The Contradictions of Battery Operated Vehicles | Graham Conway | TEDxSanAntonio

Are we considering that with a weightier battery comes higher rate of battery drain? So put in alarger again, weighing more again, and draining faster because of the twice increased weight. May we see trade-off graphs on that, please?

We are trillions of dollars and decades away from that ideal EV behavior just as we were in the 1890's when EVs were first introduced.

more co2 more plants!

Wind and solar EROI is grave. Wind and solar and battery sized to near full-economy magnitude is a no-go, with EROI approaching 1, that is comparable or more energy invested in manufacturing in China than we can practically harves during the systems' lifetime (and battery is a big part of that). Nuclear is the only clean energy with high EROI (>70, fast neutron reactors EROI>150) and low amount of pollution and waste when sized to near full-economy magnitude. "Renewables" gets us to the energy cliff and resource crisis, devastating to our economy, civilization and the environment.

I enjoy it when they compare electric vehicles to petrol ones, but they always seem to miss a significant aspect: how is the petrol produced? I would like to see the entire process and the costs involved in extracting oil, transporting it to refineries by boats or trucks, and, upon completion, using trucks to transport it to service stations.

so....... if we make a car that runs on trees.... then it completes the cycle.... now we're carbon neutral! .... Right?

I dont trust this guy so much his shirt doesn´t spell electric right.

problem with solar/wind/geothermal ... can't control what nature does where you live

Every year I share this on social media and other times to remind people of these facts

So what you are saying is. we need to use Nuclear power to generate the power to make these vehicles? Yes I agree!

Also you can't sit around waiting for battery tech to be optimized before deciding its a good idea. I agree battery tech isn't where we need it to be but if there was no demand for mass production of batteries, then we would never get to a place where there is a demand for more efficient manufacturing and recycling of battery tech. We've been sitting on the same old battery tech for over 100 years because there was no reason to optimize it's production.

During that time we've seen extreme booms in petrol engines (thanks to the fuel crisis in the 80s). Massive advancements in computer tech, thanks to massive demands in computing needs and smart phone development. And now I feel like its finally time to develop battery tech and unfortunately its going to have to come at the expense of a few years of inefficient battery manufacturing to be able to get to a place where we can be happy with the results of our battery tech.

Even investing in hybrids won't get us where we need to be in that department because batteries aren't the primary power source in those power units. All we achieve with hybrids is defer the research and development of batteries, while we making a profit from using petrol as a main power source.

Sorry for the rant (if anyone is even reading it) but I think it's important that we have these years of uphill battles before our huge battery tech discovery. I'm not saying we shouldn't challenge it, but we need to be optimistic of the implications for the future and encourage development of what could be our next big discovery in humanity thus far.

This dude is insane. Solar and wind farms are worse for the environment than anything else.

Wind and solar are not goos enough. Take up so much room to produce very little energy. Destroying the environment for the sake of climate seems counter intuitive to me. Putting resources into researching nuclear/thorium etc is the way to go. Fusion even. But renewable energy is far too romantisized for it to be the saving source of energy-efficient power production.

Sodium will solve all of this, especially if those sodium batteries are manifactured in countrys with renewable energy. Looking at Northvolt in Quebec will produce sodium batteries from 100% renewable energy (hydroelectricity).

I can't take any solution seriously that doesn't include nuclear power in the equation because you are not going to produce the amount of power needed with just solar and wind. It wouldn't be enough consistent power with today's power use let alone the amount of power used once you have billions of cars being charged all the time.

A bunch of things not taking consideration here! First that you’re only considering global warming. What about the benefits of human health of not burning fossil fuels right where we live from our tail pipes. (Most power plants are outside of cities )That it would be at a great health improvement for people in our cities, having considerably cleaner air. (As well as a great reduction in noise, pollution) Second electric cars are new technology, but one’s made today in 2023, Will likely have a lifespan much longer than a gas one. Many people that study the issue project, electric cars to last 2 to 4 times longer than an average gas one. Although there’s not much battery recycling now, there are companies working on it and frankly, there’s not many electric car batteries that need to be recycled yet. When there are lots of batteries need to be recycled, they will be recycled rather than the raw materials Needing to be mined. Also, electric cars are much safer in accidents And would greatly reduce the number of deaths on roads if used.

Okay, but if we will build more solar & wind farms, what are the emissions in creating those? Surely the factories that build them will have a carbon footprint, no? And what about the ecological disaster wind farms are on flocks of birds?? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!

Tailpipe emissions are CO

That’s how you die in a closed garage inside a running car

Climate change 3 years later: the future is now ! (having floods every week)

Too late! California already has a ban on gasoline vehicles going into effect!

you lost your argument when you started praising solar and wind power as clean energy as they are non recyclable and create co2 waste. you have a good argument for going back to horse and cart though.

There is nothing wrong with nuclear power

my man really just thought it cooked something here

A logical argument that fell to pieces at it hit the fundamental problem: the assumption that CO2 is bad. CO2 is necessary for plant life (and therefore animal life). CO2 got close to being too low for plant life (due to sequestration by calcification and trapped organic matter). The current rise in CO2 is a GOOD thing. Stop basing your arguments on flawed assumptions.

Thank you for your honesty. I love the idea of Electric Cars, but also see the hypocrisy of the entire “Climate” movement. It is all hype and zero science. We have been offloading our emissions problems to China and other less environmentally conscious places for 40 years and patting ourselves on the back for cleaning up our own back yard, but will never acknowledging we would have been better off as a planet keeping “smokestacks” in countries that actually care about the environment. Politicians who facilitated these transfers are feted as saviors of the planet when all they did was increase pollution globally. The latest example of this is the U.S. government bans the mining of materials needed to produce batteries for electric cars in America, but is more than happy to allow Africans to do it where there is no EPA or OSHA. It’s a new kind of exploitation. We transfer environmental destruction from 1st world to 3rd world.

Hydro electric power… everything leaves a co2 footprint when creating an energy source. That said, we have gas and diesel vehicles. In addition, we have electric one, never going back..love the electric…as do my friends… 1500 miles, $25 of power of used.

Global warming has been at about 1°C since the early 1990s or over thirty years with no signs of significant increase coming in the future. Climate Change is marketing slogan not a change in climate. The back of the United Nation's IPCC science report has a legal statement of data transparency that they took their greenhouse gas samples at 20,000 meters altitude and only that one altitude. It is high school taught science there is no greenhouse radiant energy more than 20 meters from radiating surface, typically the earth. Since there is a statement of data transparency that means the IPCC is not in-fact discussing greenhouse gases in a manor conducive to global warming it is not fraud. It's a form of marketing because they are truthful in their data transparency.

BEVs were developed to reduce the dependance of transpiration on petroleum. They have some very desirable secondary benefits that they don't create irritating levels of local air pollution. Which is a huge benefit in metropolitan areas of more than a few million people. BEVs in the USA can provide a large cost savings in energy. If charging at home it cost about 1/3 - 1/4 the amount of gasoline. BEVs can have such large acceleration of well less than 4 seconds to 60 mph that such a gasoline powered car would likely be a gasoline hog even when going down the interstate.  

The disadvantages of current BEVs are a battery that adds 800 pounds to a typical car's weight over a gasoline performance car equivalent. The bigger EV's are in the thousands of pounds heavier. Right now BEVs are best for local driving where the vehicle can come home and charge in garage over night. Doing that they could commute a couple of hundred miles a day very well, but as a road trip car they can't keep up with convention vehicles.  The current lithium batteries loose charge over a few weeks. They are not good for storing energy over large fractions of a year.

Battery technology if it can be made to approach the abilities of solid electrolyte batteries would allow about a 70% increase in kWh/kg ratio, they don't catch fire when punctured, and they can take much higher heat allowing them to fully charge in about 10 minutes. They can also discharge at much higher rates. They have multiple times more cycle charge and discharges than other batteries.  

It may not be possible to mass produce solid electrolyte batteries with their vaporized metal disposition process currently used. They are also brittle. Subject to micro fractures that breaks them. About six months for experimental vehicles before solid state batteries break from micro fractures from some of the reports. People want expensive batteries to last a very long time and never just break. There is no talk of chemical battery technology beyond the ability of solid state batteries. Twice and bit more the kWh to mass ratio of current lithium batteries might be about as far as battery energy density can go. That is still a large hindrance for large users of energy such as earth moving equipment, locomotives, aircraft, ocean crossing ships.

I miss when TED talks presented smart and insightful people.
Every CO2 sum he talks applies to GAS cars also + emission.

Electronic cars are a scam!!! Electric is not the future

Plants absorb CO2 from horses only. Not any other source.

building solar farms and windmills also require a lot of energy. We also need to draw the box bigger for power generation.

Put that same box around everything used to dig out lithium and cobalt and it will have way more CO2.

Your whole argument went down the gurgler when you said horses breathe out CO2. They exhale CO carbon monoxide.

No Co2 no plant life, nothing for animals to eat, nothing for humans to eat, result. Nil Co2= end of life on earth. Fact.

The grass still absorbs the co2 from the horse as from the car.
False logic .

How do you get on Ted talks? Recycling well known old talking points? We’ve known this since the 1st gen Prius, just keep your car and keep it maintained AND stop buying stuff.

This guy is a fraud. In his horse vs corvette analogy, he goes off the rails by rationalizing that the horse is part of a cycle, but the corvette is not. RUBBISH. BOTH produce CO2 which is consumed by plants and BOTH require oxygen to breathe/operate which is produced by plants. It appears ANYONE can have a Ted Talk these days. Mental midgets abound.

Why are liberals such IDIOTS and why do most of them like touching children

This host is liar😂 hybrids are the worst of both world's. TESLA EV have 400 mi range, the lithium battery is recycled after a million miles.

Plugging into a grid run by fossil fuels, not to mention the mining of minerals for these gargantuan batteries that once ignited cant be extinguished … ELECTRIC IS FUTURE RUIN🤣🤣🤣🤣🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸❣️‼️

All you eletric car freaks are crazy and need to stop trying to force us to buy your junk! Nutjobs

I wonder if the Indians had the same problem 150 years with all the horses 🐎

It’s hard to consider this an intelligent conversation when you don’t even factor in the fact that batteries aren’t 100% efficient at storing and even at transmitting and charging
A gas engine isn’t 100% efficient but take those two types of cars up north and the gas vehicle actually becomes more efficient and the electric less so

EVs ability to handle damage and difficulty extinguishing another challenge. Living in an apt harder to charge. Apts often lower energy consumption and closer to places, public transport so less driving.

There, for the teska owners who think, they’re saving the world.

I really don’t understand how a hybrid doesn’t have more startup emissions then an ICE vehicle. It has both a full drive train AND a battery and electric motor. So in my mind that should start it higher than the gas engine. Also the only way to get battery to get better is to get the tech moving forward, that’s what the EV market has done. It’s pumping a ton of money into the tech.

To me if the government actually cared, they would fund or put financing guarantees on solar installs like they do student loans, just sign here and you’ll get solar. Do it for both residential and commercial properties. Still a loan but you are already paying the payment, it just now goes to solar and not duke energy or whomever your electric comes from. Once battery output ramps up then do the same for house battery banks. Now every building in America is producing energy from the sun and storing it, cars drive for free mostly and a ton of Co2 is offset by this. You also have massive battery banks that can feed power back into the grid if ever needed. This won’t work in some places but in a lot of places it would.

God is the creator and sustainor of life. live free! no government is trying to help you or the environment.

Coal is king!

I think the future should be no more animal farming. Peoples diet based on animal farming such as meats and dairy is not a clean consumption. Farming is responsible for 30% of environmental impact, caused by deforrestations, animal by products, such as methane, pesticides and manuar run offs in to water systems and the heavy burden on our water resources.. just to mention some. Just adding a perspective... It takes 2000 litres of water just to end up with one Hamburger on your plate. If people only realised how harmful it not only is to our environment but also to your health. No wander we have a world wide
epidemic of unhealthy and cronically ill people burdening our health systems.
Wanna get real!? Start eating healthy and consume whole food plant base. You be doing much more for our one and only Earth than you would buying a silly EV car.

/// he misses / manipulates, time scales

The future is better by humans keeping there noses out of it. Politicians break everything and it takes 10 as much to fix it.