Featured Electric Car Growth Produces Battery Shortages, Carmakers Can’t Match Production With Demand

makes the gigafactory look even more brilliant, if that were possible.
henry ford bought a rubber plantation.
anyone can build an electric car, but not all understand the requirements compared to gassers.

i suppose for most manufacturers, the profits are so low, it doesn't really matter. as long as they have enough for their carb credits.

 

It's not so much the building of the factory that was brilliant, rather it was securing the investment of the primary battery makers like Panasonic that not only led to building of the Gigafactory, but a few more will be built in other parts of the world now too. And if this is what we have to do turn the fossil fuel industry into a perfect storm of low demand, collapsing values and across the board bankruptcy, so be it. Of course it also creates a whole new raft of still as yet unforeseen environmental problems, but we have to move towards it to save our ship.

 

that's what makes hydrogen so attractive.

 

You don't think they (engineering departments) know this?

 

Systems engineering means looking at the complete problem, not just a narrow, parochial, tunnel vision of a problem. I love my fellow engineers for their ability to focus on and seek an optimum solution. But I truly admire those rare systems engineer who see the bigger picture.

Systems engineers don't always see every aspect of the problem. They sometimes miss what later we see as obvious mistakes. But an Elon Musk is exceptional . . . a Spock.

Bob Wilson

 

Hydrogen is attractive, but what it takes to produce it and store it without it leaking away unused is many,many decades behind what can be done via a chemical battery these days.

 

That is why oil guys want to buy up Tesla.... they know they need to get out of the drug business..... I mean oil.....

 

I have being thinking same too. What happens if they don't succeed? They would be out of business!

 

If FCVs were way up in demand, who would manufacture membrane cells enough to keep up?

 

that's the great thing about a slow takeoff, you don't have all those sticky supply issues.

 

Everything new in the auto world is a slow takeoff, so to suggest that hydrogen is better because it will start slow doesn't work. If it's worth it salt it will eventually take off, and then face the same thing that batteries are facing....supply and storage issues.

Only way to prevent it is to have a fully functioning magic 8-ball...or risk millions based on buyer predictions.

 

but the point is, might it be less of a problem with recycling than batteries.

 

Possibly.

That leads us to the really important point: Never settle.

We need to keep pushing for and funding better tech.

 

i think that is what is happening in cali, but it is hard to watch the dollars flow to hydrogen, when just the fueling concept alone is intimidating.
and then letting the market decide on the better tech seems like a mistake. the make is whimsical, and science should decide on the better tech.

 

The next non-tesla news-flash will be,
"there aren't enough high speed chargers for electric cars available!"
.

 

Yes, but they planned for that too... They're even gonna start charging the newest Tesla owners to use the chargers too: Tesla says 99% of the US population is now within 150 miles of a Supercharger | Electrek