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I made a post on Car Throttle about electric cars:

5 Reasons Why Electric Cars Should Take Over The Automotive Industry

I want your opinion on this so here is the link:
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wv3kl88/

What do you want to happen to electric cars?

honestly, i could care less about electric cars as long as i'm still able to drive my gas powered cars, when i'm not able to... well, i guess i could go for a V8 solenoid

I like the idea of electric cars, as well as the promise that the product itself is emissions free. I'm also sympathetic to the competitive pressure generated by the evolving technological movements from the companies actively pursuing development of EVs. I'm more concerned about the method by which we generate electricity, and keen to see other technologies on the scene. (I've always been a fan of H2 power, though concede that it still faces significant logistical challenges).

The more I think about it, the less I feel the need to stay petrol. As long as the cars go, stop and turn well enough (and we know they can, for sure), I'm happy.

If I could buy a Model S P90D right now, I totally would.

They need to have style as well. The looks of most EVs are just...well...awful! I cannot figure out why all of the companies making EVs think they have to look completely different from "normal" cars. The Prius (hybrid, I know) was cute for a while, but the novelty wore off quickly and it is just butt ugly. Even the newer generations are butt ugly, and possibly even uglier than the first generation. The Leaf is quite possibly one of the ugliest cars ever produced. What's up with that ass end?? Somebody (other than TESLA) needs to make a car that looks like a petrol version but uses no petrol. Don't get me wrong...I would buy a TESLA in half a heartbeat, if I could afford such a thing, but $90k is just not in my budget. My current car cost me less than $18k, brand new, 8 years ago, and gets more than 35mpg, looks nice, moves quite well, and of course it is also now paid off completely. Give me a TESLA that isn't 2 years salary but looks and performs like it could be and I will be in line to get one.

I also tend to agree with strop on the electric production, but that isn't really an automotive industry thing where EVs are concerned. It would be great if they could produce electricity from cleaner methods like solar, wind, or hydro-electric, and less (or none!) from fossil fuels. These should and could have been eradicated in the 20th century, but obviously they were not. Passenger cars could almost certainly be powered by solar arrays, if the technology used with them would advance enough. Currently they cannot produce enough from cells to power and recharge batteries, and the size and density of the batteries contribute to the problem even further. My generation (GenX) needs to step up and advance what my father's generation started!

for what you said on generating electricity cleanly, there is a hydroelectric plany probably 40 miles away from me, and they do have car charging spots there, so if i always wanted to drive 40 miles i could cleanly recharge my car lol

We have even had discussions on the feasibility of building an electric rock crawler. The technical issues are generally with burning up the circuits when things get bogged down.

No, thank you. The more I think about it, the more I'm afraid of the future.
There is some definite appeal in having control over thousands of explosions per minute powering the car the electricity just cannot compare too.
There is some definite appeal in the auditory experience an actual ic engine provides (really, the synthetic engine sounds are only good, if you have, let's say, a game, in which you have to have the sounds of multiple types of engines, varying depending on the engine's design)
There simply is some definite appeal in driving an actual car and not a toy.

Which is why I am definitely more keen towards the development of algae biofuels.

Internal combustion engines are inefficient compared to electric motors.
When the energy storing evolves electric will dominate.

I don't see why some car guys hate electric as much. When it becomes mainstream, there will me more freedom to combustion engines. Since the only people that will use them will be enthusiasts. Fuel will be cheap, legislation will be more forgiving, taxes lower.

I didn't believe in EV but after the Model S... It's not just a good EV, it's a great car.

Fuel is only cheap because so much is bought each year, those of us reading this probably won't be around when the full change over happens, but when electric cars are main stream the cost of most fuel products will probably start to rise quite a bit. Its still a pretty involved process to find it, drill it out, ship it to a refinery, separate out the different grades, then ship that to storage facilities, there's a huge amount of over head that needs to be in place to keep the flow going. Bio ethanol is the best bet for that all electric future, or just good old fashioned homemade moonshine cars.

Am I the only person who saw Top Gear's discussion about electric cars? The Nickel needed to make these "Zero Emissions" vehicles has to be mined out of the ground in Canada, sent over in a big boat to Europe, where it can be refined, then sent to China to be turned into a foam for the batteries, then Japan, where they can make the batteries. In the long run, it does more damage to the enviornment than a Range Rover. Plus, because of the whole Zero EVs thing, (Here in the U.S. anyways) with the horridly messed up credits system, car makers basically have no choice but to lie to us in order to get more sales. That said, I'm not against Electric cars, I just want them to be marketed honestly.

I alluded to collateral concerns...



...though I didn't mention the issues with fabrication, so thanks for expanding on that. As Kristina said, where we get the electricity from may not be the automotive industry's concern, but how the cars are made definitely is.

Did that sound like a Jab? I was referring a lot more to the article than the people who responded. Apologies.

I didn't see it as a jab, I only wished to tie it in with the theme about broader environmental concerns. It's a very pertinent point after all.

While I like Top Gear, I wouldn't call them a reliable information source, especially when they showed that they are extremely biaised against electric cars.

Decent sources say that EV do in fact use more energy for their fabrication, but most of the energy used by the car over its lifecycle comes from driving the car, and that's more than enough for the EV's to win in terms of pollution caused over their lifetime, at least when the energy comes from a somewhat clean source.