Electric Vehicles on the horizon? Do your homework

[Cadillac STS]

Not too long after we bought it my SO decided to go see her friend in Volcano through the valley summer. She got passed Paso Robles and had been on the gas engine for about 40min when the car told her there was a cooling problem and reduced her speed(!). As it got worse and the car told her to pull over and it shut down. She used the OnStar to call the Chevy dealer in Paso and they sent a tow truck. Turned out there was a loose hose connection that was leaking and all they had to do was tighten the clamp and fill the system and it’s been perfect ever since.

You probably know this but the Volt has a "Mountain Mode." and it keeps the battery charged to allow the electric motor to assist the gas engine up hills.

Conquering Steep Mountain Passes in a Chevy Volt

www.bigislandev.org

 

[ttabbal]

For hydrogen, people have been fussing with it for decades. It has obvious advantages, but the downsides are less obvious. The biggest one is that it is so small, almost nothing can contain it long term. It also doesn't liquefy under pressure, so you need insane pressure to store much of it, which makes it want to leak more. Or cryogenics, like they use for rockets. On the up side, leaking H2 isn't a big issue, it floats away and is not toxic. The flammability range is narrow enough that you are unlikely to have that problem either.

The other downside for "clean tech" people is that most of it is produced by steam reforming natural gas. The CO2 is generally released, though it could be captured. It doesn't have to be made this way, it's just easier and cheaper. It's certainly a much easier problem to solve than storage. Though I suspect if you ran the efficiency calculations, you would likely do as well to just burn the natural gas directly. Improvements to the process could allow better results there.

One interesting idea for solar storage is to make hydrogen via electrolysis, and mix it in with the natural gas for later generation from standard gas power plants. The efficiency isn't great, but it doesn't really need to be and it would provide much more storage than batteries can at grid scale.

Salt reactors are pretty old tech. I think they have some promise, but the stigma for the "N" word is pretty strong. I wish them well, I think that tech needs to be part of the conversation, but I'm not convinced that price or politics will work out for it.

 

[Cadillac STS]

There was a TV commercial years back with one of the energy companies getting a large truck and trailer, semi sized and put a hydrogen plant in the trailer. The hydrogen ran the tractor trailer. Seems to me this could work if you kept working on making the hydrogen generator smaller and smaller and allow some cargo. Maybe some day small enough to run a passenger car.

 

[C-Bag]

I have heard that Washington state may be building a molten salt reactor which is really interesting nuclear technology. I hope they are successful and are able to change the perception of nuclear generation.

^^THIS is another example of evolution that was forestalled and deep sixed by status quo and greed. The LFTR(liquid fluoride thorium reactor) was designed and run at Oak Ridge in ‘69 by the same guy who designed the heavy and light water reactors. This is what we should have been doing ever since then. But once again greed and stupidity and downright evil deep sixed it. Want to see something that will either make your head explode or your blood boil.

 

[C-Bag]

C-bag,
I always enjoy your posts.
The comment about Henry Ford, renewables and Ford lost their way is a profound statement to me.
I wonder if the market would have responded to Ford products if they maintained the original vision over the years.
I remember selling Ford remanufactured starters, alternators, water pumps, oil pumps etc in the 70's. His vision was to offer remanufactured parts to reuse and offer savings to the consumer.
He was a forward thinking old fellow.
You may remember the old parts books, you could buy every component to rebuild a part. Pins, diaphrams, impellers, bushings, bearings etc.
Today, everything is a new assembly. The only thing we sell that is remanufactured are engines and transmissions.

I really appreciate you saying that Jeff. I always feel like I'm going against the tide.

My girl friend had a '70 Maverick with a C4 and 200 straight six. It was the first American car I was close to. It was a wonder. It was so incredibly cheap and reliable it was kinda insane. Brake shoe whole sets for $6? A water pump for $18? She broke the alt belt in the middle of the summer in Merced when it was 105f and drove it home. It took an hour to even cool down enough to see what was up. Put a belt and some water and off it went but it started using oil, had cooked the middle two cyl rings. We were both in college and no $$ and I went to my old high school auto shop teacher and he let me rebuild it during class and got a deal on a ring and bearing kit for less than $200. It went for another 6yrs and 100K and she sold it to a highschool girl. 10yrs later I'm working as a mech in a Shell station and I see that thing bounce in and there's woman with a kid in a car seat in the back and she wants me to put a quart of oil in it and check the coolant. I pop the hood, it's not been touched since I did my ring and bearing and she says she's on her was from Merced to San Diego! Just like when we had it, it got between 27 and 30mpg. Literally they don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

[Janderso]

My girl friend had a '70 Maverick with a C4 and 200 straight six

There's an old friend.
The 200 was the 300's little brother. They were full of torque.
I had a neighbor who bought his 1970 E-100 brand new. It had a three on the tree shift and the 300 six.
I know he drove it over 500,000 miles and finally put a reman in it.
I use to get a second gear scratch with my 1967 Cougar with the C4.

 

[martik777]

We bought a Volt in ‘16. My first American car in 43yrs of driving. It has been the most reliable trouble free and inexpensive to run car I’ve ever had. That is my main criteria for a car. My wife drives it to her work. Last I looked in its electronic logs over its life it’s run 89% on electric. Lifetime gas mileage is 250+.

How do you access the "electronic logs"? I used to use https://www.voltstats.net/ but it is no longer supported.

 

[martik777]

• Canadian Volt owner for 3.2 years, saving ~ $300/month in gas (gas was $7/gal (4.5L)) when we purchased
• Almost 14,000 incentives brought the price down to a comparable ICE car
• Installed my own 240V EVSE - purchased used Clipper creek model with warranty for $200
• 99% EV mode for our driving habits (ICE used maybe 6 times / year < 500 miles)
• No battery degradation so far
• No maintenance costs so far - will need to change oil within 2 years
• No detectable brake rotor wear (use regen to stop, brakes pressed last 3-4 mph)
• Not sure if we'll keep it after the 8 year warranty as any repair will be very expensive but many have been trouble free for well over 200k

I think the Bolt EV is the most affordable EV with the 2022 price reduction. It is 32k USD and 38k CAD

 

[mattthemuppet2]

there's a lot of work going into reusing/ recycling EV batteries. People are aware of the growing tide of batteries needing to be recycled in 8-10 years and are working hard to figure out ways of either reusing the batteries (power walls, utility scale storage etc) or recycling them, which is pretty energy intensive and nasty at present. One of the biggest challenges is safely getting the batteries open and the cells out. By all accounts Tesla is one of the worst, using an almost impossible to remove epoxy to hold the cells together. Most like the UK and EU will move towards some kind of standardised battery assembly/ disassembly process to make life easier for the recycling centers.

 

[C-Bag]

You probably know this but the Volt has a "Mountain Mode." and it keeps the battery charged to allow the electric motor to assist the gas engine up hills.

Conquering Steep Mountain Passes in a Chevy Volt

www.bigislandev.org

I really don’t. That car is so deep and I only drive it on the weekends. I’m always finding out something new and they just did a software update and somehow we got on a page on the display we’d never seen before. Yes, I admit it, I’m a Luddite I only use a cell because I have to and 99% of what it can do I have no clue.