487
Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities
(theconversation.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
487 points (94.5% liked)
Bicycles
3105 readers
4 users here now
Welcome to !bicycles@lemmy.ca
A place to share our love of all things with two wheels and pedals. This is an inclusive, non-judgemental community. All types of cyclists are accepted here; whether you're a commuter, a roadie, a MTB enthusiast, a fixie freak, a crusty xbiking hoarder, in the middle of an epic across-the-world bicycle tour, or any other type of cyclist!
Community Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
-
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn.
-
No ads / spamming.
-
Ride bikes
Other cycling-related communities
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Yeah, I’ll just haul my kids around on an electric bike when it’s 20 degrees F (-7 C) with a windchill around 0 (-18 C), which also coincides with EVs getting absolute shit range because current batteries hate holding charges at that temperature. Also, I drive a 20 year old vehicle with 190,000 miles that I paid $3000 for 6 years ago or so. EVs and even E-bikes cost a whole lot more than that without the utility.
On top of that, calling vehicles that contain lithium batteries “zero-carbon” is laughable. The mining, refining, and manufacturing process in itself is an environmental disaster. I agree we need to find new modes of transportation powered by methods other than burning coal, natural gas, and dinosaur juice, but we don’t currently have the solution to this problem.
That's blatantly false and shows just how little you know. The reduced range is due to the heating (both cabin and battery) performed. You don't even need to heat the battery, but it will perform better when warmer.
There is no significant waste heat on EVs like the ~70% there is on ICEs, so the energy for heating cannot be passively recovered but has to be actively spent. If you disabled all heating (which is obviously not feasible), the reduction in range would be significantly less.
Right, so they still get reduced range in the cold. I now understand the “why” part of it.
Except that in extreme cold like the region gets where I live, apparently you do actually need to warm up the battery if you want it to take a charge.
As for Tesla, that’s a non-starter for me. Even setting aside my feelings about their CEO, the build quality isn’t something I’d accept anyways even if there was an option that was viable in my case.
The bottom line is that the cost of entry, lack of an option that comfortably carries 5 people and a large dog, and the lack of charging infrastructure (in my area at least) are barriers that most people don’t want to, or can’t deal with.
I do agree that we need an option to phase out ICE vehicles, but we’re just not there yet for a whole lot of people.
Yes for fast charging (>50kW) the battery needs to be warm so it doesn't get damaged, this goes for all EVs and isn't Tesla-specific.
But yeah EV range is an issue for some, although not the vast majority. For most people, these issues are theoretical because they so rarely actually use their car in a way that they would encounter them. In reality it's only an inconvenience they might encounter a few times per year, if at all. Most driving by far is done well within winter range of any EV on the market, if you have the ability to either charge at home or at work with "slow" AC charging.
Manufacturing electric cars generates a bit more emissions than internal combustion cars, at least now while the technology is relatively young. Last time I read about it, an internal combustion car would catch up and pass the electric equivalent in emissions in a couple of years of normal use.
I’m not against electric cars. One just doesn’t exist that meets my needs currently.