On Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 10:34:01 AM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article , says...
I couldn't live like that. It looks like a cell block.

Fortunately that is only some sections of the city, I never did live
that tight. I did live with my grandmother for a few years. Her street
was very wide and a very wide sidewalk. Parking was still difficult
though as there were more cars than houses. It was not unusual to be a
half bock or more away. No way could you run a cord to a car either.

You can have community charging stations but you can imagine the fights
when a dozen people need a charge. When it snows, people will dig out
in front of their house and there have been killings when people tried
to use those spots.



I grew up in a small city of about 20,000 and lived out in the country
for the last 40 years. Never have been to the large cities like New
York where from what I have heard that a thousand or so people live in
one building. I just can not get it in my head if any of those even own
a car.

For me, it is nothing to hop in a car and drive 20 miles to see a
friend, or even take a trip to a city 100 miles away. Just do not see
an electric car for me unless they get them to go 300 or so miles and
charge up in 10 minutes or less just like a regular gas station.


We're kind of at the ~300 mile range. But it also depends on
whether you need heat or AC, which decrease it. Charging is down to
an hour or 90 mins, using a supercharger, but you won't find them
most places, at least not yet. There is one here at a shopping outlet
mall. I can see an electric as a second car, but I agree there are
some big limitations if it's your only car. Like needing to go somewhere
unexpectedly and the car is low on charge or taking a long trip.
From here to Vermont to go skiing is a 5 hour, 300 mile trip.
I'd have to stop somewhere to at least top off and that just makes an
already long trip worse. People like to leave after work for a weekend,
now instead of getting there 11PM, you arrive how much later?
And you have to stop where to charge? If I have to stop, maybe I
want to go to a particular type of restaurant, not eat at Burger King
at a rest stop. Do they have fast charging at the restaurant?
Not today. But, they will likely get better range as time goes on
and just a bit more and it will be practical for even that. Meanwhile
you can buy a plug-in hybrid that solves all of the above.





One other thought for the electric cars is instead of just recharging
stations, they have car changing stations. You pull your electric car
in and switch to a freshly charged car. Another way. Maybe some kind of
quick change battery pack. One where you drive into a bay and press a
button and a crane pulls it out from the hood and puts in another .
Process to take about 5 minutes or less.

It would take a hell of a big facility to store and manage the batteries.