Buckman said:
TBH electric cars are not the answer as even in the future, give or take 50 years, our National Grid will not be able to cope. Even in 2030 it will be nowhere near coping with the demand especially if we have a few cold winters.
Imagine every one comes home about 6pm, car is plugged in and dinner is cooked. The grid would never be able to cope with a high demand during that period. If there is a major power failure, it will mean many people going hungry as no microwave dinner and not being able to get to work because the battery in the car is flat.
In addition, the electric has to come from somewhere so does that mean burning fossil fuel? If they went nuclear with additional power stations what is the point of an electric car anyway?
What do we do with the "old" used batteries as I am told it is difficult to recycle batteries? Replacement batteries have to be produced but where will they come from and how will they be shipped? Too many drawbacks with electric at present and in the near future. After all we had electric vehicles, i.e. trolly buses or trams 50 years or more years ago and they all ended up in the scrap yard.
I don't know an answer as to whether there is an alternative to using fossil fuel, but I am convinced that electric is not the way forward.
Hello Buckman,
You are applying our present day technology, capacity and power distribution protocols to the future, You are forgetting that over the same period new technology for controlling and managing vehicle charging will be developed to overcome most if not all your stated concerns.
I have previously commented of several ways in which these future needs may be met including local power stores to supplement and meet local high demand and smart charging which priorities according power usage and vehicle charging needs.
These are both possible today, but will be even more likely in the future. More use will be made of renewables such as photo voltaic, and wind power. And there are likely to be more large scale generators, and quite likely local power schemes such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP). I'm not precluding the use of fossil fuels in this mix, but used responsibly the total thermal efficiency of some of these options can rise to wards the 80% which is near to doubling current large scale generator efficiencies.
We have to face the facts that we are using more energy than is needed, we need to look at our personal efficiencies, improving building insulation. appliances with reduced consumption, cutting down on unnecessary power usage and waste.
Contrary to your source of information, Batteries are highly recyclable, far more easily than IC engines, and even now most of the batteries you buy do use recycled materials and chemicals. See:
https://www.recycle-more.co.uk/files/0150_how_batteries_are_recycled.pdf
Our world is progressively changing, Its not happening over night, but the seeds of change have been sown, and the new shoots have already started to show and they will continue to grow and flourish. Simply saying we don't like whats happening and ignoring or refusing to consider the implications will just leaver us behind. increasingly we will find older technology and equipment will be obsoleted, rendered unworkable or even illegal.
We have to be ready to adapt, that doesn't necessarily mean jumping on the first bandwagon that comes rolling through, but being open to ideas and making measured changes as time goes by will help to lessen the shock. Just think back 20 years or so, how the internet has changed the way we do a lot of things.
All electric may not be the total solution, but at the moment it is the front runner, and it can be made to work.