If you are needing to regularly buy batteries for cordless tools and laptop chargers then I think standardization is the least of your worries. I would feel pretty confident in saying the average consumer never buys any of those things and just uses what comes with the device.
For the “consumable” part, as you say, they all powered or charged using the same electricity standards that are provided by very standard three-prong plugs and USB sockets.
My Dewalt charger wont fit my Hitachi batteries though. My Zbook Pro charger won’t plug into my macbook.
USB-C For the win
It’s a no from me.
I’ve ridden a couple, a good few years ago.
I have an electric car (an i3) and it’s mega but an electric bike doesn’t tick many boxes for me.
Electric Bike yes, Battery Bike NO!
Would be happy buying and running a Hydrogen bike
Am i missing something? an electric bike would carry a battery.
That or you would need one hell of a long power cable
I am sure you are pulling my leg - Every bike has a battery - electric bikes have huge ones.
Hydrogen bikes have a tank of Hydrogen which passes through a fuel cell that generates electricity goes into a small battery and powers the motor - with a 250 mile range I’d rather go Hydrogen
But… Nobody’s developing hydrogen bikes. Pretty much everyone who’s anyone has settled on BEV.
One of the problems with bikes running on hydrogen is that they need a tank capable of withstanding pressures of 10,000 psi.
Also, do we actually want hydrogen powered vehicles on the roads?
The oft-touted benefit of hydrogen powered vehicles is that they emit nothing other than water. So if a substantial proportion of the vehicles running around are hydrogen powered, all those thousands of drips out of the millions of vehicle exhausts mean we’ll be riding around on near permanently wet roads!
Frosty winter morning commute anyone?
Came across this interesting piece on electric cars and raw materials and power needed to meet the UK’s target of making all new cars electric by 2030. https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/electric-cars/opinion-raw-material-cost-switch-evs
The key take home was the 2 million new cars sold each year in the UK would require crazy amounts of raw materials: ‘just under two times the total annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters of the world’s lithium production and at least half of the world’s copper production during 2018’
Also, charging that many cars will need a 20% increase in electricity generated. Which if assuming this is from solar/wind renewals, will in turn needs vast amounts of rare metals: (high purity silicon, indium, tellurium, gallium for solar, and neodymium and dysprosium for wind). They quote ~10% increase from solar ‘if CdTe-type photovoltaic power is used, that would consume over thirty years of current annual tellurium supply’.
Now, I’ve not fact checked them numbers, but if true that’s some serious obstacles. It just doesn’t seem achievable with today’s tech. I can only see it being solved by new tech (across the board of new batteries, solar cells and wind turbines), alternative fuels (e.g. Hydrogen) or drastic social move away from car ownership and usage (e.g. few cars bought and just rented on a ZipCar type scheme)
Original letter by the scientific group behind these numbers quoted: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/leading-scientists-set-out-resource-challenge-of-meeting-net-zer.html
And whilst emissions from vehicles may be clean, hydrogen production is not. Almost all commercially produced hydrogen comes from natural gas and produces around ten tons of CO2 for every ton of hydrogen.
Whilst there are environmental concerns about the processes involved in producing batteries, hydrogen is just as problematic. At an industrial scale it is ultimately a refined fossil fuel so not only does it produce greenhouse gasses, it is also unsustainable.
And in addition to the safety impact on vehicle designs you mention, there are also big issues involved in the combined transportation, storage, and refuelling requirements for such a highly volatile substance.
Actually because of the over production of wind power in Scotland instead of simply stopping the turbines, they are now using the excess to split sea water in hydrogen and oxygen with the hydrogen being stored and used for vehicles and heating.
This is actually going to become more prevalent as renewable electricity production increase.
I have to be as upfront as Government Minister - I have share in ITM Power!
A Kent couple have described their horrendous nine hour journey driving their electric Porsche home from Bournemouth.
Linda Barnes said she and her husband were very fond of their electric car but didn’t envision how difficult it would be to charge it away from home.
The 130 mile journey from Bournemouth would usually have taken them slightly more than two hours.
Speaking to The Guardian, Linda said a variety of factors conspired against them making good time.
She told the newspaper: “We left Bournemouth with 45 miles of range left and followed the car’s navigation system to the nearest fast charger, plugged it in but nothing happened
“A parking attendant told us it had been out of action for weeks.”
The couple drive a Porsche Taycan 4S, a type of electric car that requires fast charging.
In their efforts the pair visited six charging stations which were either out of order or too old fashioned.
They eventually found a Porsche garage which gave them a free top up with a slow charger which they hoped would be enough to get them to the next service station.
After that charger didn’t work, the couple trekked to numerous other stations while perilously low on charge before finally finding a working fast charger.
This is why the elimination of petrol and diesel car sales by 2030 is pie in the sky. In 2019 there were 2.3 million car sales, imagine that level of electric car sales. At the moment the charging infrastructure is ok for current demand, but for 2.3 million cars a year? There would have to be an incredible investment to provide charging infrastructure for all those vehicles. Is the government investing that level, no. Is the private sector providing that investment, no.
Just look at the fiasco that is the smart meter roll out.
This may sound a bit flippant, but quite frankly anyone wanting to get an electric car and not choosing a Tesla is bonkers. Their charging networking is what makes the experience so good, beyond their other USPs which put them 5-10 years ahead of everyone else.
The sad thing is that legacy auto manufacturers were offered to join the Supercharger network but they declined so are leaving their customers at the mercy of third-party charging companies who, as this story shows may not have fully matured their service.
Disclosure: I own some Tesla shares.
In other words, the world is not yet ready for electric…
At least not for the mainstream.
I just refuse to give money to Musk… He may be a genius but the ethics of the guy leave me wanting.
Also, for the time being I’m doing the environmentally correct thing and using what I have (a Kia) until it becomes unusable.
Note: I have no idea on the ethics of the Kia company. At the time I needed a car and that was in my budget… Used I might add
It is not “strictly” banning fossil fuel vehicle sales but fossil only fuel vehicles. There is this “New hybrids will also be banned from that date unless they are capable of covering a “significant distance” in zero-emission mode.”
What really peevs me off, is (fill in manufacturer here) will put some absurd battery/distance on the spec sheet which in any real world scenario will not remotely be achievable.
If the government want to fix this, they need to start real world testing no listening to the piles of hot steamy stuff that the auto trade tell them…
There are over 8,000 petrol stations and 18,000 electric charging locations in the U.K., so you are between 0.04% and 0.1% of the way!
