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      09-01-2020, 10:12 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AP View Post
I think we may well look back in the future and see how battery electric cars are a niche and interim solution

They suit some people very well but I don't think work for the majority of people.
Governments are pushing us to use these but I'm not sure I have 100% faith in their decisions!

You may have heard of the case where in Australia someone bought a Nissan Leaf ( first generation ev ) and it got to about 7-8 years old and required a new battery. That came to A$ 33000 and effectively wrote off the car. So a car viewed as sustainable only lasted 7-8 years.

My view is that hydrogen fuel cells are the future but that's not to say there is still a lot to figure out and build out the infrastructure.

Cars are supposed to be convieninet and hunting around for a charger is not my idea of that.

The 45e engine does sound like a good idea. Best of both worlds, straight 6 and smooth refund drive around town
I’m sorry, but how will you obtain all that hydrogen to fuel the millions of cars? Will you burn coal or natural gas in an electric power plant to extract it from water? Or will you decompose some fossil fuel to get at it?

This isn’t about the infrastructure, it is about production. Electrolysis is not very efficient, you are consuming electricity to separate hydrogen from water, only to recombine it back into water - essentially hydrogen is used as an energy accumulator.

So, you would need to fix the electrical energy production first before this makes sense. But at that point it may still make more sense to use batteries for energy storage, since the infrastructure is so much easier to build, and safer than hydrogen.


Additionally, I’d like to point out that battery technology is evolving far faster than the ICE ever did. If you were to drop in on Mr. Karl Benz’s very crude first automotive effort to comment on the efficiency and long term sustainability, you would conclude it will never be a viable proposition. Give electric cars another generation, and they will have close to the longevity offered by the ICE counterparts.

I’m a petrolhead at heart, but still rightfully concluded that an electric only car would not suit my family needs at this point in time. But in 2-3 years when the time comes to replace the X3, I’ll most likely go electric.
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