As part of our drive to keep our comment section the best in New Zealand we showcase each week an example of a top-notch comment that adds value to The BFD.
Today’s comment was written by Aaron Shanahan Thank you Aaron Shanahan for taking the time to craft such an interesting comment.
God almighty. Why, oh why, is this happening? From someone who knows a fair bit about this, and often rattles on about it, I’ll try. To explain, to the retarded and slow amongst us, one more time, why batteries are not a solution.
- 1. Sigh. Mining the materials needed to produce a relatively small battery ( an ev type) requires large amounts of material to be processed to achieve the yield of the required lithium, and cobalt used. Massive diesel trucks carry the spoil to a processing plant. In a lot of cases, the processing plants are run by diesel generation.
- 2. Coal is needed to make the steel for the chassis and the panels required for the vehicle.
- 3. The plastic interior is mostly derived from fossil fuels.
- 4. The electronics are also mined.. silicon. To make the integrated circuit components.
- 5. Tyres. Same as in ice car uses, but because of the extra weight of the battery, the Tyre doesn’t last as long.
- 6. The life of the battery. And they will only last 10 tears, maximum. Less if you fast charge them. And what to do with them? I’m telling you now, never, ever cut one open. It’s not pretty. They tend to either explode or catch fire.
- 7. Re-purposing. Give me a break. A load of nonsense. Once a lithium ion battery has reached the end of its life, it’s stuffed. Yeah.. .might run your beer fridge, but you’ll need an inverter to do it. And the bloody things as big as the fridge you’re using to keep the beers cold.
- 8. The biggest .internal impedance. The source of power for an EV is a battery. As soon as a battery starts to fall below 30% capacity, even in an 18 volt battery drill, you’ll notice decreased performance. That’s because batteries have to protect themselves from short circuits. The lower the voltage the battery can deliver, and the demand placed on it results in a higher current draw. P=V x I. A tank full of diesel, or gasoline apart from on the wallet, has no such problem. It will deliver full power until the fuel source is exhausted.
- 9. I’m not completely dismissive of electric vehicles. they have their place. But, so to, for the foreseeable future, do conventionally power internal combustion engines. I think hybrids are good… but the problem is having 2 sources of power to do essentially the same job. We used to do this, with a bit of power loss, with the old CNG conversion, and LPG in the south, where I am. But only one prime mover.
- 10. People have to understand that these engines behave completely differently. Internal combustion engines? Heaps of moving parts, but, right now, for the most part, they serve us pretty well.
Electric vehicles? A good start. But batteries alone are not the answer. The electric motor can be powered from hydrogen, and the reason I’m against hybrid vehicles is this. If you use a fossil fuel to run an electric car, and you parade that as saving the plants, or the planet, bugger off. You’re a hypocrite.
A funny aside. General Motors, back in 1959, had a nuclear reactor powering a car. 1958. Rover with the p5b whacked a jet engine into the bloody thing. And the evolution of battery-powered vehicles is just as stupid.