It doesn't have to be one way or the other. The lack of mpg that cars get is frustrating. It seems like they could be doing better. Before people get all excited and think a car can carry itself and passengers, groceries, etc, there is some basic maffs that need done.
The calories in a gallon of gas are not sufficient to get mpg beyond a certain number.
The heavier the vehicle, the fewer miles.
Again, we get into a place where there are so many moving parts that having a solid solution is Impossible with the resources we have.
If they could figure out how to make a battery that can be recycled that doesn't cost so much the car is totalled .
example, replacing the battery of a Tesla Model 3 costs one-third of the total price of the car in 2022, as reported by Recurrent. The lowdown on replacing a Tesla Model 3 battery Tesla Recurrent reports that replacing the battery of a Tesla Model 3 costs about $15,800.
Insurance companies call a car totalled if repairs are fifty percent of value.
I sure would hate finding out the battery I need costs more than ten percent of the value of my car. It's Not too horrible if it's a hunnert bucks for the battery for my thousand dollar pickup, but you get the picture.
Anyway, I like the idea of hybrids. That looks workable and would, IMO, be a great step forward.
That would get manufacturing going towards electrici motors, which IDK hoot about. Maybe there isn't much improvement left to be made there. But batteries? Every now and then we get a new formulation that holds tons of electrons and can be deep cycled. But with hybrids you don't have to run the battery down. Using the motors for braking and charging the battery is cool.
But the battery technology matters. Right Now the batteries are EXPENSIVE, but start trying to make them in the quantities required to be in an appreciable percentage of the vehicles on the road and then we will see how the mining operations required to find the stuff that goes in them affects the price. You would expect some Economy of Scale, but then I Think the limited amount of those things will Jack the cost outta sight. It's not like oil or coal. The number of tons of dirt that has to be moved and sifted through doesn't Sound like something anyone would call Sustainable. And the stuff isn't just everywhere. Apparently the things required aren't in good supply in America. I think we have lithium, but how much?
Cobalt is important and it is found in the Congo and it's being mined, because it's in the copper mine. The supply may be better than I thought. Interested people should look at this.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GH000325Not sure what that is,
https://earth.org/cobalt-mining/https://www.drive.com.au/news/demand-for-electric-car-batteries-forces-mining...Okay, more to say, but I'm done for now.
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