Power distribution and stability could be solved by homes with batteries and solar and cars with even more batteries.
Its a no brainer solution to powering the world and the first thing people say is I dont want my neighbour wearing out my batteries.
Considering the government will never build smart power grids and private companies are totally against sharing unless it makes them more money. We are fucked.
But the potential is there, Maybe a world war 3 will make us actually do it out of need.
I meanā¦ Probably better than a normal carā¦ No Air intake or exhaust. Crucial electrical components and wiring, (battery motors) are all water tight sealedā¦ But submerging any vehicle in water is not good for it. Probably not good for the air cooling unit for the electrical components thatās in the front of the carā¦ But still not good in the long term.
I can understand where theyāre coming from but jesusā¦ Tesla batteries dont die anywaysā¦ Itād be more concerned about the neighbor kid hitting baseballs onto my solor roof constantlyā¦ Wait thatās indestructible tooā¦ lol
They donāt ford water wellā¦ I agree they could though if designed too or modified aftermarket, but yeah, its not good for anything long term, even on boats.
The Tesla packs certainly DO dieā¦ capacity starts to tail off rapidly from 1200 cyclesā¦ whats different with that is till that number they keep 94% capacity, so Tesla just over specifies the packs with extra cells and software limits discharge amount so that the user get the same range and no performance dropoff for greater than the 300,000 miles that represents on a 80ah or bigger pack (hence warranty is till 280k miles, although its bigger brother is unlimited, I suspect this is just because Tesla thinks few people will actually exceed that in the time). However based on their own published works on the cell format, the dropoff of capacity after that is pretty rapid after that.
Donāt get me wrong, for a Model S this is AMAZING. It means the average user never need to change the batteries as the car will be old by the time they wear outā¦ and if not the pack can be swapped with a new one pretty easy. However the car gets away with it because its hugely expensive and its weight was not a binding constraint, for (relatively) smaller batteries or more utilization than driving this limit is far more bindingā¦ I estimated based on Teslaās claimed range for there announced class 8 tractor unit (and the concept the battery weight was binding, so not highly over-specified like the P80 and P100) that its packs would only last a typical day cab truck 2.4 years of typical use. Because we use power constantly when not asleep, unlike at task like driving batteries will be put under this much higher utilization, so correctly specified for load will get even shorter lives than that (although to be clear twice as many cells will live twice as long, this just isnāt a great idea unless the application has fixed life needs, since by replacement time the cells will be cheaper and better).
I donāt personally think batteries in every house are going to (nor should) replace the power grid, not only is there losses in charging and conversion back to mains format, but unlike cars ect which are mobile, they compete with fixed line. Since the batteries have limited life based on use, not only corrosion (unlike a fixed line or oil filled transformer, which can pull full rated current for many decades), and higher costs for a given peak wattage to most typical residential areas, they economically donāt make much sense at the highest level (they can to a consumer because the electrical system is price gouging and bureaucratic right now, but thats not inherent to the system). Also individual battery use doesnāt enable the sorts of management of a bulk grid power storage facility, from having a guy actually clean the panels once in a while to predicatively leaving capacity open or charge based on expected average loads vs renewable overproduction estimations. Even things like upgrades can be done in a more rolling fashion when at scale.
PV solar is also the lowest average stability power source, other renewable like wind tend to spend more than 2/3rds of the time within their median output range, while even tracking panels struggle to do 50% on solarā¦ even in areas basically never overcast night has an impact of making you need more storage than most other solutions, which reduces efficiency. Residential rooftop solar installation is also a huge cause of deaths vs even commercial rooftop installation.
I also like the idea of having centralized fireproof warehouse \ bunkers in industrial areas for bulk batteries, instead of having every house have a bulk amount of toxic compounds to be spread over residential areas in case of a fire, puncture or other damage.
1909 Baker Electric
What is after Gasoline cars?
smoke
Anyone remember gasoline tricycles?
It has so little to do with our cars and more where the power comes fromā¦Petrol from the ground or natural bio manufactured hydrocarbons or electricity stored in some form of battery.
Simply answer is many humans and not need to travel much and problem solved.
Complex answer is how many people do we need ? Why keep deforestation of the land for more and more human for profit. Do we need 10 Billion for profit or 40 Billion for profit. Because the only driving factor we use is profit for energy.
See these few random weather extremes recently? Well global warming will add more energy to the system and make even more extreme ends to warmth and coolth. So more extreme weather limits. 
Build more weapons and fight each other before you realise we all on the same rock thats fucking up.
I donāt think this thread has directed any attention to the problems that can be caused if the uptake of electric cars happens faster than the utility companies can plan for. Domestic charging points can be problematic due to the addtional load they place on an ageing power grid;
In the UK there is always talk of how the utility companies can be caught out during the commercials of really popular TV shows/sports events due to lotās of people would switching on electric kettles at the same time to make drinks:
If you have a lot of people plugging their cars in at the end of the working day the effect could be a lot worse on an electricity grid not suitably prepared.
One way that would sort this is for each home to be equipped with its own battery packs that could act as a buffer - charging up slowly or in coordination with others (IoT) and then releasing power to cope with peak demands. Tesla are already onto this:
This is mostly about the power generation rather than the grid. The grid is capable of transmitting the energy but the power plants are not generating enough power. So additional plants have to be turned on, which takes time. Electric cars would create a more continuous strain which is far less problematic. In fact the cars could act as buffer and compensate for the power surges using their batteries rather than worsening them.
Why not implement the same technology directly into the cars? Instead of each car charging as fast as possible their firmware could stretch out the charging period over the entire night, just like the batteries would.
Iām not sure slowing the cars charge rates would be needed, because the added draw happens at a predicable time, and at predicable size, there is no reason to have consumers vehicles less rapidly usable.
In a stored hydro or thermal power station (inc renewable sources of store able heat, from molten salt to biomass or CNG). In solar or wind powered grids this simply entails grid sized storage, such as pumped hydro, large flow batteries (which btw are much cheaper per capacity than the solid state and more compact lithium cells) or long distance power links (so power can be shifted from areas with excess generation to areas with excess demand instead of needing to store locally).
The power plant my brother operates pumps water up into a large reservoir during times of low demand; this is how they store excess power instead of reducing the power level on the reactor. This is typically done every night. Im sure not all power plants have excess capacity, but some do. Just an FYI.
Edit, spelling
I would assume before too many consumers end up with pure electric cars that there would be a bridge period where the majority of people have hybrids with some sort of variable compression gasoline engine. Even the most modern fixed compression gasoline engines have a cap on efficiency but once they can operate at different compression rates at different RPMās and amounts of idle (stop and go traffic, highway ectā¦) there should be a marked increase in efficiency and fuel consumption.
Pumping water uphill is effective for a battery storage if the land lets you do it.
Not convinced by variable compression hybrids myself, simply put both hybridization and variable compression address similar issues, not provide very different but inherently complementary features.
Rather it seems like Homogeneous charge compression ignition is a better way to improve efficiency via more control system complexity rather than mechanical complexity. Also in hybrids you need a lot less range of power delivery, since the engine can be cycled on and off during driving when wattage is very small, and electric motors + batteries can provide very high peak power off a smaller engine, as even in track use the percentage of time full throttle is typically very low.
Turbines also offer better efficiency and power density if less variation in power output is needed, however have higher maintenance costs. Still I wouldnāt be surprised if we see small turbines being used to range extend battery vehicles as the ability for batteries to deliver more wattage allows similar performance out of increasingly smaller capacity battery packs, thus dropping weight vs a battery vehicle while offering ranges and refill times competitive with more traditional efficient internal combustion engine cars. Seeing as it would be low output (reports Iāve found say the Tesla Model S 80kwh used on the order of 420wh/km when draining a complete pack on the autobahn, or 8.4kw for a road where peak speed reached 200km\hr, so the turbine for a similar drag co-efficient car would be on the order of <10kw, and unlikely to add much drag due to its cooling needs) it may see costs fall as low as current turbochargers to buy\run. And given how few people actually do drive more than half the range of modern battery vehicles regularly, the higher maintenance of the turbine may be less of a factor again, as it most likely wouldnāt be used at all in most vehicle trips.
Finally I wonder if the very large inertia of most automaker firms may cause them to skip advanced hybrids entirely, instead battery vehicles becoming most popular after a generation or two of more conventional hybrids that are built from adapted from (or highly based on) existing car and motor platforms, rather than ground up designs.
All comes down to power. Make it solar /wind or nuclear fission or fusion generating hydrocarbon fuel and problem solved. Make it electric cars and still make power via fossil fuels is just increasing efficiency of burning fossil fuels.
HCCI and VC are not necessarily mutually exclusive. HCCI merely makes auto ignition possible without knock at high compression ratios using gasoline but it still only functions at compression ratios that most diesel engines operate at and therefore has the same efficiency and torque issues at high RPMās. Ideally the two technologies would be combined such that the engine would always have a homogeneous fuel air mixture to both keep the internals of the engine clean and reduce emissions but would be capable of operating at a wide range of compression ratios. The mechanisms required for VC really arenāt complicated enough to negate the added benefits.
I would love to see a universal adoption of turbine technology but I would assume the cost of the components higher tolerance and greater complexity would be prohibitive not to mention maintenance professionals needing to be trained and widely available. Consumers have a hard enough time finding mechanics that can fix a CVT or do anything but replace repairable components on their hybrids. Its also very rare that the automotive industry chooses to mass produce the best solution for the problem merely the one with the lowest opportunity-cost.
Like @Marten said above large scale turbines for grid power generation would be drastically better than small scale turbines inside individual vehicles if we are talking about optimal use of resources and environmental impact.
Your last point is definitely something to consider. I canāt claim to have any real knowledge of the internal operations of the large automotive companies but I would assume they would be more comfortable maintaining a line of gasoline powered vehicles for the foreseeable future likely alongside electric cars.
Bah, hydrogen is too dangerous. Propane could be done a lot easier and a lot cheaper. Sure it can flash, but the rate it spreads out would counter that.
Teslas already do that. In addition to selecting certain hours of the day/night.
granted: YOU have to change the setting.
As mentioned previously, There are reasons against electric.
Strongly support Hydrogen production to extend the lives of gasoline vehicles and cleaner alternative to electric but I will leave this video here since it helps understand some issues with Teslaās approach.