Jeff Danziger for February 04, 2022

This does remind me of people with cars having internal combustion engines forgetting to fill their tanks before starting a long trip in the country (or across a desert).

So, what is wrong with an electric car?

Strangely, even I (a Prius hybrid owner) have thought about this. I’m SURE that EV manufacturers have done a lot of thinking. Right off the top of my head, I imagine portable chargers, probably a big battery, possibly with some sort of generator… maybe attached to the delivery vehicle.

And yeah, if we’re asking our friends to help, the system pictured above seems more than likely.

Looks a lot like the old “get a horse!” arguments.

An acquaintence had a Prius – one day he was driving along and a light came on – a triangle with an exclamation point, and the car shuddered to a halt. The battery pack had packed up. $3000 (!)

I’m enamored of the hybrid, though – but now you are kinda back to square one.

There will be issues.

I’m guessing big oil drew this one for Mr. Danziger. My Kawasaki Versys gets over 60 mpg at 75 mph. I’m retired, so I have no place in particular to go when it’s too hot or too cold.

that’s the kind of thinking and derision that was used in the early part of last century that gave birth to the expression:

’Get a horse!"

soon enough, it will be the electric vehicles towing the few remaining fossil fuel driven antiques

First, EVs do pretty well. Gas engines also get worse mileage in the winter. Second, they are improving in mileage and charging time each year. Third, there already exist portable chargers for when you need an extra charge (sort of like a gas can for when you run out of gas). Fourth, has Danziger never heard of AAA?

I don’t have an EV, but I do have friends who are very happy with theirs. Not the expensive one, either.

Anyone see where California just banned Gas Powered lawnmowers, weed-eaters and such??

I plan to get a hybrid, being out in the boonies with fewer charging stations. By the time the hybrid gives up, there should be plenty of charging stations.

Instead of owning an EV, just trade it for one that is fully charged, at a convenient exchange station.

The first automobiles broke down so much that the owners were made fun of, with people in carriages yelling at them “Get a horse!” We are in the early stages of electric cars. They will improve.

Swing and a miss on this strip.

Go back 100 years, and you’ll find this same cartoon, except with a horse drawn cart pulling the newfangled combustion engine car.

This is SMART. Why is it a problem. It isn’t a contest, the days of internal combustion are over. It is smart to find a way to use them on their way out.

Why can’t the tow truck be electric? It could also charge the vehicle at the same time. Think outside the oil!

People used to deride horseless carriages too.

Read the other day that if 20 EV plug in to the latest fast charge outlets they draw the equivalent of 15,000 households. Pretty sure your supply grid will have trouble with that.

Ev’s seem to be fine for those that live in a city where short runs are the norm and speeds are city speeds. AND you can charge at home. For anything else.. not so much.

And how long before there is a road tax applied to replace the lost tax currently placed on oil based fuel.

I love my EV. I wish it were a little bigger so I could get in and out easier, but it’s still the neatest car I’ve ever owned. Being a 2015 Leaf it has a short range, but it was bought to do all the short drives about town that was costing me an arm and a leg to fuel the Dodge Dakota. And currently, the Dakota costs approximately 18 cents/mile, whereas the Leaf costs just 3 cents/mile. True, as the battery gets older, it is losing some of its efficiency and doesn’t get as many miles per charge, but it is still a cheap drive and doesn’t pollute.

As to the complaint that they cost too much, that depends on what you’re looking for. I’m amazed at what the newer Leaf’s have as far as features, and Nissan still builds a quality EV selling for the best price currently available. There are Chinese and Indian cars that might make it to the US market that are supposed to sport some very impressive features at very impressive prices, but we haven’t seen them, yet. And, no, I don’t work for Nissan.

It’s gonna get mighty sweltering and freezing if the human race doesn’t do something to mitigate climate change in a hurry.

I don’t get it, I have jumped started my EV with jumper cables when a water bottle fell between the door and the seat control causing the battery to run down while parked at the airport. I have also jumped started other cars with my EV. It is not any harder than an inter combustion jump, simply read the dang manual.

The biggest drawback with towing an EV is that if any of the wheels are rolling while in tow, the battery could generate excess charge and explode.

A surprisingly ignorant (or lazy) joke. Apparently that gas-powered vehicle never runs out of fuel…

Run an electric motor backwards, it becomes a generator. So, to charge your batteries just drive backwards for an hour or so. Simple. /s

This, of course, NEVER happens with a gas powered car. Unless, of course, like the electric car owner who neglects to charge the battery, the gas driver neglects to fill up before empty.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. People will figure it out, just not instantly.

There’s obviously will be a transition period.

So, you’re not one on the 2.3 Million Tesla owners worldwide, 200,691 in the USA. Just remember this cartoon next February.

How is having an EV battery run out any different than a combustion engine burning all of its fuel? This cartoon is illogical.

Plus, if the electricity used to charge the battery comes from renewable sources, the impact on the ecology is much lessened.

Good thought Jeffrey!

Golly, that never happened with a gasoline car. When I saw the film “Who killed the electric car?” the popular viewpoint was that GM decided to concentrate on the more profitable SUV and truck market. I think they were scared that electric cars were too reliable. An electric motor has only one moving part instead of the hundreds in a gasoline engine. There’s almost no maintenance required for an electric car, and where’s the profit in that?

The biggest problem right now with going with EVs is that the number of charge points is limited. Most of the people who buy EVs seem to live in single family dwellings, where you can do overnight charging (at a time when solar isn’t providing electricity). If you live in a large apartment complex, or if you live in a place where you must park on the street rather than an assigned parking space then it is unlikely that you will have a charge point at your parking spot(s).

Will you be able to charge at work? Not at most places. Even work sites that have charging stations tend to have far fewer stations than parking spaces.

If you live out west, it can be a long distance between even gasoline/diesel stations. And right now, it is even worse for EVs. Partial fill-ups of gas or electric may not be practical even on the supe highways.

So those are the real issues for EVs.

On the other hand, if you are driving an internal combustion engine vehicle, you are poisoning the air for everyone. Not just in the present but for the future, since that CO2 is going to be around for hundreds of years (barring a huge efffort at sequestration. Same for other gases resulting from ICEs. You should pay heavily for that.

Old Coal’s point about the time to partially charge (say up to 50%) being less than the half the time to get to 100% is a very good one. As EV range vs charge improves, it may be that charge stations will be metered so as to limit the time you spend charging during peak hours of use. This would be to improve access to the limited charging stations. If you really need to fully charge, you may have to pay extra or find a place that is set up to handle a large volume of cars needing a full charge.

Many of us remember having to forgo filling a gas tank because of limited cash flow, even when gas was 25 cents a gallon. Of course, if we needed to go a long way, we had to spend the extra money to do so. But those tended to be rare events, certainly not daily.

My Prius gets average of 55 miles per gallon in the summer….only 49 in the winter….boo hoo. Just drove from Chicago to the border of Georgia and Florida in my husbands Tesla and stayed on a remote island with only the charge from regular household current for two weeks…..in January. Again, longer battery in the south, but no problem whatsoever.

As one EV owner put it: I get home, I plug in. In the morning it’s “full”. Never have to worry about it.

On a lighter note: https://iplayerhd.com/player/video/dae6a69a-adb1-4692-aaba-cff7e6bcd493

A gas car?! That’s all well and good ‘til you run out of gas and have to be pulled by a horse to one of them fancy gas stations

Jump-starting a gas car isn’t analogous to the situation of an EV with a dead battery. What’s analogous is driving until your tank is empty, and if you’re dumb enough to do that, you get what you deserve (walk of shame with a gas can, or call for a tow).

There was a picture on the net of a flooded parking lot full of chargers.

Danziger still illuminates his house with candles, I’ll bet. Them fancy-schmancy electric light bulbs go out in a big storm!

Um… I’ve had many a gasoline (and diesel) car that had a dead battery (in the case of my F350, two dead batteries). Plus, I’ve had gasoine powered vehicles stranded when the ran out of… well..gasoline (and diesel, in fact).

Sorry, but the reliability factor is either a wash or in favor of the electrics. Not to mention, you know, that whole fossil fuel thing.