Tesla Battery

[TransAmDan]

Tesla bringing out new batteries to replace regular batteries.
https://electrek.co/2019/12/26/tesla-patents-battery-chemistry-cheaper/amp/

They also mention in that article that the Tesla3 car battery lasts between 300k to 500k miles, and working on a battery that will last a million miles. One of the concerns with electric vehicles was the battery life, 5 to 7 years was a big concern, however lasting over 300k miles which is longer than the life of many cars.

 

[Will]

Wow! This could end up being a key breakthrough for so many areas of technology, not just EV's!

 

[AmericanThunder]

Of course it completely ignores the carbon impact of mining the metals used in production and the impact of shipping these batteries around the world by boat.
I think it was the Prius batteries that have a pre-figment into car carbon footprint so high it’s impossible to undo during the life of the vehicle.

I still don’t get why Hydrogen hasn’t caught on.
Can be produced from sea water and apparently we have a surplus! The by product is water and could be retrofitted to existing IC engines like LPG from what I understand. Surely this would mean a lot less scrappage of vehicles and more recycling? But then the auto manufacturers wouldn’t be able to sell new cars and the governments wouldn’t get to tax them would they?

 

[TransAmDan]

I still don’t get why Hydrogen hasn’t caught on.
Can be produced from sea water and apparently we have a surplus! The by product is water and could be retrofitted to existing IC engines like LPG from what I understand. Surely this would mean a lot less scrappage of vehicles and more recycling? But then the auto manufacturers wouldn’t be able to sell new cars and the governments wouldn’t get to tax them would they?

Sea water is rising, if we could use sea water then that would help the rising level problem too.

 

[Will]

I've also often wondered why Hydrogen powered cars don't seem to be catching on with manufacturers like battery ones. I've read... (and this isn't my opinion, I've only read it..don't shoot the messenger! lol) that Hydrogen has is drawbacks too. Firstly, it is expensive. While widely available, hydrogen is apparently expensive to separate. It is also comparatively difficult to store and to move around safely. And it is not as easy to replace existing refuelling infrastructure as with electric.
I guess there has to be a reason why most manufacturers are building EV's and not HPV's.
As battery technology advances, even if not in our lifetimes, I think one day, batteries will be produced in Solar powered factories and transported by fully electric ships. And the cars we all drive now will be outlawed.

 

[AmericanThunder]

If Your nightmare becomes reality it won’t have anything to do with sustainability, green credentials or the environment. It will be exclusively because of money.

 

[Will]

For my Grandson's Grandson's sake, I hope you're right and the world's scientists have it all wrong.
Otherwise, his nightmare may be worse than just not being able to drive internal combustion vehicles lol

 

[TransAmDan]

I guess at some point we need to think why do we travel? Is there a need for it... People flying to other countries to do sod all, all them needless flights, burning up vast amounts of fuel. Perhaps VR holidays are they way forward. Why do we travel to work? A lot of work is on computers, mostof it you don't need to work with others. Why do people travel to London? Why is rent so high in London? There is often no need for businesses to have to trade in London. I worked for a games developer in London, yeah it paid well, but they could have been anywhere in the country, there was no need for it to be located there, they could have paid less rent and paid the people the same and made more profit. Surely that is an incentive to avoid London, then perhaps prices will level out.

Has anyone seen the travel pods at Heathrow terminal 5? Park your car, hop in a pod to take you to the airport, its on rails. Perhaps that is the future for built up areas, create multiple rails, you hop in one select a destination and it takes you there. Like a taxi without a human driver.

 

[Will]

It's true, many people who commute to work these days probably don't need to. That situation will surely only get more common. And yet, many employers seem to have the mentality that employees have to physically be in the workplace, probably out of the fear that they won't remain productive enough at home. Governments need to offer incentives to companies to make it easier for staff to work from home to help reduce their carbon footprint.
And I agree re London. It is seen as the centre of Britain for many industries. But I'm sure that increasingly doesn't need to be the case. Although, there will be exceptions obviously. My middle son works for a company who re-masters film. He has to scan some movies directly from celluloid so that can't be done remotely. But the company's UK office is in London and doesn't necessarily need to be.
No, I've not seen the LHR T5 travel pods. They sound like a Johnny Cab from the original Total Recall movie lol. But yeah, an expansion on that idea could reduce carbon emissions caused by travel to airports. Although as you say, flying is another issue too!