VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K: source

Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by 666lumberjack on Friday November 09, 2018 @08:01AM (#18414027)

Good enough for 99% of civilian cars, maybe, but I'm a lot more skeptical about the ability of battery-electric power to replace trains, long-haul trucks, etc. The expectation as far as range for those is high enough that enough batteries would either add too much weight or just flat-out not fit.

I expect long-term we'll probably settle on something like 75% batteries / 25% hydrogen for ground transportation, and the reverse of that ratio for aircraft (although I wouldn't expect hydrogen planes to be using fuel cells).

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by rusticpenn on Friday November 09, 2018 @08:31AM (#18414176)

Trains? I hope that one day we see electric trains...

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by jhayward on Friday November 09, 2018 @10:14AM (#18414950)

I'm not sure what you mean. There have been electric trains for nearly 100 years. I mean, ever heard of the TGV?

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by gamblor956 on Friday November 09, 2018 @11:53AM (#18415816)

I've taken an electric train to work every day for the past year and a half...

Most of the new light rail and subway lines in the US are electric trains.

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by tonyedgecombe on Friday November 09, 2018 @08:20AM (#18414120)

Trains don't really need it as you can just string up some overhead cables. Long haul freight should be on the railway anyway.

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by 666lumberjack on Friday November 09, 2018 @02:00PM (#18416918)

Electrification is great, but it's also been declining for decades in the US, to less than one percent of route miles.

Taking a figure of half a million dollars per mile (which is less than the numbers I could find, but let's be conservative) you're looking at ~130 billion dollars. That's theoretically affordable for the government, maybe, but never going to happen politically speaking.

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by nradov on Friday November 09, 2018 @09:13AM (#18414432)

Hydrogen is not viable. Production is inefficient, energy density is low, and handling is difficult. For long-range transportation where batteries are insufficient the real alternative will be carbon neutral synthetic liquid fuel.

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by spacenick88 on Friday November 09, 2018 @02:06PM (#18416974)

Well as for trains you can still run them using wires, almost the entire European railway network is electrified

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Re:VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23K:... by cies on Friday November 09, 2018 @10:20AM (#18415015)

Boats, seaships, airplanes, rockets... Big-F'in'-Rockets!

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