Quote:
Originally Posted by Buehler445
It should be easier. There are far fewer components and moving pieces to electric. Is it the batteries they struggle with?
|
If you're going to build an electric car "right", it cannot be a normal car merely converted to run on electricity. Your main powertrain components need to be in/on the skate as compact as possible, like an iphone. Sure, it's less parts, but if done right, it's loads of complexity. For example, after you've produced the 7,104 battery cells for 100kWh pack, you need to make 14,208 welds just to connect the batteries, and the pack STILL isn't finished.
Of course you could do like all the other OEMs who are feverishly trying to play catchup, and use lightweight prismatic cells. Problem with that is, while they make production/range/cooling/etc easier, they result in a shit product.(that expensive battery pack that'll need replaced after 10 years you always heard about). This will result in lemons that will kill consumer confidence in existing OEMs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buehler445
Calm down there turbo. I think adoption will be slower than you are thinking. The thing about commercial adaptation is it generates revenue so there can't be downtime. Like at all. You can be as cheap as you want, but if there is downtime, it kills any margin you gain through electric. Not a great place for beta testing.
|
Electrification will happen quickly. Every OEM has committed to electrifying save Toyota. Fiat was holding out like a bratty child refusing to eat broccoli, but have now started they have their eyes set on Tesla. They had better too, b/c Tesla is eating everyone's lunch in the auto categories they compete in.
On top of that, multiple countries have set drop dead dates for internal combustion engine sales. China is full throttle in on electric and India's not far behind. If you're out of those markets, you may as well consider yourself a boutique auto manufacturer.
As for adaptation, that's for the existing OEMs to worry about. Tesla is fine, China has 487 electric car manufactures and the field is racing to the finish to play catchup.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buehler445
Uber/Lyft, will work, but if you want to tip the scales on fossil fuel consumption, it needs to be in trucks and trucks can't break down. They just ****ing can't.
|
Not sure the point about "trucks can't break down". Electric should pretty much always be more reliable than combustion. Cars and trucks today have become Rube Goldberg machines. Very few run at engineered efficiency. All that complexity creates too many points of failure.