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Per wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 3:07 pm

Mëds wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 2:11 pm
Circling back to EV's.....

Yes, a good option for the future, but the cost to beef up our infrastructure to support it, as well as the current limitations, would suggest that it is not there yet and is nothing more than a marketing scheme right now because people are getting insanely rich off of it.

It’s not just a marketing ploy. One of the main direct benefits of EVs that is showing up across Europe is improved air quality in the cities. Sure, the 25% share of new car sales only translates to perhaps 10% of cars on the road, but there is a higher concentration of EVs in urban areas and fewer in rural areas. Thus many European cities already have seen particles and other pollutants drop by 15-20% and of course even more so in Norway, where EVs account for 98% of new car sales and more than 30% of cars on the road. And the same is happening in China, where EVs account for roughly 50% of new car sales, and plug in hybrids another 20%.

Also, sodium batteries are now beginning to compete with the currently dominating lithium ones.They use a lot less rare metals, so they are cheaper and don’t require as much mining. There are also various versions of solid state batteries being introduced. Not sure exactly what goes into them, but rest assured that the battery technology is changing almost as rapidly as compter performance used to.

And I don’t think hydrogen is the way to go. You waste a lot of energy producing it and transporting it, so it is far less efficient than battery EVs. And charging at home is so convenient, I doubt you can ever convince EV drivers to start going to the gas station again. Hysrogen might be the future of aviation though, as big long distance airplanes need such huge batteries that it’s not really feasible at this moment. Battery electric aircraft will probably only work for smaller planes travelling shorter distances. Like the ones going from Vancouver to,Victoria. But converting the bigger airplanes to hysrogen could be the future of air travel.

rikster wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2026 7:34 am Once the technology goes into mass production, cities like Vancouver will be able to alleviate their traffic congestion by moving some of it off the ground and into the air at a fraction of the cost it takes to build rapid transit…

Speaking of China, they have quietly become a dominant player in the auto industry: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202608/1369047.shtml

Mëds wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 10:15 pm How will they charge the batteries on heavy equipment in remote sites?

Mëds wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2026 9:32 pm

rikster wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2026 7:34 am Once the technology goes into mass production, cities like Vancouver will be able to alleviate their traffic congestion by moving some of it off the ground and into the air at a fraction of the cost it takes to build rapid transit…

Speaking of China, they have quietly become a dominant player in the auto industry: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202608/1369047.shtml

Enter the regulations and supports that will be required for air transit in urban environments.

Enter the the cost of the vehicle itself, or obtaining the license to own and operate one.

While rapid transit is costly infrastructure to build and maintain, you are going to need a bulletproof vehicle design if you want to avoid the costs of accidents associated with operating them. As someone who see's what ground vehicle accidents looks like up close, yikes. Or talk to some of my coworkers who have responded to helicopter crashes. Put that in downtown Vancouver? Fuck no.

Even if you restricted their use to professional/commercial transit to limit the chances of "the idiot behind the wheel" up in the air, they would be easy targets for extremist activities, so now are you just creating more costs? Think about something the size of a Honda Civic falling from a height of 400-500 feet and detonating upon impact amidst streets full of pedestrian traffic. If you aren't implementing airport level security, then imagine that happening on a weekly basis.

5thhorseman wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 8:02 am You can't get around the laws of physics. For short journeys eVTOLs will put a lot of energy toward lift and not have much cruising time so will always be much less efficient than ground vehicles.

The break-even point seems to be somewhere between 35 and 100 km.

So maybe there's a use case for long distance commute and critical services like ambulances.

rikster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 7:16 am For your fellow EMS workers operating in congested cities, it will save lives...

donlever wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 4:52 pm Imagine the accidents in Richmond....allegedly

5thhorseman wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 10:40 am We used to complain about sub 200 km EV range, now we're complaining about sub 400 km range (in the cold). By the time we stop complaining manufacturing will be established in other countries.

Per wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 1:36 am

Mëds wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 10:15 pm How will they charge the batteries on heavy equipment in remote sites?

In Sweden there is basically grid everywhere, or at least within reasonable distance.
If there is no grid you can always use solar or wind, depending on location.
Lots of EV owners install solar on their roof, add a battery in the garage and then basically charge their car for free.
You should be able to do the same for a mine or whatever you're doing at that remote site.

Tciso wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2026 10:15 am

Per wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 1:36 am

Mëds wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 10:15 pm How will they charge the batteries on heavy equipment in remote sites?

In Sweden there is basically grid everywhere, or at least within reasonable distance.
If there is no grid you can always use solar or wind, depending on location.
Lots of EV owners install solar on their roof, add a battery in the garage and then basically charge their car for free.
You should be able to do the same for a mine or whatever you're doing at that remote site.

I know that most of the polulation lives in the South of Sweden. How is the coverage in the Northern areas? Like Boden or JokkMokk? Those areas seem to match most of Western Canada for population density, and remoteness. And, JokkMokk is just a cool town name too.