Truth about EV cars...or the good, the bad, and the ugly!

in #blog6 months ago

There is a Lot of 'information' circulating these days about electric vehicles. Some are accurate, while some are lies, and some are pie in the sky!

Here is a comprehensive analysis of one of the most important information on this... costs:
https://patriotandfree.com/study-the-true-costs-of-electric-vehicles-is-no-cost-saving/
I expected the milage cost to be very high, but this surprised me a lot! The MSM and politicians constantly push that EV have no negatives, and since they are both chronic liars; that are working way too hard repeating this, it is an obvious lie! It's interesting that the equivalent fuel cost is $16 to $17 per 'gallon' estimated, WITH subsidies. So the buyer get a knife to the neck, while the taxpayer picks up a large part of the tab (obviously with a knife in our necks too)!

I approach this from where I am, I'm an electrical engineer who is designing my own EV. There are ways to make an EV work, but none of our current (no pun intended) models will get us there.

The worst lie is the most popular kind today. Cars that run off LiIon batteries are Very limited, not as much by the technology; but by the availability of resources. We just don't have the sheer volume of the rare earth material to produce the high numbers the politicians are demanding! So the future of EV can not rest with LiIon batteries, because we just Don't have the 'junk' required to build them...even with massive new strip pit mines. It looks like the actual costs of EVs will equal conventional cars at 130,000 plus miles, assuming that the battery is not replaced in that time frame.

Hydrogen fuel cells have a little better possibility, but they run at dangerous temperatures, and are costly. The technology here is mature, and was developed for the space program originally, and mass production will bring costs down. Will it be enough? That's the $40 question...too soon to tell yet, but it does look promising!

The most promising technology IMHO, is a vanadium redox flow battery. Runs on mostly sulfuric acid with vanadium dissolved in it. The anodite and cathodite don't suffer breakdown, so it can be pumped out and replaced with freshly charged liquids. Then the liquids recovered can be recharged for the next customer.

Now for skunk in the room...each of these options require new infrastructure, including the power source that can stand up to the extreme loads electric cars demands! Our existing power grid is aging, due to low reinvestment in upgrades. They are a public utility, which limits their available money to do upgrades. This is aggravated in some liberally controlled locations, California is a good example. While demanding All new cars be EVs, the 400 pound gorilla has come to visit. They have been demanding more and more electricity, at 1960 rates! Now their grid is on borrowed time because their grid has been using surplus gear for decades. So now, the good people who believed them and bought a pure EV; are being asked to avoid charging their EVs, due to grid overload problems!

The LiIon cars will always face the long recharge time, because fast charging them will significantly reduce battery life. There are some new designs for solid state LiIon batteries that can be charged faster, but I'm not sure about their capacity yet...still only prototypes in the trade magazines. The regular LiIon batteries still have the self ignition (fire) problem common in that design, but the solid state ones have designed that risk out. The new design still uses the rare (I wonder why they call them that?) Earth materials, actual quantities as of yet, are unknown.

The hydrogen fuel cells are proven technology, that also requires extensive infrastructure. My personal opinion is that hydrogen would be better served as a fuel for a standard vehicle. But assuming the infrastructure problem is solved, including a serious power grid upgrade; the fuel cells will function well. Fuel Refill times will be much lower, as it is simply pumping liquid into a holding tank. Cost is an issue along with materials, but not as serious as the supply issues on LiIon batteries. One possible extra option here is a dual use infrastructure, where fuel cell EVs and hydrogen burning internal Combustion engine cars; fuel at the same pump! One last problem with the hydrogen fuel is that the most common way to get it in bulk, is to separate water. This would release a lot of Oxygen that is unwanted. This local increase in Oxygen, over a sustained period; will kill plants by displacing the CO² they must have to survive!

The vanadium redox battery runs by pumping anodite (A) and cathodite (C) on opposite sides of an osmotic membrane. It has been in use in Australia in buses, for three or four decades; using the same batteries, and is a mature technology. I'm working on improving the body of the battery, and it looks promising. I intend to put it in a Doran car:
https://vanderhallusa.com/models-new-classic-2022/
This battery has several advantages, but suffers from the same infrastructure problems the others do! The A and C liquids can be charged in small lots from solar or wind, and placed on the ready tank only when fully charged. If the battery is fully discharged, there is no damage to the battery or electrolytes. If the osmotic membrane is damaged in an accident, the electrolytes just discharge; with no fire! Once the membrane is replaced, the battery is back to full operation; once recharged. This is it's main advantage, it is a permanent battery system!

As a side note, more range is a function of more of both electrolytes. I intend to have a small tank trailer for longer trips.

The single largest problem is infrastructure. They are charging EV in California right now, using diesel generators in a semi trailer! What that does for the 'clean' emissions from these vehicles, would be a good follow up study on EV myths.

A PBS show on EV use in a small town, asked the Lady in charge of the program where the charging power came from. She told them the building, and pointed to the county seat. When he told her their local grid was supported by a coal fired power plant, she was shocked!

We need real numbers, not platitudes! Any decision made in a vacuum, is usually incorrect....

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since they are both chronic liars; that are working way too hard repeating this, it is an obvious lie!

I operate on this principle too - I disbelieve anything I am being relentlessly told.

Cool technology you are pursuing my man! I am so happy to know you!

Health question - do you think comfrey could be used to repair a bad hernia? Avoid surgery?

You have been a blast of fresh air too, so I'm blessed knowing you!

I've got the plans, and I've started buying parts for the Doran car...should be fun!

With a belt to avoid prolapse of the intestine, it could work. I never thought about that, but it would depend on the size of the tear. We need to share emails, I'm on proton mail...it's free (for one) and encrypted. Do you have comfrey?

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I still have some of your tincture. He wears a belt. Idk the size of the pain, he's not bulging as far as I can tell. I know it's painful, and he has surgery coming up. There might not be time before the surgery. I think he would have done it had we met sooner. This is his second time (first time was 20 years ago) so perhaps treatment with comfrey after the surgery would be more effective, and complete the healing so it never happens again.

Well, the tincture is still good, it lasts almost forever if it doesn't dry out!

Glad you found a local buddy! After makes the most sense.

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Imagine someone must have eaten the money to do a research on this.

There are a lot of people working on EV problems today, and they are making progress!

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Thank you my brother for hitting this account. I have another account with this name in Steemit but I lost the password.Any idea?

Not really, there is a password recovery, but you need the master password to use it. Always keep a hard copy of the password hidden! I had to get that out to get back on blurt tonight, so it happens.

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Thank you for giving me that hope of ever recovering that account again.

I hope it helped! Write down all your passwords as soon as possible. Hard copy is difficult to use, but it does work well!

Be blessed my brother!!!

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Thanks for sharing!

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My pleasure

More exposure increases the possibility that someone that needs the information will see it.

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Sure. You said true. 😍

There is so much misinformation on EVs out there today! I still think that burning hydrogen in internal combustion cars is the most viable option.

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Sure your saying True . Because you are not doing all these things like that, you are speaking only after completing the research

It's interesting watching how this electric vehicle role out goes over the next few years.

It always comes back to two things; batteries, and infrastructure. We do, indeed, live in interesting times!

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Similarly, when there is a news break and it becomes a headline, many people misuse it and use it for their own purposes and for that we should research the news ourselves and see if the news is true or false . You have done excellent research on electronic vehicle. I got to know a lot from your post and I will get to know many new information

I'm glad you liked it! I get a lot of trade magazines intended for engineers, that have information on how to design new systems. One is specifically about batteries, and gives me the latest research.

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Honestly, whatever you told us was after a lot of research, you posted only after doing complete research. You have explained all the nuances, big and small, in a good way .

There is a lot of published material, but they never seem to bring it together in a useful format! Glad you liked my post....

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Just as one has a passion for this thing, only he benefits from such a thing.

Passion is what missing with these new regulations. Only passion and gifted design will make this a viable option! The lack of understanding by those making these regulations, will block good designs that would actually solve these significant problems.

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You are absolutely right, you have said this from your own experience. I have seen your profile and in your bio you mention Electrical Engineer and Inventor that you have a lot of experience in this field and you are talking about researching your skills. That's why I value your words and your sentiments .

I'm a little sceptical of the EV situation as I wrote some time ago. It's not necessarily the answer its being touted (marketed) as you mention in this post. Just another revenue-generating initiative by the uber-wealthy? Hmm, let's see hey?

The more hype, the less science. There were electric cars a century ago, but they were not viable because of battery issues. Some things remain the same! They had the advantage of a power grid that was drawing heavyweight investments, so charging wasn't the nightmare it is today.

Even with the advantage of no government regulations to run their costs up, they still failed due to the vehicle's expense. Again some things never change, but at least it was an honest failure back then!

I intend to build one, because it will give me the ability to slow charge the car, with the 'extra' power generated. A wind generator Must have a load, or it can run away and be damaged. I have parts for a dump load that converts the extra wind power into heat. I'd rather use that same power to deep charge my car....

I like that Doran car design and I bought the plans already. I've been buying parts for it for several years, including a fork lift battery and motor speed control. The EVs will come, but they need science to address their problems, Not politicians!

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Need science not politicians. That could apply to many things.

Very true we need more science, but if the politicians were ground real fine...I think they'd make decent compost! I wouldn't put it in My garden, but some one might, LOL!

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One thing I strongly believe is electric cars will be the future and cars like Tesla are already setting the standard

I'm working on building one, so I sure agree! There will be a lot of brownouts because of charging problems. I'm going off grid at the homestead to avoid this problem! Moved six solar panels out there 9 days ago. I will use solar and wind for primary power.

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Thanks for the share, the more people that read this, the better chance it can help someone!

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The EVs can be another scandal if not watched. The essence was the clean environment period.

Ironically, by pushing it via regulations, they are harming the environment by forcing the use of a design, that is a poor choice for mass production.

Your numbers are coming up!

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EV mass adoption requires power plants, improved infrastructure, and new battery technology.

Nuclear power has long been a bogeyman, but it's time to seriously consider it again. Plants can be built safer, and we have decades of design improvements compared to Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. Waste concerns are overblown, and I suspect "spent" rods can be re-enriched or repurposed instead of just buried, to say nothing of the potential in switching from uranium to thorium. Caveat: I am not an expert in any of this, just a casual amateur researcher.

The local electric cooperative and a neighboring utility company have been upgrading their transmission lines locally. I'm not a fan of megacorporations, but at least they aren't government.

As for batteries, there are numerous possible future tech developments, but LiFePo is here now. It's not as energy dense, so more battery volume is required, but it requires less scarce materials.

But above all, the fact that subsidies and mandates are the driving forces (no pun intended) behind current EV adoption is proof the market cannot sustain it.

I agree with your entire post, and I like that formulation. Nickel metal hydride is another formulation that is less power dense with easier to find components. It doesn't burn like LiIon either. I also like the Edison battery, with all its faults!

But I still like the vanadium reflow battery best, especially if I can make my redesign of the electrode bodies work as I hope!

The reactors are truly a good solution, and can be used in slack load times, to make the hydrogen discussed in the main post. If the hydrogen is liquid, and pumped around a superconductor core, power can be disbursed with no appreciable losses! Them the hydrogen can be used to power small local power plants containing fuel cells.

The waste problem can be solved in two ways. First refine the spent fuel rods to recover the unused fuel, to reuse. Then you can grind it up and mix it in sand to be fired into glass...the perfect container! Then it can be buried safely, as it can't ever leach out! The second method starts the same, but the waste is cast into a large block. That block is lifted, on disposable rockets like the Germans make; and sent into the sun. We simply add a tiny amount of nuclear fuel to a huge nuclear reactor....

The regulation problem is the greatest threat to EVs! The politicians, in total ignorance of the real World; are doing untold damage to EVs!!!! This must be a scientific and engineering problem, because that is the only way to solve the issues!

These idiots once tried to change π, to 3 for state use; because 3.1415927 was too hard to remember.... Some of the dumbest people on Earth!

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Sending objects out of the solar system is actually more energy-efficient than sending them into the sun. Less delta V. But launching it is very energy intensive in the first place. Why bother?

I have always liked the glass option. I have several calibration sources for my Geiger counter. They are glass, and size determines the strength of the calibration source.

I was shooting for the sun, so someone else wouldn't have to deal with our trash later!

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Thanks for sharing!

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That's right there are many benefits of electric cars and all these things we came to know after reading your post.

The EV should win or loose based upon the merits of that specific design. If it happens slowly, the power grid will be able to keep up.

But I think the hydrogen, burning in an internal combustion engine; will be at the socks off of the EVs, across the spectrum!

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Yeah you are right. I totally agree with you sir.

The output of a hydrogen engine is very clean also. It's a much cleaner choice, than the strip mining and coal fired power sources needed for EVs!

Simple really....

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