Climate Change? Nahhh ...

Our grandchildren are going to curse us for being selfish, short-sighted assholes.

 

Not in Alabama. Since the state Public Utilities Commission is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alabama Power, is isn't possible to make the math work. What a consumer gets paid for returning their solar produced power to the grid does not pay enough to break even on a solar installation. We've got sunshine out the wazoo, but solar is not economically viable here. Deliberately.

 

Worth remembering here that the government was a huge contributor to the rise of the internal combustion automobile business - by building all those highways.

We incentivized the family car, and in many cases (eg, the Los Angeles Red Cars) undid the first great wave of mass transit.

We've been scrambling to restore mass transit ever since.

 

You can’t argue against the federal government providing incentives for EVs and solar panels without acknowledging that the same government provided incentives to buy and drive private automobiles by building thousands of miles of highway.

The government also looked the other way while GM and other automakers bought streetcar lines only so they could shut them down.

 

Also, many streetcar lines were built by real estate developers that abandoned them to public entities afterward.

Until battery charging is nigh-instantaneous, EVs are a solution looking for a problem.

 

I run a rural 5311 federally funded rural transit agency covering two counties for approximately 110,000 people in the Midwest. The Feds are giving billions away to swap out fleets to low and no emission transit vehicles. Neighboring rural transit agency got about $2 million for an upgrade. In a county seat of 16,000 who the hell is going to repair those vehicles? If you are in an urban area, yeah, I get it, you may have 3 or 4 vendors who will be able to service them. Plus, you have to have the charging infrastructure for all those vehicles, which ain't cheap.
I also worry about our low income riders, they are struggling to buy vehicles as it is, looking for just something that runs for $1000 (good luck). Those low-income folks here in flyover country aren't going to make enough to pay for an electric vehicle anytime soon, even with government incentives.

 

Last week, Chinese battery maker CATL announced that it will start producing a next-generation battery that can deliver at least 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of driving range. The Qilin battery enters production in 2023.

Currently, the longest-range electric vehicle you can buy in the US is the $169,000 Lucid Air, the debut sedan from a California-based startup. It can travel 520 miles per charge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The next best is Tesla's Model S sedan, with an estimated range of 405 miles. An electric vehicle that can travel 600 miles or more would constitute an epic step forward in battery tech.

CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of EV batteries and a supplier for Tesla, says the Qilin packs tons of energy into a compact package thanks to advancements in both battery chemistry and packaging. The battery has an energy density of 255 watt-hours per kilogram, according to CATL.

It will be 13% more powerful than 4680 batteries, the format Tesla recently started using for its Model Y SUVs, CATL said.

Any vehicle can have tremendous range if it's packed with enough batteries. The challenge is ensuring those batteries don't take up too much space or weigh an excessive amount.

Another benefit of the Qilin battery, according to CATL: Faster charging. The company sandwiched liquid-cooling components between the battery cells, enabling the pack to cool itself faster and, therefore, endure super-fast charging sessions without overheating.

 

Opponents vastly overestimate how many miles the average person actually drives every day.

Most people aren’t trekking out of state on a daily basis.

I have a 25-mile commute each way to work. I fill up my hybrid once every three weeks.

People in cities drive even fewer miles.

 

About 10% of the cobalt for EV batteries is mined by child laborers in unsafe Congo mines.

 

My commute is 10 feet, from my bed to my desk.

The most I drive on a given day is six miles each way to drop my kids off at school.

My brother, who works in the EV industry, keeps telling me I’m a prime candidate for one.

I just don’t trust them on longer trips, of which we take quite a few.