When Electric Vehicles Replace Current Vehicles...
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My favorite EVs are those which have no batteries, but are powered by overhead high-voltage catenary wires.
I grew up in San Francisco in the 1950s & 60s, where many of the bus lines on routes with steep hills were "trolley buses" made by Marmon. They had trolleys on the roof of the bus that connected power from the catenary into the electric bus motors. What fantastic buses they were, almost silent, and lasted for decades with minimal maintenance. The city streetcars were (and still are) powered by catenary wires too, as are most "light rail" or streetcar systems in other cities around the world.
All of the world's high speed rail networks are also "EVs" powered by overhead catenary wires, no batteries required. A big portion of the regular freight and passenger train networks in many countries are also all-electric, catenary powered with no batteries. Most of these electric-powered train networks are in higher-density parts of Europe and Asia, but the US has the Amtrak northeast corridor running on electric catenary power too.
Decades ago I read an article in "Popular Mechanics" about an idea for having the right lane on all of the major cross-country interstate highways in the US outfitted with overhead catenary wires. The idea would be for trucks to have a dual propulsion system. Their regular diesel engines would get them from their starting point in whatever city or town to the main interstate highway. Once on the highway, they would raise a trolley from the top of the truck cab and contact the overhead catenary, then switch to electric drive for the long-haul part of their route on the interstate. Any time they had to leave the interstate, they would switch back to diesel propulsion. It is a wonderfully low-tech way that would reduce diesel fuel consumption by trucks, yet avoid the need to manufacture huge truck battery strings.
The specific engineering wasn't the intent of the post. The intent was that we are replacing one technology with another that, when all facets are considered, is no more efficient (I'm talking the technology, not engineering), no less costly, and quite likely more damaging to the environment. Besides the fact that it will stress an already overburdened power grid.
Speaking of "power grid," we are quite literally (in many cases) replacing gasoline-powered cars with coal-powered cars. Does that sound more efficient to you?
Like I said, there is a technology waiting out there. If the brains of the world would get off this electric car kick, they might discover it.
Considering how much lower the operating costs of an EV are versus their ICE counterparts... yeah, it's considerably more efficient. Having one power plant to power several hundred thousand cars versus several hundred thousand tiny little power plants to power those several hundred thousand cars has massive efficiencies of scale, plus it's a lot easier to isolate, monitor, and remedy a single point source of pollution than several hundred thousand point sources of pollution.
Many countries are still using motor scooters to get around.
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