I drove an electric vehicle, and here is my impression

[pbrower2a]

(04-09-2022, 03:16 PM)lines beechnut79 Wrote:

(03-11-2022, 11:38 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I can easily imagine Corporate America... and tax authorities... adjusting. At some point, when electric cars become commonplace the states will need to tax energy used by a consumer in his car (generally a good proxy for wear-and-tear on roads), impose shadow tolls for miles used (which would be the same for a dirt road as for a high-cost expressway), raise registration fees (or link those to miles used) as a substitute for highway taxes.

With government services of any kind one pays one way or the other. I might find a way in which to avoid a dollar-per-mile toll, but I wouldn't dodge three cents per mile (which is roughly the gas tax per mile in Michigan). How the states and municipalities exact taxes is ideally a wash.

I can imagine businesses now selling gasoline to sell electric power. Businesses either adjust to novel technology and consumer trends or die. (Most gas stations in America are also convenience stores that nearly break even on motor fuels but make their money off snacks, sodas, beer, cancerettes, etc. Restaurants could offer "Eat here and recharge your car here" as you recharge the battery outside while dining inside. So could hotels and motels. Convenience is precious for anyone who has no desire to waste time.

Lithium is of course recyclable... is there a viable and cheap substitute, like calcium metal? Calcium is about as reactive as lithium, but it is also heavier. It is also far cheaper than lithium.

Paragraph by paragraph response:

P1:  I believe there is much here that remains to be seen. Sooner or later the gasoline engine is bound to go the way of the rotary telephone, but those of us who are now seniors may not be around long enough to see it. One poster here not too long ago stated that the car culture needs to go if we are to ever get serious about global warming. But will it? I for one highly doubt it. It has been nearly half a century since we had our best shot at it, during that dreadful gas shortage when interest in expanding mass transit briefly surged.

Technologies vanish for many reasons.  Some were never so great to begin with (eight-track audio tapes); some fall because an alternative is less expensive in cost or space or being fussy to operate (mainframe computers). Some fall because they require a vanishing input or one costlier than something available. Gasoline was an unwelcome byproduct until it proved ideal for the engines of the new automobiles. When gasoline becomes fiendishly expensive we will find an alternative.

Quote:P2:  In Illinois where I am at, our tollways were supposed to become freeways once the original bonds were paid off. Never happened.

Here's what happened: the Illinois Tollway system began with three tollways: the Tri-State and the Northwest Tollways along the routes that they now follow and the eastern-most section  of the East-West Tollway , then extended only to Aurora back in the 1950's. These tollways originally had modest tolls that, had no costs other than maintenance been done upon them, would have been paid off  The Kentucky Parkway system, similarly financed, had its tolls removed in the 1990's at the latest. The tollway authority was able to raise more bonded debt to be paid off with tolls. The Illinois Tollway Authority became a bureaucracy in its own right, and as the pattern for high-level bureaucrats of all kinds, the executive salaries soared. There will be incentives to keep expanding the system, as new segments are being built. Well-paid bureaucrats have good cause to protect their presonal gravy trains -- and they are clever in doing so.

So if Michigan is to build toll roads, then I suggest the way that Kentucky went, building tolled roads whose financing self-liquidates them. Of course, Kentucky built its tolled parkways strictly in rural areas where third and fourth lanes were likely to never be needed.

Quote:P-3:  The first sentence is a hard lesson Sears had to learn. Their last store in Illinois closed late last year before the holiday shopping season took hold. Middle sentence is that the gas station attendant has also gone the way of the rotary telephone everywhere except New Jersey and Oregon. Spent a few years in the former and they only pump gas and don't check oil levels and clean windshield ala your attendants of the past. Last sentence is something we must sacrifice a little bit if we are ever to get serious about climate change. At least since the end of WWII, each generation has demanded more convenience than the previous one enjoyed, most recent example being the explosion in food delivery.

Sears originated as the analogue to Amazon in its day, relying heavily on a catalogue for mail order. Then it went to building stores to offer merchandise to people who for whatever reason wanted to see the merchandise for themselves or were too impatient to rely upon mail order. Eventually the stores overtook the mail-order volume, possible because people generally wanted the same stuff. After the Second World War, when the greatly-expanded middle class, especially in the suburbs (with super-cheap housing), were flush with cash, Sears was one of the big players in the new shopping malls. By the 1980's America had a New Poor of young adults who, if they went to the mall went there to work for near-minimum wage pay.

The customer base shrank, and most of the employees did not stick around long enough to become problem-solvers. Sears typically owned the land on which its stores sat, so top management saw no problem because the company could ignore the implicit value of its properties as a cost. (Basically, if the stores were underperforming they should have sold them off to someone else who could better use the property. Somewhat later, many defunct store sites might become apartments or medical clinics. Economists call that opportunity cost). Sears had control of Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances which accounted for much of Sears' revenue. Other than that, Sears did badly in just about everything else -- like clothing, housewares, electronic entertainments, and furniture.

As I have suggested in a thread relating  to the life-cycle of business, Sears ended up with bureaucratic bloat as its viability faded. Bureaucrats do not generate revenue or create marketable; in the end they are good only at feathering their nests. Generally recognizing that they had no viable careers elsewhere, such executives as could took golden parachutes that devoured assets. When operating costs overtake revenues, the company might as well shut its doors. Merging with K-Mart might have seemed a good at the time, but this is basically the marriage of two patients with terminal cancer. (I would have suggested that Sears close its mall stores, move its Kenmore and Craftsman brands to K-Mart and shore up the clothing line.

Of course I would have done this much earlier, figuring that revenue from the sale of still-valuable real estate might allow a revival of "S-Mart Stores". As it is, Sears Holdings is in possession of retail stores that may never have another customer and empty parking lots. But that would also require that someone like me stick to a career in retailing. Hunger is an unwelcome companion to any career, especially one that offers no reliable career ladder.

Quote:P4:  Will need to pass here because it's something I really don't know anything about.

I know little about the chemistry of batteries, either. I cannot think of a suitable alternative to lithium in batteries. Sodium is too dangerous, and magnesium isn't reactive enough.