Zoom calls on Teslas and French Solar Parking Lots

Submitted by brad on Wed, 2022-11-09 15:31
Topic: 
Going Green
Transportation
Tags: 
forbes

Two stories today:

France mandates solar panels on parking lots

France will require all parking lots with over 80 spaces to put in solar panels. That's huge, and means the power will be generated right where cars are charging in the morning -- no grid distribution needed.

France Mandates Solar Panels On Most Parking Lots; A Great Marriage With The EV

Zoom calls on a Tesla

There will be a Zoom app for your Tesla. But really the app belongs in your phone, and your phone should be able to use the car screen as a display, as with Android Auto/Apple Carplay. Don't resist, Tesla

You’ll Be Able To Make A Zoom Call On A Tesla Screen. How Backwards Is That?

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Comments

Russell de Silva

Thu, 2022-11-10 20:21

Slightly off topic, but the move to EVs is at least partly motivated by reduction in CO2 emissions regardless of the energy source.
The number of kms powered by battery rather than the number of pure EV vehicles seems like a better metric for measuring this.
As most journeys, maybe 90 % ?, are < 50kms does it make more sense to spread our scarce battery resources amongst (PLUG IN) hybrids rather than pure EVs.
Take a Tesla battery pack capable of say 500kms, distributing that capacity amongst 10 plugin hybrids instead of a single pure EV would result in a much greater increase in battery powered kms.
Even long journeys would start with 50kms powered by battery.
I know battery capacity is ramping up, but given that it will take time to do so, should public policy favour (via purchase subsidies) Plug In hybrids over pure electric vehicles?

brad

Fri, 2022-11-11 12:29

If there were a battery shortage, and there were a Czar of cars trying to exactly tune the fleet to produce the least emissions with a fixed amount of battery then perhaps this would make sense in the short term.

But there isn't going to be long term scarcity of batteries. It's not even clear there is much of one now. And there is no Czar.

But in the end, the question is, how many miles are driving on gasoline and how many on electricity. To calculate this you need to know what fraction of its miles a typical PHEV does on the battery. Around the city it will be decent. On road trips it will be close to zero, unless they can charge at their hotels in which case a small fraction.

PHEVs, on the other hand, have both an electric power train and a gasoline power train, which increases the cost and parts and greatly increases the maintenance cost. However, the battery does cost a lot less.

Hybrids in general use less fuel and that means less emissions, so they are good. They only need a small battery to do that. If you had a choice of 40 hybrids or one EV, the 40 hybrids would reduce emissions more. But that's not a real choice. Among the reasons for that is that a hybrid with its 1.3kwh battery can use different battery chemistries. BEVs need the lightest, densest battery you can get. Hybrids have different needs. Right now L-Ion is the cheapest (due to scale, not inherently) battery so it gets used in both.

Anonymous

Sun, 2022-11-13 21:36

Harvard Business Review

"The economics of solar would darken quickly as the industry sinks under the weight of its own trash."

Who Pays the Bill?

"The magnitude of the looming waste problem (orphan waste)".

hbr dot org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power

Richter7

Fri, 2022-12-02 13:26

newspaper der spiegel

Switzerland could be the first country to impose driving bans on e-cars in an emergency to ensure energy security. Several media report this unanimously and refer to a draft regulation on restrictions and bans on the use of electrical energy. Specifically, the paper says: "The private use of electric cars is only permitted for absolutely necessary journeys (e.g. professional practice, shopping, visiting the doctor, attending religious events.)

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