Electric Cars

 Eaton Rapids Joe has a post up about electric cars.  It's a good read, and while not comprehensive, it highlights the problems we're going to have when we finally make the switch from gasoline to electric. The problems with that switch are legion.

It's bad enough that the batteries are expensive, and will surely wear out.  They use rare-earth minerals that are hard to dispose of, and the supply chain is simply not set up to deliver the amounts of raw materials and finished batteries that the market will demand.  On the other side of the supply chain is the question.  Many experts tell us that we will have to increase the capacity of our electric grid to deliver the kilowatts that the widespread use of electric cars will demand.

The short answer is "much more of everything".

These challenges are not insurmountable, and eventually we'll get there, if the market demands it.   My hope is that the next big leap will come, not from a big corporation, but from some dreamer tinkering in his garage.  Someone who has an inspiration and the perseverance to fail a thousand times before he finally gets it right.

The most common, most vital substance on this earth is water, and it is composed of two elements with high energy potential.  Oxygen and hydrogen.   My grandfather tinkered for years on an engine that would run on the hydrogen and oxygen generated from a bank of batteries.  He could make it run, but he could never generate enough power to make it pull itself.  He finally abandoned the project.  But, it worked, if not in the fashion he wanted it to work.  

We may get to electric cars one of these days, or we might have a tinkerer who has an "Ah-ha" moment and leads us in an entirely new direction.  Somewhere, someplace, and at some time, a Dr. Brown will invent a Mr. Fusion.  Then, we'll be off and running.