Going Green

[mach1]

Lots of haters but I picked up a Model 3 Performance last year, 68k after discounts, absolutely love the car. Instant ridiculous power, great for hauling the family, safest car ever built, great for work, awesome sound system, comfortable, after 5 months I'm still thrilled with it. I will say, bad for road trips though because of the charging situation. Another nice thing, it doesn't draw a lot of attention but it's fast as hell, I can literally punch it right behind a cop and it's not noticed, so I haven't got into trouble (yet) and I'm always wailing on it.
No oil changes, brake pads last forever because of the regen braking, it's nice reducing my gas engine maintenance by 1 engine as well, speaking of that, I need to change the oil on my 6.7 F350 this weekend ugh.
Here is a little 0-90 side by side comparison with a C7 Z06.

https://youtu.be/ntrdC4D1-Jc

[Supercharged111]

I think you might be in the wrong forum. :p

[drecords]

Lots of haters but I picked up a Model 3 Performance last year, 68k after discounts, absolutely love the car. Instant ridiculous power, great for hauling the family, safest car ever built, great for work, awesome sound system, comfortable, after 5 months I'm still thrilled with it. I will say, bad for road trips though because of the charging situation. Another nice thing, it doesn't draw a lot of attention but it's fast as hell, I can literally punch it right behind a cop and it's not noticed, so I haven't got into trouble (yet) and I'm always wailing on it.
No oil changes, brake pads last forever because of the regen braking, it's nice reducing my gas engine maintenance by 1 engine as well, speaking of that, I need to change the oil on my 6.7 F350 this weekend ugh.
Here is a little 0-90 side by side comparison with a C7 Z06.

https://youtu.be/ntrdC4D1-Jc

Pretty neat video, thanks for sharing. Electric cars are great, and fulfill a neat segment in the auto industry right now.

My concern as transportation starts to go 'green' is that we analyze the total environmental impact of the vehicle from womb to tomb. That is, what are the implications of the battery manufacturing process, where does the power charging the car come from, and what's the disposal/recycling strategy for the batteries at the end of the cars lifecycle to name a few. I remember an article when the Prius came out that did some total environmental impact analysis and concluded that a Hummer H2 was better environmentally over the life cycle of the car than the Prius, mainly due to the battery manufacturing implications. Idk if that's still true, but still sticks in my head.

That being said...I hate changing the 3 gals of oil my Dodge holds, wouldn't miss that!

[liquidroam]

Pretty neat video, thanks for sharing. Electric cars are great, and fulfill a neat segment in the auto industry right now.

My concern as transportation starts to go 'green' is that we analyze the total environmental impact of the vehicle from womb to tomb. That is, what are the implications of the battery manufacturing process, where does the power charging the car come from, and what's the disposal/recycling strategy for the batteries at the end of the cars lifecycle to name a few. I remember an article when the Prius came out that did some total environmental impact analysis and concluded that a Hummer H2 was better environmentally over the life cycle of the car than the Prius, mainly due to the battery manufacturing implications. Idk if that's still true, but still sticks in my head.

That being said...I hate changing the 3 gals of oil my Dodge holds, wouldn't miss that!


I am sure the are a ton of sources to say one way or the other. This just happens to be one I remember seeing a couple months ago. Everyone can make their own decisions about credibility.

https://youtu.be/6RhtiPefVzM

[BryanL]

Cool cars and greener than my diesel. But going green is going to a bicycle-hah and then an electric bike. Certainly trades emissions for something people see to something they don't see as that's the quote from a buddy who has one-popular in my neighborhood. Now get some solar panels to charge it all the time instead of using coal/gas power plant to make the electricity would help. Another thing I have heard is the electrical grid in neighborhoods isn't built for everyone having more 220 with cars plugged in at night but I have no idea if that's valid.

I'm curious about the womb to tomb as well. How long do the batteries last? I rode in a clients right when they came out and he said he could buy a new engine for maybe $12k in 10 years and then he would have a whole new car.

The way it looks now the countries and the auto manufacturers are going pure electrification for cars so we'll see how it plays out.

[Fbody383]

Certainly trades emissions for something people see to something they don't see as that's the quote from a buddy who has one-popular in my neighborhood. Now get some solar panels to charge it all the time instead of using coal/gas power plant to make the electricity would help. Another thing I have heard is the electrical grid in neighborhoods isn't built for everyone having more 220 with cars plugged in at night but I have no idea if that's valid.

My recollection of the story is that the material processing required for the batteries is some unbelievable number of miles of ocean going transport. Here's an opinion: https://www.industryweek.com/technology-and-iiot/lithium-batteries-dirty-secret-manufacturing-them-leaves-massive-carbon

Sun doesn't shine at night... but, the wind may blow. But the wind may be sketchy and the grid still needs dispatchability. Now, some believe that grid level storage via battery may solve that. PG&E (the bankrupt utility due to CA fires) did a study they call the EPIC project and in the final report around page 66 said, "and this will cost ratepayers billions of dollars." Yeah, B.

Car/battery charging is a question of use and timing. You'll likely charge overnight where there may be wind and with real time of use rates, it not be too expensive. One of the things I think proponents miss is that two "markets" can't use the car's battery in the afternoon - either it's driving or it's connected to the grid to be a resource. But what happens when you want to go to Sweetie Pie's for dinner?

If you have any other electricity market/regulatory questions ask away... I know a guy.

[drecords]

My recollection of the story is that the material processing required for the batteries is some unbelievable number of miles of ocean going transport. Here's an opinion: https://www.industryweek.com/technology-and-iiot/lithium-batteries-dirty-secret-manufacturing-them-leaves-massive-carbon

Sun doesn't shine at night... but, the wind may blow. But the wind may be sketchy and the grid still needs dispatchability. Now, some believe that grid level storage via battery may solve that. PG&E (the bankrupt utility due to CA fires) did a study they call the EPIC project and in the final report around page 66 said, "and this will cost ratepayers billions of dollars." Yeah, B.

Car/battery charging is a question of use and timing. You'll likely charge overnight where there may be wind and with real time of use rates, it not be too expensive. One of the things I think proponents miss is that two "markets" can't use the car's battery in the afternoon - either it's driving or it's connected to the grid to be a resource. But what happens when you want to go to Sweetie Pie's for dinner?

If you have any other electricity market/regulatory questions ask away... I know a guy.

What about Nuclear? Fukushima scared alot of people off, but its a good way to reduce dependence on oil and gas. Waste disposal and process safety being the biggest turds in that proverbial sandbox.

[Fbody383]

What about Nuclear? Fukushima scared alot of people off, but its a good way to reduce dependence on oil and gas. Waste disposal and process safety being the biggest turds in that proverbial sandbox. In which country? US generally shies away from all new nuclear development and is generally trying to retire/early retire what's in the fleet.

I'm of the European thought - more, smaller, standardized reactors rather than the US habit of much bigger one-off designs. Going forward adding dispatchability will be desired too.

With shale extraction capabilities, there's a lot of natural gas to be had. At this point I believe we're a material advancement away from creating batteries with enough storage density (coupled with cost) to flip the script. Once storage is cheap (as in cheap enough to have 2-3X what you think you need), dense, and portable it's easy to see all the generation coming from wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, etc.