EV Myths and Realities, Part 1—The Battery Crisis (good look at material & production constraints)

[kristopher]

This is a must read if you are following EV development and deployment. I've made no attempt to provide details of the conclusions because the presentation leading up to them is so strong it would be an injustice to the author to skip it.

EV Myths and Realities, Part 1—The Battery Crisis
If Tesla, or anyone else, wants to make 10 million long-range performance EVs per year in eight years’ time, neither raw material reserves nor market production capacity will stop them.

Let's start with the myth. John Peterson recently stated it quite explicitly:

The bottom line is that grid-powered electric vehicles are unconscionable waste masquerading as conservation. There are enough batteries and battery materials to make electric vehicles for the few, the rich and the mathematically challenged, but there will never be enough batteries or materials to permit the implementation of grid-powered electric vehicles at a large enough scale to impact global, national or even local oil consumption. It's not an effective solution.

...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Guest-Post-EV-Myths-And-Realities-Part-1-The-Battery-Crisis/

[ejpoeta]

1. very informative. thanks for posting.

i would be really excited to see EVs that I could afford and that could work for me. When I am in the market for a vehicle again in a few years maybe I hope there will be further advancements.

[pumaman]

2. reply title

Another way of looking at it, how much good does it do our society to produce thousands of EV's that nobody buys or can operate cost effectively?

Consider the environmental cost of making such vehicles. The amount of materials, the cracking of oil to make plastic, aluminum and steel foundrys, and hazardous chemical processing plants for the batteries. Think about the raw energy: hydroelectric, nuclear and fossil fuel, needed to produce all of those green vehicle components.

Then think about those vehicles piling up in dumps, because nobody wants them or can afford them.

I am an environmentalist in the purest sense. But I am by training and profession, a Physicist and Engineer. Im practical, and a realist. It is non cost effective and downright foolish to invest in technologies that are technically overestimated, misunderstood, and doomed.

[kristopher]

3. Sounds like you're more of a bloviator to me.

That suffers from an inability to engage in complex reasoning.

[XemaSab]

4. Welcome to DU!

[caraher]

5. It proved a very short visit! <nt>

[XemaSab]

6. .