Tow Vehicles - Toyota Goes Turbo

Storage of nuclear waste in the desert?  You may want to ask the people affected by the Yucca Mt., NV, nuclear storage site how they feel about it.  On the other hand, Norway seems to have come up with a viable nuclear storage solution that may make nuclear reactors more practical.  

My point was that materials extraction, processing, and transport causes environmental harm. The two most heavily extracte materials are oil and coal. Of course, because they are consumed immediately, one time use only. If we can reduce those then not only have we reduced CO2 but also the environmental costs of obtaining, processing, and transporting the fuels.

While Li extraction has issues (mostly water use in desert areas), it is a one time environmental impact for a product that will be used for decades. So much less material is needed.

As I said earlier, I agree that the benefit of EVs, while there even when charged on dirty grids, is much better when the grid is cleaned up. We need to do both, and get away from assuming the status quo in energy production when considering EVs That status quo is rapidly changing.

BTW, the same is true the other direction. EVs will be part of the renewable storage solution once we can get past our confused and complex regulatory system and certify bi directional chargers. They are already being implemented in other countries with a more centralized regulatory approach, but you can't buy one here yet. That is the main thing that is keeping me from buying an EV right now. Which ones will bi directional chargers be available for. As for aggregating nd managing those storage resources on the grid, that is already being done Our friend Elon has a whole division of Tesla doing just that with other storage resources (not the cars yet). Others are doing it too.

I agree with you on pursuing Thorium reactors. I'm willing to consider any technology that can be quickly implemented that reduces carbon and breaks the stranglehold on the global economy that big oil and the oil exporting countries has had for a century. But Thorium reactors are a long way from being on line. One reason renewables have been so successful recently is because they are fast to implement. You can go from concept to an operating plant in 6-9 months. Usually the thing that takes the longest is the financing. Sadly with all the roadblocks, nukes take decades to reach completion, if ever. In my opinion, need to stop that, treat this whole energy transition as we did industrial production in WW2 or the Apollo program, and git er done. The Chinese know that very well, that's why they already dominate global production of solar and lithium batteries.

Let's stipulate that towing trailers long distances is not a viable use case for EVs today, but let's also recognize that for the majority of motor vehicle use they are fine, and in many cases better.

Originally posted by offgrid Recharge time is solved as far as I'm concerned. The new generation of 800V cars and DC chargers charge at 250+kw. So a Porsche Taycan for example can charge from 5 to 80 percent in under 25 minutes.

If hydrogen can be obtained using solar and wind, then it may be more viable.  The technology needs to be explored.  It may not pan out, but I seem to recall people saying the same thing about electric cars many years ago.  Who knows what efficiencies will be developed.  Clearly, we should not use it if it can only be obtained with the burning of fossil fuels.

Hydrogen has been explored plenty, it's a waste of time. It cannot ever be anywhere near as efficient as batteries. The fossil fuel industry has lobbied for it for years because it's made from their products. It is not more efficient when made using renewables. It's really quite like corn ethanol, a dead end that has been kept alive by special interest groups far too long.

As for lithium mining, none of what you are describing is as bad as the environmental impacts of petroleum production are, not even counting the burning of the stuff. As I said all options have negative impacts, it's a matter of which are worse. The only other option is less vehicles on the road driving less miles, so we can all take public transportation when possible. But that's not likely to happen.

For stationary grid storage there are many options that might be and probably are better than Li batteries. Pumped storage for one is very well proven and efficient, but it's difficult to site because you need reservoirs at the top and bottom of a mountain. That raises NIMBY issues yet again. Nothing comes for free.

Re energy replenishment time, for me, if I save that 5 minutes at the gas pump 90% of the time by charging at home I'll happily accept 25 minutes the other 10% of the time. If you do the math I've cut my total energy replenishment time in half compared to using gasoline. If I spent 90% of my time on the road travelling long distances that would be different, but again that is an unusual use case.