Topic: Electric Cars and The Future - page 4. (Read 1205 times)

I cannot believe that in november 2019 it's possible to write an article about electric cars and then base a poll on that article without mentioning the Porsche Taycan.

It's all the rage on cars and EV forums: a Porsche Taycan 4S is priced just a tiny bit above a Tesla Model S. It has a slightly shorter range but...

A Porsche Taycan is basicaly a fully electric Porsche Panamera (there are already many Panamera which are hybrids). And a Porsche Panamera is an amazing car: it's a luxury saloon with sound insulation and sound system out of this world. It's a joy to drive. There's hardly anything better than that. If you haven't driven one, you have zero idea how amazing that car is.

Here's a professional pilot's view on the Panamera e-hybrid after trying it for 2000 miles (TLDR; best car ever to own as an every day car):

https://youtu.be/i7lEchRAZeU

And the Porsche Taycan is apparently that, but 100% electric.

I understand this is not a car forum but it's a car thread so my advice would be: go sit in a Tesla at a dealership (or in your own Tesla), then go sit at a Porsche dealership in a Panamera.

Then you come back here and you tell us which one is the ultra-luxury saloon on wheels.

When I see that Porsche sells the Taycan 4S for a tiny bit more than a Model S, for me there's not even the shadow of a doubt: I pick the Taycan 4S eyes closed.  I don't care about the slightly shorter range (my daily gaz guzzlers has a shorter range than a Model S too).  I care about the comfort, the luxury, the quality of the materials, the looks, etc.

You better get ready to see a huge lot of very luxurious EV on the road because all it's going to take for someone to pick between a Model S and a Porsche Taycan 4S is to sit in the two cars. Actually, it's going to be soon super easy to see who never sat in a Porsche Taycan: those driving a Model S.

So yeah, great article and great poll but you simply forgot the best EV car on the planet.

I doubt it. Hybrids are a transitional thing, and i don't expect them to last long. Once electrics reach critical mass, source of fossil fuels will be very hard to come by. A hybrid is a poor fossil fuel burner, and a poor electric, it is inefficient in both camps, so its not meant to be.

Sure it makes your fuel last longer, but that will be moot when you don't have gas stations anymore. Yet, you can find a power plug everywhere, even a lame 110v receptacle can charge a car in a day or two. The way things are coming, you will find high powered plugs in most parking places and garages, so this will become less and less of an issue.

Incidentally, any knowledge you gained with electricity while dealing with Bitcoin mining, happens to be useful here as well. 480v in your garage? Yup. Charging the cars overnight will become the norm and it never hurts to plan ahead and have your parking place ready.

Think of the time you will save, never going to a gas station again, especially daily commuters.

The hydro had the outdated premise of "what if i don't have a power plug around", assuming availability of gas stations. So i could tell you, now, go develop these pictures i got on film. You will pause thinking where you can do that anymore... Same thing.

And, since the car has to carry both kinds of engine, making it more heavy, and with less space for carry fuel/batteries, the complexity is even higher than a regular gasoline guzzler.

For the case of cars this is seldom an issue, as generation doesn't necessarily need to be near the car.

It is true that Earth is constantly getting an enormous amount of light, even if some areas are cloud covered, others are not.

AND, renewable energies DO come from multiple sources. There are places where this is not needed, and perhaps a "buffer" (batteries) are good enough. But combining different sources is probably best.

Solar, Wind, Hydro, those 3 are important, there is also geo thermal, tidal, wave among others. It depends on the geographical location.

My country, for example sees A LOT of sun all year (rain doesn't last more than a day), yet none of it is harvested. It has a large dam that powers the entire country. It even has areas with strong constant winds. Heck, my country is unique in the world, as it has the only natural occurring permanent lightning (some call it the World's natural ozone generator); but i imagine you could somehow harvest that. Setting up the thing would be challenging tho, people die electrocuted from time to time in that region. I imagine robots could build something akin to the Eiffel tower there to power large battery banks.

And yet, my country will be the last to see electric cars, because while it has the cheapest electricity in the world, it also has the cheapest gasoline. Well that and the politicians than can't never have enough of ruining the country.

There are other older proposals, one involves a satellite with a (very large) solar array beaming energy down via microwave.

It can also be argued that, nuclear is natural (it IS natural occurring, just real hard to handle safely). After all the Sun is a giant fusion nuclear reactor, we are simply tapping a minuscule amount of the excess energy that impacts the surface in the form of light projected from it. Fusion powered energy is still a study in progress, but it is believed that at some point we will be able to make an artificial micro sun to power things with, its just that starting the thing and make it self sustainable, ie: generate enough energy to keep the reaction AND having a surplus we could use, is the challenge. Many countries including America are working on it, and the day its harnessed things are going to change a lot, electricity might become so abundant and cheap, it might even revive Bitcoin mining after it became long unprofitable (think half a century). Incidentally it might spell the end of a fossil fueled economy.

The way things stand, fossil fuels will deplete, while the other sources remain. It is logical to go full electric, or old fashioned (perhaps a combination: bicycles and electric. Electric assisted bicycles also count).

If you can do your daily commute under your own muscles, i don't see why not. No roof on Earth should be devoid of solar paneling, it is such a waste not to tap on that, tho things you can do now to lower your power use, but more are coming both massive and small.

Dinosaur Juice is not endless.

yeah right!!!

anyway better that your not from there,and thanks for the great conversation we gone off topic here lol ^_^

There is no need to be in Africa to know about Africa.Everything is under palm now. I do read lot of stuffs and interested in worlds economic and politics as well I so I knew about these things.

Africa has been a victim of abused for very long,from slavery to inhuman treatment the world knew that now.

wait my friend ,are you from Africa?sorry just curious on how you have that much concern about this continent ,hope you dont mind me asking.

the world is taking place now for the help Africa needs

Most part of African continent were much greener than now but things changed due to various reason,mainly due to other countries stole their natural resource now left them with nothing other than poverty and corruption.

Countries preparing for it but it is possible to stand against the nature,we have to wait and watch that.

This is what I am talking about:

Why you think its just normal in that continent,what will be your reaction if this will be the condition of whole world in the next few decades.

haven't heard of that zero day and while browsing it appears that it was cyber attack,sorry but have no idea about that.

but as far as i know africa is suffering from water problem days back and wasn't normal in that continent to have no rain for a long time?i might sound stupid but please enlighten me about those quetion since you sounds like from african continent?am i right?

Not futuristic,it is happening since last 3 or 4 years back.Did you ever heard the term "Zero Day"?

Cape town which is the capital of South Africa didn't get any single drop of rain and all the water sources there were exhausted now they are surviving from water source outside which is lot expensive than what we can imagine.

Maybe world war 3 begins for water source...

I think electric car + improved solar panel would be great. If this is possible it will revolutionize the traffic world.

Lol human extinction and rain won't come?yeah that's very futuristic 😅

Anyway maybe in future we will find another source of energy aside from solar ,fuel and hydrothermal


Maybe Mars is the answer?joke

I'm not quite sure it's electric cars that are useful to the world. But electric transport quadcopters may in the future be used on a daily basis

If we are in heavy rainy seasons then hydro turbines will plays the role of sun,but the real fact is we are not going to see much of rain in the future which will be the beginning of human extinction so we will have the sun for sure at least on most part of the world.

Straight to your question - of course, electric cars are the future. Science and technology is equipping mankind in such a way he doesn't stress too much. Even with auto driven cars, we can see that being rampart in the near future. If we negate electric cars then we should also go back to the days of Carmels for transportation. The only bane of electric cars will likely be with countries that don't have regular electricity supply. That's all.

So solar power is the answer?what if rainy season when sun don't even seen for weeks?what will happen to solar panel? Where do people take their electricity? Sorry but these are important questions that must be answered as solar power are very in demand these days but can't be ready for the future

No,we are in shortage of electricity,it is the only source available in abundance for now but we are not using it yet due to its expensiveness and maintenance cost but once we adopt to solar powered electricity then we are not going to have hard time to pay electricity fee.But other hand gasoline will lose its place by 2030 or near to that and there will be huge change in the world economical conditions.

Electrics are still mechanical, for the most part. But rather than burning dinosaur juice to make it explode endlessly to push pistons which move wheels, electrics just pass current thru winded wire which generates magnetic movement. Incidentally the opposite generates electricity, that is, forcing movement to a magnet winded by copper... If you do this with the dinosaur juice guzzler, you just get some braking and a lot of farting like noise (just try 1st or 2nd gear downhill, no brakes) which is just inefficiently burnt fuel. At least the electric can recover some of the spent energy that it spent climbing that hill...

So it all amounts to the efficiency of the batteries. In the Li-ion era, the likes of Tesla were made possible. Several previous attempts involved very heavy liquid chemical based solutions, but its power/density ratio left a lot to be desired. Now even your typical cellphone/laptop battery is pushing the cars. These batteries are getting improved all the time, and Tesla invested big in manifacturing, bigger than everyone else. Consider the largest was Panasonic, and Tesla invited THEM to joint build the largest plants for manufacturing these. Better, longer lasting batteries helps not just the cars, but any application where storage of energy is needed, such as in renewable power generation where a buffer is needed to compensate natural fluctuations in generation (ie. wind/tidal speed change or daily hours).

Some other types of batteries have been theorized and proposed, but they have yet to achieve mass production and reliability. Examples could be chemical liquid based (including dinosaur juice), or Hydrogen. I somehow rather prefer solid state energy storage than liquid or gas that could leak... Of course dinosaur juice guzzlers have always carried flammable fuel onboard...

Also you assume diesel would always be found around the corner. I'd rather give you the advice of keeping a bicycle or horse instead... Do you still keep your film camera just in case? I hope you know how to develop your own film, all you need is a dark room, chemicals, sheets, patience... Of course you can make your own diesel, but it might take you a while...

I am 100% sure that alternative energy cars will replace the "mechanical" ones sooner than most people expect. I'm looking to a 5-10 years window in the developed countries and 10-20 in the developing ones. However I highly encourage people to keep a diesel alimented car in their "backyard" if anything happens and we're left without electricity.

It is normal to make signficant moves towards a cleaner tomorrow and the cars are the principal guilty ones for pollution. Just think how fresh it's going to be the air once we get rid of fossil combustible alimented cars.
Regarding the best brand I think Tesla is and will remain the leader of the electric cars industry. They have a very smart CEO with vision.