Disruptive technology.
Practice using this phrase in a sentence.
Just trust me on this.
A Perennial climate denier distortion is to claim that Electric vehicles do not run cleaner, because they are charged from a dirty grid (which deniers want to keep dirty).
Truth: Even charging on a coal-dominated grid, EVs are so efficient, that they are a gain for most drivers, in every state (unless you only rode a motor scooter before..).
AND, the grid keeps getting cleaner as more renewable energy comes on board.
It’s never been better than today, as electric cars are now cleaner than the average new gasoline car everywhere in the country – the report states – even where plug-ins are recharged from the dirtiest coal-dominated electric grid.
“The analysis, which looked at the latest data on power plant emissions, revealed the average electric vehicle on the road today emits so little in the way of global warming pollution that it’s like driving a conventional car that gets 80 miles to the gallon.
The gap between gasoline vehicles and electric vehicles has grown over time. In 2012, only 45 percent of Americans lived in parts of the country where driving electric produced lower emissions than driving a 50 mile per gallon (mpg) car would. Today, 75 percent of Americans get their electricity from regional grids this clean.
Electric vehicles will continue to get even cleaner as more coal-fired power plants close in favor of wind and solar power, whose prices continue to drop. Coal already has fallen from providing 50 percent of the power on the grid to 30 percent. Renewables now provide 10 percent of America’s electricity.
Electric car technology is improving, too. Looking at the most efficient electric models, 99 percent of Americans could drive cleaner on electricity than they would in a 50 mpg gasoline car.”
Below, Stanford lecturer Tony Seba is extravagantly optimistic about EVs in this 2016 talk.
Nothing that’s happened since makes him look wrong – quite the opposite.
“Driving electric isn’t just cleaner—it’s cheaper, too. In another recent analysis, the Union of Concerned Scientists looked at electricity rates and gasoline prices in fifty of the biggest U.S. cities, and found that charging an electric vehicle can be cheaper than fueling a car with gasoline in each of the cities. The average driver can save nearly $800a year by driving electric instead of on gasoline. With fewer moving parts, battery electric vehicles require less scheduled maintenance than gasoline cars, saving drivers even more.
American motorists have only just begun to see the advantages of electric vehicles, as the industry is less than a decade old. While electric vehicles are still a small part of the auto market, there are now 40 models available in the U.S., with automakers planning to introduce more. The trend is clear: the future is electric. As a greater segment of the public recognizes the advantages of these vehicles, more drivers will save at the pump as they reduce the risk of climate change.”
Everywhere automotive manufacturers turn, there are signs suggesting the business models on which they have long relied are going the way of the 1970s-era classic Ford Pinto.
Consider the following:
• Ride-hailing company Lyft is partnering with Magna, North America’s largest Tier 1 auto parts supplier, to build self-driving vehicles.
• Chinese manufacturers, many virtually unknown outside their home country, are leading the global electric vehicle movement, unencumbered by legacy commitments to traditional internal-combustion vehicles.
• High-end vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson, a company with no automotive background, reportedly plans to roll out not one but three electric vehicle models starting in 2020 or 2021.
• 16.5% of car-owning Millennials are rethinking car ownership because services such as Lyft are available, according to a survey by lendedu.com; 42.5% would give up manually driving themselves in favor of a self-driving vehicle; half would prefer to buy a “green” car over a traditional vehicle.
–Connected. Telecom giant AT&T says it has added at least one million connected cars to its network during each of the last 11 quarters, bringing the total number of connected cars in its network to 17.8 million.
The emerging generation of networked, sensor-laden vehicles gives manufacturers the means to establish and deepen relationships with customers. They now can connect directly to drivers with apps to offer vehicle-centric services that can build customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Meanwhile, the massive amounts of sensor-generated data on the car itself, its surroundings and driver behavior can be harvested and analyzed, not only to provide an intelligent, automated experience for consumers, but also to identify new revenue-generating areas.
Maintenance is one of those areas. A connected car can alert a driver and nearby repair facilities to a mechanical problem and identify whether the vehicle needs immediate attention or regular maintenance. A service appointment can be automatically scheduled, and related offers, such as a replacement rental car while a customer’s vehicle is in the shop, can be sent to the driver. Then the cost for maintenance or repair can automatically be added to a lease or loan payment.
–Autonomous. A relative latecomer to the Race for CASE among automakers, Toyota jumped in by investing $1 billion to launch a research institute to focus on automotive applications of AI. It also has been busy with strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions. In March 2018, through its new Toyota AI Ventures venture capital unit, it acquired Blackmore Sensors & Analytics, a Montana company that makes compact LiDAR sensors and analytic tools to help autonomous vehicles “see” their surroundings. A month prior that same unit acquired May Mobility, a Michigan startup that is looking to take its self-driving microtransit shuttle service national following a successful pilot in 2017 with low-speed, electric Polaris GEM vehicles.
–
Shared mobility and services. A wide range of transportation-focused, digitally enabled product and service bundles are stoking consumer imaginations—and buying behaviors—by making it easy for connected car drivers and passengers to get what they need: fuel (or for electric vehicle drivers, a charge); a parking space, convenience items, perhaps even a hotel room right off the highway for a weary road-tripper.
–Electric. Less than one year on from Volvo’s announcement in mid-2017 that it would stop making internal-combustion-only vehicles and equip all its units with electric motors starting in 2019, the ascendance of the electric drivetrain continues, as traditional ICE-focused manufacturers seek to gain a foothold in the burgeoning EV marketplace alongside upstart vehicle and parts manufacturers that are focused exclusively on EV products. Newly invigorated by a partnership with one of China’s foremost traditional automakers, FAW, the Chinese EV startup Byton is poised to enter global markets with a vehicle it says will cost 40% less than Tesla’s Model X EV. The concept SUV that Byton unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year features facial recognition access, assistive driving technologies and hand gesture controls. It’s expected to debut in China next year, and in the U.S. and Europe in 2020.
Great post, but the road ahead has many potholes. Like Ford Motor Co. announcing that it’s stopping production of nearly all car models so that it can concentrate on making SUV’s and pickup trucks, virtually none of which will be EV.
agree, but wishing it was 1962 is not going to work for Ford any more than it did for GM (bankruptcy)
Ford seems to think they have a good plan. The Ford F-150 remains the best selling vehicle in the country, as it has been for umpteen years. There are lots of them in the Washington DC metro area, along with Dodge Rams and Chevy Silverados, all of them with their puffed up bodies and chrome grills, and a lot of them with jacked up suspensions, fancy wheels, and NO sign that they’ve ever been “in the dirt” or used as work vehicles. Their main raison d’etre seems to be as “penis extenders” and “chest hair growth stimulators”. Don’t see as many confederate battle flags in the rear windows, but NRA stickers often appear on them. Medium and large SUV sales across the country are very healthy also.
EV’s are nearly invisible around here. There ARE a lot of Priuses, though, and they don’t help the cause because so many of them are driven by people who drive like little old ladies—they are often found at the head of “rolling roadblocks” on the interstate or putzing up an on-ramp at 45 to merge with 70+ mph traffic.
Ford thinks it can make money selling what the public wants to buy so it is doing what it believes is in its interests. If the public buys electric vehicles it will make electric vehicles.
DUH—-Dr. Obvious strikes again!
Because ethics, corporate responsibility, and environmentalism has nothing to do with American business, right Ted?
It is ethical to sell those vehicles, the corporation is being responsible to meet all government requirements, and they are the cleanest vehicles for their size ever built. There is nothing in a free society which says you get to tell me or anyone else what to do unless we had a free election to decide the issue. No election requires me or anyone else to buy the vehicle you want us to buy. You think just like all the jack boot thugs of history, my way or it is off to the gas chambers.
Oh – I am a Nazi for saying that if Ford had more ethics they would be embracing EV profit instead of ICE profit?
You mentally unhinged.
You mentally unhinged if you think talk to knopthead make difference.
Me so stupid.
And me object to Nazi got me a downvote. Me so sad.
I get downvote all time. From moron. Ignore.
I give you upvote. Make happy.
“Ford thinks it can make money selling what the public wants to buy so it is doing what it believes is in its interests.”
Ford *advertises* pickups and SUVs because it gets a higher margin for them.
The problem with the batteries is the two fold, 1) they do not hold much of a charge in comparison to a gas car which can carry a lot more and go a lot further and does not take hours to recharge, 2) Current batteries use a highly inflammable liquid which when exposed to air and any heat source like a spark from a shorted battery bursts into flame like a blow torch. That is the reason for those Tesla cars burning up.
There is an experimental battery which does not use a flammable liquid and another which uses a solid state plastic to conduct the charge ions. The latter can be hacked , mashed or damaged and you do not get sparks or a short. When cars start using those types of batteries they will be a lot lot lot safer than today’s batteries. That leaves the range and load problem but for a go to work car, a low mileage car , the batteries will do.
“….a gas car which can carry a lot more and go a lot further and does not take hours to recharge”
WHAT??? Is Knopthead channeling Omnologos again?
” Current batteries use a highly inflammable liquid which when exposed to air and any heat source like a spark from a shorted battery bursts into flame like a blow torch. “
Like a blow torch?!? Don’t you mean like a gasoline fire?? Remember gasoline, Ted? Your previous sentence was all about it.
How many Tesla fires have there been? Total? I believe the answer is less than ten.
There are 287,000 ICE vehicles catching on fire every single year, Ted. They cause 480 deaths – from the fire only – every single year.
Is that a problem, Ted?
“Current batteries use a highly inflammable liquid which when exposed to air and any heat source like a spark from a shorted battery bursts into flame like a blow torch. That is the reason for those Tesla cars burning up.”
I call that plain bullcrap. Is that the way you’re doing your “research”, ted?
Uh, Chucky? Knopthead isn’t totally wrong—-some batteries DO use flammable electrolytes.
All the current lithium car batteries use a flammable fluid. There is no reason to use that type of electrolyte except it is the current standard with a lot of money invested in the plants which build them and no requirement of royalties to the folks who have a better design.
I have nothing against you or anybody else buying an electric car with your money, not my tax money or more accurately the tax money borrowed from China which will be paid back by our kids. Electric cars can be useful in crowded cites with high traffic sitting in stuck traffic. They are not however saviors of the climate or the world.
” not my tax money or more accurately the tax money borrowed from China”
1) It isn’t “your” tax money, Ted. We all pay taxes that go to things we don’t like. It’s the government’s money.
2) Your tax money isn’t coming from China. If you can’t discriminate between money you pay in taxes, and money the government borrows, perhaps you shouldn’t be making public statements about tax monies. Cause it would embarrass most people to make dumb comments like that.
Ah, but Knopthead isn’t “most people”, and therein lies the dilemma.
From the National Fire Protection Association:
U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 152,300 automobile fires PER YEAR in 2006-2010. These fires caused an average of 209 civilian deaths, 764 civilian injuries, and $536 million in direct property damage.
https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Property-type-and-vehicles/Vehicles
Gasoline is a very dangerous substance, both for flammability and breathing. It is only because it is *familiar* that people don’t think of it as dangerous. Modern gas stations have all sorts of expensive safety features to prevent or put out gasoline fires.
I drive a 2015 Leaf. When I plug it in to my *slow* charger at home every few days, charging takes about 1 minute per mile. (I’ve never used the fast charger socket because I’ve never needed to drive more than 100 miles in a day.)
My car has no tailpipe, no muffler, no catalytic converter, no air filter, no oil filter, no oil *changes*, no gas tank, no alternator, no gearbox, no radiator, and no grill. It has *excellent* pickup when pulling out onto the road. It doesn’t spew toxic fumes while rolling or sitting at a stop light or in stopped traffic.
What you have done is exported your pollution to other places. The power plant for one which generates a lot more energy than you see at the car level to recharge that car, spouting pollution all the while. The wasted energy is used up by the power lines, the voltage converter, the device to recharge the battery and finally the wasted energy as your battery converts the energy to chemical energy and back to electricity to run the motor which itself wastes energy while it is running. Never mind the battery soon goes dead, especially if one lives in areas with a lot of hills and or where it is very hot or very cold to maintain the interior temperature of the car where you want it. Battery charge time: 35h at 110V, 7.5h at 220V/ Maximum range 151 miles without using the heater and air conditioner. Your leaf works for you, it will not work for a lot of other people.
tk giving sincere woke environmentalism message. Me bang rocks. Hoot Hoot.
ted, ted! hey ted!
You really should READ the article before commenting.
Despicable moron.
Tesla is Racing Ahead of the EV Competition. Can Major Automakers Like BMW Catch up?
China is having success with its push to get the public to buy electric vehicles. Six cities have imposed limits on gasoline cars, and those six now account for 40 percent of electric vehicle sales in the country, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Sales of electric vehicles in the cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou—are increasing by two to four times the national average.
=> These Six Chinese Cities Dominate Global Electric-Vehicle Sales
BP plans to invest $20 million in StoreDot, an Israeli startup that says it can charge lithium-ion batteries in 5 minutes. Officials for the oil giant say this is part of their plan to “be the fuel provider of choice—no matter what car our customers drive.”
=> BP Invests $20M in Tech to Charge EVs in 5 Minutes
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents General Motors, Ford, Daimler AG and nine other car companies, is urging President Trump to work on rewriting fuel efficiency standards, because “climate change is real.” The carmakers made the demand in a letter earlier this month to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
=> Carmakers to Trump: ‘Climate change is real’
Sounds like the big car companies would be willing to go for EVs and high MPG ICEs if *everyone* had to do it and they could compete on a level playing field.
The Trump administration is considering a national security investigation into automotive imports that would clear the way for the imposition of new tariffs on cars from Europe, Japan and South Korea and lead to a major escalation of global trade tensions.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday night he had instructed Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary, to look at launching an investigation into imports of cars, trucks and automotive parts, using Section 232 of the 1962 trade act — the national security provisions used to justify the introduction of tariffs on steel and aluminium earlier this year.
The move risks inflaming talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which have stalled in recent weeks over the issue of the content rules for cars.
=> U.S. launches national security probe of vehicle imports
More evidence if what a complete moron Drumpf really is.
It’s a national security issue that people in Asia are breathing our air before it gets to us and farting and burping into it—-DO something!!—-impose tariffs, build a wall, deport immigrants, defund Planned Parenthood, collude with the Russians, arrest the Clintons!!! MAGA!
Hmm,,, I drive a 2004 Diesel smart car, I do my own maintenance. My average fuel economy is between 60 and 70 mpg…. If I do 70 mph I get around 50 mpg. I expect this car will last me another 10 years…..
By the way, the link you provide does not take you to the Union of Concerned Scientist report When I went to the UCS web site to find the report I could not locate it, so I could not critique their methodology to see if the claims/methodology used were reasonable or bullshit….
https://www.ucsusa.org/
If you can find the report please provide a link.
Nice trolling…. lol
Wasn’t aware that diesel Smarts were available in the USA—they weren’t in the beginning.
So, you get better gas mileage? Swell! Enjoy it as you pump out all those particulates and NOx that IMO more than cancel out the mileage advantage.
(Cough—cough—-hack!)
Typo it is a 2006….
L RACINE
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/life-cycle-ev-emissions#.Wwa84S_MzOY
You’re welcome.