Lithium batteries, not worth it

Yes, there are a lot of technologies being looked into. Something like sodium would be much cheaper and not have the flammability concerns even though only slightly heavier.

I worked out I could extend the range of a small EV by 120 miles with 250kg of Lead Acid. That's the weight of three adult male humans. Which you can put in the back of a car without breaking it.

Adding weight to an EV doesn't use much more power. It uses more to accelerate, but you get more back from braking. It uses more to go uphill, but you get more back going downhill. When going at a constant speed, the air resistance is what matters, which is unchanged. You just need stronger suspension.

AFAIK we still haven't mastered recycling lithium.

When I see shit like that I report them. Another pet hate is selling a variety of things at say £20, £30, £40, but having a spare washer for £1. So I'm hunting for the device by cheapest first, and encounter loads for "£1 to £40" listed first. "Search and browse manipulation", 5 seconds to report them.

But the genuine ones are 7 times more expensive than Lead Acid.

Indeed. I checked some EVs, they guarantee the battery will still hold a reasonable charge (80%) after 100,000 miles. Assuming a full charge is about 150 miles, that's well under 1000 charges, nevermind 5000-7000.

He'll be quoting discharging it by 20%, which is obviously cheating.

is 2000W 65kg $360

They suggest not to discharge beyond 50%. So, you needs 40 of them to go 120 miles, which is 40,000W 2,600 kg and $14,000.

And the water used is not toxic to the point of not being able to be used for a very, very long time. You know that will eventually, with some palm waxing, be flushed into the rivers. Oppps, how did that happen???

Natural gas fuel cells come to mind.

Also, gasoline engines continue to become more efficient and less polluting.

[snip of more base64 garbage by "T"]

Growing weed was profitable when it was illegal. Now, anybody can do it.

Wholesale prices in California dropped from $1200 to $100 per pound.

Used to be that Humboldt Country was a pioneer of solar, off-grid power, for all the weed farms out in the wilderness.

Fuel cells have been the thing of the future since 1838. Car makers keep promising hydrogen fuel cell cars but don't deliver.

Seems to me that an NG fuel cell car would make more sense than hydrogen. I suspect that fuel cells aren't very practical.

Yes, been many advances. Fact is, not in our lifetime, but in the future, oil will run out. It will get expensive as it get harder to find and process.

Fortunately there are people working on renewable technology to keep that from becoming a big problem. Long way to go, but working towards in.

Our grandkids and great grandkids will be driving EVs, thank to the effort made today.

The history is really interesting.

"IF" you can find the hydrogen to run them and "IF" the cost does not bankrupt you, they are A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Everything has been solved, except for the cost and availability of hydrogen

NG fuel cells are just coming on the scene. They are running large company buildings. Amazon has a few. Residential roll out is suppose to start later this year. We will see.

I would love it is Subi did a Forester in NG.

And I would love it if I could get a NG fuel cell backup generator. No moving parts. No pollution. Runs forever as long as NG is present. (Never had a NG outage in my lifetime of 66 years.) "Supposedly" they will be rolling out later in the year. We will also see.

And as always, the market should dictate what comes out on top, not the government. I suspect it will be a mix of different technologies. And gasoline engines are getting better all the time.

That is not actually true. Horizontal fracking brought the price down a lot. And availability keeps going up and up as more and more of it is located.

Any shortage is political, not technical. We won't run out for multiple, multiple generations. That run out is a propaganda narrative

Renewable energy has its place, but it can only meet about 15 to 20% at best. And they are not without pollution either in their manufacture and disposal.

If you mean BEV's (Battery EV's) or "coal fired rolling firebombs" that pollute like hell and rape the earth, I sincerely hope not.

What? No propaganda narrative about running out of coal?

Wherever the government gets involved, things always to sideways.

Let the market decide as it did when whale oil ran out and kerosene took over and gasoline took over from kerosene.. etc. etc. etc..

How about you libs let us build a bunch of these new small nuclear power plants that can't melt down?

I might add that the government's pollution standards should include aggregate pollution, not just tail pipe emissions. BEV's should include the pollution to create them, the pollution to fuel them, and the pollution to dispose/recycle them.

Hmmmm. Maybe even safety standards too when they catch fire, as in mechanical doors so you can exit them when they catch fie. (The current electric doors don't work when the electricity stops.)

Maybe add some king of extinguishing system that actually works.

Interesting, Hydrogen floats upward and away.

A lot of palms are getting waxed here.

Awesome!

Those bloody Martians.

Fracking is a TEMPORARY solution and has environmental issues of its own.

It is a finite material. The question is not "if" but "when". It will happen so why not start doing something now?

Coal will run out too, but much longer time than oil. Coal fired cars are not very practical yet.

Right, another temporary solution. Good idea at the time, not time to look at the future. The market followed technology available at the time. Let's take the next step.

I don't object. Gotta recharge those EV batteries with something

The fly in the ointment:

"Supplying hydrogen to industrial users is now a major business around the world. Demand for hydrogen, which has grown more than threefold since

1975, continues to rise – almost entirely supplied from fossil fuels, with 6% of global natural gas and 2% of global coal going to hydrogen production."

"While less than 0.1% of global dedicated hydrogen production today comes from water electrolysis, with declining costs for renewable electricity, in particular from solar PV and wind, there is growing interest in electrolytic hydrogen."

Someday. Maybe. Gaseous hydrogen storage presents many problems. Carbon fiber vessels have helped somewhat. BMW played around with liquid hydrogen although it was for an ICE dual fuel engine. Besides the problem of it boiling off, what could go wrong with Joe Sixpack filling his pickup with a -423 F liquid?

You chase blue sky technologies while ignoring those developed over a hundred years ago.

"Towards the end of World War II the United States began heavily financing research into converting coal to gasoline, including money to build a series of pilot plants. The project was enormously helped by captured German technology. One plant using the Bergius process was built in Louisiana, Missouri and began operation about 1946. Located along the Mississippi river, this plant was producing gasoline in commercial quantities by 1948. The Louisiana process method produced automobile gasoline at a price slightly higher than, but comparable to, petroleum- based gasoline[8] but of a higher quality.[citation needed] The facility was shut down in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration, allegedly after intense lobbying by the oil industry."

Gee, imagine that! Surprisingly Germany was forbidden by treaty to continue perfecting the processes. Can't have them shortchanging the Anglo-American energy producers -- then as now.