With the recent advances of turning CO2 into other substances, such as propane, should we be focusing more on closing the carbon cycle and simply be producing fossil fuels from the waste products of yesteryear?
Naively, it feels like we understand C, O and H, better than we understand some of the rare metals we're now introducing in the name of climate change.
Curb weight:
Ford Taurus: 3917 lbs.
BMW 330i: 3536 lbs.
Tesla Model 3: 3862 lbs.
> With the recent advances of turning CO2 into other substances, such as propane, should we be focusing more on closing the carbon cycle and simply be producing fossil fuels from the waste products of yesteryear?
There is nothing prohibiting anybody from doing this. Make it cost effective and people will buy it. But those things are all theoretical or uneconomical right now, so until that changes we should carry on with the thing we know works.
We have a small car (that transports four adults in comfort) that weighs almost exactly half what the Taurus does. It's also really easy to park!
> There is nothing prohibiting anybody from doing this. Make it cost effective and people will buy it
Perhaps instead of trying to ban new ICE vehicles, the taxes should be gradually raised on diesel and petrol to include an additional levy which covers whatever mitigation strategy is appropriate to deal with the emissions.
These vehicles were chosen because they are approximately the same size as the Model 3. You can make whatever kind of vehicle in whatever size you want. There are electric bikes that weigh 40 pounds.
> Perhaps instead of trying to ban new ICE vehicles, the taxes should be gradually raised on diesel and petrol to include an additional levy which covers whatever mitigation strategy is appropriate to deal with the emissions.
Raising energy costs before the existing infrastructure is replaced would be catastrophic, because replacing everything overnight is impossible and in the meantime the poor would go bankrupt and the middle class would become poor. The only sensible way to implement a carbon tax is to refund all of the money to the population.
But that's also all you need to do, because then people would have a monetary incentive to avoid the tax by reducing emissions in whatever way they find most efficient.
What's the average occupancy in a Model 3? Like I said, our tiny car can happily transport four adults plus shopping or a moderate quantity of luggage...
If everyone drove smaller, lighter vehicles, they'd use less fuel (of whatever variety), right?
Comparing an electric car to a gasoline motorcycle is silly. Comparing an electric car to a gasoline car of a similar size, the electric car is going to be modestly if any heavier and significantly more efficient.
"Batteries are heavy. That’s why, generally, electric cars weigh considerably more than otherwise similar gasoline-powered vehicles"[0]
"Electric vehicles can be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pounds heavier than similarly sized gas vehicles because EV batteries are so much heavier than engines."[1]
EDIT: I just looked up the weight of my little car's engine, it's just 69 kg (152 lbs). The weight of the battery in a Renault Zoe is 326 kg (719 lbs).
[0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/07/business/electric-vehicle... [1] https://www.axios.com/2023/04/28/evs-weight-safety-problems
Knoll's law.
> I just looked up the weight of my little car's engine, it's just 69 kg (152 lbs).
Gosh, so heavy. That's more than twice as much as the 365hp motor in the Model S!
How much is the transmission, alternator, water pump, radiator, coolant, exhaust system, fuel tank and fuel?
The main difference here is that the weight of a gasoline car is proportional to the size of the car, because a bigger car needs a bigger engine and transmission and all of that. A bigger electric motor adds a trivial amount of weight and you recover most of what's needed to accelerate a larger mass from regenerative braking, so the weight of the battery is proportional to the range.
But for a normal midsized car as you might see in the US, the weight is about the same even for a range in excess of 300 miles. It should be possible for an electric truck to weigh less, because you can put a 500hp electric motor in it (which is still light), remove the 900lb engine and 350lb transmission and all of that, and have well over 1000lbs left for the battery before it's actually heavier.
If you want a tiny little thing you can still make it arbitrarily light, you're just going to have to charge it more often then. But the average commute is 41 miles.