xkcd

state_electrician , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

I would absolutely love to have an EV. But they are very expensive, especially compared to the gas-powered car I already own.

afraid_of_zombies , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

What interests me is the terror threshold. People are just so much more, including me, afraid of electric motors vs ICE per kw.

glitchdx , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Electric cars is not the solution. Sure, it's an improvement, but for a real solution you need to get people out of personal vehicles on onto public transportation. Trains, trams, busses, whatever. Build it in a way that doesn't suck. Assuming american, the US had (past tense) amazing train/tram networks decades ago. Every warehouse had a rail spur, and since walking was considered ok people weren't obese fatasses.

I drive a scooter. It is possible to live without a car, although it does have some difficulties sometimes. If your job is within 10 miles of your home or less, then you don't need a car for your commute. If I can do it so can you. I'd still rather take a bus, if it existed.

Bezzelbob ,

Idk why ppl are down voting this, bro is literally just advocating for public transportation

Ig it's all the insecure pickup truck bros

Edit: typos

fruitycoder ,

I want an EV. I think its 98% the right choice for me. I also 100% with you. Cars are a terrible solution at a certain density, which is what most industry and thus where people live makes sense.

mohammed_alibi ,

Just came back from Tokyo. Tokyo's public transportation is awesome. You do also need to walk a lot at times and the first few days our legs were quite sore. But towards the end of the trip I can feel my leg strength again, felt healthier, and did not miss my car at all. To go to certain places, you do have to plan a little bit ahead, for example, a day trip out to Mt. Fuji area requires booking tickets because right now there's a ton of tourists. But within the city, the subways are so convenient.

deltapi ,

My job is within 10mi of my home. If I walk there, I get there in 2 hours. If I take public transportation, it takes me 1h45m to 2h20m depending on the day.

I also live in a community where our electricity is from 90% renewable resources, 10% nuclear. Switching to an electric car is a 100% reduction in carbon usage for my commute.
Using the bus isn't.

deczzz , (edited ) in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Cool but they sound like shit. No aesthetics in evs. You don't feel connected to the car. Don't feel the engagement. But hey, cars are all about stats, right, right??

Edit: ok so I get downvoted for having a differing opinion from the majority of Lemmy users here. I'm wrong in saying that EV engines sound like shit?PLEASE one downvoter, explain to me how such a statement deserves a downvote?

Majority of you probably just use your car as a means of transportation. I don't. I also drive to have fun. That's also why I never drive automatic as it is (to me) more engaging and challenging with a manual gear box. Let me give you another example: weight. EVs are heavy, always. I don't like heavily cars because I don't find them enjoyable to drive on small roads.

Please understand that there is more to the world of cars than numbers.

noxy ,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

being on a track and being able to hear what my tires are doing, individually, in the absence of engine and exhaust (and intake) noises, is a pretty cool level of connectedness and engagement.

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Fair enough. Do you do track days yourself? I would love to learn more about what I can from listening to my tires.

Still, no engine noise.

I'm not a EV hater, just saying that there are more to cars than 0-100km/h stats and range. And to me, most of these aesthetic qualities are lost with EVs. The only EV that looks interesting from a aesthetics point of view is the inonic 5 n, imho.

noxy , (edited )
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Yup!

Two track days in my Taycan - one at Portland International Raceway, and one at Pacific Raceways.

One rallycross event at Dirtfish in a Fiesta ST

Two day AWD rally racing instruction at Dirtfish (their owm WRX STI sedans)

Several track days in a Cayman at Pacific Raceways and one at The Ridge

And awhile back, track days and autocross in RX-8 and Genesis Coupe. Even a winter autocross in the RX-8 once, which was interesting and challenging.

I totally agree that driving cars for enjoyment which have engaging qualities like three pedals can be that much more enjoyable. And I agree that the Ioniq 5 N offers a really compelling feature for folks like us in their simulated gears - I REALLY wanna try that and I hope the concept spreads to other sporty EVs!

Edit: to answer the start of your post, I can hear which tires are losing grip, which can mean a whole bunch of things, like if the fronts are squealing in a corner I could lift off a tiny bit to shift weight forward and give them more grip, or remember to brake earlier before I hit that same turn on the next lap. Nothing I don't already intuit from steering wheel feedback and the "butt feel" of inertia, but it's another dimension of that awareness

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

But the steering rack isn't even physically connected to the wheels anymore so that sucks

reddithalation ,

how does that matter if the drive by wire has force feedback.

people argued over fly by wire in planes when it started emerging, how it was taking the safe controllable mechanical link away or whatever, but ultimately it has proven its safety and reliability over mechanical linkages anyway

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

I'm not disagreeing that it's better but I just prefer the direct feel of hydraulic steering. It's the primary reason I drive a 15 year old BMW and refuse to get something newer haha

I've tried the new models but the feel just isn't there

noxy ,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Are you sure that's true for the Taycan?

rab , (edited )
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

Lemmy user base will not understand your comment but yes, I will miss the roar of an engine in the future, and the ability to feel the road through the steering wheel. EVs are simply not fun nor interesting even though I can't deny they are 'better'

At least you can get rwd EVs I guess

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Nope. Hoped Lemmy would be better but it's just like reddit: disagree -> downvote....apparently. I thought up/down voting was supposed to help filter out bad contributions, not silence people with opinions that are different from your own.

We agree.
True but 'better' in what ways? EVs are, as you know, extremely heavy. Is this better or worse? If you don't have a car that you like to drive for the sake of driving, then it might not matter. If you are like me and like to fun on small roads then you might hate heavy cars because of the handling. Most EV lovers don't understand such things because they have a car for the purpose of transportation, not for the purpose of "the drive". Maybe bad generalization but I have yet to meet a person who have had as much fun in an EV as in a more traditional sport oriented car.... Except for the ionic 5 n, but I think there's a novelty factor involved here.

If I only needed my car for transportation, the I would buy an EV, but only because of the reduced fuel costs.

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

I mean weight is a huge issue too just due to safety. I drove my buddies model Y recently and it felt extremely nimble, probably due to the center of gravity being so good thanks to the batteries

But you can still feel how heavy the vehicle is and I imagine crashing into one would fucking hurt. I mean my GMC Sierra is lighter, it's absurd really

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Pros and cons as with everything in this world. Great to hear that you had a good time in the model Y. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not all alone with these not-lemmy-approved comments

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

Don't even pay attention to downvotes, they don't really do anything unlike reddit

noxy ,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Taycan has excellent steering feedback, for what it's worth.

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

Would love to try one, Porsche is the only company who still makes cars for people who like cars

noxy ,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Hyundai is killing there too, tho. The N cars look awesome

ssj2marx , (edited )

I agree that the EV aesthetics suck. Half of them are crossovers which I hate, and the other half are pretty boring - where is my EV in the form factor of a Miata or a Camaro? They made a Mustang EV, but for some absolutely baffling reason neither of the Mustang EVs look like a goddamn Mustang. I get that aerodynamics are important, but I would gladly eat a reduction in max range in order to drive something that looks good or handles better.

As for the sound of the EV engine, I actually like the "whirr" that they make before you get up to speed and it gets drowned out by the tires rolling and wind rushing. It sounds like the future.

AVincentInSpace ,

"But if my car doesn't contribute to noise pollution and wake up half the neighborhood when I touch the gas pedal, how will I know I have a penis?"

JackbyDev ,

PLEASE one downvoter, explain to me how such a statement deserves a downvote?

Down voting because this sort of complaint is cringe. Wear down votes with pride and don't comment on them.

Lucidlethargy , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works avatar

The price. The price is the problem for all us poors.

Malfeasant ,

Hybrids are more affordable than full electrics, and have some of the benefits.... I have a Kia Sorento and its torque was enough to climb out of a pretty deep rut that would have required shifting into low4 on my dad's 4x4... Plus it gets about 600 miles on a tank.

themeatbridge ,

I'm with you that we need phev's to bridge the infrastructure gap, but electric motors provide more torque at lower speeds without the need for gears.

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

The barrier in my Canadian city isn't even purchase price, it's that I cannot charge at my apartment

Jarix ,

Its still very much a barrier for most of us poors

rab ,
@rab@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah I get it

But what im trying to say is that you can get an EV for like 20k cad, but charging requires home ownership (1.1m average in this shithole country)

Jarix ,

Ahhhhhh sorry i misunderstood. I stand corrected

rustydomino ,
@rustydomino@lemmy.world avatar

the price gap is slowly closing, esp if you take into account total cost of ownership. It agree that the upfront cost makes it out of reach for many people.

brucethemoose ,

It wouldn't be so bad if they paired small batteries with backup generators.

But nooo, its 7000lb all electrics or overly complicated ICE-hybrids, nothing in between.

hikaru755 ,

Wait how is what you're proposing different from ICE hybrids?

brucethemoose ,
  • An ICE hybrid is a gas car with a little electric motor shoehorned inside.

  • A "plug in" hybrid as they are called is a full electric drivetrain, with a gas generator like you'd buy at Lowes stuck in the boot
    .

It seems trivial, but the difference is massive. The former is super complicated, heavy, and expensive, as you need all the junk a gas car needs and the electric stuff to go with it.

The later is hilarously efficient. It takes the best part of electric cars, the dead simple drive train, and solves their achilles heel: the massive battery. You can get away with a dirt cheap 3 horsepower generator in such a setup and shrink the battery massively, whereas a ICE hybrid needs a huge car engine and (like I said) all the expensive junk that goes with it.

You don't see more of the later because:

  • Car manufacturers are geared to produce ICE cars, and reserve the electric drivetrain capacitry for profitable luxury vehicles first.

  • This is just speculation on my part, but a gas range extending generator "taints" a full electric car, making it unpalatable to people who think it ruins the image, eco friendliness or whatever, when it's actually better for the environment because the battery isn't so freaking big.

hikaru755 ,

Gotcha, thanks for explaining!

brucethemoose ,

Of course!

Another point I was getting as is that pure electric cars suffer from the same problem space rockets do: most of their weight is fuel.

Hence they are heavy, need a lot of raw material and manufacturing. Read: Expensive and bad for the environment, compared to a cheaper plug in hybrid.

And a tiny, 5 horsepower gasoline generator is hilarously efficient compared to a car engine. And dirt cheap, and weighs virtually nothing. There are technical reasons for this, but basically it's not even in the same league, and produces a fraction of the emissions as a full ICE car.

Waraugh ,

Maybe truth is they started talking about doing a car like that and by the time it was ready for production they ended up with a regular ICE car because they nearly doubled the HP of the generator every time the design got reviewed like you are doing now. Before long it will be a tiny 98 HP generator…

brucethemoose ,

You really don't need 90hp. Coasting on the freeway takes less than 10hp, depending on how big of a block you drive, so as long as the average is around that, the generator can keep the battery charged forever, and the battery handles any surge in power you need. It's only a problem if you drive like a jerk, and floor it out of every light or speed down the highway at 100+mph, and do it long enough to drain the battery.

But the brilliant part is that you can design the generator motor for single, constant RPM. I can't emphasize how much easier and more efficient that makes everything, vs. having to engineer a huge power/rpm range that can handle a dynamic load.

derf82 ,

Purchase price, higher maintenance costs (EVs eat tires due to the increased weight and higher torque), installation of charging infrastructure (some us need expense electrical service upgrades and added wiring; we don’t all have 200 amp panels and garages with 30 amp 240v service already wired in)

I’d love an EV, but I won’t be afforded Int one for a bit. And used ones, even if cheaper, will have massive battery degradation cutting range way down.

Meissnerscorpsucle , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

so my sisters Mazda MX-30 has more HP than my uncles Peterbilt 389? cool, I'll use it to haul my horse trailer. define "more powerful". Makes the point but XKCD usually does better.

intensely_human , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Gasoline motors can be recharged in a couple of minutes.

Fogle ,

I plug my car in in seconds

rockstarmode ,

And then wait an hour to get acceptable charge levels for range. Filling up at a gas station is much faster.

This is not to say electric vehicles aren't a good idea, the charge rate and convenience while traveling are issues we need to improve on.

Strykker ,

I hear this complaint a lot about charging times, but for 99.99% of people they are never in a single day going to drive beyond their cars range, meaning even a standard level 1 slow charger over night at home can manage their entire car usage.

It's only people doing long distance road trips that have to worry, and that's by far a minimum. Instead of boosting gas cars for that we could be looking at investing in rail so people don't have to make the longer trips in a car anyway.

mnemonicmonkeys ,

Not only that, people going on those long trips are going to be looking for something to eat in a similar time frame that their EV takes to fully discharge. It takes EVs about 15-20 minutes to get from 0-80% charge. That's less time than it takes to sit down and eat at a restaurant

intensely_human ,

I rarely go inside restaurants to eat on a long trip. I grab a burger and wolf it down and go again. I eat the fries while I'm driving and they're gone in an instant, and i'm still going.

intensely_human ,

And for about 50% of Americans, they don't have a place to plug in an electric car at night. It's only people above a certain level of wealth who have the luxury of their own parking space with a charger.

For the rest of us, we must take time out of our day to sit in a grocery store parking lot while the car charges.

Worx ,

The point is that, for most journeys, you just charge at home overnight. It's rare to plug in and wait for it to charge. With petrol / gas, you always have to wait

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

*If you have a homecharger

It is faster to refuel your car with petrol.

Sizzler ,

Not at home it's not. Where's your back garden petrol station lol.

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I don't know what to do with you people.... We both have 5km range left. You plug in the cable juice and I plug in the gas to refuel. Who leaves the station first?

Smokeless7048 ,

"when you are empty, and you have to drive right away, its faster to refuel your car with petrol"

My relatives dont have a charger at home, they just plug their car into an outlet, and get ~40km range over night. That more than enough for the daily commute.

intensely_human ,

And my relatives don't have personal parking spots.

Poor people's time gets no respect, because the rules are made by rich people with tons of time conveniences and they just aren't conscious of how the other half lives.

They ban our shopping bags, failing to realize that for someone with a car and a garage, a disposable plastic shopping bag doesn't have much utility over re-usable bags, or dispsable paper bags. But for a person with no car and no garage, a disposable plastic shopping bag means they can carry like three in each hand and walk miles home in foul weather.

And if you want to just bring bags with you in advance, you gotta carry them with you all day.

It's doable, don't get me wrong. But it's more of a hassle. And the amount of hassle that it adds is far greater for poor people.

I rent a car for Uber. I'm working up to buying a car, but until I do I have to rent. Uber has decreed that all rentals must be electrics. To save the planet. The electrics cost about $100 more per week to rent than the gas cars did, and as a poor person I can't charge them at home because all I have is street parking.

This means that every day I work driving for Uber, I have to stop about once a day to charge the car. So that's about $25 a day I'm losing to charge instead of refuel my vehicle, so $125 a week I'm losing and then the other $100 per week it costs because it's a special car, I'm losing $225 per week due to this decision.

So I'm doing my part, but unwillingly. And I strongly, strongly suspect that the people who made this decision at Uber, that their contribution to climate action was going to come out of my cut, didn't think the cut would be so big because they live in houses or in fancy apartment buildings with chargers.

I just feel like nobody talks about how time poor poor people are. We lack time just as much as we lack money, and when we get new rules imposed on us that take up more of our time to comply with, the people creating the rules don't realize how must time it's costing us, because their own lives are relatively time rich. Many of the forms of their wealth come in the form of time conveniences, and those change the equation. They think the electric car's hassle consists of having to charge it occasionally on long trips, because they have a home charger.

Just across the board, we need to be aware of the time cost of these changes, and also to be aware that the time cost is often many times higher for poor people than it is for middle class people.

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Overnight isn't "right away".
"I have to get to y right away!" "Sure! I'll just charge the car and you can leave tomorrow!".

Listen, I'm not saying that EVs are shit but they are currently not my cup of tea. It's just all this BS. Of course it's faster to refuel a car with petrol than to charge a battery. Would you also deny that it's faster for me to fill up a glass of water than you charging your phone?
I ENVY the great fuel economy that EV owners get. This sucks for petrol cars.

Strykker ,

A 120v standard Ac adapter is all you need for overnight charging, and I'm pretty sure those come with the cars.

Jimmyeatsausage ,

Lv 1 charges are pretty shitty...takes my car about 12 minutes to get a mile-worth of charge on a 120v. I could still make it through a week of commuting doing that, but my range was a little lower each day until the weekend when I didn't have to commute. That being said, I ponied up for a 220v outlet in the garage, and the Lv 2 charging is much better. Takes about 15 minutes to recharge from a days-worth of driving (usually 30-40 miles between work and running the kids around to all their activities).

intensely_human ,

How much did the 220 outlet and the L2 charger cost to put in? Was it a turnkey thing from an electrician or something or were you able to do it yourself?

Jimmyeatsausage ,

I had to get an electrician to come run the 220 line for me because I don't trust myself with high voltage electrical work. Bought the charger itself on Amazon for around $300. I installed that part myself. Wasn't too hard, basically jist mounted the converter to the wall and plugged it in.

Malfeasant ,

You can't fill your gas tank at home while you sleep...

intensely_human ,

I don't need to

intensely_human ,

Wow. Awesome. Only takes a few seconds to plug it in. Good on ya bud

alphafalcon ,

My EV sits in the driveway and soaks up excess production from my PV setup.
My main problem is it's never really empty enough.

If I'm on the road, a high voltage DC charger gets me from 10% to 50% in about 10 minutes. Barely enough time for a coffee and a leak, then it's another 2 hours of driving. Rinse, repeat.

Sure, you can't barrel down the Autobahn for 10 hours straight without stopping but who wants that?

Solemn ,

I make a 9-10 hour drive to see my family multiple times a year. I normally stop twice to get gas and use the bathroom, and that's it. Sounds like you'd be adding most of an hour to my travel time each way. I've tried stopping longer and grabbing food, it's not worth it for me.

With that said, I drive 25-40 miles a day the other 360+ days of the year, so it'd really make much more sense for me to have a short range EV and rent something for travel when I have too much luggage to fly.

Madison420 ,

Maybe don't do that? Catch a train it's significantly cheaper anyway.

Solemn , (edited )

That would become a 15+ hour trip then...

Edit: On further investigation, it's also not significantly cheaper than flying, and is much more expensive than fuel for driving.

Madison420 ,

But much better for the environment, sometimes others matter more and when more people use rail it's more likely our country will catch up and build hyper train networks.

Saledovil ,

Sadly, yes. I live in Germany, and here you need a BahnCard50 (or better) for the train to be cheaper than the gas for driving.

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

You should just live near the place you're driving to.

Solemn ,

I'm glad you think I can afford to triple my rent, but that's not happening.

Edit: If you mean the road trip scenario, my family works in various different industries, and the opportunities are better in different cities. That's also not happening.

Jax ,

Oh my God, why didn't I think of that! Simply have more money, thank you internet stranger. My problems are solved!

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

Well I just think you should live closer but that's a great idea too. You should try that.

intensely_human ,

My EV sits in the driveway and soaks up excess production from my PV setup.

Yeah EVs are a great solution for homeowners.

Sure, you can't barrel down the Autobahn for 10 hours straight without stopping but who wants that?

As an Uber driver, I want that. I want to be able to gas my car back up and go back on he road and keep earning money.

Strykker ,

Congrats your are not the market target for EVs then, guess what that doesn't mean that the majority of the population isn't though.

derf82 ,

I’m not wealthy enough for a PV setup.

And I love road trips. Some of the most beautiful areas of my country are 3000+ km from me.

deczzz ,
@deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Why on earth do you get down votes? This is the truth. Downvoters just straw man argue pointing out that 'just charge your car at home', which isn't the matter of discussion. There isn't even a discussion to be had - it is faster to refuel a car than recharge. Might this matter to you? Maybe, maybe not.

Sizzler ,

If the car is recharged at home, you may never need to stop to add gas. Electric is the future bro, get over your hangups.

intensely_human ,

Charging the car at home is for middle class people and above, generally speaking. Not everyone gets to park their car next to an outlet.

Madison420 ,

If you're driving more than 300miles a day you're just admitting your a much larger slice of the shitty pie.

intensely_human ,

Fuck you, I drive so other people don't have to.

By being eager to gauge people's location in "the shitty pie", you're just admitting your (sic) a much large slice of the shitty pie

Madison420 ,

That just isn't true, you just said you could ride a train. You choose not to, that's a big difference.

But saying rail is significantly slower you narrow your nationality to maybe 5 major nations one happens to be significantly more represented on Lemmy. The "need" to drive safe over reaction to the guess means I'm almost certainly correct. Am I not?

BigPotato , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

This comic is clearly about lawn mowers people. Who discusses cars when wearing a hat like that?

Evotech ,

Definitely stovetops

Asifall ,

I do love how much torque my electric stove can put out while stopped

RandomGuy79 , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Yeah they're great. Just gotta pull out a diesel generator to charge them when it's minus 40

zbyte64 ,

To be fair the comic said nothing of batteries. Case in point: there are "gas engines" that are basically a generator connected to an electric motor because it's more efficient than just using an ICE. The generator is optimized for small constant torque and the electric motor delivers as much torque as the system demands.

Jimmyeatsausage ,

Probably easier than thawing the gasoline in the ice engine, which freezes at -40. And your diesel generator won't run either unless you kept it plugged in to keep the fuel from turning to gel (that process starts at -10).

chatokun ,

As a person who got trapped because our family's diesel car got gelled in cold weather, I'm not sure your generator is going to help.

Solemn ,

Don't forget to plug in your block warmer so you can start up your diesel generator in the cold.

Fridgeratr , (edited ) in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Extremely rare XKCD L

Edit: downvote me all you want, it won't make electric cars charge any faster, have any more range, be any more affordable, work any better in the cold, or be any more fixable by their owners.

SulaymanF ,

i think you may have missed the joke if you read it too fast

Fridgeratr ,

No I get it. Electric cars are definitely cool and have advantages, but also have some disadvantages that this just kind of ignores to make a gotcha moment

sour ,

Where is the xkcd talking about cars?

Fridgeratr ,

What else would it be referring to lmao

Oddbin ,

An electric motor and gas engine. It's the first line.

Fridgeratr ,

And what are the most common applications for those? People don't just have motors sitting around attached to nothing.

SulaymanF ,

Are you expecting a joke to actually discuss both sides of a topic?

Fridgeratr ,

I suppose that's a good point. I just feel like XKCD is usually a bit more nuanced than this

kono_throwaway_da ,

The price of electric cars are rapidly falling down to ICE levels in many parts of the world tho

I live in Malaysia a third world country and recently there is a noticeable growth in EV sales over here

Fridgeratr , (edited )

I hope the prices keep falling here in the US as well. Right now they're pretty much all as expensive as more luxurious cars, and the ones that are affordable kinda suck.

Dudewitbow ,

one of the major reasons is that new cheap evs cant compete with used premium ones, hence the desire to develop a cheap EV, at least in the states, is economically prohibitive.

basically because of how picky people are, especially with budget cars, the risk of devlopment on them are extremely high. Make the wrong cut and youre suddenly a bankrupt company

AlotOfReading ,

Just did a quick eBay check. The cheapest 350hp ICE I could find was a rebuilt $3,000 Chevy engine. A new one is more like $6-8k. An equally powerful, brand new Siemens motor was $1,500.

This makes sense when you think about it though. An electric motor is basically just steel with a bunch of coiled wire with some control electronics. An ICE is hundreds of pounds of precision cast and machined metal. The cost driver in electric vehicles is not the motor, it's the batteries.

loaExMachina , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Is this a joke I'm not getting, or just a statement?

Desistance ,
@Desistance@lemmy.world avatar

Read it closely. It's making fun of petrol heads who try to justify keeping gas engines. Electric power plants are way more efficient, generates more torque and horsepower in a smaller package.

Then scroll this thread and you see all the same people doing the same thing.

MeanEYE ,
@MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

Only problem is getting dense enough power storage.

Montagge ,
@Montagge@lemmy.zip avatar

Yeah, all those poors that can't afford an electric car are pieces of shit

Irelephant ,
@Irelephant@lemm.ee avatar

Literally no one said that

zarkanian ,
@zarkanian@sh.itjust.works avatar

Read it again, slowly.

loaExMachina ,

Oh yeah, that did it. Thanks !

LordSinguloth , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Thats not very accurate, ICE motors aren't quite out dated just yet. Electric has a long way to go with the storage and refuel cycle

CaptPretentious ,

That's really the only thing holding EV's back. If we can get away from lithium batteries and get something like graphene batteries (one can dream), range, recharge, etc. everything immediately get's better.
But electric engines are far superior.

LordSinguloth ,

Ev are awesome. Once they get to 1000 mile range I'm going to buy one. Work sends me to the sticks often, and I need 4x4 and can sometimes be 500 miles away from a charger

Emoba ,

What's wrong with storage and refuelling? We got two electric cars, they charge well.

tmyakal ,

Where do you charge them?

Oddbin ,

At a charger!

Next question.

LordSinguloth ,

Time really, it takes me 5 minutes to fuel for 400 miles, it takes most ev owners much longer.

I work with a lot of EV I'm not just some hater. I wish they could charge faster or hold more range, I drive 1000 miles a week for work and can't spend 5 hours a week at a charger sadly.

JamesFire ,

1000 miles a week is under 130 a day.

Just charge it at home every day and you're good.

LordSinguloth ,

Sometimes it's 500 miles in a day. And in rural zones

My home won't allow for fast charging. Nor can I afford to replace my reliable vehicle with an ev that won't have the other features I need (a bed, ground clearance, 4x4, etc)

I'm glad you're privileged though

Emoba ,

Your home doesn't need to charge fast. Just charge overnight. In Europe, after a few hours on a three phases plug your car will be full, after a night on a single phase as well. In the US, a night on an ordinary plug should give you enough range to do more than average stuff or at least get to the next fast charger.

To be honest, if you truly need a truck that's off course an issue as you picked the biggest status symbol of them all, which makes it the most expensive type of car. There are plenty EVs with AWD and some ground clearance, maybe check them out and consider a small trailer if you need to transport your stuff?

However, you seem to already have decided to dislike EVs, so I doubt you'd be enjoying it. If you're bent on hating something, chances are you'll find a reason to do so.

LordSinguloth ,

I've been clear it's a work truck, not a status symbol

And I work wholesale auto auctions. I love EV I wish I could buy one.

But burying our heads in the sand and pretending it has 0 drawbacks is what got us into this fossil fuel mess in the first place.

Emoba ,

So, I get where you're going, but first: it takes much longer, but I do it at home while I'm asleep, so that doesn't really count. It's more the opposite, I really enjoy not having to stop at gas stations anymore. You just never wake up to an empty car anymore.

Then, for longer trips, it obviously takes more time to recharge than to refuel. But as a family of five, we had breaks before we had an ev. Last time we made a longer trip, we picked up my inlaws and wanted to visit some other family members that were about one and a half charge stops away. We took three breaks because someone had to pee, someone was hungry or someone wanted whatever. If you're a flying sales person that that wants to drive 2000 km in a day it'll obviously be annoying. For anybody else that takes some reasonable stops along the way, I doubt it changes much. Just stop the car at a charger and grab a coffee at the next supermarket. Once you had that you can usually drive again.

LordSinguloth ,

Thats great, I'm glad it works for you and your family. But that anecdote doesn't make it work for everyone yet.

Emoba ,

You know, it actually does. Taking a 20 minute break every 3 hours doesn't hurt anybody badly. That's all it takes to no longer locally burn fossil fuels and reduce the emissions significantly. I get the problem that electric cars are too expensive and I understand that some people can't afford them. But this entitlement of "my precious 20 minutes that I can spend doing some situps or have a coffee are too much to ask from me, so I'd rather keep burning carbon" is just nonsense. People should walk more and bike more and use more trains. However, if none of that works, electric cars are a working alternative to produce much less carbon dioxide. But if a slight inconvenience of taking not even the recommended pauses while driving is already too much to ask, this planet is fucked I guess.

LordSinguloth ,

Oh please.

Bad bot

bluewing , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

An interesting article about the Muskmelon, Tesla, and fuel cells. []https://energynews.biz/will-tesla-release-hydrogen-car/ (take the article with a spoonful of salt I think) It's perhaps another attempt at a pump and dump stock fraud as he does need money for twitter. But, I've seen a couple of these blurbs lately and I can't find where they originate from.

Even the ketamine wonder wants to sound like he thinks Tesla is going to abandon pure EVs and build and sell something with a hydrogen fuel cell evidently. If so,and you can't rule out it out completely yet, the ICE engine might not be done yet - just swapping a fuel source.

Username ,

A fuel cell does not mean it's an ICE. It will still use an electric motor and probably even a small battery.

Hydrogen ICE exist, but are more complex and less efficient.

You could use Hydrogen to produce so-called e-fuels (we had a huge debate about them in Germany), but those can typically be used in normal ICE vehicels.

frezik ,

ICE with hydrogen has some racing applications, but that's about it. It's taking something that already has efficiency issues compared to batteries and making it even worse.

Fuel cells use hydrogen to generate electricity to spin a motor. There are issues with that, as well, but there's no future in ICE either way.

bluewing ,

Personally, outside of some niche applications, I don't think fuel cells are going to replace EVs. The losses in efficiency are just to great in the conversion from water to hydrogen/oxygen gasses to electricity - unless someone figures out how to harness the energy released in a hydrogen bomb. But I wouldn't hold my breath for that. I do think that Tesla isn't as long for this world as Musk would have hoped for though. I personally hope he ends up broke and mocked as soon as possible. The world will be just a tiny bit better place IMO.

frezik ,

There's also expected future battery improvements to consider. We can't make a useful battery-powered airplane right now that could do passenger service from LA to Sydney. EV long haul trucking is also in its infancy at a barely feasible level for a limited number of cases. Then there's heavy construction equipment like cranes. All of which are cited as niches that hydrogen would be useful.

Thing is, our battery tech tends to improve--about 5-8% capacity by weight each year, at the higher end of that over the last few years. That's a doubling every 10-15 years. We're not at theoretical limits yet, money is still being pumped into both fundamental research and large scale deployment, and we have every reason to believe this trend will continue. That's going to squeeze out the niches where hydrogen is useful.

art ,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

A fuel cell generates power through an electrochemical reaction, not combustion. So no, even if we went to hydrogen fuel cells, the ICE engine is done.

bluewing ,

But you will burn the hydrogen to release the energy in some form. That would seem to indicate some form of combustion would it not?

ghterve ,

Fuel cells don't burn the hydrogen. There is no combustion.

menemen , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas
@menemen@lemmy.world avatar

He is not wrong, but he is not adressing the actual criticism of electric vehicles, so it is kind of pointless.

Honytawk ,

And what exactly is the criticism of electric vehicles according to you?

iamkindasomeone ,

They still are…cars. We don’t need no more cars on our streets. Yeah, they could help to replace some old combustion cars but they still are worse than public transport and bicycles.

hswolf ,
@hswolf@lemmy.world avatar

I'm all for efficient public transports in downtown, I use them daily myself, but people on suburbs won't really see a benefit to this.

On the other hand, just switching to electric is a nice start, otherwise we won't be able to live much longer.

PlexSheep ,

Especially people in suburbs would benefit from public transport and suburbs built for walk ability and cycling.

hswolf ,
@hswolf@lemmy.world avatar

That's the problem, only switching the transportation method isn't enough, there's a whole infrastructure behind that needs to be built.

In most city centers you can kinda refurbish pre-existing systems, but in suburbs you need to build from scratch, and the distances are way bigger which imposes another challenge.

Don't get me wrong, im all for it, but we need to acknowledge these problems first.

LeFantome ,

Are you sure that the rules here allow reasonable comments like this?

PlexSheep ,

Correct. It can be done though. Getting stores and stuff into suburbs would help already, assuming we're talking us style ones.

JasonDJ ,

Suburbs are intentionally designed to not be walkable.

To get to the neighbor behind my house, without cutting anybody's yard, I have to walk about a mile. We aren't far. His daughters play with my sons through our shared fence.

And that's a modest example. Plenty of cul de sacs that are "close" to the main street, as a crow flies but a lot further if you're an East Asian Chinchilla Monkey running as fast as you can.

person420 ,

Love it or hate it, they aren't intentionally designed not to be walkable, they're intentionally designed to discourage traffic from driving through them.

The reason communities like yours and the one behind your house aren't connected is to reduce the amount of cars driving down your block. To make it safer for your kids to play outside.

LeFantome ,

We found the Dad with 4 kids that works 50 km from home. Get that man a bicycle.

iamkindasomeone ,

you think too American!

Malfeasant ,

Some of us are Americans and have to live with these constraints...

iamkindasomeone ,

And some of us aren’t :) the meme is globally speaking.

JackbyDev ,

I think people should consider an EV when it comes time for them to buy a new car.

GnomeBro ,

If an electric car catches on fire you can't put it out.

Emoba ,

Well, I guess it's a good thing they rarely catch for compared to combustion engine cars then.

maniclucky ,

I'm certain that I won't be able to put out an ice engine either. That's fire people territory and I trust them to know their business.

LeFantome ,

I live in a city where electric vehicles are at least 10% of the cars on the road. I have yet to see an electric vehicle fire, even on the news.

You are accurate. What are the practical consequences?

Gas station fires are devastating. I have not seen one of those locally either so I am not selling my gas guzzler to prevent gas station fires. There are bigger problems.

m0darn ,

I have yet to see an electric vehicle fire, even on the news.

100% and you know the first time it happens is going to be super covered too because of the potential for "controversy".

reddit_sux ,

That's true for a petrol or a diesel vehicle too.

maniclucky ,

As the owner of a Bolt, the only significant criticism is range (mine's a 2020, gets ~180mi comfortably on the interstate) and charging rate (2020 bolts are limited to 50 kW, so kinda specific). Not great for road trips, but otherwise fantastic. As for electric fires... yeah I wasn't gonna be able to put that out anyway so the firefolk have it either way.

LeFantome ,

That is more of a criticism of the Bolt.

There are other electric cars on the market that get 2 ton3 times the range and 4 or 5 times the charging rate.

If you charge at home, it is already possible to have an electric vehicle where “refueling” is something you just don’t worry about 98% of the time. You just drive and the car goes as far as you want to go before you get home again. For longer trips, charging can happen in as little time as it takes to grab a bite, hit the washroom, and stretch your legs. You often have multiple charge stations to choose from so it is easy to pick one next to the amenities you want ( like food ).

Range anxiety” is becoming more something you need to worry about in your gas vehicle if you let the tank get low and are about to get on a highway where the next station is not for a while.

maniclucky ,

It is, definitely. We own our home and leave it on the level 1 charger all the time. It gets us around the metro just fine, no long commutes so it's great for us. And as someone mentioned somewhere around here, a longer charge time isn't necessarily bad if you're the only driver on long trips. I'm honestly more worried about having to stop in areas with only a couple chargers (Midwest here) and some asshole vandalizing them and leaving me stranded. But that's a concern that pops up once or twice a year at best. And the various charger apps are pretty good a letting you know they're down.

doctordevice ,

I do the same, metro commuting and a short trip to visit family (~50 miles each way) every couple weeks or so. I don't even have to plug in every time I get home, I only need to make sure I am charged up at least to 75% for the family visit. Level 1 charging is more than sufficient, I've only ever used a charging station just to see what it's like and try to use up some credit I got for them through my dealership.

For those without EVs: level 1 charging is just plugging into a standard 120V outlet. I have no special equipment at home, though I did need to confirm my breaker could handle it. For my 2023 Bolt EUV I charge about 1% per hour on the reduced charge setting (8 amps). If I do need to charge a little faster I can swap it to 12 amps, but I typically don't need to do that.

JasonDJ ,

Yeah I rented a Mustang Mach-E and drove between Houston, Austin, Dallas, and back to Houston, without very much charger anxiety. And not being confined to a slow charger...except on the way back to the airport. The first charger I found was a slow charger and all the fast ones were occupied. But still had plenty of charge to find the next station and get it high enough to return

menemen , (edited )
@menemen@lemmy.world avatar

Different for many people. For us it is that we live in an urban area parking on the street and charging it, even with the faster chargers nowadays, just doesn't fit into our schedule. We'd have to cut working hours if we'd want to get an EV. But other people have other problems with them

Luckily me and the children can completly get around by public transportation, scooters and bicycles. My wife cannot (for now at least). So, at least we only have one car for the 4 ouf us.

But I already know that you'll belittle out problems and come up with half assed solution (yes I know we can charge while shopping, but we walk to the supermarket). I had this discussion often with EV fanatics. Please spare me.

noxy ,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

"I can't charge at home" should be an easy way to shut down an EV evangelist. That should be a "get out of conversation free" card.

I say that as an EV evangelist myself, and I lived a few years in a condo with an EV and no EV charging in the garage (and adding charging was going to be cost prohibitive if even possible at all due to already crowded infrastructure). It sucked and ain't nobody got time for that.

MonkderDritte , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Actually, piston engines are really bad a torque. It's why they need a flywheel or a large amount of pistons.

HessiaNerd ,

Steam engines are 'piston engines' and they are pretty torquey, even at low rpm.

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