Evs are awesome and way better than gas cars in 99% of cases. Then a greener grid will makes evs even better over time…
But…
It would take more lithium than is known to exist in all of our current mines to make the batteries for the cars in JUST north america (reference needed, sorry can’t remember where I heard this).
Maybe if we had multiple technologies, started getting lithium from the ocean (expensive and may have bad side effects), and used hydrogen for all forms of transportation that it could be used for, because with cars it’s pretty unrealistic, but with planes, trains, and trucks its more realistic, AND we kept our range expectations low, and and and… then maybe we could get solid EV penetraion worldwide.
But nah, the real answer is we need to rebuild our cities to have good public transit, put more batteries in bikes and scooters so less overall batteties are needed to move a person (including no batteries for bikes and scooters sometimes too haha), and all that energy can go toward running high speed rail and city streetcars (streetcars on steel rails, because its more efficient and lasts longer and is cheaper to maintain than roads).
Sorry, long answer haha. Btw i was into evs before tesla made it cool, so i’ve just been thinking about this for a long time haha.
Sodium batteries are rolling out, they’re not as energy dense but use common materials instead of needing to exploit the global south. They’re also way safer; you can puncture the battery and it won’t explode, which is a big deal because it makes transporting them much easier.
The best part is that you can roll them out using existing LiPo infrastructure, just substitute out the lithium and slightly modify a few steps.
Evs are awesome and way better than gas cars in 99% of cases. Then a greener grid will makes evs even better over time…
But…
It would take more lithium than is known to exist in all of our current mines to make the batteries for the cars in JUST north america (reference needed, sorry can’t remember where I heard this).
Maybe if we had multiple technologies, started getting lithium from the ocean (expensive and may have bad side effects), and used hydrogen for all forms of transportation that it could be used for, because with cars it’s pretty unrealistic, but with planes, trains, and trucks its more realistic, AND we kept our range expectations low, and and and… then maybe we could get solid EV penetraion worldwide.
But nah, the real answer is we need to rebuild our cities to have good public transit, put more batteries in bikes and scooters so less overall batteties are needed to move a person (including no batteries for bikes and scooters sometimes too haha), and all that energy can go toward running high speed rail and city streetcars (streetcars on steel rails, because its more efficient and lasts longer and is cheaper to maintain than roads).
Sorry, long answer haha. Btw i was into evs before tesla made it cool, so i’ve just been thinking about this for a long time haha.
Sodium batteries are rolling out, they’re not as energy dense but use common materials instead of needing to exploit the global south. They’re also way safer; you can puncture the battery and it won’t explode, which is a big deal because it makes transporting them much easier.
The best part is that you can roll them out using existing LiPo infrastructure, just substitute out the lithium and slightly modify a few steps.
Right! I knew I was forgetting something important! Sodium batteries have some potential to help, including as LiPo/Sodium hybrids.
I guess Australia is technically the global south…
I mean lets be real here.