Comments by "TeeKay" (@teekay_1) on "New Toyota CEO Shocks Everybody | Huge News" video.

@ThreeDogsTwoCatsAndAWife Well, the governor in California is the biggest problem. It used to be a great state until people were foolish enough to elect him.
21
@Chainyanker007 Tesla maintains them as a competitive advantage to buying a Tesla as no one but a Tesla owner can take advantage of them, so he doesn't insist they make money. I'm talking about your local gas station owning guy. Because of the inherent risk, he'll have to charge similar prices to what a gas powered car costs and perhaps more because an electric car will take 45 minutes just to get a partial charge, so that represents 9x as much "pump" time as a typical gas car. He can't just charge you the cost of the electricity and hope you buy a Slurpee to to give him 4 bits of margin.
4
@TKevinBlanc By contrast, no. The reality is that the world will depend on hydrocarbons for at least the next 50 years.
3
@thomosburn8740 "You can only burn that petrol once. " Your analogy of comparing gas cars is a bit backwards since most petrol powered cars have a range in excess of 600 km on a single "charge" of energy and can be refueled in five minutes. Further range does not decrease markedly if you decide to go down the freeway at 120 km/h with AC on. Thus you're giving up range, convenience and paying a higher initial cost. The bulk of the world's electricity is made by burning coal. And between electricity made by burning coal and the very dirty way EV batteries are produced, the break-even point for EV's to "pay" for their carbon debt is 10 years. So far, it's not clear many electric cars will last 10 years. Finally, if you read the fine print on Tesla's recycling program, you're responsible for getting the battery back to them to recycle. At 400+ kilos, it's a good bet people will simply opt out.
3
@bobjohnson4512 Don't see how that could pay for itself, unless customers are willing to pay $60-100/hour to use them.
2
@chriskelly509 How much would you be willing to pay per hour to use it?
2
@bobjohnson4512 Well, the Casinos are doing it for the tax break and to bring the suckers in the door. But if you're talking about stand-alone electrification stations along the interstate, they'll need to pay for the high-voltage lines to be brought to a place, building a mini-mart, and then pay for the electricity they sell to you. And they need to maintain the pumps and upgrade them as standards change. Then you need a few clerks to man the register... the consumer has to pay for all that overhead. You'll find the cost will be more expensive than paying for an equivalent amount of gas. So for your 300 mile range EV, a gas car could do that in 10 gallons, assume $4/gallon, and you're looking at a $40 cost to charge your EV. If you're not willing to pay that, don't expect these stations to spring up as a convenience.
2
@chriskelly509 That's what the station will have to pay. They'll need to mark that up by a factor of 5-6. You've got to be willing to pay the owner for the risk of building and maintaining the pump. Many EV owners expect charges to be free or very inexpensive. But the reality is if there's no profit, no one will build it.
1
@thomosburn8740 If you'll read any science papers on the topic of "renewables", they cannot be our primary source of electricity. They aren't reliable enough (and they can never be) so they will always be a tertiary power support. We're either going to have to invent a new source of energy (like Fusion?) or start building more thorium reactors. But with that said, that electric car in today's world is a worse polluter than the gas car you're sitting next to in traffic. Even at that, i don't wish to stop you from buying one. Only petty tyrants would say "I'll decide what type of car you're allowed to buy".
1