That's a fair point, I can't see them as plentiful as oil, coal and natural gas though. The cost to mine lithium, etc. will not come down because these things are already mined by children in 3rd world countries. Unless you get robots to mine the stuff then I don't see how the price comes down.
There is a German company who was working on a sulfur battery using industrial waste - that sounds pretty cool. Of course now that Germany is de-industrializing that tech might not be here soon. Someone does need to develop a better battery, that's the biggest limiting factor.
There's a heck of a lot of amazing things going on with batteries.
In the lithium space you can get rid of/minimize the use of nickel and cobalt, the two most ethically difficult minerals to source by using LiFePO4 whenever possible.
Sodium is a potential replacement for lithium,providing they can improve the longevity to 1000-3000+ cycles.
A functional NaFePO4 battery uses materials that are abundant.
Exactly Julian Simon's point. The only potential issue is that disruptive technologies CAN create short-term shortages of resources. Higher prices will incentivize new technologies, new exploration, make marginal mines/wells productive again, etc. Over time it all evens out.
I do find it interesting that a lot of EV (especially Tesla) owners are basically evangelical about their car/EV's in general. Maybe Prius owners are/were like that too (hence the South Park episode). Where I live there are more lift kits on pickups than EV's so don't experience this much in person but it seems to persist online.
I have a Tesla, it's really cool and fun and all of that but damn - some people take it way too far.
Long range gas car replacement EVs weren't supposed to be possible. People were supposed to settle for odious little go-karts that could only go 50 or 60 miles, and to take trains everywhere else.
The more people who are aware of and or acquire long-range EVs the harder it gets for the authoritarians to ban them in favor of what they prefer.
I'm pretty sure Tesla's are hackable...not sure about other EV's. That's a concern. Big Brother doesn't like how far you're driving or your social credit score is too low, so your car gets turned off. That would have sounded delusional 5 years ago to some people, but now?
Of course at some point they could just make gas illegal, so unless you can find a black market for crude and know how to crack it, you're screwed there too.
The vehicle doesn't need internet to work. It just needs your key card. So remove the cellular modem and now it can't be remotely disabled, or take the cellular antenna and modify it so it's a poor receiver. Of course, in the case of a Tesla that means it also loses a whole bunch of other benefits but it'll function as a car still.
I don't really see any reason why a third party replacement computer module couldn't be created and almost be a drop-in replacement. Or flashing a new program over the built-in software like many of us do with our phones, or some Smart home devices so they can't call home anymore and stay completely local.
Three phase AC motors really aren't that hard to control, and there are third-party systems that interact with the BMS, these are typically used when taking a wrecked Tesla's battery and converting it to off-grid storage.
We are kind of early in the phase of having these things so modders are still getting into it. Just a little harder to mess with when it's a 60 or $70,000 vehicle versus say a $400 Xbox.
I wouldn't take too seriously any claims that there is not enough lithium, nickel, cobalt.
For the last 20 years the greenies have been saying "we'll run out of oil in 10 years" yet here we are producing more than ever
That's a fair point, I can't see them as plentiful as oil, coal and natural gas though. The cost to mine lithium, etc. will not come down because these things are already mined by children in 3rd world countries. Unless you get robots to mine the stuff then I don't see how the price comes down.
There is a German company who was working on a sulfur battery using industrial waste - that sounds pretty cool. Of course now that Germany is de-industrializing that tech might not be here soon. Someone does need to develop a better battery, that's the biggest limiting factor.
There's a heck of a lot of amazing things going on with batteries.
In the lithium space you can get rid of/minimize the use of nickel and cobalt, the two most ethically difficult minerals to source by using LiFePO4 whenever possible.
Sodium is a potential replacement for lithium,providing they can improve the longevity to 1000-3000+ cycles.
A functional NaFePO4 battery uses materials that are abundant.
Exactly Julian Simon's point. The only potential issue is that disruptive technologies CAN create short-term shortages of resources. Higher prices will incentivize new technologies, new exploration, make marginal mines/wells productive again, etc. Over time it all evens out.
I do find it interesting that a lot of EV (especially Tesla) owners are basically evangelical about their car/EV's in general. Maybe Prius owners are/were like that too (hence the South Park episode). Where I live there are more lift kits on pickups than EV's so don't experience this much in person but it seems to persist online.
I have a Tesla, it's really cool and fun and all of that but damn - some people take it way too far.
Call it a preemptive strike
Long range gas car replacement EVs weren't supposed to be possible. People were supposed to settle for odious little go-karts that could only go 50 or 60 miles, and to take trains everywhere else.
The more people who are aware of and or acquire long-range EVs the harder it gets for the authoritarians to ban them in favor of what they prefer.
I'm pretty sure Tesla's are hackable...not sure about other EV's. That's a concern. Big Brother doesn't like how far you're driving or your social credit score is too low, so your car gets turned off. That would have sounded delusional 5 years ago to some people, but now?
Of course at some point they could just make gas illegal, so unless you can find a black market for crude and know how to crack it, you're screwed there too.
Anything with a computer is hackable
The vehicle doesn't need internet to work. It just needs your key card. So remove the cellular modem and now it can't be remotely disabled, or take the cellular antenna and modify it so it's a poor receiver. Of course, in the case of a Tesla that means it also loses a whole bunch of other benefits but it'll function as a car still.
I don't really see any reason why a third party replacement computer module couldn't be created and almost be a drop-in replacement. Or flashing a new program over the built-in software like many of us do with our phones, or some Smart home devices so they can't call home anymore and stay completely local.
Three phase AC motors really aren't that hard to control, and there are third-party systems that interact with the BMS, these are typically used when taking a wrecked Tesla's battery and converting it to off-grid storage.
We are kind of early in the phase of having these things so modders are still getting into it. Just a little harder to mess with when it's a 60 or $70,000 vehicle versus say a $400 Xbox.