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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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and they are superior to ICE cars in every way except for the ways that actually matter

If the charging speed and range problems are solved (i.e. electric cars charge as fast as normal cars do, on the same schedule normal cars require it) at-home charging becomes a moot point for the same reasons people don't recharge their normal cars in the garage right now. So that requirement is just added expense for zero benefit.

FWIW, Gas stations suck. The ability to home charge an EV daily driver is literally the only reason I would consider getting a near term EV.

(i.e. electric cars charge as fast as normal cars do, on the same schedule normal cars require it)

It isn't possible.

Consider that the biggest battery you can get on a Tesla Model 3 has a capacity of 100 kWh. They claim it'll do 362 miles on a full charge. Which is indeed nearly as far as small European hatchbacks will generally make it on their 9-gallon tanks, except of course that in the case of the hatchbacks that's the real-world figure and in Tesla's case it's the marketing figure.

If you wanted to charge that battery in six minutes (for easy math), you would need to supply a megawatt of power continuously for those six minutes (in reality even more than that, accounting for losses). Even assuming you could find battery tech that could withstand that, where are you going to get that power? A big, modern, new American house will generally have a 44kW connection (200A at 220v). Charging the one Tesla in 6 minutes works out to the equivalent of the maximum allowed power draw of about 23 houses.

An electric charging station with 10 chargers would need a 10MW grid connection, as much as 227 houses, that is to say as much as a whole neighbourhood. And again, even more, as residential power networks are generally quite a bit undersized on the (for now correct) assumption that not everyone will be drawing the maximum amount all at once.

If you wanted to charge it in three minutes (at which point it would actually approach the time it takes to fill up) you can go and double all of that again.

You've given reasons it wouldn't be possible in a residential setting. But supplying megawatts to commercial charging stations should be quite practical.

Assuming you can figure out a way to deliver megawatts to the battery without melting it or otherwise damaging the vehicle, yes.

at-home charging becomes a moot point

Only if we assume that gas station electricity per kwh will be lower than the one in the outlet at home. And the time it takes to charge is also free. Because I have a habbit to always start a journey with the tank full - those 20-sh minute detour to charge at the begging or end of trip are quite annoying - the 15 min breaks in the middle of the trips are not bad. So I could see the value. And anyway american homes consumes more and more electricity and are still stuck with feeble 110v outlets that can't deliver 2kw, using a hack (two phases ) to get something decent, so it is nigh time to update that part. I have often expressed desire to bump the power in EU homes to 7-10kw at the breaker.

for the same reasons people don't recharge their normal cars in the garage right now

I'd assume the reason people don't do that is because they don't have gasoline piped into their houses. If I did I absolutely would never visit a gas station again if I could help it.