BL Sas, 2.7L,.... is this Bronco my last gas powered vehicle?

[Southern Girl]

There aren't enough rare earth minerals to make all vehicles electric. So no, despite the rhetoric, it will not be the last fossil fuel powered vehicle. Do some research into the conditions under which the rare earth minerals are mined and it will make you very sad, indeed.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/n...ehind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/

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[JT58Bronc]

It could very well be your last gas vehicle. I know it is mine. If I need another vehicle in retirement for any reason, it will be electric or Hybrid. I might have not ordered this Bronco knowing what I know now about a lot of manufacturers going electric. It's only matter of a very short time that all of them do. My biggest fear is that gasoline will rise to unaffordable prices, forcing everyone to electric.

But I had to get it as my last gas vehicle- having owned a 70 and 71 as my very first two vehicles in my driving lifetime. The chance to own a retro Bronco was too much to pass up- everything going electric or not.

 

[Jdc]

There aren't enough rare earth minerals to make all vehicles electric. So no, despite the rhetoric, it will not be the last fossil fuel powered vehicle. Do some research into the conditions under which the rare earth minerals are mined and it will make you very sad, indeed.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/n...ehind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/

This article is related to cobalt mining. Tesla and other companies have already announced a shift away from batteries containing cobalt or only buying batteries from companies that don't source cobalt from the DRC
https://blog.ucsusa.org/josh-goldman/electric-vehicles-batteries-cobalt-and-rare-earth-metals
As far as rare earth minerals are concerned, prices are still recovering from the crash they had a 5-10 years ago due to over production.

 

[OX1]

Wall box will regulate the charge within the limits of the main panel. Other systems will as well.

So yet another deficiency in the plan, if everyone can't get charged. And worse, another piece of infrastructure you have to buy and maintain (along with solar system, powerwall, sub panel for new outlets, outlets themselves, cords and plugs).

And you still have to be connected to the grid, just in case you have a stretch of crap weather. In which case the power companies will start charging for that, for customers not using all the much power, since they have taken over the cost and inconvenience of becoming their own utility.

I don't ever see all that factored into the true cost of electric cars (and electric everything else eventually).

 

[Lainez]

So yet another deficiency in the plan, if everyone can't get charged. And worse, another piece of infrastructure you have to buy and maintain (along with solar system, powerwall, sub panel for new outlets, outlets themselves, cords and plugs).

And you still have to be connected to the grid, just in case you have a stretch of crap weather. In which case the power companies will start charging for that, for customers not using all the much power, since they have taken over the cost and inconvenience of becoming their own utility.

I don't ever see all that factored into the true cost of electric cars (and electric everything else eventually).

I agree that there are apparently large, insurmountable (for some) infrastructure changes. Twenty years ago, I would have been more skeptical. Now, much less so. The technology, broadly speaking, has become much more user friendly, robust, interconnected, and resilient. Solar inverters actively communicate and integrate with storage, generators, and EV chargers. If the grid goes down, your house is less affected (see some houses in TX a couple of weeks ago).

Again I look back at large and major technological shifts. Whole towns and cities piped for gas and gaslights in houses. All that infrastructure was ripped out and replaced by electricity, cables, wires, and new appliances.

Whole continents wired for landline phones. Developing countries leapfrogged directly to wireless. Whole cohorts dropping land lines. Millions of dollars of critical infrastructure displaced and abandoned. I have not had a landline in my house for more than a decade. Actively switching my company to VoIP and killing the fax lines (which we all honestly forgot we had).

Society relied on horses both in urban and rural settings. They knew how to care for, maintain and use horses. Roads, houses, and streets were built for horses, carts and carriages. The switch to cars was said to be impossible. The resources would not be there, they were loud, where do you park them, how do you fix them, they can't go through mud like a horse, there are no gas stations while a horse can read on the side of the road, you could eat a horse and not a car, only the rich can afford a car+mechanic+chauffer+garage, they are unreliable, etc.

We still have horses
We will still have ICE engines, we will still drill for oil
Will cars and trucks continue us ICE exclusively to provide motive power? Unlikely over the coming decades. People will adapt. Many won't and they will be dragged along or left behind. It is not pretty, it may not be right, but it is the society we have decided to build (keep up or languish).

EVs are easier to maintain, their power production is distributed, their technology continues to advance. Politics, environment, investment, and industry is building behind this technology.

 

[OX1]

I agree that there are apparently large, insurmountable

All that BS and didn't answer my questions. More pie in the sky, yes SOMEDAY it will work fine.
Issue is, gov't is ramming it down our throats NOW...

 

[Lainez]

All that BS and didn't answer my questions. More pie in the sky, yes SOMEDAY it will work fine.
Issue is, gov't is ramming it down our throats NOW...

Maybe I should not have put it in parentheses.
" I agree that there are apparently large, insurmountable (for some)"

Seems like the issue distills down to "the government is ramming it down our throats NOW".

Let's look back to the BS of history.
-Government gave roadway priority to cars over pedestrians
-Government made jaywalking a crime and forced pedestrians to bow to cars
-Government removed private business (street vendors) from their spots on streets
-Government prioritized single person car infrastructure over public transportation
-Government make is illegal for me to ride a horse on the freeway
-Government split neighborhoods with freeways, making them less walkable
-Government killed towns by routing interstates around them
-Government de-incentivizes dense and/or mixed zoning favoring urban and suburban sprawl
-Government subsidizes fossil development, extraction, and production more than other energy sources.

We decide who represents our interests in the Government. A plurality is pushing towards less fossil fuel technologies. The government is shifting priorities due to political, economic and geopolitical pressures.

BTW, solar costs have decreased 80% in the last decade even taking into account the 20% tariffs imposed by the last administration. Renewable energy sources account for more new energy production than fossil fuels.

 

[Jdc]

This thread if politics continues being injected

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