This Stunning Chart Shows Why Battery Electric Vehicles Win

[OnlinePoker]

I’ve seen these arguments made so many times, countless times, but humans are not as great as we think we are at comprehending and synthesizing written arguments. They say that a picture is a thousand words, but a picture is better than a thousand words, because a thousand words is often too verbose to make a good point. Just share that chart any time you’re trying to explain to someone why battery electric vehicles are the future.

It’s not purely about fuel efficiency either. You get more power at a greater efficiency. You don’t have to deal with the way inefficiencies show themselves — loud rumbling, a vibrating car, polluted air. You don’t have the costs that come with hundreds of devices meant to improve efficiency. More efficient just equals better.

Naturally, as battery costs come down, the fundamental efficiencies and benefits of electric powertrains show themselves more and more. Electric cars get more and more competitive — er, well, increasingly better than their inefficient competitors.

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/06/10/this-stunning-chart-shows-why-battery-electric-vehicles-win/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. That's very nice, but I'm still waiting for an EV

that costs about as much as the 2017 Honda Fit I bought 18 months ago, and will go more than a couple of hundred miles without needing 30 minutes or more to re-charge. I normally go on long driving trips several times a year, so the limited range of most of them won't work for me.

Perhaps they can make EVs with solar panels on the roof, to help supplement the charging station charges.

[cojoel]

2. There is not enough surface area on a car

These days a solar panel might produce 400 Watts at optimum lighting conditions. There is enough surface area on a car roof for perhaps the equivalent number of cells of two panels, or 800 Watts in optimum lighting conditions. Meanwhile, a frugal EV is might be able to drive 5 miles or so on on 1 KWh (and most likely less at highways speeds, in the winter, and so on), which those two panels could create in about that much in 1 hour 15 minutes, in good light. So by comparison, waiting 20-30 minutes to load 50-75 KWh every few hours is probably a better choice to get down the road in an EV.

Most EVs today really aren't oriented toward distant driving. Only Tesla has an adequate charging network (IMHO).

My current car is a 2015 Chevy Volt, which is a plug-in hybrid so I'm not range limited. However it far better suited for shorter drives then a long haul. Last time I took a long trip I rented a car. That was in 2018 so I do it much less than several times a year.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. I wonder if anyone is working on vastly more efficient solar panels?

And it is exactly this:

Most EVs today really aren't oriented toward distant driving.

that keeps me from even remotely considering one. As for Teslas, the cheapest ones are at least double what I'm willing and able to pay for a car.

And regardless of what kind of vehicle, I'm astonished every time I read what the average cost of a car today is. How in the hell to people afford them? Oh, I know. A six or eight year loan and being underwater for at least the first four years. No, thank you.

[caraher]

4. There are some pretty hard upper limits on solar panel efficiency

If money were no object, you might double efficiency with multi-junction cells. The real issue is simply that the power density of sunlight itself is too low, given the surface area of a vehicle, to approach (even in full sun) the energy use rate of an electric car in use.

I heard some folks in Sweden are using this concept; if you drive to work (not too far) and your car charges in the lot for 8-9 hours that might suffice depending on the commute.