Electric Car in your future?

lugbolt

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back to it

on the service end of it, you have certain things that MUST be done according to osha. If working on high voltage (+50v as I remember, which all of them are), you are required to buy and "maintain" special set of gloves, which require recertification every so often depending on usage. Also have to use special work areas that are roped off, and they want a second tech to be in presence at all times. Fluids, they all have to be nonconductive. Fork lifts and bucket trucks that are powered by high voltage must use special nonconductive hydraulic fluids. Just the tip of the iceberg. So when you take your little ev in for service, you're probably gonna pay more than you will if it was a gas burner. The costs to the dealer are higher. MUCH higher. If you're paying $100/hr now, because 2 techs are required to work on the HV system, proably have to pay $200/hr for that type work. It's not gonna get any cheaper.

Some of us don't drive much anymore. For us, if you plan to store your EV, there are a set of special things you need to do in order to prepare it for storage. Most of the LIFePo battery packs recommend that you discharge the battery to, IIRC, 30% SOC, before storage. Storage is defined as one week as I remember. So if you ain't using the car for a week, you gotta go drive around a while and run the battery down. Shouldn't be too hard on most of them since range is still pretty low. For me, that's driving across town and back.

electricity is "cheap"....but as demand goes up, and it will go WAY up, the cost will also rise. The thought here is that EV's will charge mostly at night. Sure. That's when plants get a break. So, what if something breaks down at the plant and needs attention? Somebody's power if fixing to go out, maybe temporarily or maybe for a good while who knows. It's already happening. Secondly, power is currently generated by wind water coal and gas, nuclear being the last but not least. Wind power is not a viable option to expand the demands on the grid, as it's not reliable in most places in the usa. The wind don't always blow enough. Wind turbines in their current configuration can't produce enough and they aren't reliable enough. Water (hydroelectric) needs a very special set of circumstances to be viable, almost all of them are designed solely for the purpose of helping the main plants. Right now our local hydropower lake is down about 8 foot and they are not generating at all. None. Our leader already promised us that he was going to attack fossil fuel, so you can't depend on gas and coal, even our local gas plant which WAS coal (mandated to switch over) is being decommissioned, per government. They don't want gas or coal plants. So that leave nuke power and solar. Solar power plants aren't a good option but during the day in the summer. From about Sept through March, there ain't enough sunny days to generate enough to even put a dent in demand. The local schools are finding that out. They still are reliant on nuke power. Nuke power in itself is plenty safe but the byproducts are the biggest issue. That and the many regulations set forth, ain't no new nuke plants being built and the newest ones are pretty aged now which begs the question, what's gonna have to change to make them generate more to meet the demands of the loss of fossil-fueled plants going offline, and when hydro solar and wind don't work? Therein lies a set of issues, of which noone has addressed yet.

So electricity is going to get considerably more expensive. My home electric bill is generally less than $100 in the middle of summer, about $25-$35 in the winter But I am predicting that in less than 10 years that will be double. Unless my wages increase proportionally, I can't afford it. And wages never (EVER) increase proportional to inflation. Look for that to happen. I really do feel sorry for those of you who purchased big homes and such, local guy has an electric bill of $3700 in the middle of the summer, and typically $1100-$1200 in the winter. Mind you it's a 15,000 sq ft house, that 4 people live in but you get the idea. They don't need it, but they could afford it, so why not right? IF (when) that electric bill doubles, I don't want to hear em griping. They (and everyone else) knew it was coming.

Range is an issue. Let's say a car company advertises 400 mile range for instance (and some of them did, and backed down off of that number quietly). The range is under ideal conditions that rarely if ever exist. THey call it "real world" testing but it's not. The wind is at their back, one driver that weighs 140 lbs, no cargo, perfect temperatures, perfect SOC (state of charge), flat land, with the tires inflated to 60 psi, and an engineered speed of which the vehicle is the most efficient. No rain, dry, perfect roads, flat or downhill. Well it's hilly here. Sometimes it gets windy in them thar hills. It rains often (although not much in September and October of 2022), it gets HOT (and humid), and then 6 months later it might be below zero for a few days. One could say temperate. I know people who own EV's and they all say the same thing. Nice, for a while but you still have to keep a gas car for certain things. Range being an issue. So if you still have to keep a gas car, why waste the money on a new ev? Not all of us have the money for 2 cars (and their payments, insurance, taxes). On taxes, locally if the vehicle is registered at electric power or hybrid, you pay a $200 tax on it every year when you register. Plus the personal property tax is higher as well. That is going to have to change if they want to force us all into them. And they will, and they'll make lots and lots of money in doing so-mark my words. They ain't cramming it down our throats for no reason.

there's a whole laundry list of issues that not many talk about and this is just the start of it.
 
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D2Cat

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So Im an ASE master (plus the L3 hybrid/ev cert) technician and i own, as in currently, about 20 gas powered cars, probably another half a dozen small engines, and some diesel tractors of course. I have nothing against gas or diesel engines. But..

There's so much misinformation out there that it's really easy to end up anti-ev based on a bunch of lies.

Building batteries right now is messy. It will get better. Noone alive today can remember how horrendously inefficient the processes of building early internal combustion engines was. Not only that, the consequences of pollution generated in that earlier era are almost totally obscured by the lack of data gathered at the time. Nothing ever goes from invented to perfected overnight, and the reason we are still in the 'steep part of the learning curve' on batteries and EVs is because we weren't working through it earlier. A 50 year old would look like a real dumbass trying to learn to ride a bike, too. Nobody points and laughs at the 5 year old doing it. The auto industry is the 50 year old trying to learn how to do something it should have done a long time ago. As it is, almost the entire plausibility of EVs in the modern era piggybacked off the development of batteries intended for portable consumer devices like laptops (i.e. the early Teslas having a 4-digit number of 18650 cells.. noone would choose such an approach if building from the ground up). Why did that industry get there first? Because they were trying while automakers were lobbying to be protected from having to try. Battery production will become more sustainable with time. The fact that it's not already more sustainable is not intrinsic to batteries, it's the crop we sowed by not starting earlier.

An EV powered 100% by a coal plant is still pollutes less than a gas car.

The grid can support a huge amount of nighttime charging (which is when most people will do it) and the utilities have every opportunity right now to see what is coming and plan for it. It is a for-profit service, whether that makes sense or not, so if a for-profit company can't figure out how to do something profitably they can always take their ball and go home. Wanna take bets on THAT happening? More like utilities will lobby government to interfere with EV adoption because they are trying to wring every penny out of their existing business model without being forced to cope with actual 'free market forces'. They will buy legislation to protect themselves from too rapid an adoption, but it won't be because they can't build the supply. It will just make them uncomfortable to do so. Lobbyists are much cheaper!

Besides, if utility operators in the USA weren't essentially a herd of cats operating in near-anarchy, they could just get their shit together and work with automakers to develop functional 'vehicle to grid' standards. If that were in place, the presence of EVs on the grid would make it damn near invincible. Every EV can store an amount of energy that could power a home for multiple days. We have to be able to produce it in the first place, but we already produce far more at peak times and peak seasons than we do at low points and low seasons, so the capacity to fill up a bunch of batteries at the right time is already there, and will continue to improve.

Batteries in EVs, other than in early-generation cars, do not degrade very rapidly at all. EVs will have lower lifetime repair costs than gas and diesel vehicles by far. This is because cars have battery management systems which coddle the batteries to a far greater extent than we, the operators, coddle any damn thing else about the car! If you buy a used car with 150k miles, you have no idea how many of those miles were zinging off the rev limiter, how many were with low/dirty oil, how many times the car bounced off the bumpstops, how many tires were popped on potholes and curbs along the way, etc etc. With an ev battery, the equivalent answers would all be 'none/zero' because the system does not allow you to mistreat the batteries. Just like someone's great aunt has a couch from 1954 that's perfect because she's such an asshole about anyone who goes near it and has been from day 1, modern EVs are making their batteries last longer than the rest of the car by treating it like 'the princess and the pea'.

Besides, when batteries degrade to the point that they can 'only' power a car for 100 miles or less, it's a real 'cry me a river' scenario when the same amount of energy can STILL power a house for days. The real solution there is 'downcycling', not 'recycling'.
You mentioned more than once we should have been working on the solution to the problem earlier.

We didn't have the problem earlier!

Only when a concept is originated does man begin to analyze and look for solutions to any problems. We only problem solve with current problems. We don't have the for-sight to solve unnecessary problems.
 
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lynnmor

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You mentioned more than once we should have been working on the solution to the problem earlier.

We didn't have the problem earlier!

Only when a concept is originated does man begin to analyze and look for solutions to any problems. We only problem solve with current problems. We don't have the for-sight to solve unnecessary problems.
Exactly, Henry Ford's wife had an electric car, this isn't a new ballgame. The only thing new is a push and money extraction from the powers that be.
 
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The Evil Twin

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Sorry D2, an EV powered by coal does not pollute less than an equivalent gasser. They are essentially a wash until you factor in power loss in line transmission and charger efficiency. I've done that there research.
 
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D2Cat

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Sorry D2, an EV powered by coal does not pollute less than an equivalent gasser. They are essentially a wash until you factor in power loss in line transmission and charger efficiency. I've done that there research.
My comment was about when does a problem originate and problem solving.
 

nbking

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I still like a nice looking car, I'm not a fan of any of the ev styles. Probably in the future you might be able to decide when you buy, whether you want ev or gas, like gas or diesel in a truck now.
 

Oil pan 4

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I know for sure at least nissan and Hyundai use water and glycol to cool the high voltage electronics in electric and hybrid cars.
Glycol and water mixtures can start a fire, see Apollo1.

To power all passenger on road vehicles with electric would require the USA to generate about 20% more power. Not really a problem, until you realize the green energy people are going to push for coal power plants be forced closed, create natural gas shortages so natural gas plants aren't reliable, block nuclear plants from being built and try to make all that electricity with renewables that work when they want to.
 
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motionclone

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I know for sure at least nissan and Hyundai use water and glycol to cool the high voltage electronics in electric and hybrid cars.
Glycol and water mixtures can start a fire, see Apollo1.

To power all passenger on road vehicles with electric would require the USA to generate about 20% more power. Not really a problem, until you realize the green energy people are going to push for coal power plants be forced closed, create natural gas shortages so natural gas plants aren't reliable, block nuclear plants from being built and try to make all that electricity with renewables that work when they want to.
Looks like the future of western transportation is going to be bicycles and walking.
 
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NorthwoodsLife

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The facts are:

Electric vehicles are the brain child of the Left to control the people in the name of Global Warming.

But, the power to create the vehicles and the batteries that power them is still based on fossil fuel, (coal), hydroelectric dams, Nuclear, and solar /wind.

The cost to produce these Electric vehicles far exceeds the energy savings.

We have enough fossil fuel to last 300 years or more.

It's a wonderful advantage to the wealthy consumers to buy an electric car in short term.
 
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jimh406

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Electric vehicles are the brain child of the Left to control the people in the name of Global Warming.
I think it's like they invested in electric vehicles and "green" energy and it's simply a money making scheme. After all, it doesn't make any logical sense otherwise.
 
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The Evil Twin

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I know for sure at least nissan and Hyundai use water and glycol to cool the high voltage electronics in electric and hybrid cars.
Glycol and water mixtures can start a fire, see Apollo1.

To power all passenger on road vehicles with electric would require the USA to generate about 20% more power. Not really a problem, until you realize the green energy people are going to push for coal power plants be forced closed, create natural gas shortages so natural gas plants aren't reliable, block nuclear plants from being built and try to make all that electricity with renewables that work when they want to.
Some years ago, Ford had an issue with police cars. The oversized cooling system routed some hose in the wrong spot. It would rupture and send coolant into the header. Which then burst into flames.
 

Oil pan 4

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The facts are:

It's a wonderful advantage to the wealthy consumers to buy an electric car in short term.
Yes it is. Costs almost nothing to drive, about 2 cents per mile for me, no oil changes only transmission fluid, brake fluid changes and tire replacement every 3 to 4 years.
But you have to have some where to park and charge, be affluent enough to be able to have a 240v charging plug wired in.
The left thinks they are a good match for poor people. I think they are smoking crank with hunter.
You need to have a house, stabile living arrangements and not be struggling to pay your electronic bill.
I bought mine used and have had it for almost 5 years, the battery is 8 years old and is doing fine.
 

GreensvilleJay

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curious....
After reading LB's post about 'safety with high voltages....' I wonder what the guys servicing those 80 volt battery drills,power tools and Ebikes do when servicing those products ?
I'm betting they don't use special once-use-only gloves, have a special 'dedicated' bench, fill out 'disposal forms' by crossing T's and dotting the I's .......
 

fried1765

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curious....
After reading LB's post about 'safety with high voltages....' I wonder what the guys servicing those 80 volt battery drills,power tools and Ebikes do when servicing those products ?
I'm betting they don't use special once-use-only gloves, have a special 'dedicated' bench, fill out 'disposal forms' by crossing T's and dotting the I's .......
Comparing the danger from a thimble filled with gasoline, and an 8,000 gal tanker truck filled with gasoline?
 

Biker1mike

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But you have to have some where to park and charge, be affluent enough to be able to have a 240v charging plug wired in.
The left thinks they are a good match for poor people. I think they are smoking crank with hunter.
You need to have a house, stabile living arrangements and not be struggling to pay your electronic bill.
clipped
I have gas vehicles and I do not fill them with gas at my house. Few houses or apartments come with a gas pump. So like gas, you charge at a charging station before you get home.
Why a stable living environment ?
Once upon a time cars were for the rich only. Took Ford and a few others to bring them to masses.
 

GreensvilleJay

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re: Comparing the danger from a thimble filled with gasoline, and an 8,000 gal tanker truck filled with gasoline?

not really... 80 volts can kill or maim...

If you touch my remote energy control system communications wire , it WILL shock you.
 

DustyRusty

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Volts don't kill you, but the amps certainly will. Ever been shocked by a spark plug wire? 40,000 volts, but a negligible amount of amperage. It will certainly get your attention, but it will not stop your heart unless you have a pacemaker implanted in your chest.
 

Botamon

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I have gas vehicles and I do not fill them with gas at my house. Few houses or apartments come with a gas pump. So like gas, you charge at a charging station before you get home.
NOT! The main idea behind having an EV is that you plug it in at home and let it charge overnight while you sleep and the demand on the grid is lower.
 
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