In Defense of Re-Volting Cars

When someone comes up with a solid and sufficiently detailed comment to one of my blogs (my recent Are Electric Cars Revolting?), sometimes it’s better to post that response without edits:

Oilygarch said...

Thanks Peter, for your thought-provoking article.

1) We are starting to see ranges in excess of 200 miles per charge in some EVs. I anticipate that that will probably at least double by 2025. At that point, you can kiss range anxiety goodbye. But in the mean time 200 miles is not bad at all considering most people's daily commute is within 40 miles RT.

2) Most of the EVs in the US use Lithium Ion, which yes, as you said use Cobalt, which is a rare earth mineral. Nevertheless China has revolutionized the use of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, which do not contain cobalt. These are less expensive for them to make. We in the US are behind in this technology. Furthermore, lithium can be obtained through Chile. But cobalt seems to be a worry to get one's hands on. I would like to see an initiative promoting the US has to advance its technology to catch up with China in the making of the Iron Phosphate variety.

3) When Li batteries "wear out" they can still be used as storage devices for solar in one's own home. And contrary to the belief that an entire battery pack would need to be replaced when one of the cells goes bad, simply replace the faulty cell. Industry would want people to believe that the entire $6K battery pack needs replacement, because it is more lucrative to capitalize that way, and much less so if they just have to replace a faulty $300 cell. But *shhh* they want to keep that a secret.

4) Everybody talks about the Chevy Volt, and the Nissan Leaf, both of which are good cars and all, but, they are also too darned expensive! Why not talk about EVs such as the Mitsubishi iMiEV [pictured above] and the Chevy Spark and the Reva. Their prices hover much closer to $20K. Now we're talkin'! The recent introduction of these cars will also force cars such as the Volt and the Leaf to come down. That's where capitalism helps keep prices in check. ;-)

5) What do you suppose will be the price of gas in 2025, even 2020, 2015?

6) with so many folks showing up on YouTube demonstrating how one can DYI convert their existing cars into EVs or natural gas-burning cars for less than $2K, if we REALLY were concerned about energy independence and all, why isn't the government promoting THIS? It is absolutely more tangible than expecting regular folks to fork up the price of a Chevy Volt. Why aren't there tax-breaks for such conversions or initiatives to promote these options and make them more mainstream. Instead of just "cash for clunkers", how about an initiative to get your existing car converted?? I think I might know the reason why, it would not artificially promote the purchase of YET ANOTHER gas car which is what they want you to do because it would artificially produce more jobs.

7) What about the jobs that could be produced by massive electro-or natural-gas-conversions of pre-existing vehicles? Oh, but that would take away the jobs of all those supporting every aspect of the Internal Combustion Engine as we know it including tune-ups, oil-changes, muffler repairs, fuel-pumps, radiators, oil-filters, bloated associated parts and service departments, distributor caps, spark plugs, air filters, carburetors, glow plugs, injectors, manifolds, you name it.... *Oops! That would also be associated to cars running on natural gas. Sorry. ;-)

I’m Peter Dekom, and it would be so nice if the government would actually fund this kind of research instead of the military kind!