A state with a democrat governor decides it is plausible to ban all new sales of gas powered cars in 2035. You could still buy a used car with a gas motor, and even cross state lines to buy one. In the proposal you couldn't even buy a hybrid since it has a gas motor in it.
I really don't think he thought this through.
What about police cars? How well would even a high powered Tesla go against a Camaro or Charger?
Fire trucks? Ambulances? Armored cars like Brinks and Wells Fargo uses?
How many new car dealerships will close down?
www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/09/23/newsom-calls-for-california-ban-on-new-gas-fueled-cars-by-2035-1317947
15 years is a long time. Rivian is making electric trucks in Illinois right now. It's called setting an aggressive goal and trying to reach it. If they aren't ready by then, they will delay it. Better than just ignoring the issue......
15 years is a long time. Rivian is making electric trucks in Illinois right now. It's called setting an aggressive goal and trying to reach it. If they aren't ready by then, they will delay it. Better than just ignoring the issue......
Possibly. There is the problem of setting up the bureaucracy and then attempting to put it on hold. With the provision that cars can be bought out of state and registered in California, it doesn't seem that there is a reason to delay the executive order. Also, it doesn't restrict out of state vehicles from bringing in merchandise, and contracting intrastate shipping.
The only thing it will hurt will be California losing the taxes from sales of vehicles.
The fastest street legal car in the world is fully electric. The Rimac Ctwo Supercar goes 0-60 in 2 seconds with a top speed of 258 mph. All of tbe top sports car companies (Lamborghini, Lotus, Ferrari) are all focusing on electric motors. I think they will be able to outperform the old Crown Victoria police cars. No worry there.
If we only get 90% of the way there, well, that's better than today.
I'll get right to it...
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"It didn't surprise me when"....yet another Democrat used the term "ban" as a means to attempt to "fix" something...
California has been tough on emissions since air quality from pollution and congestion is such a big issue there (I believe out of state cars have to meet these standards when registered). You can't just ignore the problem and hope it goes away, and the more pollutants in the air can't be helping the climate.
Trump had already gone after CA's attempts, even though he's left other decisions up to states: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/climate/trump-california-emissions-waiver.html
I think its forward thinking, 15 years is a ways away and technology evolves faster every year. Oil-dependency certainly hasn't had much of a positive effect domestically.
@rowland my brother's high school classmate was one of the founding engineers for Tesla, used to give him rides to school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Straubel
My brother always said he was a crazy genius, was either going to save the world or blow it up.
@rowland my brother's high school classmate was one of the founding engineers for Tesla, used to give him rides to school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Straubel
My brother always said he was a crazy genius, was either going to save the world or blow it up.
That is so cool! JB was instrumental in making Tesla successful. Definitely a genius, crazy or not.
I'll get right to it...
I know the fashion these days is to politicize everything, but we need bold thinking and goals to improve the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.
I really hope solving this kind of a problem can be something that we all embrace, rather than letting our tribal brains keep us from doing objective analysis and making smart choices. There really are more ways to view an issue than red and blue. It's truly limiting to put ourselves in those boxes, although perhaps less mentally taxing.
So many great moves forward came from people who refused to believe something was impossible when the general opinion held that it was.
I'm thankful for their courage and wish I had more of it myself.
It's just a thought.
I'll get right to it...
@rowland Agreed. Gas-powered motors aren't sustainable or healthy for the planet, we've known this for decades.
Richard Nixon founded the EPA in the same year Governor Nelson founded Earth Day because there was no regulation at the time and something needed to be done. It wasn't a partisan issue. Years later people may just see "regulation" as a barrier, especially if your industry financially benefits, but there's often a pretty good reason for it.
Elon Musk puts it succinctly - petroleum is a finite resource and at some point we are going to run out. It's going to take a long time to change over from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources. So whether you believe the climate scientists or not, waiting to see if they are right is "the dumbest experiment we could possibly do."
I'll get right to it...
@rowland For sure, meanwhile the oil industry will try to delay alternative energy so they can squeeze every dollar out of the oil fields, while figuring out how to monetize energy sources like the sun and the wind.
The fastest street legal car in the world is fully electric. The Rimac Ctwo Supercar goes 0-60 in 2 seconds with a top speed of 258 mph. All of tbe top sports car companies (Lamborghini, Lotus, Ferrari) are all focusing on electric motors. I think they will be able to outperform the old Crown Victoria police cars. No worry there.
That may be, but how far is their range before they have to stop for the charging post? Last i heard on the Lambo was about 200 miles, and that was just running at highway speed.
One other thought on the charging. How will the California power grid hold up to around a half million cars plugging in everyday, and how will the extra wattage be generated?
How will the ev units handle several hours of gridlock each day, especially when running the a/c?
We went from being embarrassed by Sputnik to putting a man on the moon in 10 years. It's ambitious but if we have the national will to do this, we can.If we only get 90% of the way there, well, that's better than today.
I think it needs to be done by phasing out the gas motor. There are many more hybrids on the market now than before. Ford has even come out with a hybrid F-150 pick-up.
Years ago Mother Earth news used an AMC Hornet to build a direct hybrid, small (if I remember correctly it was 25 HP) diesel engine, 5 meg generator from an F-4 fighter, to an electric motor through a gear reduction unit to a standard automatic transmission. Went from the east coast to Fishermans' Wharf. Filled the tank at the start, refilled at 1/4 tank. Had just under a half tank at end of trip. Used, I believe, 22 gallons of diesel fuel.
www.motherearthnews.com/green-transportation/electric-car-conversion-zmaz79jazraw
Here is something similar except it uses a lawn mower engine.
It's definitely going to be a phase-out, this kind of change will take decades even if we think we are going at top speed. We've been driving Tesla's since 2016 and we still get excited and wave when we see another one on the road. It has to move way beyond the current relatively small band of 1M enthusiasts. On a plus side, I love giving test rides in our Tesla and watching the big grin when people stomp the accelerator and enjoy being able to accelerate rapidly even if you're already going at highway speeds, combined with the very stable handling that comes from the low center of gravity, that big heavy battery in the frame.
As far as charging goes, our Model 3 has a 310 mile range fully charged. The Model S has 400 miles of range. We charge at home and only use external super chargers once or twice a year. EV's are not quite there yet if you have to drive 5 or 6 hours every day and there is no convenient charge station and quiet time while you can charge, but we have a long way to go before solving that use case is the limit factor to adoption.
The Tesla Semi is expected to have over 500 miles of range. Tesla's new battery tech should allow the sedans to reach that point in a couple years.
AC in the Tesla is a very efficient heat pump system. You can run it for hours in "camping mode" and it doesn't drain much power. In fact there are a couple of options for the AC system - "Dog Mode" in which you set a comfortable temperature and the LCD shows a notice telling worried onlookers that the dog is fine, with the temperature showing. There is also a mode where you can set a limit of how warm you want it to get while the car is parked and the AC will run to maintain that temperature. These features will stop if the battery charge level hits 20% to avoid draining it completely.
You are right about the grid needing attention. When ICE cars were introduced, it took time to bring up the fueling infrastructure and we need to modernize our grid. Fortunately for most EV users driving and charging pattern, charging can be done during off-peak hours, overnight, when the grid has capacity and in some locales power is cheaper too. A combination of energy storage systems - mega battery packs - together with renewables such as wind and solar, are being successfully deployed today in Australia where the electric grid was flaky and power outages common. Those same systems can help anywhere there is a adequate wind or sunlight.
There won't be a single answer - it's going to take a combined effort and multiple technologies. It's a new frontier and hopefully it will generate new jobs at a faster clip than the petro industry loses them as it winds down.
Pardon all the Tesla fan-boy talk, I'm an unabashed fan :-).
I'll get right to it...
The fastest street legal car in the world is fully electric. The Rimac Ctwo Supercar goes 0-60 in 2 seconds with a top speed of 258 mph. All of tbe top sports car companies (Lamborghini, Lotus, Ferrari) are all focusing on electric motors. I think they will be able to outperform the old Crown Victoria police cars. No worry there.That may be, but how far is their range before they have to stop for the charging post? Last i heard on the Lambo was about 200 miles, and that was just running at highway speed.
One other thought on the charging. How will the California power grid hold up to around a half million cars plugging in everyday, and how will the extra wattage be generated?
How will the ev units handle several hours of gridlock each day, especially when running the a/c?
400 miles - Amazing, huh?
You are right about California needing to upgrade its power grid. I figure just about everyone will have solar by then, but that won't help the grid unless everyone has their own battery storage as well, and the price needs to come down big time for that to happen. Of course, with big demand the price should come down as well.
Hydrogen.
Hydrogen.
We discussed hydrogen cars a few years ago and the big thing was how to refuel quickly.
My thoughts were on how to make replaceable cylinders like propane tanks or a smaller version of the helium tanks you see chained to balloon carts you see at fairs.
Turn off valve, unhook hose, unbolt support frame, put in new tank, bolt down the frame, hook up the hose, turn the valve.
Placement of the tank would be of concern due to loss of gas in an accident, but that could be mitigated by a safety shut off valve in the tank/cylinder itself.
Yes Roland, we know you're a Tesla fanboi, but that's ok we like learning about stuff, and hearing from people who actually use things.
BMW touted a prototype a few years ago. The only byproduct is water vapor. My paranoia makes me wondering why the car (or similar model) was never brought to production.
Any automobile design will have perceived drawbacks and dangers. What's more dangerous that the current situation - a machine carrying a tankful of flammable liquid that moves at speeds in excess of 70 mph - and which spews dangerous exhaust?
I had dinner with some engineers and other folks - all way above me in pay-grade and IQ points. I probably don't understand all that I know about hydrogen. From what I could understand, a hydrogen system could be employed in homes that would not only fuel the car, but used to energize the home as well. My paranoia factor: the petroleum (fossil fuel) industry does not want this type of technology. But alas: fossil fuels are a finite quantity. They will vanish via consumption one day. I honestly believe that hydrogen is certainly part of the future of energy.
Two of my nephews (twins) are engineers. One a mechanical engineer, the other a software/computer engineer.
We have been working on something similar to the Mother Earth News vehicle, but more like a modern vehicle you would purchase at a dealership.
Things that take time are figuring out how to implement a cruise control that works like it's on a standard vehicle.
The motors and wiring to handle rough rides on unimproved roads (btw, it is a pick-up truck) and rough terrain.
Multiple motors, one for each wheel, air ride system that would lean the vehicle into the curves rather than roll away, software for the motors to run faster on the outside of the turn, slower on the inside. (Constant 4WD)
a/c heat run by a heat pump, lcd lighting, and keep the price close to that of a standard pickup.
Was planning on using a lawn tractor engine (18 hp) that has been proven to cut grass for about 4 hours on a 2 1/2 gallon tank.
