And portability. And being reliable/known. Which is why militaries require large amounts of fossil fuels for now.
I remember when I was in the Army that our 5-ton dump trucks had lots of onboard stuff running off pressurized air, presumably making the vehicle more durable to electrical failures
Combine with local stored fossil fuels, and basic mobility/counter-mobility, and you have a harder-to-cripple ground force.
What we really need for electric cars is battery swapout. Just pull into the nearest station, trade out the drained battery for a fresh one, and you're off! Meanwhile, the station sets the drained battery on the charging array, and in a few hours, it's ready for the next customer!
In theory. I can see at least a couple of challenges in making such a system feasible. It's not like you can just shove the batteries into a massive underground tank, for example.
Not really. For those rare trips you drive more than 100 miles, rent a liquid-fueled vehicle. They're much better suited for such trips.
An electric vehicle is more specialized as a every-day commuter vehicle. It is cheaper in that duty.
Like a gas car, your cell phone can do anything your desktop can do, but your desktop is better suited for some tasks (i.e. faster for writing letters) even if its mobility is less.
swapout is DOA. 30kw/h = 1000A x 120V x 15min. With coffee and wi-fi 15 min is nothing for most of the people. Replacing pumps with electricity chargers, the gas stations will easily morph into Starbucks and Starbucks/Safeways/etc... will morph into charging stations.
What would the capital cost of such a scheme be and how fast could adoption happen? I am very skeptical of a large roll-out since all the current infrastructure is obsolete.
Yeah, we have a country built for a liquid fuel economy and electric just doesn't fit. I have some serious fears of technology not as versatile as previous and not as cheap.
Not to mention that in an accident, the available energy with liquid fuel is a fraction of the total. Only the gaseous portion will expode. With a battery, the entire stored energy is available should it arc.
it'll be interesting to see if with this renewed nuclear scare if we'll see centralized power generation as such a benefit. as small scale energy production gets more cost effective I could see many homes generating their own power (solar, thermal) - though I'm not saying any time soon.
In any case full electric cars allow centralized power generation, in turn allowing more opportunities for clean power.