Re:Toyota Finally Has the Power in Electric Cars
by _bxg1 on Friday January 25, 2019 @12:49PM
(#19000392)
That is eye-opening, although:
> even if clean energy supplied all the power, over 1.5 million people would still have to switch
So it does factor in the current state of electricity-generation, which makes a big difference. I guess the way I've always looked at it is, the energy industry has a big head start (and much more flexibility) in moving to clean sources than cars do. It's really hard to:
1) Create a cultural change for billions of individual people
2) Replace the infrastructure of fueling stations
3) Create the technologies to make electric motors and storage feasible on a moving platform, where space and weight are at a premium
Each of those things has its own powerful network-effect holding it in place. While not easy per say, I think the energy sector has much more opportunity to branch out. If you want to try out clean nuclear energy, you just decide to make your next plant a nuclear one.
I honestly think one of Tesla's greatest contributions to the world - on par with its battery innovations - was making electric cars "cool". I think this was the core genius behind Musk's business plan. Much as we'd like to think otherwise, car culture in America has always been one of the greatest barriers to adoption of non-fossil-fuel vehicles; in the past, hybrids and electrics have always been boxy nerd-wagons. Elon said, "let's start with an exotic sports car". He broke that most entrenched of barriers and I think that's what really got the ball rolling.
> even if clean energy supplied all the power, over 1.5 million people would still have to switch
So it does factor in the current state of electricity-generation, which makes a big difference. I guess the way I've always looked at it is, the energy industry has a big head start (and much more flexibility) in moving to clean sources than cars do. It's really hard to:
1) Create a cultural change for billions of individual people
2) Replace the infrastructure of fueling stations
3) Create the technologies to make electric motors and storage feasible on a moving platform, where space and weight are at a premium
Each of those things has its own powerful network-effect holding it in place. While not easy per say, I think the energy sector has much more opportunity to branch out. If you want to try out clean nuclear energy, you just decide to make your next plant a nuclear one.
I honestly think one of Tesla's greatest contributions to the world - on par with its battery innovations - was making electric cars "cool". I think this was the core genius behind Musk's business plan. Much as we'd like to think otherwise, car culture in America has always been one of the greatest barriers to adoption of non-fossil-fuel vehicles; in the past, hybrids and electrics have always been boxy nerd-wagons. Elon said, "let's start with an exotic sports car". He broke that most entrenched of barriers and I think that's what really got the ball rolling.