Comments by "Archangel M127" (@Archangelm127) on "The New Geopolitics of Oil." video.

  1. Without a VASTLY improved battery chemistry, EVs are a dead end. They're also substantially more dangerous than FFVs, specifically in regard to vehicle fires.
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  2.  @KBergs  They're vastly harder to put out, if I'm not mistaken. You can't put out an electrical fire with conventional means (i.e. lots of water/foam.)
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  3.  @KBergs  Cool. Does it still take shitloads of pollution to produce the raw materials to make these batteries?
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  4.  @KBergs  Primarily the process of refining lithium, not to mention the terrible practices usually involved in the mining itself. You seem to be very blinkered to stuff that occurs outside the First World. The environmental devastation is occurring in parts of the world that don't enforce their environmental laws. Most notably the PRC.
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  5.  @KBergs  True enough, but until the battery tech improves and the grid actually goes green, that's all it is: potential. I'm not saying EVs are a dead end. I'm saying the tech simply isn't there yet to be able to abandon FFVs.
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  6. ​ @Gelatinocyte2  While Tesla surely has its share of battery fires, the rate there isn't nearly so bad as any PRC-made brand. Their statistics are shocking. Why? Quality control. (Tesla has it, the others don't.) The tolerance for an EV is much lower than in a FFV. So I say again: 1. We need better battery chemistry. 2. We need a green method to generate power at scale for all areas of the world. (Solar, wind, hydro, and geotherm are only economical/possible in certain places. Realistically this means fusion, which I am confident we will develop.) 3. We need a better solution for EV fires (which will occur at some rate no matter how well-made they are, because life) than submerging the entire vehicle in a box full of liquid and letting it burn itself out. Once we have these things, I will join the cult of the EV. Until then, I will continue to call a spade a spade. In the meantime, any net reduction of carbon release in the manufacturing chain as a whole remains worthwhile and should be pursued with all possible diligence. Shifting carbon release from one place to another (i.e. from the actual vehicle to the production of the battery and its raw materials, or from the actual vehicle to the hydrocarbon plant that generates the power to charge it) is merely self-delusion. Now do you see where I'm coming from? :)
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