2040

For those of you who may be alive in 2040 how will it be not having petrol cars for sale??
Will a petrol car become worthless in 2035 or a prized possession?
It's all very well the Mini being produced now in electric but the drawbacks are too great for me to entertain getting one and by 2040 I seriously wonder if they will have the battery cost and weight to range sorted but you can never tell. Back in the day I assumed we'd be living in colonies on the moon by now.
And what amount of pollution is created generating electricity to feed an all electric car society?
As a petrol head I suppose seeing the end of the internal combustion engine is better missed.

I think it will be great. I love petrol engines but you can't argue with the way electric cars are heading. Just look at some of the clips of Tesla's street racing. It's rare that I do a trip of over 200 miles so I'd be happy with one. 30 minute charging on a long trip is not an inconvenience to me.

The march of electric car development will be unstoppable now that many governments have set a deadline, and I suspect electric cars will be the norm a long time before 2040. Even electric motorcycles are becoming a realistic proposition.
Combined with the recent announcement about government incentives for storing your own electricity, it is a real money saver too. Solar panels on the roof, battery storage on the wall and in the car. We will almost be living off-grid!

The cost of battery replacement is high but there will be schemes to help with this. It's still not as high as the cost of running an engine for similar mileage. With no engine to service, servicing is reduced to just steering, suspension and wheels which means cheap services and big service intervals.

And the bit that excites me- using the Tesla model S as an example, you can have the power output of a big turbocharged V8 (760hp!) and performance to match almost any supercar, yet when you cruise at 60mph it is more efficient than the smallest city car engine. How is that for compromise!

An electric Jimny would be great. No need for lockers, no need for snorkels, no need for low range. Portal style axles with wheel motors? No problem! The possibilities are endless.

I have seen the same stages of development in the RC helicopters I fly. About 30 years ago it was all nitro fuel - wet fuel - or petrol. Then about 20 years ago some electric helis came in using NiCads - great big bulky batteries. I tried them but they were hopeless. I had one good one in about 1998 but it wasn't so good as to take me away from wet fuels Peeps experimented with different batteries to try to make things better. However, over the last 10 years or so the LiPo has transformed the scene. I was a dedicated smoke type flyer until about 6 years back when I converted one of my glow helis to electric and was so impressed from then on I never looked back. I like the noise and sight of nitro-engined helis but the electric has won me over for sheer ease of use so now I have no wet fuel heli at all.
The point is that I suspect the same revolution will take place with cars.
Plus it may mean the death of manual gearboxes.

Yes, that is exactly what will happen. The manufacturers have no choice now, and the consumers are being forced to give it more and more thought. Once the charging network gets better established range anxiety will reduce. Domestic electricity production and storage will go up as the real world incentives become more obvious (your solar panels re-fuel your car rather than just feeding some meter thingy on the wall). Because more people have storage, power station output can be levelled out making production more efficient. Wind and solar energy can also be better harnessed.

And it's all down to these things! 18650 Lithium batteries. Millions of them.

Check out ZookEV for an electric conversion done on a samurai, it's rather impressive imo.

OllieNZ wrote: Check out ZookEV for an electric conversion done on a samurai, it's rather impressive imo.

The Wheeler Dealer show did a conversion on something (I forget what it was now) a while back which was killer.
Just waiting for tech to catch up with demand. Currently the battery cost and replacement intervals make it too scary for me plus the initial cost of purchase naturally.
I do not like the driverless car revolution so much though.

11/60 wrote: the fossil fuel barons with all the money and political influence stymie the idea, after all where is all that lovely tax revenue going to be generated if not on diesel and petrol?

Also without the income from oil a number of oil producing countries might get a bit wobbly so I suspect the combustion engine will live on there; after all it is cheaper than water isn't it?

I'm looking forward to the electric evolution/revolution succeeding but out here in Oz it is hard to see the Petrol and Diesel vehicles dying any time too soon. Distances are just so great. I have to go to Chemo every 2nd Tuesday and that is a return trip of 380 kilometres, currently half in the dark outward and homeward bound. If I want take-away it is still going to be the same 380 k's drive and that could easily turn into 600 k's if I want to go out to a decent Restaurant and even the nearest beach is 600 k's return trip from here. Electric vehicles will have to conquer that distance first for me. The torque of electric motors i something I crave and having an electric motor on each wheel will cut significantly into the weight and complexity of an electric 4wd. Just don't see it happening any time too soon.

11/60 wrote: Yes but you lads have a vast supply of decent solar power available. A solar ev would obviate the distance especially if the technology continues to grow at the current rate.

OMG Mad Max film is coming to life.

I suspect only the most crowded countries will embrace this idea because of pollution. I very much doubt the infrastructure will have enough electricity generating capacity but a lot can happen in around 20 years.

Actually, I have only had a Solar Panel Connection to my home fitted on Wednesday 26th July 2017, so I will have to wait a while to get used to the free electricity, for a few months and then make a more informed comment on the sunshine power. $3,800.00 supplied and fitted for 3 Kilowatt System.

"All Hail the Sun God Ra... Ra Ra Ra!"