>I disagree a bit - I think the ways they're improving both retention Range will always be an issue for people who have long trips on secondary routes. OTOH, I have seen very few people who push a 'nothing but EVs' line. Electric-driven hybrids, (like the Volt), will have a strong niche for a long time.
>and charging technology (the latest rev SuperCharger can now recharge
>a Model S from flat to 100% in about 45 minutes, I believe) will be
>important and relevant - and I suspect we'll continue to see
>improvements.
Also, the core of the charging time 'problem' is looking at the issue the way we currently 'recharge' our cars: Running them until they are almost empty and then going somewhere to quickly refill them. This is actually a strange way to handle the issue, can you imaging a smartphone that you had to take back to the store once or twice a week to recharge?
For most people, the effective recharging time for an EV is 0. Why? Because they aren't doing the recharging when they are running low, they do it every time they get home, (and, ideally, when at work). Who cares if it takes 4-6 hours to get back up to a full charge if it's happening while you are spending 8 hours working, or 4 hours making/eating dinner, watching TV, playing games, etc. followed by 7 hours of sleep?
>Fuel cell is a great solution, too,
Not really: It means either using a hydrocarbon fuel cell, which are tricky to design so that they don't turn themselves into hopelessly gunked-up scrap and still have the whole carbon emissions problem, or hydrogen, which _sucks_ as a fuel.
Well, it's not so much that it's hard to use hydrogen. That part's easy, it's handling and storing the stuff that's a dangerous PITA. When you combine something that burns with an invisible flame, can detonate when mixed with air, will leak right through just about any tank material and has a lousy energy density, (thus requiring either cryogenic or high-pressure storage), you get something that I seriously don't want random people handling at gas stations.
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Chakat Firepaw - Inventor & Scientist (Mad)