Overview:
Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.
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and that's totally fine, that's how you achieve mass adoption and energetic independence, make it more advantageous to use.
The main challenge for dense metropolitan areas is that inhabitants have less options to charge their car at home when they live in an apartment and park on the street.
I got pretty excited by the new curb chargers developed by RheinMetall in Germany: https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/products/e-mobility/charging-infrastructure/curb-stone-chargers
That's a pretty sweet charger, not gonna lie.
However, at least from what I've been told, in a lot of places the main obstacle is the grid and not the space. It's simply not designed to deliver the amount of electricity that is required at the moment. I don't know if it's already been dealt with, since I heard that years ago, and obviously, if it hasn't it's something that needs to be dealt with anyway at some point.
The grid as a whole will need upgrading as demand increases, but it is in no way an obstacle to people getting charging at home.
It is an obstacle for fast charging, but if we limit this too level 2 charging it can work.
I doubt that fast charging will ever be a thing in residential settings, regardless of what kind of grid upgrades they do. That kind of DC voltage will kill too many diy type homeowners.
Are we still talking about curb charging?
Yeah. It's not like the majority of North American towns are going to have the budget for this, and the higher levels of government don't give two shits, so it would be falling on the homeowners to get it installed.
Curb charging is really geared towards dense urban areas, where people don't have a garage or dedicated parking space, or don't own their homes and therefore can't make such changes.
At any rate, a homeowner can't simply install something in the curb, and even if they did, it's the curb, anyone can park there.
The grid shouldn't have much trouble handling car charging loads as they are similar to 240v ovens in our kitchens and HVAC systems in the wattage consumed. We don't typically have trouble with the grid when new homes are added that include both of those type of large wattage appliances.
Looks sweet and futuristic, but it wouldn't last a week over here in the states. Some dipshit would try crushing it with their lifted diesel pickup to compensate for their tiny pp.
But then again, that can be solved with a pair of concrete bollards. One on each side.
Some dipshit would try crushing it with their lifted diesel pickup to compensate for their tiny pp.
The far larger problem would be that every single charging cable would be stolen in 60 minutes or less.
But then again, that can be solved with a pair of concrete bollards. One on each side.
If they were going to be crushed it'd mostly be by EV drivers who can't fucking park. Adding bollards could make opening the charging side door pretty interesting for some models. As an example if there were bollards in the setup in the picture then you'd be entirely unable to open the right rear door of the vehicle. For vehicles who have their charging port on the front ahead of the drivers door the driver themselves may be unable to exit.
I would disagree that home charging is necessary. There are other ways you can enable charging for the drivewayless.
Ie: My homes power supplier has a deal where I can charge my car at a specific companies chargers and only pay my home power rate.
I don’t have anywhere home charging capability. But because of this deal, I haven’t had any problems charging. I have just folded charging into my weekly routine.
Go to the gym, charge it up. If I need to walk the dog and the car is particularly low I’ll go walk the dog around a charger.
And it’s not like there’s a huge amount of chargers from this company around me.
I agree that it's not a huge hurdle, but the great part of having and EV is to be able to skip the charging part entirely for daily commutes. Come home, plug in, drive off the next morning with a full charge, that's what it's about :)
For me, it's both
I also do a stop-start sort of commute which is terrible for combustion engines, so I want to avoid that
My commute is usually 10 minutes:
But sometimes it's a 7 hour drive to the head office. Now that I have a car that is actually comfy for long journeys I prefer that over flying.
So I use a plug in-hybrid. When local I only drive electric. If I need to go further it's hybrid. My new car is heavier and more powerful than my old car, but the monthly gas budget is roughly a 3rd of what my old car from 1995 used.
We.......needed a study for this?
Sometimes the internet makes me feel like the smartest person alive, but then I bump into a random stranger on the street and remember I'm normal.
Edit: And, yes, I apologise to them.
Yes, we need to check our assumptions. Obvious and true are not synonyms.
In a world that is constantly forcing people to spend money just to stay alive then the vast majority of people would rather spend their time making or preserving the money that lets them survive instead of spending their limited time and money being altruistic.
Wealth redistribution would unironically fix most problems in our economies and societies
I always tell people I’m all about going 💰green💰that’s why I drive an EV, have solar panels, and buy second hand for almost everything.
This is the same with everything related to climate change, i cbf getting sources now but 99% of people are in favour of more action on climate change until it impacts them
As soon as they have to sacrifice in any shape or form suddenly the burden is too hard to bear
This is why I don't care for climate change protests or traffic disruptions/extinction rebellion, they simply don't impact the majority of people who will go to climate friendly solutions without even thinking about it if it's a genuinely better product or can save them money
Because I understand the scale of environmental impact one person can have with 1 car, I am more interested in the lower energy costs and energy independence that EVs offer. With enough solar power and an EV you can achieve independence from the Oiligarchy
EVs are intended to save the auto industry, not the environment.