"Electrify" Old Cars? Why?

Posted by TxGoat On 2023/7/24 9:35:00

I regularly drive a 100 year old car. It's been completely reliable, even though I often drive it 50 miles or more at a stretch, and often at higher speeds than it was designed to operate at. It's an old cheap Ford. It's lots of fun to drive. I have a choice of several ways to start it, and, often as not, all that's needed to start it is to simply trun the key to "BAT", and the engine starts instantly.

Battery dead? No problem. Turn the key to "MAG" and give the crank a yank and off you go.

BTW, a Triumph can be made to run reliabley.

PS: Almost anytime an electric car is being charged, the power is coming from a combustion process. All primary poower sources have an environmental cost; often a very high and on-going cost.

A lot of power is wasted on its way from the primary source to the electric car or other point of use.


I could probably run a small electric car exclusively on power from my wind power plant ... most of the time. No wind today, so no power. A LARGE battery bank would help with that, at great expense.

My outfit will make 20 KW + on a breezy day. Average output is substantially lower. Average output, less losses in conversion and reconversion and in the devices being powered, take a huge bite out of total power produced. A battery bank and related equipment would add more losses.

This plant is "grid-tied" and has no storage capacity. No wind, no power.
If the grid fails, the plant shuts down instantly and remains down until the grid power is restored.

Cost? Don't ask. I will tell you this: "Free power", from any source derived, is BRUTALLY EXPENSIVE.

Shifting costs and shifting negative impacts does not eliminate them, and it usually magnifies them.