China wants to ban gas powered cars.

Sorry. I typed "country" but meant to type "county". Many nonpaved or narrow paved roads were built (and are maintained supposedly) by the county.

Note, in my area, most counties have one (sometimes two) towns and a few small villages in each.

 

Apologies, I misinterpreted your post as saying that you shouldn't have to pay taxes towards public transport.

 

So you don't think Public Transit should have fares?

 

GM to sell 20 electric models in 5 years. http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-general-motors-electric-20171002-story.html

 

Stanford professor thinks gas-powered cars will gone by 2025.

I think he's nuts, it'll happen, but not that fast.

 

They went to factories making these new fangled things called cars.

But where will the drivers of these new autos that can drive themselves go?

That's the problem.

 

Yeah.

No way it happens in eight years unless something magical happens. I could see things starting to change in eight years and picking up speed as time progresses. But eight years from now most of us will still be driving gas powered cars. I don't see it all vanishing that fast.

 

Fun fact: The only buggy manufacturer in the US to successfully transition to building cars was Studebaker.

Yeah, the tech industry is better at killing jobs than it is at creating them.

 

Considering the standard car loan has grown from 60 to 72 months, an awful lot of people, myself included, will likely still be driving the same car in eight years that they're driving today.

 

IIRC, the average age of cars on the road in the US is 10 years.

 

8 years is definitely too soon, though I think we'll see a massive increase in the numbers of hybrids, biofuelled or full-electric vehicles by then. The EU has said it wants petrol/diesel engines phased out by 2040, which seems more realistic IF they are still allowing hybrids past that point.

I've been looking at a hybrid (Kia Niro) for my next car choice, but a few things putting me off - apparent slow acceleration, automatic gearbox (though I don't think you can currently avoid this with hybrids - manual versions are still in development) and also need more info on how the petrol/electric system works... much of the time, I tend to do ~3 mile daily round trips. Is the petrol side going to be active long enough to recharge the electrics?

 

Except they haven't. Gas taxes and vehicle registration fees don't even pay the total interest on road bonds much less the principle.

That is tge problem with people. They want steak but pnly want to pay a nickle and you are no different.

 

Bullshit 8 years, it'll take at least that amount of time to get the infrastructure up and running for major cities to support EVs let alone nation wide infrastructure. Currently it takes a Chevy Volt 4 hours to recharge it's battery, now lets say in 8 years that time is decreased by 1/4 so 3 hours, to charge a battery capable of running at highway speeds for ~200 miles. so around 2 1/2 hours of drive time. Imagine a cross country road trip under those conditions. Okay, you're out of the city, couple of hours out, uh-oh, battery's getting low, lets stop to charge, so next exit later which is a shell station with a burger king attached to it, and, small town about 5 miles up the road. Great, it's about noon, lunch time. So you, and the kids and the spouse order and eat your flame broiled whoppers, mmmmm mmmmmm. Okay, so, that's 15 minutes down. 2 1/2 hours to go, break out the netflix on the cell phone? No wi-fi? well, there goes your data for the month. 2:30 rolls around and DING! car's charged, here's hoping you can get to the next town before 4:00 and that there's a hotel or you and the kids are sleeping in the car tonight. And you're still a few days away from Texas.

 

Which is why you also have local funding through impact and user fees.

Roads are not steak. Steak would be light and high speed rail. Roads are meat and potatoes which people paid their nickel for already when they were built. You and the OP want people to pay the nickel for meat and potatoes plus pay a penalty fee for not choosing steak.

 

Either way you want something but you are upset when you are told you need to pay for. So typical.

 

This is the current issue, hence why I see hybrids (where the petrol/diesel engine charges the battery and the electric motor helps burn the fuel most efficiently) being a mainstay for the short-term. There are some models where an onboard generator is present and relies on fossil fuels to run but isn't connected to the drive at all, just tops up the batteries IF NEEDED, being much more fuel-efficient than current engines.

However, they have produced batteries capable of powering an iPhone for the equivalent of its typical operation which can be flash-charged in 15 seconds... once that tech can be deployed, electric may be more viable.

 

Except we already paid for it.

 

Except you didn't. You paid something towards it, but you had others pay the rest for you.

 

What you're looking for is a plug-in hybrid.

Honda had a manual hybrid (not a plug-in), the CR-Z, but the last production year was 2016 and it was poorly conceived and designed. Not enough power for a sports car. Not enough efficiency for a hybrid. You might find a used one for a good price, but with these drawbacks. (dunno about the UK market either).

At least one model of the Toyota Prius is a plug-in hybrid. You can plug it in to the mains at your house and it may never start the petrol engine if you're only driving about 3 miles (battery range is about 25 miles). The Prius is the standout hybrid so the plug-in hybrid is probably best of class. (Actually General Motors made the best one, the Chevy Volt (Vauxhall Ampera!!!), but everyone hates GM so I won't mention that here). Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Chrysler also make them now (if google is to be believed) but of the bunch Toyota is gonna be my choice.

The most efficient hybrids do not have a direct drive engine, but through the electric motor/generator and a continuously variable speed transmission so when the petrol engine kicks in it will be at the ideal RPM to generate electricity and or drive the wheels.

Pure electrics shouldn't need a transmission as electric motors produce the same torque no matter the RPM.

 

You do have an active fantasy life.

 

Google's self-driving car division plans on launching a taxi service soon.

 

Hence the word "WE."

 

All new vehicles? Not a chance.

Certainly is very possible it will be the majority of new vehicles, but there are too many cases now where the range and quick refueling times of internal combustion vehicles are needed.

 

See bolded bits. Are you claiming that @Dinner isn't American, that you don't understand English pronouns, or that you don't understand his argument?

 

Three miles? That's what bicycles are for.

 

And if I didn't live in Wales, I would surely cycle more. But we have lots of rain and lots of inclines. Also I do get called at short notice to another campus six miles away. Average on a bike around here is 10mph for me.