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[deleted] t1_j1a9rc0 wrote

Reply to comment by sjpllyon in US Postal Service commits to buy 66,000 Electric vehicles— finally by MrMike

To be fair, that little electric van would go like 20 miles at 25 mph. Electric cars have existed for a long time, it's just that recently, power densities have gotten high enough and costs have gotten low enough that they're starting to make practical sense.

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Dorocche t1_j1aoz9i wrote

Worth pointing out that this isn't the result of the natural and inevitable flow of progress, but rather the result of heavy investment in electric vehicles. We could have had adequate electric vehicles pretty much the whole time if they'd been invested in during the 20s-- and getting this far (or any farther) was never guaranteed.

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[deleted] t1_j1aqplz wrote

Not really. The modern electric car revolution has been driven by advancements in battery technology which were reliant on advances in general materials engineering. If we had invested in the 1990s we could be probably a decade or so ahead, but in the 1920s we would be stuck running around trying to figure out how to get more range out of lead acid batteries.

It's not that we couldn't have improved electric cars, but it's that so much of our technology is interdependent. To get our batteries to where they are today, so much advanced chemistry and engineering and computing is required which really didn't even start being technically feasible to look at until the latter half of the 20th century. There's a reason that the foundational work for lithium ion batteries didn't start happening till the 1970s.

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Visual_Collar_8893 t1_j1c3p43 wrote

You forgot to mention the oil and automotive industry actively discouraging investments into EVs.

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[deleted] t1_j1c5qcd wrote

Sure, but at best we would have seen EV's happen a few years sooner. They weren't really cost competitive before just a few years ago.

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plorrf t1_j1cp5li wrote

That’s what you get for talking sense on reddit ;-) Don’t worry, it’s just the silly hive mind kids have here… think we both love EVs

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Dorocche t1_j1djs2h wrote

...What's "what they get" lol. They're not downvoted, and they're not even swarmed with replies.

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nyclurker369 t1_j1askgf wrote

Nonsense. They would have focused on the composition of the batteries available to them at the time too. There are several well known and documented factors contributing to this topic. Some of which include the abundance and low cost of oil/gasoline and subsequent deliberate efforts to hinder investment in the R&D necessary to get us where we are finally with EVs today.

Regardless, we're all speculating. I'm just happy we're finally turning this curve. Hopefully, with the advancements in tech having grown exponentially now compared to then, our progress in EV technology and adoption can progress more quickly. 🤞🏼

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[deleted] t1_j1at0dy wrote

Yeah. Lead-acids. Maybe nickel cadmium or nickel iron for the fancier cars. Anyways, yeah, I'm glad that we are finally getting good electric cars :)

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sjpllyon t1_j1cpdhi wrote

Also worth pointing out that some of the first cars were electric, and the is quite an odd picture of this Victorian woman on an electric scooter.

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HchrisH t1_j1dfu7k wrote

My mail truck goes about 20 miles at like 5-15 mph, and it still only gets 5-8 mpg. Bring on the electric trucks.

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[deleted] t1_j1em4d2 wrote

Totally. Mail routes are the perfect use case for electric.

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