Huh! They discovered the secret to Galt's motor!

Ayn Rand is now right about everything!

https://scitechdaily.com/clean-ener...hnology-to-harvest-electricity-from-thin-air/

Nanowatts from kilobucks.

 

That will continue and within a year or two, EVs will actually be cheaper for comparable vehicles. Tesla isn't just redesigning cars, they're redesigning the entire manufacturing process and squeezing out costs. ICE vehicles will carry a premium price and customers will pay that premium to avoid perceived disadvantages of an EV, to get longer range, to compensate for a lack of charge infrastructure, and so on. In a decade ICE vehicles will probably become somewhat of an oddity. Of course they'll be on the road for decades long after the last one rolls off an assembly line.

The dynamic I'm curious about is the impact and future of gas prices. Decreasing demand for gas, due to increased EV adoption, should lower gas prices in the short run. Lower gas prices, if they last, would depress EV adoption. But then oil refineries will shut down, the least efficient ones will go first, and this will shift the supply-demand curve. As gas volume and new capital investment goes down, gasoline prices might actually increase and thereby accelerate EV adoption.

Hi,

That makes me wonder. Maybe soon it will be harder to find a gas station than a charging station.
But what do we do about the antique cars. We have antique car shows in our town sometimes.

 

It struck me this morning,
Were engineers on here in the most part .
Were talking about what's going to happen
By definition if we were good at predicting future , we would be multi millionaires..
Ah well. .
Back to the day job. .

 

Has anybody else seen this new Prieto battery? Some kind of 3D architecture that charges any size battery in 3 minutes. Real or hype?

 

Hi,

That makes me wonder. Maybe soon it will be harder to find a gas station than a charging station.
But what do we do about the antique cars. We have antique car shows in our town sometimes.

I'm stunned every time I see a new gas station go up without a charging area as an integral part of it. Everyone says they make all their money off the retail in the store rather than the gas, and so attracting EV cars is an obvious way to "trap" people in your store for a while. Maybe they think they can transition from pumps to chargers "quickly" when it suits them? It seems like a big opportunity for a national chain to become known as always having chargers. I'm looking at you, Buc-ees!

 

It struck me this morning,
Were engineers on here in the most part .
Were talking about what's going to happen
By definition if we were good at predicting future , we would be multi millionaires..
Ah well. .
Back to the day job. .

Are you familiar with the diffusion of innovation? A plot of cumulative adoption versus time typically follows a well know S-curve pattern. To make big money off innovation you need to predict that long before the "S" begins, not while it's underway. Consider how CDs overtook vinyl for reproducing audio. Anyone who looked into it saw the clear advantages of the new technology and it was one of the fastest adoptions in history. But by that time, there were already commercial products available. Predicting it 5 years earlier might have made you some cash.

Personally, I'm invested in the future with a position in TSLA stock. In the 80's, I hopped on Apple and you know how that turned out. TSLA has already made many millionaires if you got in early enough. Yes, we engineers can achieve something resembling inside information and make profits from our perspective. The average investor just doesn't see the same vision.

 

Everyone says they make all their money off the retail in the store rather than the gas, and so attracting EV cars is an obvious way to "trap" people in your store for a while.

Parking lot space has a value and cost all its own, and produces income as well. If that space is tied up by EVs a half-hour at a time, it is producing less income than the quick in-and-out of non-EV-charging customers.

It's all about moving people along, not making them stay.

This is the exact same reason why restaurants play loud music through a crappy sound system while keeping the AC at 60°F.

 

It seems like a big opportunity for a national chain to become known as always having chargers. I'm looking at you, Buc-ees!

Last February I drove on Interstate 35 near New Braunfels, Texas and they already had perhaps a dozen Tesla chargers.

However, this amount still pales with the over 100 gas pumps

 

I'm stunned every time I see a new gas station go up without a charging area as an integral part of it. Everyone says they make all their money off the retail in the store rather than the gas, and so attracting EV cars is an obvious way to "trap" people in your store for a while. Maybe they think they can transition from pumps to chargers "quickly" when it suits them? It seems like a big opportunity for a national chain to become known as always having chargers. I'm looking at you, Buc-ees!

Hi,

Yes now that you mention it, that makes sense.
We had a garage near here sell out, new owner pumps gas don't see any chargers yet.
Hopefully if they do get chargers no sparks fly.
They probably have to get permission from the electric company due to the massive power increase required. It may not be possible in areas where the grid is already taxed.

 

It struck me this morning,
Were engineers on here in the most part .
Were talking about what's going to happen
By definition if we were good at predicting future , we would be multi millionaires..
Ah well. .
Back to the day job. .

Hi,

Well we are all psychics as well, except for the few that happen to own crystal balls and/or have wifi direct to God.

 

It struck me this morning,
Were engineers on here in the most part .
Were talking about what's going to happen
By definition if we were good at predicting future , we would be multi millionaires..
Ah well. .
Back to the day job. .

Some of us are multi-millionaires.. (retirement portfolios) but being a millionaire is not what it used to be.

Predicting a future is easy (it's done with every over hyped battery marketing story), making the future happen is hard.

 

Last February I drove on Interstate 35 near New Braunfels, Texas and they already had perhaps a dozen Tesla chargers.

However, this amount still pales with the over 100 gas pumps

Buc-ees had Tesla chargers? That's awesome. They seem to be a more innovative chain and I'm glad they're "on it".

 

When does STOP not mean STOP?