Quote:
Originally Posted by the_tyrant
You know, tesla just posted a record quarter, they actually outsold many popular models from BMW, Audi, Lexus to have the most popular luxury car in the US.
The real problem with electric cars is recharging. It takes too damned long! It takes 5 minutes for me to fill up my gas car, but hours to do that with an electric. Imagine a lot of people heading to a popular destination, with gas cars, you can just line up and wait for the guys in front of you to fuel up, than fuel. But what about electrics? The charging infrastructure and speed just isn't there.
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Now imagine that when you pull into a gas station, the gas station needed to refine the gasoline as you wait. It would take a very long time to refill your car. The solution was to have the gas service station store the "energy product" in a form that can be used by the customer immediately.
That concept can carry over to the electric car with a few changes. The problem is that an electric service station has plenty of electricity, but there are limitations on what form it needs to be in for the customer to be able to immediately use it.
One interesting proposed solution is to have standardized batteries that are easily replaced. When you pull up to an electric service station, the existing battery is quickly removed and an already charged battery is replaced and off you go. This could happen even faster than filling a traditional car with gas. Then, after the customer leaves, the electric service station recharges the battery at the slower rate.
Just as you can buy gas at any gas service station and use it in your car, using this system you can "buy" electricity at any electricity service station, but it is in the form of a battery, not a liquid.
The reason we don't replace our empty fuel tanks with full ones is because, since gasoline is a liquid, it is easier to simply pump it in to an existing empty tank. Electricity is a little different.
If we are going to use electric cars, we have to change our paradigm of how service stations operate.