Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Sounds...optimistic

Sounds ambitious:

Subaru Corp set a target on Monday for all the vehicles it sells worldwide to be electric by the first half of the 2030s, in a move toward its long-term goal of a carbon-free society.

The news comes as Subaru has strengthened capital ties with Toyota Motor Corp, in a trend of global automakers joining forces to slash development and manufacturing costs of new technology.

"Subaru's strong commitment and dedication toward car-manufacturing that we have cultivated throughout our history remain unchanged," President Tomomi Nakamura said in a statement.

By 2030, the Japanese automaker added, at least 40% of all of its cars sold worldwide would comprise all-battery electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles.

3 comments:

GMB said...

Batteries are never going to be as good as thorium enhanced hydrocarbons. As synthetic diesel. Synthetic diesel will burn extremely clean and has more joules per kilo then a battery. Batteries in comparison are really very wasteful and are always going to be that way. Batteries are there to process intermittent energy sources.

Like suppose you have a lot of waste wood, as mature permaculture farms will tend to produce. Then you can have wood-gas generators. But you might not wish to be running a wood-gas generator around the clock. In this context batteries aren't wasteful. But its silly to trash the hydro-carbon industry rather than enhance it with nuclear. No science has ever emerged to suggest that this is the case. Anyone saying otherwise is a liar.

Synthetic diesel is the ultimate fuel for small vehicle applications. Its always going to be that way.

Not Trampis said...

My eldest drives a hybrid when he needs it at work and he is rapt. Very fuel efficient he thinks but the battery is expensive to replace I believe.

you would need to transition petrol stations to battery charger stations over time for electric cars to work.

Great to drive in the city maybe not for the holiday trip

GMB said...

Yeah I suppose they are pretty awesome things in some ways. Massive acceleration. So few moving part that a good Tesla could become a family heirloom. So they have their virtues. But the battery simply can never have the BTU's of a better type of diesel. And the battery will always involve rare earth elements, and so will represent an energy sink, unless it stays niche. The only battery that won't involve rare earths is the liquid metal battery. So I guess the electric car will always have their place. But if the electric car takes over entirely, then that puts pressure on rare earths and creates an energy sink.

But thorium assisted synthetic diesel can be made out of almost any rubbish. It produces a beautiful product with so much energy per kilo its a wonderful thing. So sure we need both. But the idea that electric should take over entirely is a very dubious idea. The rare earths have to be there as a side-effect of other activities. If rare earths are being consumed at that rate thats okay. But once we are having to go out and get them as a special dig, the costs just spiral upward. So niche is good. Takeover ..... bad.