Author Topic: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?  (Read 458140 times)

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Offline nctnico

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #425 on: April 20, 2018, 04:28:11 pm »
horses have pretty good self driving features and also automatic braking  ;D
and they can bring you home from pub even if you are a bag of potatoes  8)
I wouldn't bet on that. In general horses know the way pretty well if it is a known route for them. BUT a horse is also 'jumpy' and will run like a chicken without a head if it gets scared.
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Offline boffin

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #426 on: April 20, 2018, 05:07:47 pm »
Well, in a perfect confluence of timing.  Our new eGolf should be ready for delivery in a couple of weeks, and my openEVSE parts are sitting at a friends place ready to be picked up next week.

Hopefully I'll be reporting real-world info here shortly.
 

Offline phil from seattle

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #427 on: April 20, 2018, 07:39:59 pm »
Well, in a perfect confluence of timing.  Our new eGolf should be ready for delivery in a couple of weeks, and my openEVSE parts are sitting at a friends place ready to be picked up next week.

Hopefully I'll be reporting real-world info here shortly.

Welcome to the club.  VW is making a huge bet on EVs.
 

Offline linux-works

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #428 on: April 20, 2018, 08:04:43 pm »
I recently joined an EV company in the bay area (not tesla..).

we have chargers at work, quite a lot, and it looks appealing - but I am currently in an apartment, can't get to the point of being able to own a home in the bay area and without home charging, I just don't feel comfortable getting an EV and having that be my only car.

I WORK at an EV company and would love to join in, but until I can control my own charging - I'm not ready to make the jump yet.

I do envy those who own a home and can install garage chargers.  if that was me, I'd have had an EV by now for sure.

until then, I watch everyone else enjoying theirs.  someday, it will be for 'everyone'.  sooner than we all think, too; at least in tech areas of the world.

Offline linux-works

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #429 on: April 20, 2018, 08:10:53 pm »
oh, and look to CHINA for the progress in EV rollout; the chinese govt is putting a LOT of money behind ev companies and infra in china.

I wish the US would do that; but china is leading the effort world-wide - mostly due to the fact that their air quality is unbreathable in most of china and they know they HAVE to fix this sooner rather than later.  having the govt behind it makes all the diff; and there are money incentives that will help chinese consumers be able to afford these easier.

fact: car license fees in china/mainland can be VERY pricey; but if you buy a china-made EV in china you get the license fee for almost nothing.  that can save you $10k or more in fees, alone; not to mention that I think (?) there are some days you can't drive petrol based cars, but ev cars can be driven any day and with other restrictions removed, to encourage buying and using them.


Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #430 on: April 21, 2018, 12:30:30 am »
BUT a horse is also 'jumpy' and will run like a chicken without a head if it gets scared.
PETA once shared a bunch of stories about horses and "sudden unintended acceleration".
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Offline DougSpindler

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #431 on: April 21, 2018, 03:03:38 am »
BUT a horse is also 'jumpy' and will run like a chicken without a head if it gets scared.
PETA once shared a bunch of stories about horses and "sudden unintended acceleration".

Aren't injuries and deaths from horse accidents fairly frequent?  I know of an 11 year little girl who was killed by an of control hours she was driving.  She was ejected from the drivers seat.
 

Offline b_force

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #432 on: April 21, 2018, 12:45:26 pm »
I recently joined an EV company in the bay area (not tesla..).

we have chargers at work, quite a lot, and it looks appealing - but I am currently in an apartment, can't get to the point of being able to own a home in the bay area and without home charging, I just don't feel comfortable getting an EV and having that be my only car.

I WORK at an EV company and would love to join in, but until I can control my own charging - I'm not ready to make the jump yet.

I do envy those who own a home and can install garage chargers.  if that was me, I'd have had an EV by now for sure.

until then, I watch everyone else enjoying theirs.  someday, it will be for 'everyone'.  sooner than we all think, too; at least in tech areas of the world.
That's typically something that maybe needs to be regulated by the government?
In Europe a lot of people just charge their own car from home or there are communal parking lots with chargers.
But in general in the end it all has to do with how the people adapt new technology.
That also has to to how long-therm minded people are, for example.

Offline IanMacdonald

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #433 on: April 22, 2018, 11:13:57 am »
It's a fact that there were more serious accidents with horses per mile than there are with cars. Also the risktaking antics of cyclists are nothing new, horse carriage drivers used to complain of them weaving between vehicles in a reckless manner. There just seems to be something about being on a very flimsy, wobbly and exposed machine that creates a feeling of godlike indestructibility..  :palm:

 

Offline phil from seattle

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #434 on: April 22, 2018, 05:27:17 pm »
It's a fact that there were more serious accidents with horses per mile than there are with cars. Also the risktaking antics of cyclists are nothing new, horse carriage drivers used to complain of them weaving between vehicles in a reckless manner. There just seems to be something about being on a very flimsy, wobbly and exposed machine that creates a feeling of godlike indestructibility..  :palm:

Since bikers are mostly young, healthy men, they provide a steady supply of transplantable organs.
 

Offline paulca

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #435 on: April 22, 2018, 08:00:47 pm »
Lets please not group motorcyclists and the pedal power lemmings in the same bracket please.
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Offline phil from seattle

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #436 on: April 22, 2018, 10:01:34 pm »
Lets please not group motorcyclists and the pedal power lemmings in the same bracket please.

Biker in the US is a motorcyclist. Cyclist usually means Bicyclist. I suppose it's the opposite where you are. And, please don't insult lemmings...
 

Offline mtdoc

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #437 on: April 22, 2018, 10:27:20 pm »
Since bikers are mostly young, healthy men, they provide a steady supply of transplantable organs.

Medical slang for motorcycle is donor-cycle. 
 

Offline Marco

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #438 on: April 22, 2018, 11:12:13 pm »
Lets please not group motorcyclists and the pedal power lemmings in the same bracket please.
The illusion of control is strong in this one. Cyclists are merely obnoxious, motorcyclists are on the wrong end of statistics.
 

Offline paulca

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #439 on: April 23, 2018, 06:30:52 am »
The trouble with cyclists is they are the most vulnerable road users, probably even more so than pedestrians, but they don't act like it in the slightest.  I have never seen a motorcyclist swerve into traffic round a parked car without even a glance in the mirror or over their shoulder, yet cyclists do it routinely in front of buses.  They seem to think they can push "their" safety into the hands of others.

A motorcyclist on the other hand is also vulnerable, but for a few idiots aside they tend to ride with that in mind over here.  I'm not including those weirdo bearded men on Harley Davidsons with little tassles on the saddle bags... there is something wrong with them.

Statistically motorcyclists die most often because of car drivers not seeing them rather than wiping out of their own accord.

I have a simple policy on the motorbike.  "I'm invisible" and ... if by some freak chance of nature they do see me, they probably want to try and kill me anyway.
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Offline paulca

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #440 on: April 23, 2018, 06:35:15 am »
Lets please not group motorcyclists and the pedal power lemmings in the same bracket please.

Biker in the US is a motorcyclist. Cyclist usually means Bicyclist. I suppose it's the opposite where you are. And, please don't insult lemmings...

It's a bit more complicated than that.  Cyclist is the pedal power variant.  Motorcyclists is someone who rides a motorcycle.  Biker is typically the power ranger style suicidal warp rider.  Harley Davidson son's of anarchy style people are just weirdos, for them it's all about the show and sound and nothing at all do to with the riding or they would ride a bike designed for the purpose of riding around things like corners and capable of actually going quickly rather than making a sound like a 1950s tractor or motorboat.
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Online Fungus

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #441 on: April 23, 2018, 10:48:03 am »


Seriously cool contraption. I'd love one of those to drive around town in.

100 miles on a charge, too, and charging stations all over New York  - 100 years ago! I wonder where Tesla got some of his ideas from.
 

Offline phil from seattle

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #442 on: April 23, 2018, 03:20:00 pm »
Lets please not group motorcyclists and the pedal power lemmings in the same bracket please.

Biker in the US is a motorcyclist. Cyclist usually means Bicyclist. I suppose it's the opposite where you are. And, please don't insult lemmings...

It's a bit more complicated than that.  Cyclist is the pedal power variant.  Motorcyclists is someone who rides a motorcycle.  Biker is typically the power ranger style suicidal warp rider.  Harley Davidson son's of anarchy style people are just weirdos, for them it's all about the show and sound and nothing at all do to with the riding or they would ride a bike designed for the purpose of riding around things like corners and capable of actually going quickly rather than making a sound like a 1950s tractor or motorboat.

I don't care how the motorized 2 wheelers behave, they tend to be younger and male and all have a much higher accident rate.  Young men tend to take more risks than other groups but the invisibility point is also valid. Drivers look straight through them. Maybe those loud Harleys are a safety feature. I know there are safe riders (my brother teaches riding safety) but that doesn't change the statistics.  Reminds me of the old joking maxim - there are two kinds of riders, those that have had accidents and those that are going to.
 

Offline DougSpindler

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #443 on: April 23, 2018, 03:49:51 pm »
Two other leading causies of motorcycle accidents here in California are what we call rice rockets and insane drivers.

Rice rocket are Japanese high performance motorcycles.  Death toll is due to first time motorcycle buyers who have a lot of money, (tech jobs), and “think” they can handle a high-performance bike.  Most motorcyclists can’’t even handle these things, so it’s crazy that motorcycle shops sell these things to first time bike ownser.  I’m not sure but I think there were so many deaths here we were passed some law to protect people from killing the self on the driver home.

Next category are insaine drivers.  And there are tow categories.  First are the ones who drive 100 mph/120 mph on California freeways.  I was commuting to work one morning with congested traffic.  Next lane over was the comuter/motorcycle lane.  Saw a guy pass me by doing 80, then slowed and signaled me to watch him.  He slowed way down to 40,  Next think I see him flying by me at over 100 mph or more doing a whiliee.  (Front tire in the air balancing on the rest tire.). I watched as he did that for maybe 2 miles until he hit traffic.  This guy might be a potential Darwin Award nominee.

The second category of crazy motorcycle drivers are the ones who take their bikes afterwork on small windy roads in the hills in the Bay Area.  These roads have cliffs with 50-100 foot drop offs if you don’t stay on the road.  In a Porche one would have a hard time stying in your lane on the 35-40 mph.  Speed limit I think is 30 - 35 with some sharp curves having a speed of 15.  Everyday after work I can here these guys their bikes and rice rockets racing on these roads.  The are stretches were they can get up to 80-90 mph and then there is a hairpin turn with a 50 foot drop off.  So while these guys are “racing” people are driving home from work.  It’s not like no one uses these roads while these

These are not all guys either, women do it too.   

 

Offline paulca

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #444 on: April 23, 2018, 03:52:19 pm »
I don't care how the motorized 2 wheelers behave, they tend to be younger and male and all have a much higher accident rate.  (...snip...)  Reminds me of the old joking maxim - there are two kinds of riders, those that have had accidents and those that are going to.

Take some caution as most of the accident statistics are for fatal accidents and when the wider accident statistics are taken and modified for fault it turns out that most motorcycle accidents are the fault of a car driver.

The fatality percentage from accidents is just a factor of risk due to lack of protection at speed.

Also beware that a lot of the statistics from the states have to factor in the fact that helmets are not even a legal requirement in a few states.  I have seen Harley riders in shorts, t-shirt and flipflops with no helmet.  That's just Darwinism.
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Offline paulca

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #445 on: April 23, 2018, 03:58:36 pm »
Death toll is due to first time motorcycle buyers who have a lot of money, (tech jobs), and “think” they can handle a high-performance bike. 

At least in the UK you can't just jump onto a litre sports bike as your first bike... with caveats... you can do the direct access course which is much more extensive training to lift the 33bhp restriction much earlier.  Without that you are restricted to 33bhp for 2 years.

I own a 1000cc sports tourer.  I bought it after riding for 10 years on progressively bigger bikes.  It's brutal and getting the throttle fully open is a stressful task and when fully open you are at the end of the gear you are in in a few seconds plus another 40 or 50 mile per hour.

It takes time to learn that motorcycles do not brake as well, or corner as well as cars.  You borrow from the bag of luck to fill the bag of experience.  Some people just run out of luck being greedy without the experience though.
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Offline DougSpindler

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #446 on: April 23, 2018, 04:40:28 pm »
When will electric cars be mainstream?  It’s going to be a long time......

Same is true with solar.

On Saturday I was at a local college in San Jose/Silicon Valley.  The college has 14 EV charging stations which have been there for years.  To use a charging station the instruction say to scan the QR code located on the top of the charger.  Out of the 14 chargers 8 were wrapped in plastic indicating they were broken or not working.  I tried scanning the QR code on all of the working chargers and could not get one to scan.  I think it was because of the mid-day sun’s reflection from the plastic.  I tried using a box to shade the sun but for the distance I had to hold my phone and the reflection of the plastic I could not scan anyone of them.

No problem - There’s 800 number for tech support.  Called the number only to learn they are open M-F easern time.  That sucks.  Not only is it a Saturday, I’m iin different time zone.  I’m waking up when they are having lunch.

End restfult, out the the 14 open EV spaces for car charging I could not use one of them.

And here’s something else I found out.  The college has acres of solar panels,  Right next to were the EV car charger are they have several very large diesel generators.  I was told that because solar production output can be very unreliable in sunny California they need to have diesel generators to produce electricty on days when solar isn’t producing.


EV and solar......  We still have a long way to go.
 

Offline boffin

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #447 on: May 04, 2018, 03:44:06 am »
They just became mainstream in our household
 

Offline DougSpindler

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #448 on: May 04, 2018, 03:51:38 am »
They just became mainstream in our household


Nice.... 
I notice it's on the street.  Do you have a long e3ntension cord to plug it to charge it?

I was looking at the VW's a couple of weeks ago and learned VM stopped making EV/Hybrids.  THey are now only making 100% electric.  Won't work for me as I would need a charge-up to get home on some of my trips.

 

Offline boffin

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Re: When Will Electric Cars Become Mainstream?
« Reply #449 on: May 04, 2018, 04:03:05 am »
Nice.... 
I notice it's on the street.  Do you have a long e3ntension cord to plug it to charge it?

I was looking at the VW's a couple of weeks ago and learned VM stopped making EV/Hybrids.  THey are now only making 100% electric.  Won't work for me as I would need a charge-up to get home on some of my trips.

it sleeps in the garage. Right now it's having to make do with the supplied 1kVA charger, but I have all the bits for an OpenEVSE, and already dropped in a 240/30A circuit in the garage to plug that into.  I'm going to film the OpenEVSE assembly, and I'll put it on YouTube.

VW are pretty paranoid right now about overstating things, so while they advertise "201km range" , it said 235km remaining when I left the dealership, and still said 220km when I got home (which was 20km later).  I'll update with some real-world running information once we have a better idea of how it's all working out.  Given premium gasoline just hit C$1.80/litre here, I'm not going to miss the fillups, given electricity is only 8½ cents/kWh. That means it should cost around C$3 to fill it from completely empty

 


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