7 comments

  1. Don’t be so fast to discount electric vehicles (ev). While they may not live up to your basic requirements (br) now, it’s possible in the future they may.

    Think, the first cars built in the early 1900’s did not live up to your br but eventually they did. Same may be true with ev’s.

    From the little bit that I’ve read many of the ev’s have lightning acceleration, which is good!, and some have stunning top ends, good too!

    Where the ev’s come up short is in the distances they can drive, the time/cost to recharge, and the exploding/burning batteries. Is it not possible these things can be over come in time?

    Let’s not forget pricing, now, and ongoing (maintenance). ALL vehicles on the market are way over priced as far as I’m concerned.

    I have one more requirement: it must be able to haul 20 sheets of 4’x8′ plywood and/or a full palette of 8″x16″ concrete blocks.

    I don’t think my requirements will be met in my lifetime. Read into that what you will.

    2. 1. Electric vehicles are, in toto far worse for the environment than “petrol” cars.
      a. 5 times the mineral inputs to make. Which means 5 times the mining, 5 times the transportation, etc.
      b. Once the batteries are worn out–usually around 100k–the replacement cost is almost as much as a new car, with the secondary market being near zero. I have 2 cars with 260k miles and 170k miles that pass emissions and will run for several more years.
      c. If they catch fire they are a lot harder to put out. Like an order of magnitude or two. Yes, we can make them so they catch fire *less*, but when they do they’re 10 times worse than a petrol car.
      d. Currently those vehicles are *largely* powered by coal. Especially since they charge at night. Coal is some truly nasty s*t and the sooner we can transition from it to Nuclear the better.
      2. We do not, and will not have an electrical infrastructure that can support large scale charging. We need new transformers, we need more productive capacity. This costs money that isn’t there, and won’t be because the goal isn’t to get us to use electric vehicles, the goal is for us peasants to stop moving around.
      3. I can refill my SUV from empty in 8 minutes, and get it out of the way for the next driver. You will *never* be able to do that with a battery powered vehicle.
      4. EVs are fine for commuter vehicles, but they *suck* as family cars, especially when that “family” exceeds 2 children. But then many of people pushing for them hate families and hate humanity.

      2. As to putting them out…..
        Sand is a much better extinguisher than water; water just makes Lithium burn more intensely. But, you’ve got to be able to completely cover – completely – a burning EV with that sand.

        1. Then it will burn it’s way through the pavement underneath. You can’t “smother” that fire because it requires no oxygen, you can only contain the heat with a blanket of sand or something, or try to remove heat with a whole lot of water – and with water, you have the 2Li + H2O = Li2O +H2 reaction, as well as water carrying chemicals into the ground.

          The fire burning through the pavement is a small problem if only dirt and rock is under the pavement, but very bad in a parking garage, and much worse on a ship. And there have been fires of parked EV’s and even EV’s secured for shipping. The battery cannot be completely drained without damaging it, and the slightest fault is apt to end up in a battery fire.

  2. If RR wants to “Run Silent – Run Deep” for their aristocratic clientele….Good On Yah!
    But, please, let Bentley remain a performance car with an ICE true to its roots.

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