[member=57]ElwoodBlues1[/member] it's all about infrastructure.
For the moment EVs are being purchase by the green elite and / or casual road users, the problem is recharge times. Most only have single phase at home so a fast charger is not an option unless you they out $20k for a big battery and have access to a large area for north facing solar. They are OK if you potter about each day and can slow charge overnight, never approaching the range limit. Of course some do not care about recovering the costs so they do it as a community benefit project, but a lot of people cannot afford that option.
If you are lucky you might have an employer who has setup charging in the carpark, but they are few and far between.
Public slow charging is available but still in trivial quantities. When I attended a conference in the CBD a couple of weeks back and made note of the charging options, they had 34 chargers available, when you look at a wall of these things it seems a lot but the carpark has just under 2000 spots. If each car charges in 30mins you can only charge 68 per day, maybe they charge in 20mins so that's 102!
I've a mate in the UK who was an early adopter of the Tesla, he raved on and one about it, and how he'd recharge for free at the supercharge station while getting a coffee, they have them on the freeways. But just last week he was complaining that it's getting harder to get the free fast charge, many of the popular / convenient sites now require you to book a time slot. and at some in peak hour you now have to pay a peak demand fee like the way Uber apply surcharges! As an early adopter he paid nearly $250K for the Tesla 100D and is eligible for free for life recharging, but the free part is becoming untenable, he feels conned and is seriously thinking of going back to a hybrid!
My mate joked with me about a Green politician in the UK that is pushing for EV Ambulance, when they did the sums it's would only reach 27% duty cycle due to the constant need for recharging ( The average is about 60% but don't ask me how this is measured ). They worked out that fast charging helped, but that slashes the battery life and the fancy battery is many times the cost of one used in a car.
In the short term I doubt hydrogen is a viable option for cars, at least not until residential hydrogen generation becomes available but it's still in it's development phase. However, hydrogen is a very serious option for commercial or public transport, perhaps even agriculture, where you can have your own depo / refilling stations.
For the moment EVs are being purchase by the green elite and / or casual road users, the problem is recharge times. Most only have single phase at home so a fast charger is not an option unless you they out $20k for a big battery and have access to a large area for north facing solar. They are OK if you potter about each day and can slow charge overnight, never approaching the range limit. Of course some do not care about recovering the costs so they do it as a community benefit project, but a lot of people cannot afford that option.
If you are lucky you might have an employer who has setup charging in the carpark, but they are few and far between.
Public slow charging is available but still in trivial quantities. When I attended a conference in the CBD a couple of weeks back and made note of the charging options, they had 34 chargers available, when you look at a wall of these things it seems a lot but the carpark has just under 2000 spots. If each car charges in 30mins you can only charge 68 per day, maybe they charge in 20mins so that's 102!
I've a mate in the UK who was an early adopter of the Tesla, he raved on and one about it, and how he'd recharge for free at the supercharge station while getting a coffee, they have them on the freeways. But just last week he was complaining that it's getting harder to get the free fast charge, many of the popular / convenient sites now require you to book a time slot. and at some in peak hour you now have to pay a peak demand fee like the way Uber apply surcharges! As an early adopter he paid nearly $250K for the Tesla 100D and is eligible for free for life recharging, but the free part is becoming untenable, he feels conned and is seriously thinking of going back to a hybrid!
My mate joked with me about a Green politician in the UK that is pushing for EV Ambulance, when they did the sums it's would only reach 27% duty cycle due to the constant need for recharging ( The average is about 60% but don't ask me how this is measured ). They worked out that fast charging helped, but that slashes the battery life and the fancy battery is many times the cost of one used in a car.
In the short term I doubt hydrogen is a viable option for cars, at least not until residential hydrogen generation becomes available but it's still in it's development phase. However, hydrogen is a very serious option for commercial or public transport, perhaps even agriculture, where you can have your own depo / refilling stations.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"