Hmm... Aggressive stance that. We'll ignore the huge ecological impact of lithium mining for starters then (the quantity we'd require for wide scale EV use is far beyond what we use in our phones/ipads/etc....) Plus the vast majority of the planets electricity IS NOT from renewables or nuclear (and unlikely to be the latter now given the utterly bizarre reaction to the Japan crisis.. ). People who work drive less than 50km a day!? Now THAT is drivel. I'm sure there are many, many people on this forum who commute longer distances than that. I work away from home during the week, and drive home most weekends - I would need a vehicle with at least a 300mile range. Hire a car every weekend? Get real. And before you say it - trains are neither economically viable nor timely on the route I would need to take. Oh, and I happen to have had a long, long conversation with Daimler-Chyslers head of EV development, among other people.. So i'm well informed enough thankyou.
As I said, EV's make sense for a highly urban areas; HOWEVER the environment would be better served by properly implemented public transit systems. They are not the answer to wide scale private transit.
As for the Bacon thing. Perhaps if I followed it up with LMFAO!!!!!!! You'd appreciate I'm being sarcastic about a foodstuff. I didn't appreciate I was being so subtle.
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Bacon: many different kinds of bacon; Americans are most familiar with the thinly sliced stuff in poly packs; slab bacon, and Canadian Bacon. Lots of kinds of bacon and many ways to preserve it and it is all bacon. Slabbed or sliced or rolled up, it's all bacon. Not so sure why we are arguing about bacon, but there you go. Not one cook on the list.
Alton Brown . . . We need you.
As for electric cars, they ain't ready yet. The public will not accept them right now, either. Look at the sales figures for electric cars. You mentioned lithium mining, yes, that is possibly a concern.
If we were required to drive toy cars with AA power sources and lithium were discovered in this country (It might be, I do not know) What make you all think we will be able to dig it up and process the stuff? We have vast oil reserves in this country, we have oil shale, we have tar sands, and we cannot drill, mine, and process the stuff because the whiners say it is bad.
What about lithium? You really think that will happen? We do not need batteries, we need oil. Both require drilling or mining. So why is the destructive act of drilling for oil any worse than getting to the lithium?
Environmentalists want us to protect Mother Earth and they hate mining, they hate natural gas, they hate coal and they hate cars and gasoline. But they want us to have electric cars which adds one more large scale mining operation to the mix. It is kinda like smoking in California. People want smoking banned but they want marijuana legalized.
Apparently, the world's supply of lithium comes from Bolivia. So we trade the pain and suffering at the hands of Saudi Oil Ministers and start suffering at the hands of the Bolivian Lithium Ministers?
Lithium is a poison. Just like mercury in those lightbulb we will be forced to endure at some point. So we trade fairly safe incandescent lights for poisonous mercury that requires a Haz-Mat team to clean up? And with multiple millions of drivers in this country, what about the environmental impact of large scale lithium disposal.
That assumes that the batteries of the future will contain lithium.
Those that want electric cars do not think it through. Many of these alternatives are dangerous replacements for existing materials and apparently we need electric cars to save the planet, when there is no legitimate proof that oil and gasoline and global warming is a problem.
What about cost"? I hear that a set of batteries for today's electric cars can cost from 4,000.00 to 8,000.00. Those prices come out of your pocket every 80,000 to 100,000 miles. Willing to put that kind of money into your car or perhaps just buy another car which takes more resources to produce and puts one more junker in the environment.
So the alternative can be costly and it will affect your car's trade in value should the dealer need to replace a set of batteries because it is near the end of the estimated life of the batteries.
Perhaps we need bacon powered cars?
Bob
