News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4. Parent comment

Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by foepys on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:40PM (#26918365)
Not only that, there are entire continents where electric vehicles are simply not feasible. You cannot drive an EV 100km through mud and forests to get to a town just to charge it. Those EVs are not only very heavy and will sink in mud, they turn into bricks when empty. Have fun getting electricity into the jungle. A gas canister can be brought by anybody and filling the car up is quick. So most likely you will be hauling around generators - gas powered of course.

These are problems I don't see discussed anywhere when car manufacturers are claiming to go full EV by 2030.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by ajross on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:52PM (#26918489)
To be fair: vehicle density in rural Africa or South America or wherever you're thinking of is extremely low. To first approximation all cars are in cities (because to first approximation all people are in cities), and so to first approximation all cars can be feasibly replaced with EVs.

It's true there will always be edge cases best served by some other technology, but that's true about any device, not just cars.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by Already__Taken on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:54PM (#26918500)
How many of these places drive 2021 model cars right now?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by imtringued on Friday April 23, 2021 @06:08PM (#26919766)
Probably none, and most of them can't even afford a used car with AWD. Every time I hear about Americans buying offroad cars as a status symbol I think of people in Cameroon getting stuck in the muddiest dirt roads on the planet with their Golf 3.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by tatersolid on Sunday April 25, 2021 @07:36AM (#26931971)
I live in Suburban Chicago. AWD and ground clearance are not “status symbols” here: there’s a thing called snow 1/3 of the year.

Our last big snow storm of the season required me to pick up my in-laws and take them to the doctor. Their BMW 5-whatever sedan couldn’t even make it out of their parking garage.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by rswail on Saturday April 24, 2021 @03:18AM (#26922953)
>Have fun getting electricity into the jungle.

There is already generators there, solar power and batteries will replace that. But people in the jungle either don't drive, or there is a river with boats. Is a small electric motor boat that much different to one running on petrol?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by agloeregrets on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:54PM (#26918506)
Yup! Plus in the US the majority of all cars are not parked in a garage or driveway. How do those charge?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by plorkyeran on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:18PM (#26918738)
I see power cables running out to a car parked in front of a house fairly regularly.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by martyvis on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:57PM (#26919128)
In inner Sydney suburbs with terrace houses, the 2sigma distance to your street parked car might be 100 metres. You can't run an extension cord that far
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by rswail on Saturday April 24, 2021 @03:20AM (#26922971)
The government/local councils seem to be able to work out how to power the parking meters. There's no reason why each parking spot couldn't have a charging pole installed with smartcard or NFC via mobile app registration and payment.

There are plenty of solutions, what's needed is the will of government to deploy those solutions.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by Dylan16807 on Friday April 23, 2021 @07:04PM (#26920285)
How impractical is assigning parking spots?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by tommoor on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:38PM (#26919522)
> in the US the majority of all cars are not parked in a garage or driveway.

Source? That seems highly unlikely

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by erik_seaberg on Saturday April 24, 2021 @12:13AM (#26922198)
The US as a whole is 65% homeowners, but population density drives that down. The Bay Area is below 44%. There are hundreds of thousands of apartments here with street parking where you can find it, or rows of carports in 2–3 story complexes that may or may not be lit but definitely no metered outlets.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by tommoor on Monday May 03, 2021 @07:14PM (#27032112)
Yep, I live in the city – most folks in apartments don't have a car. Id still hazard to say that most cars in America live in a garage or driveway and OP didn't back up their claim so :shrug:
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by bananabreakfast on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:15PM (#26919292)
Chargers are installed in parking lots everywhere. Just because you haven't noticed them doesn't mean they aren't there.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by mavhc on Saturday April 24, 2021 @02:45AM (#26922782)
Charging points installed on lamp posts, due to lamp posts switching to LED lights there's lots of spare power capacity.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by bananabreakfast on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:14PM (#26919279)
That's probably because car manufacturers are not making electric cars to traverse the jungle. That is an extremely niche use case compared to the global car driving population and a straw-man argument.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by emkoemko on Saturday April 24, 2021 @01:08AM (#26922403)
electric car drove on the moon we are fine... give enough time and people in jungles will be using electric eventually, hydrogen or battery
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by kingsuper20 on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:27PM (#26918823)
It would be interesting to see an EV design that's appropriate for the Third World.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by Tagbert on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:15PM (#26919286)
Look at some of the Chinese market cars. They are much closer to what you are thinking of.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by Hamuko on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:24PM (#26919363)
Honda Super Cub with a battery.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by emkoemko on Saturday April 24, 2021 @01:11AM (#26922412)
well you could go to town and get a tank of hydrogen and fill up your tank and go?

seriously we drove a electric car on the moon and your telling me we can't figure out how to drive in remote places?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by foepys on Saturday April 24, 2021 @01:51PM (#26926847)
Hydrogen transport is actually quite complicated. There are many villages where you buy gas in cola bottles, so I wouldn't bet on hydrogen to be available, even in 20 years. Gas powered generators will be more likely.

> seriously we drove a electric car on the moon

How else would you drive on the moon? ICE needs oxygen for combustion.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by emkoemko on Saturday April 24, 2021 @02:55PM (#26927382)
take your hydrogen tank with you.... plus you can generate hydrogen anywhere using solar power.

using a ICE engineered for low gravity? with your own supply of oxygen?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4 by foepys on Saturday April 24, 2021 @03:22PM (#26927565)
I think you underestimate the amount of pressure hydrogen tanks are under. You need pretty large solar panels to power the compressor alone. So large that you can better charge a battery over a day or two.

Why engineer a new kind of ICE when electric engines and batteries are already ready to go as they are both needed for the flight to the moon? Also, you don't want explosions in space. Especially not when supplied with oxygen tanks.

[ Parent | on HN ]