this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles

Title text:

Now that I've finally gotten an electric vehicle, I'm never going back to an acoustic one.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3214/

explainxkcd for #3214

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[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I feel like some of those points are slightly more valid in rural areas (especially in the US, where a power pole being knocked over means that the power is out for hours) where the people making those points are more likely to have grown up. Then again if you are not in a rural point of the united states you are less likely to need a car.

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If I lived in rural US where the power is not guaranteed I would install PV and use my car as a power backup.

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That sounds rather expensive (if PV is photovoltaic). And I was not aware that cars were built to supply power like that.

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Yeah, I meant photovoltaic with PV. At least in Europe it's gotten really cheap.

There are mutiple ways to use the energy that is stored in electric cards. There's "Vehicle to Load" (V2L) for plugging appliances directly into the car, "Vehicle to Home" (V2H) for connecting your home to the car and "Vehicle to grid" for connecting the car to the power grid and selling the stored energy.

"Vehicle to load" is also useful when going camping or when you need power when there's no outlet near you. You just need a car that supports it and a small adapter.

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

From what I've been told by people I know irl (in Germany) that have a house it would have been over thousand euros just for the power connection.

To me who has neither a house nor a car, a solar panel sounds like a lot of money. Getting them used probably isn't good either?

The power connectors for cars sound cool.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

In America it's gotten cheap too. You can buy panels at harbor freight these days