this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Electric Vehicles
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Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.
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You sure about that? The Cybertruck, ugly as it is, is a king size vehicle with plenty of range. There’s also the Rivian truck. Plenty of size and range. Hummer — huge, currently gets 315 miles on a full charge. Dodge RAM full size EV, will go 619 miles. Will be interesting to see what Scout ships.
Yeah, they added more weight with more batteries but they didn't solve the problem.
But were these problems ever solved for non EVs? I mean the bigger and less aerodynamic the car, the more energy it takes to move it. That's simple physics no matter what technology you're using. That's why IMHO SUVs and trucks are a pretty bad choice for an everyday vehicle.
Yes, they're easily solved with a larger fuel tank that can take you further before refilling. "Doubling the range" on an ICE vehicle is as simple as some extra plastic/sheet metal with very little cost. The same isn't true for battery packs. The physics of it is that gasoline and diesel have more energy density than lithium (or other current compounds) batteries.
But how is that an unresolveable problem?
Energy density of batteries is getting higher while prices are shrinking year by year. You can of course question if makes sense to keep throwing more and more batteries at a car with the size of a yacht instead of building a more efficient vehicle. But it's not unresolveable.
The unresolveable from my perspective is the underlying physics of more weight, big tires (at slow speeds) and poor aerodynamics (at higher speeds) increase consumption. And that problem was there all the time.
From the article:
It’s not that they can’t be built, but not at prices most people can afford. And even then people can’t easily use those trucks for things like towing a fifth-wheel camper; they won’t be getting 400 miles range while hauling a 4 ton trailer behind the truck.
Of course, saying these problems can’t be solved is a cop out. Maybe they can’t be solved now with current technologies, but we’re still very early in exploring what electric powertrains can do. Look how far we’ve come in the last ten years, and imagine what could happen in the next ten!
Escalade IQ also looks amazing, is a gigantic suv and has a 460 mile range.