How much of a dent would this put into a Tesla's range?


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On 19/02/2024 at 02:27, Stuman said:

Probably reduced it by one third. Don't the EV advocates realize that electricity used for charging is made by power plants using natural gas, oil or coal. Unless they live next door to a hydroelectric dam or a solar farm is there any chance of "natural" energy. Please don't get me started on Just Stop Oil.

Almost the whole province of quebec in canada is using hydro.

The reality is we'll eventually run out out of fossil fuel. We'll eventually have to find something else. It would be a good idea to start developing altenatives now and not D-1. It took 100 years to get to where we are with gaz powered cars and electric cars will be a series or trials and errors too. Not working on alternative forms of energy now (sun, wind, hydro, nuclear, batteries, ...) would be totally stupid. We definitely have to improve the batteries a lot and try to make them with less rare materials. Same for solar panels. But fossil fuel is not the future and there's no reason to deny that outside of some political rhetorics or having shares in the fossil fuel industry.

Edited by LaP
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On 18/02/2024 at 23:27, Stuman said:

Probably reduced it by one third. Don't the EV advocates realize that electricity used for charging is made by power plants using natural gas, oil or coal. Unless they live next door to a hydroelectric dam or a solar farm is there any chance of "natural" energy. Please don't get me started on Just Stop Oil.

While you're correct in principle, in reality the end result is catastrophically off the mark.

The more EVs there are, the more the dependency is on grid-based power.  Solar and other renewables are on the increase, plus even at the basic level, it centralizes the problem.  A decentralized problem means that you logistically have to ship gas using gas to serve gas.  There is gasoline being consumed to serve the need for gasoline.  Tons of waste in that exercise just for supply alone.

Additionally, the power needed for the range is considerably less for consumer cars -- think about this from a KW/mile vs a MPG.  I own an EV and I've done the math.   The KW I "spend" for mileage costs far less -- super economical at any rate in a comparison vs $3/gallon, given the consumption.  So there's far far less waste.  

I don't like absolutist logic like this, so I will concede you're correct in basic facts, but it encourages alternative energy beyond power plants that use gas/oil/coal.  This has expanded radically in the recent years as well.  Most of the talking points you're stating even in this response are generated (no surprise) by the oil industry itself in a last-ditch effort to say "why bother, you're just burning oil anyway" which, while possibly technically correct, is still far less.  

Here's the breakout as of 2022 across all the USA, which is amongst the worst for non-renewables across the globe:
Natural Gas: 39.8%
Coal: 19.5%
Nuclear: 18.2%
Renewables: 21.5% (solar/wind/hydro/biomass)
Petroleum and Other: 0.9%.

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On 18/02/2024 at 23:08, Steven P. said:

When  I was out walking I came across this and had to take a picture:

image.jpeg

I wonder how much that would shave off the range of the electric motor?

Maybe it's his battery back-up pack!

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