Re:Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
by llampx on Saturday January 23, 2021 @12:23PM
(#25884189)
Yep where its so cold, block heaters are popular. You see little plugs sticking out from under the bonnet. Diesels are also less popular in frigid climates because the fuel becomes a gel at those temperatures.
With most BEVs nowadays, you can set the battery to warm up and also warm up the interior on mains power before you set off. Far more convenient and comfortable than scraping the frost off, getting into a freezing cold car, and hoping the engine gets warm enough to put out some warm air before you succumb to frostbite.
I've noticed that HN and Reddit tends to gravitate to ridiculous examples to show how "Solution A" can't possibly work.
Re:Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
by packetlost on Friday January 22, 2021 @05:49PM
(#25877278)
EVs are pretty impractical to virtually impossible for use in the vast majority of the American Midwest. With temperatures that frequently get below 0F in the winter and the huge distance between cities, I will be very surprised if EVs have anywhere close to a majority within the next 10-20 years here. Some people own them as their 'commuter' vehicle and own ICE vehicles for longer distances, but most people can't afford or don't have space to store 2 vehicles.
Re:Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption
by JoshuaJB on Friday January 22, 2021 @08:58PM
(#25878796)
As of fairly recently, the average US household had 1.9 vehicles. [1]
[1] https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/highlights_of_the_2...
If I had to guess, you live in Canada which is a country of extremes like what you mention.
The solution for Canada probably isn't to prohibit ICE vehicles, but to disincentivize them heavily where they make less sense. So in the areas where extreme cold and long range is the use case, provide an exemption. Out here on Vancouver Island where the longest possible route is less than 500km and a cold day is one where there's frost on my car, there's really not a great reason for me to be buying a brand new ICE car 10 years from now. Same thing for when I lived in Vancouver and drove 5,000 km per year.
My point is that a huge majority of people live in circumstances where electric cars will be fine. We shouldn't let the corner cases (living in a place with extreme cold where driving 400km to the airport is routine) dictate what the rest of the world needs to do.