What specifically is encouraging the electrification of cars?

submitted by [deleted] from self.AskSaidIt

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

You mean other than government subsidies?

Cleaner air, quieter vehicle, easier to maintain vehicle (internal combustion engines are a mess), and more choice in fuel sources (you can still burn fossils fuels to charge, or use solar/wind). That's the dirty little secret a lot of pro-electric car folks don't talk about. The majority of electric cars will still be fueled by oil, since renewables aren't prolific or reliable enough. But hey, even then, it's easier to regulate and clean a single oil-burning factory, than it is a million cars.

There's almost no downside other than the lack of infrastructure and high upfront costs, which should diminish as the industry updates.

[–][deleted]  (4 children)

[deleted]

    [–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

    Really, where do you think we shall dispose of all the batteries? Who will incur the cost to "recycle" as to reuse them? Where are all the precious minerals coming from to manufacture the batteries? Do you know who currently owns the mines that create much of the minerals in these batteries? The Chinese.

    Yes, exactly. How do you think we currently handle batteries, or really any other technology?

    We haven't just started to use batteries, nor are conventional engines clean. These problems have been solved for a century.

    We used to just dump used motor oil down the drain before we realized it was killing us. We know how to recycle batteries, and already do.

    [–][deleted]  (2 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]BravoVictor 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

      Ha, Jesus H Christ.

      I'm actually not sure what they do with oil when you drop it off at a recycling center. I'm guessing they clean it and re-purpose it. It's not like it's unusable. It just has impurities from the engine wear and ignition. Remove those and it should be good to re-use, if not for engine oil then at least as a source for other petro-chemicals.

      Dumping it back into the group seems like the dumbest way to dispose of it.