Germany is bracing for a major electric vehicle shock

[Neo]

When Dirk Kosbad started working at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau in 1990, his job was to assemble the Trabant, East Germany’s signature car, by hand. Now, over 30 years later, he works in the same factory as a shift supervisor: watching over orange robots gliding swiftly around a silver car frame, shooting tiny bolts of lighting here and there, welding together the various parts that will soon enclose a large rectangular battery. Zwickau is the nucleus for Volkswagen’s shift to electric mobility


After over a century of unrivalled power, the internal combustion engine has had its day. The list of countries planning bans on the sale of combustion-engine cars is growing:

more at link

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/germ...ehicles-europe

[Wilson2]

When Dirk Kosbad started working at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau in 1990, his job was to assemble the Trabant, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/germ...ehicles-europe

Electric cars are lucky to get 200 miles to a charge. That means they are good for local tasks like driving to work and back. Battery capacity degrades with cold temperature. EV cars dont have air conditioning, the ones that do don’t get far so good luck with these cars in places like Florida. Imagine driving a long distance, drive 3 hours and stop for an hour to recharge.

Wait until the parking lot has to have a charger at every spot, an ev charges at 28-60 kw. For a 100 car parking lot that’s 6 megawatts. That’s massive. Imagine apartment complexes and subdivisions having to accommodate all ev. The electrical grid is going to have to be hugely expanded if every vehicle is ev. Each ev is equivalent to the electrical needs of 1/4 to 1/2 of a house.

And wait until millions of very toxic batteries have to be manufactured and wear out.

Dumping internal combustion engines for battery powered cars is stupid.

[YellowRose]

The challenge will no doubt be one of where the electricity will come from. There is always a trafeOff, and this one will be much worse than most people realize. There is no magic solution, but people can't mentally visualize....it is similar to the common lack of understanding when the masses turn on a water spigot. They have this fantasy that they turn a faucet handle and water just appears out of a wall.

[Common]

Electric cars are unsupportable in the USA....you buy an electric car in fla, you need to go to NY, what would take you two days...would take you 5...you have to FIND a charging station, then sit around for 2 reasons, one you may have to wait to hook up, 2 it can take 5 hrs or more to charge. Full electric cars are BS...hybrids far more feasible.

Can we afford to literally put MILLIONS of people out of work and business. think of the people that work in the oil industry in the USA, and then every single gas station across america...if we went full electric and WHAT ABOUT THE GRID it would take decades to get it up to speed and TRillions....

Democrats are such wild assholes that dont care or dont think of anything past the tip of their noses...

[Freewill]

The challenge will no doubt be one of where the electricity will come from. There is always a trafeOff, and this one will be much worse than most people realize. There is no magic solution, but people can't mentally visualize....it is similar to the common lack of understanding when the masses turn on a water spigot. They have this fantasy that they turn a faucet handle and water just appears out of a wall.

The answer is so easy and seems to be the one the administration is pursuing.

All that is needed is to install charging stations. Make it mandatory to install them during new construction. Having a place to plug in your electric car is as short sighted as we need be, the rest will take care of itself. Shutting down coal stations is a start.

[Freewill]

Electric cars are unsupportable in the USA....you buy an electric car in fla, you need to go to NY, what would take you two days...would take you 5...you have to FIND a charging station, then sit around for 2 reasons, one you may have to wait to hook up, 2 it can take 5 hrs or more to charge. Full electric cars are BS...hybrids far more feasible.

Can we afford to literally put MILLIONS of people out of work and business. think of the people that work in the oil industry in the USA, and then every single gas station across america...if we went full electric and WHAT ABOUT THE GRID it would take decades to get it up to speed and TRillions....

Democrats are such wild assholes that dont care or dont think of anything past the tip of their noses...

Gloom doom agony despair. All that is needed is a gas generator in the trunk of the EV car, problem solved. Or maybe gasoline driven mobile charging vehicles that can come to wherever you run out of juice.

[Kodiak]

My wife had a 2015 Lexus RX450 hybrid we bought new. We got rid of it last year when we found out if the battery takes a crap it's $8000 to replace. Screw that!

[Freewill]

Let's face facts, at least according to me.

Gasoline is not going to last forever it is a finite supply so why not develop and alternative now?

Electric vehicles make sense for around town and golf courses. But long range, no way. One solution would be that for what we use our vehicles for mostly, short distances, that would be an ev. But for long distance a gasoline car could be rented. We already have in infrastructure to support such of an idea.

In reality EV, gasoline, diesel is probably not in the consumer's future. But I don't think that EV is the sole answer, hydrogen technology is the answer. While I read it is being tried in CA the infrastructure to support it isn't there, so it is a matter of the country making a logical decision and seeing which way we want our country to go.

Converting a gasoline engine over to natural gas is relatively cheap compared to buying batteries. I bought some AA batteries the other day and was surprised at the cost.

[Frankenvoter]

The answer is so easy and seems to be the one the admiration is pursuing.

All that is needed is to install charging stations. Make it mandatory to install them during new construction. Having a place to plug in your electric car is as short sighted as we need be, the rest will take care of itself. Shutting down coal stations is a start.

Why not let the market decide? If electric vehicles are so great people would buy them and use them forcing a need for charging stations but as always big brother knows best, and people who have a fetish of government get a thrill up their leg thinking about yet one more mandate.

I remember hearing a guy from Brazil on the radio talking about their gas stations down there as compared to ours where we have a choice of unleaded, unleaded, or unleaded.

He said down there you can get leaded gas if you want, compressed natural gas, diesel, ethanol, all of which had their plusses and minuses and why people would choose one over the other.

Natural gas is great for large vehicles like school buses on level surfaces but it sucks trying to get them uphill, it doesn't have the pulling power of diesel which is great for that purpose but some people like the immediate start of a gas engine and not waiting on a diersel to warm up the glow plugs first but either way you go to a gas station down there and you have CHOICE, unlike here where "big brother knows best" and people who have a fetish for government and the know it all one size fits all control they offer makes them sleep better at night knowing the decision has been made for them, almost admitting in the process they're too stupid to try and make that decision themselves.

No, I'm not calling you stupid, I'm calling any government mandate loving big brother fetishinado stupid, and nosy as in mind your own business, let me mind mine.

He finished with "we have choice, you dont, but yet we're the "backwards" people according to you". I'm almost ready to leave the country and trade the "freedom" I have here to do what I'm told for the freedom I'd have down there as long as I can pay for it and since what I do for a living is a worldwide need, I'll learn latin quick once I'm immersed in it, communist government lovers can stay right here where they belong.

[Freewill]

My wife had a 2015 Lexus RX450 hybrid we bought new. We got rid of it last year when we found out if the battery takes a crap it's $8000 to replace. Screw that!

EV is in its infancy. The price of the battery, in my opinion, will come down, eventually. Much like when the iPhone came out, it was priced out of most people's budget, but now we all have one, or one similar.

I don't know if possible but I believe the other answer is super capacitors, that just store energy. In my opinion they would be faster charging and theoretically never go bad.