Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by adrianN on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @06:53AM
(#33093746)
I hate it when "zero emission vehicles" stands for "electric cars". We have trains, bicycles, and a number of non-car electric vehicles too. We should try to reduce the number of cars on road, not just make them electric.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by socialismisok on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:31AM
(#33096043)
Here are a few reasons:
Cars still pollute - dust from tires causes harm to lungs and streams and is contributing to the decline of salmon populations.
Cars are heavy, damaging roads, increasing maintenance costs compared to electric bikes or public transit.
Cars are large, and need to be parked. That means larger roads and more parking lots, rather than using the space for housing, businesses, or parks. Bikes, buses, and trains don't have the same problem.
Cars reduce access to cities - highways and arterials are difficult to cross, and divide neighborhood activities.
Cars are dangerous, humans are generally only moderately adept at driving them. We have tons of injuries and deaths because people are bad at driving. (Or have to drive when they shouldn't.)
Cars are inefficient. The energy used to move 1 person via a car compared to any other form of transport is one to two orders of magnitude higher.
Cars require distributed energy rather than the centralized infrastructure that public transit requires, which means many small chargers rather than one electrified rail.
Cars aren't affordable for everyone, leading to inequalities in who is eligible to work at certain jobs.
There are probably more reasons, but cars are a deeply inefficient and costly means of transport.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by nwah1 on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @11:09AM
(#33096548)
More reasons:
It makes the world uglier, noisier, and homogenized.
It makes urban regions hostile to families with children.
It creates a constant feeling of stress and aggression (road rage)
It requires a surveillance state, a police state, and thousands of laws that all must be followed precisely to uphold. And this takes away justice system resources that could be used for other things.
The roads must constantly be under construction, adding annoyance and expense for everyone.
Congestion wastes innumerable hours of our lives.
Not great with kids because car seats are expensive, annoying to install, and keeps you more tied to one vehicle because ridesharing and rentals don't always have them.
They are an attractive target for thieves because they are among the single most expensive things people own and you can use the loot itself to escape.
It comes with an endless barrage of annoyances for the drivers: parking fees, tolls, insurance, tickets, license renewals, city stickers, emissions tests, maintenance, car washes, refueling, getting towed, getting booted, etc.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by CalRobert on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:51AM
(#33095578)
Drivers kill over 40,000 people a year in the US, and over a million people a year around the globe. Drivers are the leading cause of dead kids in many places, and places built for driving are extremely unpleasant for walking, biking, chatting, etc. They also are very expensive to provide services to and maintain.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by VBprogrammer on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @07:54AM
(#33094206)
Keeping the number of cars on the road flat would be a huge achievement. The fact is that cars provide a huge amount of utility which is hard to give up unless you live in a dense city with good public transport provisions.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by ThunderSizzle on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @08:14AM
(#33094401)
Not necessarily, but that's how the anti-car crowd wants to frame the discussion, which is why it's not going to get anywhere.
If you want to increase non-car infrastructure, you need to convince people it's in their best interest, not attempt to punish them for owning a car. People would love to have an fast, safe, and convenient system for getting around, and right now, that's a car. Most anti-car discussions talk about punishing people for having a car without trying to replace it with something sensible that is fast, safe, and convenient. Of course there's push back.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by adrianN on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @08:26AM
(#33094538)
If you want to increase non-car infrastructure you either have the problem that you have room, but density is insufficient (e.g. suburbia, cities with too many huge parking lots), or that there is no room (e.g. reasonably dense metro areas). In either case you need to fundamentally restructure the infrastructure to make public transport attractive. That's not really possible without making life worse for drivers.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by ThunderSizzle on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @08:49AM
(#33094815)
Again, that's where you lose the discussion. You think motorists love huge parking lots or wide roads. They don't. They couldn't care less - they just want sufficient parking and sufficient travel lanes to get around. If there's one fast lane with less traffic, they'll be happier than 5 lanes of slow traffic. They don't want congestion, and are willing to support initiatives that reduce congestion. Right now, the only consistent initiative is either painting bike lanes in the middle of no where that no one will use or adding more car lanes.
But the frame of the discussion right now is to punish motorists for being motorists - they don't have a choice. They can't afford to live closer (or there's no options that give what they are looking for), and there's no safe, fast, or convenient way to any place they need to go without a car.
Give them a safe, fast, and convenient way from suburbia to downtown, and they'll support reducing highways into half their size. Right now, the discussion is "suburbia bad, car bad, you bad - be better"
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by adrianN on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:15AM
(#33095149)
Now please suggest how you want to provide fast convenient car travel without wide roads and lots of parking. I'm all ears for clever plans that can replace five lanes of slow traffic with one lane of fast traffic. The only one I can think of is to cut the number of cars by at least 80%, probably more.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by Scene_Cast2 on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:50AM
(#33096289)
One thing I haven't seem explored much is having car-carrying trains. Load your car onto a train, get to downtown fast without traffic jams, drop off the car in an adjacent parking lot once you're in the city. Walk around a mostly car-free city, then take the car-train back to suburbia where you can drive the last 5 miles back to your house and park overnight.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by ThunderSizzle on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:33AM
(#33096064)
Yes. A goal is to reduce the number of cars & to optimize the space used for other modes of transportation. However, to achieve that goal, you need wide & motivated political support. You want people to support your goal in the way MAGA crowds line up for hours to cheer for Trump - otherwise, you're not going to get it done.
You don't achieve that by talking down to them, treating their choices with disdain, or telling them that they expect to much. You do that by giving them a vision they want to fight for & a path to fight for it. A vision, for example, where you don't need to drive, but you could drive - and that driving experience will be even better than today. A vision that you wouldn't want to drive, even though the driving experience is even better than today, because the alternative is even better than an improved driving experience. That's how you achieve support.
If you tell them they should stop using cars, they're going to ignore you, because there's no better alternative or even remotely equivalent alternative. If you actually try implementing it without making a better alternative, they're going to resent you and your goal.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by adrianN on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @12:06PM
(#33097329)
You need to tell them that you'll take away space from cars in the dense area of the city and make the suburbs denser. Otherwise you wouldn't be telling the truth. Neither statement is popular.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by ThunderSizzle on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:45AM
(#33096200)
Even in a metro area with nothing but cars (& a token bus system), it's still the fastest, safest, and most convenient method of transportation, because there is no real alternative.
If you attack the fastest, safest, and most convenient method without providing an alternative that is even better, you will face resentment. If you can provide an alternative that is even better while making driving better too, you'll probably get enough real support to make it reality.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by adrianN on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:58AM
(#33095655)
Trains transport a lot more people per resource. There is obviously no alternative with zero impact. Even walking uses nonrenewable resources. Cars are just much more wasteful than other modes of transportation.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by Rygian on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @07:35AM
(#33094041)
The market trend seems to confirm the Clean Hydrogen Ladder [1] prediction that Fuel Cell Vehicles are a bad idea.
Quote: "FCVs continue to find it difficult to compete with BEVs on cost
and popularity and are unlikely to gain market share in the
passenger vehicle segment."
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by VBprogrammer on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @07:48AM
(#33094152)
I was reading some assesment from the UK Health and Safety executive that in order to meet the same capacity as a typical petrol / diesel station a hydrogen station would need 2 truck deliveries of liquid hydrogen per day, something like 5% of trucks on the road would be employed delivering hydrogen.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by TheLoafOfBread on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @08:09AM
(#33094349)
Is it only me, or those graphs are resembling S curve which is slowly getting to its plateau, because rich people bought their BEVs and poor can't afford them?
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by cantaloupe on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @11:51AM
(#33097121)
BEVs remain mostly a luxury purchase right now in the west, but the price of the average EV in China has been dropping precipitously (almost 50% in the last 10 years) [1]. Several big US auto manufacturers are also gearing up to break into the ~$20k market in the next few years.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by TheLoafOfBread on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @12:03PM
(#33097282)
20k USD EV also means less than 100 miles range and/or some variation of "scooter with a roof" car like Hong Guang Mini EV, which looks nice until the first accident.
Thing with BEVs is that the moment you want something what is at least close to parameters of current ICE vehicles, you are getting back to 50k USD territory. And it does not matter if it is made in China, USA or Europe.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by TheLoafOfBread on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @11:03AM
(#33096458)
That sounds more like a wishful thinking, because on used cars you will see Tesla and Chevy Bolts for price of new units and Nissan Leaf with depleted batteries.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by neogodless on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @11:10AM
(#33096555)
The pricing in used cars is more so a factor of current overall automotive market conditions, than it is due to electric cars. Though, for sure, there just aren't a lot of EVs to buy (used or new), so the used ones are commanding higher prices for anyone trying to make the switch.
But those same market conditions are also encouraging manufacturers to target the high end first. As conditions evolve, budget (electric) vehicles should become more available.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by tacker2000 on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:53AM
(#33095603)
A very interesting point shown here is the extremely large amount of overall energy storage/saving capacity that will be in the EVs themselves and the questions of how to “leverage” that, by bi-directional charging, for example.
What else could be possible here?
Huge grids powered by “undriven” EVs, whilst their owners receive cashback?
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by tromp on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @11:03AM
(#33096463)
> The cumulative storage available from the EV fleet is so large that if
it were all available, it would saturate revenues in the power system.
This means there is likely a limit to the share of vehicles that charge
bi-directionally.
Having too much EV battery capacity available to support grid energy storage seems like a very nice problem to have and should further boost investments in wind and solar. I hope that bidirectional charging ports become a requirement on all high-priced future housing.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by ZeroGravitas on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:45AM
(#33096210)
Just demand shifting of charging will have a big impact. EVs are a battery and and a computer on wheels. Charging automatically when the grid is cheap and green is going to really help the roll out of renewables.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by roter on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:05AM
(#33095034)
For somebody not well-versed in EV developments, pg. 13, titled "EVs will have 17 times the battery capacity of stationary storage systems by 2030", made interesting reading.
On a side note, I found many of the graphs difficult to differentiate.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by Gordonjcp on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:32AM
(#33095350)
So a very long way from "zero emission" then, depending on where its power comes from.
I guess if you stretch the definition rules sufficiently my 25-year-old 4.6 litre V8 4x4 is a "Negative-Emission Vehicle" because it actively reduces the amount of toxic pollution in the air, when you take it down some of the more polluted roads. Drive it in a bus lane and the exhaust gases are cleaner than the air it's sucking in - it's warm carbon dioxide and water vapour, with all the HC, CO and particulates stripped out.
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by pwinnski on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @09:49AM
(#33095561)
You can imagine a worst-case scenario for the electricity used to charge the cars, or you can imagine a best-case scenario.
The car itself is zero-emission by the definition posted. You are hypothesizing that the electricity used to charge the car comes from a dirty source, but that has nothing to do with the car itself, and in Texas for example, it's easily to choose a "100% renewable" energy provider. I just checked PowerToChoose[0] and found 26 "100% Renewable" plans available from companies like CleanSky[1].
Re:Zero-Emission Vehicles Progress Dashboard [pdf]
by Gordonjcp on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @10:22AM
(#33095936)
It's the same in Scotland. Right now the whole country is powered by 100% renewable energy but everything is priced based on all power being generated in and for London from natural gas, because we have to prop up England's failed capitalist experiment.
I mean if cities were more walkable there'd be less need to join the arms race of more and more aggressive cars on the road.
Cars still pollute - dust from tires causes harm to lungs and streams and is contributing to the decline of salmon populations.
Cars are heavy, damaging roads, increasing maintenance costs compared to electric bikes or public transit.
Cars are large, and need to be parked. That means larger roads and more parking lots, rather than using the space for housing, businesses, or parks. Bikes, buses, and trains don't have the same problem.
Cars reduce access to cities - highways and arterials are difficult to cross, and divide neighborhood activities.
Cars are dangerous, humans are generally only moderately adept at driving them. We have tons of injuries and deaths because people are bad at driving. (Or have to drive when they shouldn't.)
Cars are inefficient. The energy used to move 1 person via a car compared to any other form of transport is one to two orders of magnitude higher.
Cars require distributed energy rather than the centralized infrastructure that public transit requires, which means many small chargers rather than one electrified rail.
Cars aren't affordable for everyone, leading to inequalities in who is eligible to work at certain jobs.
There are probably more reasons, but cars are a deeply inefficient and costly means of transport.
It makes the world uglier, noisier, and homogenized.
It makes urban regions hostile to families with children.
It creates a constant feeling of stress and aggression (road rage)
It requires a surveillance state, a police state, and thousands of laws that all must be followed precisely to uphold. And this takes away justice system resources that could be used for other things.
The roads must constantly be under construction, adding annoyance and expense for everyone.
Congestion wastes innumerable hours of our lives.
Not great with kids because car seats are expensive, annoying to install, and keeps you more tied to one vehicle because ridesharing and rentals don't always have them.
They are an attractive target for thieves because they are among the single most expensive things people own and you can use the loot itself to escape.
It comes with an endless barrage of annoyances for the drivers: parking fees, tolls, insurance, tickets, license renewals, city stickers, emissions tests, maintenance, car washes, refueling, getting towed, getting booted, etc.
If you want to increase non-car infrastructure, you need to convince people it's in their best interest, not attempt to punish them for owning a car. People would love to have an fast, safe, and convenient system for getting around, and right now, that's a car. Most anti-car discussions talk about punishing people for having a car without trying to replace it with something sensible that is fast, safe, and convenient. Of course there's push back.
But the frame of the discussion right now is to punish motorists for being motorists - they don't have a choice. They can't afford to live closer (or there's no options that give what they are looking for), and there's no safe, fast, or convenient way to any place they need to go without a car.
Give them a safe, fast, and convenient way from suburbia to downtown, and they'll support reducing highways into half their size. Right now, the discussion is "suburbia bad, car bad, you bad - be better"
You don't achieve that by talking down to them, treating their choices with disdain, or telling them that they expect to much. You do that by giving them a vision they want to fight for & a path to fight for it. A vision, for example, where you don't need to drive, but you could drive - and that driving experience will be even better than today. A vision that you wouldn't want to drive, even though the driving experience is even better than today, because the alternative is even better than an improved driving experience. That's how you achieve support.
If you tell them they should stop using cars, they're going to ignore you, because there's no better alternative or even remotely equivalent alternative. If you actually try implementing it without making a better alternative, they're going to resent you and your goal.
If you attack the fastest, safest, and most convenient method without providing an alternative that is even better, you will face resentment. If you can provide an alternative that is even better while making driving better too, you'll probably get enough real support to make it reality.
Quote: "FCVs continue to find it difficult to compete with BEVs on cost and popularity and are unlikely to gain market share in the passenger vehicle segment."
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/clean-hydrogen-ladder-v40-mic...
I assume the primary counterargument would be that hydrogen production can be either onsite or local so in practice that wouldn't be the result.
I don't really have any favorites, but it seems like this stuff changes over time.
[1] https://www.euronews.com/next/amp/2021/09/28/china-s-carmake...
Thing with BEVs is that the moment you want something what is at least close to parameters of current ICE vehicles, you are getting back to 50k USD territory. And it does not matter if it is made in China, USA or Europe.
But those same market conditions are also encouraging manufacturers to target the high end first. As conditions evolve, budget (electric) vehicles should become more available.
Having too much EV battery capacity available to support grid energy storage seems like a very nice problem to have and should further boost investments in wind and solar. I hope that bidirectional charging ports become a requirement on all high-priced future housing.
On a side note, I found many of the graphs difficult to differentiate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-emissions_vehicle
I guess if you stretch the definition rules sufficiently my 25-year-old 4.6 litre V8 4x4 is a "Negative-Emission Vehicle" because it actively reduces the amount of toxic pollution in the air, when you take it down some of the more polluted roads. Drive it in a bus lane and the exhaust gases are cleaner than the air it's sucking in - it's warm carbon dioxide and water vapour, with all the HC, CO and particulates stripped out.
The car itself is zero-emission by the definition posted. You are hypothesizing that the electricity used to charge the car comes from a dirty source, but that has nothing to do with the car itself, and in Texas for example, it's easily to choose a "100% renewable" energy provider. I just checked PowerToChoose[0] and found 26 "100% Renewable" plans available from companies like CleanSky[1].
0. https://powertochoose.org/en-us
1. https://cleanskyenergy.com