Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
I've been making this same comment for several years now on this Forum, but it is deeper than that. The ideal driving environment for EV use is by the city dweller. The argument being the air pollution created for mobility is not at the exhaust pipe but rather the smoke stack far away from the confines of the city, which make EVs appear to be pollution-free and make city air more breathable is one reason, and the other is the limited range. Ironically however cities are where one finds a plethora of public transportation (subway, bus, taxi), and a far less need to drive anyway since most cities have local stores on each block. And cities are where it is most difficult to conveniently recharge an EV.
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Reasoning in absolutes is a fallacious way of thinking. Consider two true/false questions:
Does an EV produce any emissions at all?
The answer to this question is irrelevant, because we have no mass-market alternatives that produce zero emissions.
Does an EV produce less emissions than a petrol car?
This question is harder to answer, because it depends upon how far back in the life-cycle of the vehicle you want to go. If we scope it to operational emissions (emissions occurring after manufacturing), EV's easily come out ahead. Even the dirtiest of current-generation power plants (i.e., "clean coal") produce a fraction of the emissions per kW when compared to the individual petrol engines in the hundreds of thousands of automobiles in operation.
There are efficiencies involved in mass-production of power that you simply cannot perform in a distributed system. This inequality only gets worse for the ICE as mass-production power facilities become more green.
The arguments over feasibility for city environments are perfectly valid, of course. However, these are matters of infrastructure. No one scratches their head over the fact that cities are dotted with petrol dispensing stations where we bury giant tanks of highly combustible liquid that is clumsily transferred to tanks which we literally sit on top of and drive around. Imagine a world where electric cars were the default. Charging stations would be as ubiquitous as parking meters in cities.
My point is that this is an infrastructure challenge. Yes, it is an impediment to ownership of an EV in the current circumstance, but I don't think that will be the case forever. Given the pace of development for autonomous vehicles, I don't think it will be an issue at all in 5-10 years. Your car will simply drop you off at the curb and drive to a parking garage where it attaches to a charging dock that requires zero human interaction. And that's in cases where you actually own the car. Why not just join your favorite ride-sharing co-op, where you pay a monthly transit fee for access to a fleet of cars that can show up at the curb within a couple of minutes, regardless of where you are.
I'm really charging ahead in to the future here, but my point is that expecting the ICE to be the solution that powers individual transit forever is in stark contrast to current trends.