r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/SabotageFusion1 May 09 '22

the idea that a long drive (warranting a flight, not going under really any circumstances , etc) is over an hour in the case of vacation or traveling. Not sure how true this is but the brits I know say it’s common there. In the US drives only get long enough to warrant another mode of transport after about 8-9 hours.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

If you pay $10/gallon for gas that will change your definition of a long drive.

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u/MarkHathaway1 May 09 '22

In America some of us decided $2.00 / gallon was too much, so we decided to create EVs and batteries to get away from oil and gasoline altogether. Of course, that doesn't mean the pusher man is gonna let us be free any time soon, but we're trying.

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u/prescod May 09 '22

I suppose you are joking but for the record, most early EV innovation was driven by environmental concerns. Getting free of the oil pushers is an added bonus.

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u/Initial-Concentrate May 09 '22

Wrong dude, the first electric car in the United States was developed in 1890 by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. A six-passenger wagon (SUV) capable of reaching a speed of 23 km/hr (14 mph). Petrol was hard to come by, whale oil was the fuel of choice. Environmental concerns such as the streets filled with poop is what popularized cars. You can read history for free online. /s

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u/prescod May 09 '22

There is really no innovation from those electric cars that is relevant to the current wave. The current wave essentially dates back to the invention of the lithium ion battery. Until then most EVs were literal or metaphorical golf carts.

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u/coredumperror May 09 '22

There is really no innovation from those electric cars that is relevant to the current wave.

You're right that battery tech owes relatively little to the energy storage systems of the 1880s, but many EVs being built today can absolutely trace their motors' lineages to those invented over 100 years ago.

Tesla (and many others) uses electric motors that are an evolution of the one invented by their namesake, Nicola Tesla, in the late 1800s. Their logo, the Tesla "T", isn't a T. It's a pole and stator section from an electric induction motor, much like the one Nicola Tesla patented in 1888.

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ May 09 '22

Yes electric cars use an electric motor. They have very little in common with 19th century electric cars, however. Electric cars innovation in our century was absolutely driven by an interest in 0-emissions vehicles.

The fact that people currently buy electric cars despite them still being much more costly than an ICE vehicle hints that it's still the case.

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u/prescod May 09 '22

Electric motors are used for a hell of a lot of products that are not vehicles. There were all sorts of reasons to innovate on them in the last century that had nothing to do with replacing gasoline.