I’m Going to Have To Pass On Buying An Electric Car

In the early 1900s half the automobiles in New York City were electric.

Electric cars have existed since at least 1834, long before gasoline cars were invented.

Since the beginning, they have faced the same hurdles they do today: limited driving range and a lack of charging infrastructure. But things are changing fast.

Why did it take over 100 years for electric cars to appear on the drawing boards of major manufactures once again?

What killed the Electric Cars of the Past?

The 1912 model Cadillac became the first car to replace the hand crank with an electric starter motor.

Most automobile manufacturers switched over to the electric starter during the teens, although Ford's Model T continued using the hand crank through 1919.

Once the crank was gone there was much more freedom with a gasoline engine than an electric one.

You could carry extra gas in case you needed it. No way to carry extra electricity. Gasoline eventually won out and changed America forever.

Some Things To Ponder About the Electric Car

Here is one point of view.

A single electric-car battery weighs about 1,000 pounds. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving, and processing more than 500,000 pounds (250 Tons) of raw materials somewhere on the planet.

The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery’s seven-year life. (The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking by Mark P. Mills)

Where Are You Going To Plug It In?

A friend of mine put a charger in his garage for his electric vehicle.

He said it would have to be a direct line and couldn’t be on the same line as the house.

Otherwise, you couldn’t use appliances while the car was charging because of the power load.

Suppose it took most of a charge to drive to work. Leaving work how long would the lines be to recharge if it only took 15-20 minutes to recharge?

You can fill a normal gas tank is less than five minutes.

What if you’re in an apartment building? Too expensive for every tenant to have their own charger like a parking spot.

The more electric vehicles in your area the more demand for charging stations.

Recently there was a pileup during a freak snowstorm on I-95 near Washington, DC. Some people were trapped in their cars for over 24 hours.

EV’s (electric vehicles) can lose up to 20 percent of their power in very cold weather.

Those with EVs could use their seat heaters because it takes less than a 60-Watt bulb to do that.

Tesla EV’s must use the computers that would take 250 Watts. So, less time for heated seats. One side of you warm the other side freezing.

Idling your gas-powered vehicle on and off would heat the entire car. But would run out of gas before the EV ran out of power.

Driving with a heater, headlights, radio, would reduce the number of miles traveled but EVs will bug you when they start to get low on power.

Some Final Thoughts

Our electric grid on both coasts is already at 110 percent of capacity. California has regular rolling blackouts from time to time.

If the population moves to EVs we’re going to need a lot more reliable energy production and that usually mean coal = More pollution.

Gas or electric. They both have advantages and disadvantages. Being retired I don’t have a daily commute to work so my pollution footprint is pretty small.

A full tank of gas will easily last a month.

I’m not trying to speak for or against either. Just be sure your decision will work with your lifestyle.

Happy Motoring.

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