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Re: Running on Empty (nOPEC and how hosed we are)

By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Thu, 19 May 22 12:02 PM | 68 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 32097 of 60008
(This msg. is a reply to 32092 by fizzy)
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fizzy:

Re: “It's maybe a 10 minute thoughtful read. You might want to sit down and pour yourself a stiff one before you start to imbibe.”Not exactly an optimist, is he?

If he's right, I still think we have DECADES before energy prices create conditions as bad as the author implies. And that's if he's right.

Meanwhile, I just did a little reading about electric cars. Just how much energy do they save? What do they cost? Well, the Tesla Model 3 is powered by electricity, but kw/hrs can easily be converted to btus, and btus can be compared to gallons of gas. From that, we find that it gets 138 city / 126 highway. Pretty good! Its MSRP is $46,990. Expensive, but it's sort of a high end EV. (Yeah, the Model S is $100k, but it's REALLY high end.) Other electric vehicles cost quite a bit less. The Nissan Leaf is $28,425 and gets 123 city / 99 highway.

I've never been a fan of electric vehicles. I don't like it that they take 24 hours to home-charge and are expensive to charge commercially. I don't like it that their batteries are expensive and have to be replaced every 100k miles. I don't like it that trips beyond 200 miles become brutally difficult. I don't like it that there are obvious problems if the occupants need to heat or cool the interior. And I don't like it that EV batteries don't work very well when they're cold - which means that for five months of the year, an EV wouldn't work very well in New Hampshire. BUT... spending less than a quarter what you otherwise might for fuel has considerable appeal. The average person now spends around $2k each year on gas. For such people, getting an EV as a commuter vehicle isn't horribly insensible. They'll save $1,500 per year on gas, nearly offsetting the $10 to $15 thousand they'll have to shell out for a new battery every 7 years.

On the other hand, I won't be surprised if telecommuting and a gradual acceptance of Virtual Reality as an alternative to physical travel greatly reduces the 14,200 miles average Americans put on their cars each year. That too will play a role.

I conclude that EVs aren't as ridiculous as I'd previously thought. They wouldn't work for ME, but they would for many suburban- and city-types. And that, clearly, will stretch out the time we have before running out of oil brings death and destruction upon us all.

BTW, your article took me twenty minutes, not ten. You must be a fast reader.








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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Running on Empty (nOPEC and how hosed we are)
By: fizzy in 6TH POPE
Thu, 19 May 22 5:38 AM 		Msg. 32092 of 60008

It's maybe a 10 minute thoughtful read. You might want to sit down and pour yourself a stiff one before you start to imbibe.

http://www.ecosophia.net/running-on-empty/

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