuff on electric, but if I need to go further, I can use petrol. Some electric cars can handle 400 kms and the battery can be charged in 30 minutes at a supercharger, that they have at most malls and many gas stations. 400 doesn't quite cut it for me though. Once they go past 500 I will start considering a purely electric car. I guess it shouldn't take long though. Batteries keep improving kind of like conputers did before. I assume my next car will be fully electric.

Per wrote:

Aaronp18 wrote:

Per wrote:Fossil fuels cars are about to become obsolete.

Volvo will become the first major car manufacturer to go all electric, with the Swedish company saying that every new car in its range will have an electric power train available from 2019.

The company said the announcement marks “the historic end” of cars solely powered by petrol or diesel and “places electrification at the core of its future business”.

...

Premium car manufacturer Volvo ... will launch five fully electric cars across its range between 2019 and 2021.

...

The rest of the company’s range will be available with “plug-in hybrid” power trains and 48-volt "mild hybrid" systems, which give an extra "kick" to the acceleration of normally powered cars as well as operating as a sole power system.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... -electric/

This is all fine and dandy but how the fuck do you go on roadtrips in an electric vehicle?

Until they find a fuel source that is longer lasting and quickly refillable there will be a need for fossil fuels. Especially in North America where long range road travel is still very prominent!

Well, I agree. That's why I drive a plug-in hybrid. Let's me run errands and other daily stuff on electric, but if I need to go further, I can use petrol. Some electric cars can handle 400 kms and the battery can be charged in 30 minutes at a supercharger, that they have at most malls and many gas stations. 400 doesn't quite cut it for me though. Once they go past 500 I will start considering a purely electric car. I guess it shouldn't take long though. Batteries keep improving kind of like conputers did before. I assume my next car will be fully electric.

Who's going to put all these charging stations everywhere though?

And that going to be a lot of juice to charge all these cars when they switch over. Good thing we have that Site C hydro dam project.....oh wait.

Not to mention the batteries performance will certainly deteriorate...that 500km will be closer to 350 in no time.
The technology is still 10+ years away from being practical

Aaronp18 wrote: Who's going to put all these charging stations everywhere though?

And that going to be a lot of juice to charge all these cars when they switch over. Good thing we have that Site C hydro dam project.....oh wait.

The charging stations are already popping up everywhere.

Every mall I've been to the past year has a number of prime spaces near the entrance reserved for cars that are charging. The Canadian owned Circle K gas station around the corner has some spaces. A new burger joint that just opened by the E4 highway has four.

Most parking garages, and many employers, in northern Sweden already have regular sockets in place for the block heaters, and you can charge from them too. My car takes five hours to reload the batteries from empty to full from a normal socket. Not useful if you're in a hurry, but if you're at work or spending a night at a hotel, or at home, that's fine.

Uncle dans leg wrote:Not to mention the batteries performance will certainly deteriorate...that 500km will be closer to 350 in no time.
The technology is still 10+ years away from being practical

Well, our mitsubishi came with a five year warranty, which includes the batteries, so I'm not too worried.
Granted, since ours is a hybrid, it only allows for 40 kms of pure electrical driving. Smaller battery to leave room for the gas tank and traditional engine.

But I think the technology is already there. It has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. I'm still waiting to go fully electrical until they can go at least 500 km between charges, but that will happen in the next few years.

And the consumers will switch really fast. A litre of gas costs roughly SEK 15. I can get as far with two kWh, which will cost me less than SEK 3 at home or twice as much at a charging station. Once the electric cars start getting cheaper, no one in their right mind will want a gas guzzler.

You know how it works though Per...as soon as the world is all hooked up on electric vehicles the $$$/KWH will undoubtedly be exorbitant and there will be a worldwide shortage of materials for batteries or whatever so that'll crank up up the price.
The corporations will get their blood out of us

Aaronp18 wrote:
Who's going to put all these charging stations everywhere though?

As commuters electric cars are practical, even now. But they are pretty damn expensive and I use my vehicle for a lot more than strictly commuting so it's just not practical for myself or my family.

How would someone go camping? There's a lot of vast wilderness and a lack of fueling stations for hundreds of kilometres in Canada especially.

I see a need for fossil fuels no matter what. Especially in transport and large vehicles who require a lot of towing capacity and extended daily use.

And electricity isn't cheap, in our new house we converted as many appliance as we could to natural gas and have saved hundreds of dollars in electricity bills. Until that changes I'll stay with the high efficiency gas appliances for sure!

Aaronp18 wrote:As commuters electric cars are practical, even now. But they are pretty damn expensive and I use my vehicle for a lot more than strictly commuting so it's just not practical for myself or my family.

How would someone go camping? There's a lot of vast wilderness and a lack of fueling stations for hundreds of kilometres in Canada especially.

I see a need for fossil fuels no matter what. Especially in transport and large vehicles who require a lot of towing capacity and extended daily use.

And electricity isn't cheap, in our new house we converted as many appliance as we could to natural gas and have saved hundreds of dollars in electricity bills. Until that changes I'll stay with the high efficiency gas appliances for sure!

Pack a gen-set with you.....and a drum of fuel for it.

Topper wrote: Pack a gen-set with you.....and a drum of fuel for it.

Or a bank of solar panels with it's rechargeable battery, or a wind turbine!

Need the towing capacity of a diesel to get everything there though.

Aaronp18 wrote:

Topper wrote: Pack a gen-set with you.....and a drum of fuel for it.

Or a bank of solar panels with it's rechargeable battery, or a wind turbine!

Need the towing capacity of a diesel to get everything there though.

Also the vast majority of global electricity is produced from our old pal fossil fuels.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it Per!

This geologist's perspective reminds me of that of poster Topper.

Worth listening to, it gets better as it goes...

Geez Doc, It seems like you want to keep burning fossil fuels until we run out, pollute the air and not invest in new technology that will power the future. Am I reading you right?

Cornuck wrote:Geez Doc, It seems like you want to keep burning fossil fuels until we run out, pollute the air and not invest in new technology that will power the future. Am I reading you right?

Oh yeah, I prefer my air polluted!

BTW did you just comment on that 15 minute video ten minutes after I posted it?