Electric vs Gas
xkcd.com

Alt text:

An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that’s the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

  • Maalus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    93·
    6 months ago

    Okay, but it is still jumping through hoops which doesn’t exist with gas cars. What if I have 3 people driving, like in a road trip? You can’t continuously drive after refueling anymore. It isn’t just a perception thing, it absolutely requires planning and stops you wouldn’t take otherwise.

    • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
      81·
      6 months ago

      You jump through all sorts of hoops with gas cars. We’ve all made it part of the habits of our lives and don’t think about them, but they’re absolutely there.

      • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        I’d honestly love to just plug in every night instead of having to spend time getting gas every week. Sure it’s only a few minutes, but that’s probably a few hours of my life every year. Getting an electric vehicle and renting cars for road trips would honestly make much more sense for me.

        Unfortunately, it looks like it’d be financially irresponsible for me to buy an electric car right now while I still have a perfectly functional ICE car.

      • Persen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Wow, that would actually make electric cars viable for more, than just an expensive city car.

      • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
        36·
        6 months ago

        It’s not going to work out. Battery connections need to be standardized across manufacturers, which is a lot more complicated than standardizing a plug. The garages to do swaps are a lot more complicated than chargers. It forces certain decisions on battery placement, which cuts out things like integrating the battery into the frame to save weight.

        Charger deployment has raced ahead. We need a lot more of them to support the EVs we already have, and need even more for the EVs that are going to be purchased over the next decade. Switching over to swapping would send the EV market into whiplash that just isn’t necessary.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          6 months ago

          I’m not understanding your “it can’t be standardized if it’s too complicated” argument. That hasn’t seemed to have been a big issue for, for example, computer motherboards.

          • jacksilver@lemmy.worldEnglish
            13·
            6 months ago

            A counterpoint to that is things like batteries, ram, motherboards, etc. in laptops (and pretty much every other device that uses rechargeable batteries). The fact is that for better designs the batteries are probably not going to be easily standardized in electric cars (also kills innovation).

            PC motherboards aren’t trying to use the least amount of space possible, because desktops can be large. The same isn’t true with cars, the space matters.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
              7·
              6 months ago

              Notebooks can be small. Those motherboards are also using standardized elements.

              This is just silly defeatism.

          • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
            15·
            6 months ago

            Motherboard standardization is not even close to comparable.

            You have to standardize the dimensions and unlatching mechanism of a huge battery out from under the car and latching a new one in. It has to support a battery that weighs around 2 tons. This isn’t just a matter of scaling up a AA battery connector. And then you have to convince all, or at least most, of the manufacturers to do that in order for network effects to help the process. Since we’ve had to do a lot before manufactures settled on a plug design, we’re not likely to do the same for batteries.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
              6·
              6 months ago

              And then you have to convince all, or at least most, of the manufacturers to do that in order for network effects to help the process.

              Yes, that is how standardization works.

              Since we’ve had to do a lot before manufactures settled on a plug design, we’re not likely to do the same for batteries.

              Unless it’s regulated for them to do so. Time for the EU to step up.

    • then_three_more@lemmy.worldEnglish
      94·
      6 months ago

      jumping through hoops which doesn’t exist with gas cars.

      You have to physically drive to a different location to get petrol. That’s a hoop. Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

      What if I have 3 people driving, like in a road trip? You can’t continuously drive after refueling anymore. It isn’t just a perception thing, it absolutely requires planning and stops you wouldn’t take otherwise.

      It is a perception. The vast majority of trips this won’t be an issue. In the once in a bluemoon that you’ll be driving more than the range of the car, yes, it could be. This is where it’s perception. People seem to think that they’ll run commuting to work or half the journeys they take will be affected. Whereas it’s really really rare.

      • Maalus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        34·
        6 months ago

        So what you are saying is “I don’t care about the points you raised” essentially. I said specifically “hoops that don’t exist with gas cars” not “gas cars don’t have hoops to jump through”. Electric cars have issues with trips longer than their range, which you then need to charge for a very long time compared to just refueling the gas car.

        • then_three_more@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          6 months ago

          Sorry about the hoops issues, I clearly slightly misread

          However, two can play at being pedantic. I addressed your point about range anxiety before you even made it. As I said originally it is largely perception. I even went as far as to agree with you that in the 0.000001% of journeys you identified it would be an issue.