I take an Australian motorcycle magazine having been out to that country a few times to visit my daughter who married an Aussie and lives in Perth. A recent editorial contained the following paragraph which chimed with my own opinions:
Loving motorcycles I am glad, at 84, that I should not be around when our government's decree that all new vehicles must be electric powered by 2030. Motorcycles were originally exempted from this ban but are now included. Batteries in motorcycles could not be large enough for any long range. Even cars are suspect here, especially on dark, cold winter days when all ancilliary equipment, lights, heaters and demisters may be all needed to take power from that battery.
Ecars are expensive. Charging takes too long and the infrastructure is just not there. Imagine a journey of say 300 miles in winter with a full passenger load and a need to stop to recharge batteries at a motorway car park. It could be filled with others using all the chargers (if all are working) and even "quick charging" could take 20 minutes.
Still, I envisage that the existing, used IC vehicles will have enhanced selling prices and will be cherished, repaired and used for decades, rather like the vintage American cars in Cuba.
Synthetic fuels, as being developed by Porsche could be the answer to this collective madness.
A Luddite's musings.....
10 comments:
My brother has an electric nissan van..and an Energica Italian electric motorbike.
Did the 500 mile journey up to us in Scotland in two days...so one overnight charge and two coffee breaks with a short charge en route..and arrived with 70 mike's to spare so to speak.
Miles!!
gz:
Well good for him. I used to think nothing of doing a 600 mile motorcycle day ride to Cornwall and back from Kent. I did, perhaps, about two 5 minute fuel stops each way and a main stop over in Cornwall for lunch.
I suppose I would be an ideal candidate for electric vehicles these days. My desire for long journeys is over and I just toodle around Kent. But the cost, my dear, the cost of buying electric, whether car or motorcycle.
There are several points here that require further discussion. The first - and it applies generally - is try and avoid being a pioneer.What is now is not necessarily representative of the future, even the near future. Some of the points you raise occurred when IC engines were introduced. Only the rich could afford them, petrol stations were few and far between, the technology was primitive, and there were sociological problems to be overcome, notably noise and a new way of getting killed.
Imagine if you'd been born in rural surroundings in the late 1800s; if you'd had the money you'd have been a horse person. Since you're prone to nostalgia just imagine your reaction to the disappearance of a mode of transport - said to be beautiful by some although I can't share that view - that went back centuries in favour of such imperfect and hideously ugly contrivances. I repeat ugly; aesthetics can play a significant role in consumer revolutions.
Cars remained a rich man's toy and then along came Ford. And what Ford did was mostly unforeseen by contemporary pundits. It wasn't the cars that changed it was the way they were made. Cheaply and a consistently superior product. Millions bought them and society, as it were, caught up.
The way forward with electric cars may not involve the cars themselves; after all what's so remarkable about an electric motor? Reflect a little more, think how simple a motor is compared with all those moving parts in an IC engine. Which, of course, has to include electric motors if it is to work. Oh how you love to tinker but the guts of an Ecar may deny you your hobby. Where there's money the emphasis tends to be on batteries; Elon Musk seems to be a bit of a chump when he strays from what he knows but he may have got his priorities back at the ranch; that massive plant of his in Arizona is predominantly devoted to battery development. Alas poor Britain: ever heard of Britvolt?
The other shadowy techno-figure waiting in the wings is the computer system. Do you still yearn for a dialphone these days? The heaviness, the solidity? Just one simple feature of the mobile: the audio is so much clearer, just right for the aged user who finds himself suffering with the landline as his hearing begins to fail. Electronics may well dominate the electric equivalent of the PeoplesCar in ways that can't yet be foreseen
Yes, there are the traditonal arguments. Battery development still runs up against the laws of physics, but who knows? How about inductive power cables laid into major roads? So the car's battery'charge is only used on minor roads. I have horrible memories of the Hindenburg when people talk hydrogen but BMW has apparently deveoped a hydrogen car.
Your immediate reaction to gz's point was to trump her details of the electric car journey with one of your own about an IC engine motorbike. Conveniently forgetting that you were setting a technology that had 100 years development behind it with one with only a decade. Again, I can't help feeling you appear to love vehicles as vehicles; a decorative entity out on the drive. I, and one or two others, love what they can do for us. Anyone whose best car isn't a new one they're presently driving has, to my mind, different priorities.
RR:
When I posted this I actually thought of the reply I hoped for from you. And what a reply - seven meaty paragraphs. Thank you.
There is nothing you say which I can argue with. I agree with your thoughts about inductive power on major roads and had thought along those lines already. But it will need a major input of finabce and engineering work. (Along the same lines, when will all service systems be laid in an accessible pipeline along the side of all roads to eliminate the constant digging up and destruction of smooth road surfaces).
Yes, I enjoy delving into oily engines as others enjoy solving chess problems.
I still use a dial up (albeit push button) house phone. My small mobile (number unpublished) is only used for outgoing calls, in emergency, when travelling.
Here we regret we can't still buy high octane fuel since all 0ur old bikes from the 40s to the 70s work better with 95 octane, and we only have one vehicle (14 years old) from this century, but nevertheless, I love to ride in other people's new quiet smooth magic carpets, so long as someone else is operating it. Friends dread the electric conversion because they love shifting gears. I enjoyed RR's thoughtful musings. Oh! That reminds me, we were supposed to take the second Puch (from the '50s) to be sold, but we forgot. Doh!
Vita:
Luckily we can still obtain high octane fuel in UK. I run both my motocycles and car on it always. It's smoother, better for the engine and the extra mileage offsets the extra cost.
Being a passenger in an e-vehicle is the best way to go at present. You avoid the costs and range worry!
Needing a "major input of finance". Ever heard of Keynesian economics? Of the New Deal in pre-war USA? Of money spent on infastructure which ultimately creates a valuable asset while simultaneously addressing employment problems? Not that you'd hear anything on these matters from the present lot nominally in charge.
RR:
I agree entirely with your last comment. It will need a very different government to any of the present clowns of any political persuasion to envisage this. It will need a vast amount of expenditure too, which we do not have at present.
The Chinese have a saying, "In the final analysis wool comes from the sheep" and us sheep will have to pay for it.
Yes, it's all very complicated, but I'm glad you're continuing to enjoy your freedom on the bike.
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