Demand For Electric Pickup Trucks Continue To Decline

[go-ram]

Yup. I am kinda new to the forum and didn’t know if I’d get booted for going that direction. 100%. These decisions are politically expedient first, solving problems last, made by idiots who only care is to get elected next term and get their campaigns funded by the beneficiaries of their stupid policies (big battery, steel, Asia, etc). This is not solving problems. I’m a conservative independent but the environment is important to me. Give you an idea, I have a 15Kwh solar array with 20kwh batteries. I have just about a zero electric bill. I had no idea how much damage we do to the environment producing both solar panels and batteries when I designed the system. So I contributed to less electricity production but I also contributed to a lot of damage in the mining and production of the final products of my system. I never would have done it if I knew then what I know now. We are doing more harm than good with the EV initiatives and other green programs too I presume.

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I think the jury is still out in terms of overall benefit or harm to the environment for residential rooftop solar. By the time your system ages out, they will have figured out better materials recycling methods. In the meantime, your system is doing its part to reduce exhaust emissions from fossil-fueled powerplants, and although I haven't done the calculations myself, I would bet that even before the system components are recycled at end of life in 20-30 years, your system will have caused less air pollution overall.
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Not to mention the greatest benefit: Independence from (a) the government meddling in energy pricing, and (b) independence from the power company. I can't afford to do the solar + household battery thing on my house, but if I had the money, I'd do it in a heartbeat for the reasons (a) & (b) I cited here. Yeah, the gov't is a meddling PIA (pain in the ****), but the power companies are just as bad in their own ways. So congratulations to you for investing in your household's independence from gov't and the energy companies. Enjoy it!
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[mzflorida]

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I think the jury is still out in terms of overall benefit or harm to the environment for residential rooftop solar. By the time your system ages out, they will have figured out better materials recycling methods. In the meantime, your system is doing its part to reduce exhaust emissions from fossil-fueled powerplants, and although I haven't done the calculations myself, I would bet that even before the system components are recycled at end of life in 20-30 years, your system will have caused less air pollution overall.
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Not to mention the greatest benefit: Independence from (a) the government meddling in energy pricing, and (b) independence from the power company. I can't afford to do the solar + household battery thing on my house, but if I had the money, I'd do it in a heartbeat for the reasons (a) & (b) I cited here. Yeah, the gov't is a meddling PIA (pain in the ****), but the power companies are just as bad in their own ways. So congratulations to you for investing in your household's independence from gov't and the energy companies. Enjoy it!
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Yup. I see your points and agree somewhat. But for my two batteries alone they had to move at least 500,000 pounds of earth. Maybe as much as a million pounds. Then the water and runoff issues. It just cannot be good for the earth. But you are right that there is disagreement and I am no scientist. All that said I think my point about political expediency is true. Politicians, red and blue, were eager to attach themselves to an initiative that seemed green but actually might not be. So here we are with vehicles nobody wants and mandates, likely unattainable or at least just aspirational, that might do more harm than good.

 

[mzflorida]

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I think the jury is still out in terms of overall benefit or harm to the environment for residential rooftop solar. By the time your system ages out, they will have figured out better materials recycling methods. In the meantime, your system is doing its part to reduce exhaust emissions from fossil-fueled powerplants, and although I haven't done the calculations myself, I would bet that even before the system components are recycled at end of life in 20-30 years, your system will have caused less air pollution overall.
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Not to mention the greatest benefit: Independence from (a) the government meddling in energy pricing, and (b) independence from the power company. I can't afford to do the solar + household battery thing on my house, but if I had the money, I'd do it in a heartbeat for the reasons (a) & (b) I cited here. Yeah, the gov't is a meddling PIA (pain in the ****), but the power companies are just as bad in their own ways. So congratulations to you for investing in your household's independence from gov't and the energy companies. Enjoy it!
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That represents production from about march of last year. So you are right. That’s a lot of Co2 that I saved.

 

[go-ram]

Yup. I see your points and agree somewhat. But for my two batteries alone they had to move at least 500,000 pounds of earth. Maybe as much as a million pounds. Then the water and runoff issues. It just cannot be good for the earth. But you are right that there is disagreement and I am no scientist. All that said I think my point about political expediency is true. Politicians, red and blue, were eager to attach themselves to an initiative that seemed green but actually might not be. So here we are with vehicles nobody wants and mandates, likely unattainable or at least just aspirational, that might do more harm than good.

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I agree, the politicians who forced the EV thing on the world went about it the wrong way, without adequate knowledge of the unintended consequences. I believe they meant well, but frankly, they went about it like idiots. A classic example of that old saying "a little information is a dangerous thing". Those who became hysterical about "climate change" or whatever you want to call it, looked at it without much critical thinking they got caught up in the hysteria and didn't think things through.
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I've always said that, upon receipt of the bad news from "the scientists", the proper next step would have been to turn that info over to the engineers to analyze the data, propose solutions, and do the full suite of calculations to determine which options provided the greatest net benefit, and to steer us away form the hysterical solutions proposed that would (and have) run us into a ditch. Scientists are good at some things, they are not good at everything, whereas engineers are trained to look at all sides of the picture and do the appropriate calculations. Both areas of expertise (scientific and engineering) are necessary, but neither area alone is sufficient. Gotta have both, gotta take the time to look at all the possible scenarios and do the calcs for each scenario.
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[go-ram]

View attachment 188834
That represents production from about march of last year. So you are right. That’s a lot of Co2 that I saved.

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That's a good amount of power produced. The sunk cost is already made, both financial and environmental, so the only thing to do now is (a) keep the system maintained for peak performance and (b) enjoy the hell out of it for the next 20-30 years.
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Be careful of the numbers saying X amount of earth was moved to make a given battery. I believe the vast, vast majority of those numbers one can find today are politically-motivated numbers, cherry-picked depending on which side of the divide the cherry-picker is. I keep an eye out on these studies, try to vet them as best I can so I know if the numbers can be trusted, and so far I have yet to find ANY study that I really trust. I can't tell you what's right, all I can say is "Don't trust, and do verify."

 

[Scram1500]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

 

[theblet]

The voters where I live in the country have a truck in every driveway, majority not for show. They will go for economical transportation, with long ranges, and a good payload. You can get extra gas tanks on a truck. Can you get extra battery packs?

Also, if you run out of gas, someone can bring some to you. You can't call someone and say "Can you bring me a can of electricity? I'm out!"

 

[HSKR R/T]

Also, if you run out of gas, someone can bring some to you. You can't call someone and say "Can you bring me a can of electricity? I'm out!"

They can bring you a generator. But just like running out of gas, if your planning sucks that much that you run down your battery to where you are stuck on the road, it's your own damn fault

 

[theblet]

They can bring you a generator. But just like running out of gas, if your planning sucks that much that you run down your battery to where you are stuck on the road, it's your own damn fault

Won’t be my fault because I won’t have one.