In a surprising step sure to be followed by others, BBC Business reports that Chinese-owned Volvo “ has become the first traditional carmaker to signal the end of the internal combustion engine.” All new models from 2019 and 2021 will be fully electric or hybrid, with only earlier models having combustion engines. “Geely, Volvo’s Chinese owner, has been quietly pushing ahead with electric car development for more than a decade. It now aims to sell one million electric cars by 2025.”
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo’s carmaking division.
“People increasingly demand electrified cars, and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs.”
Don’t be surprised to see more of the automobile industry following Volvo’s example as emission regulation gets tighter and performance gets better in electric cars. There are already examples of “hybridization” retrofitting electric motors to conventional combustion engine cars. While Volvo may be the first to change their engines, they won’t be the last. Even Tesla, which “makes no profits, now has a stock market value of $58bn, nearly one-quarter higher than that of Ford, one of the Detroit giants that has dominated the automotive scene for more than a century.” The tipping point has arrived.
We’re going to need the electricity from Site C.
Bear in mind that electric vehicles are far more energy efficient than gas. You don’t need to replace gas with electricity watt for watt. As such, incremental energy production increases like wind and solar will easily suffice. And the cars themselves will become the storage.
Nope, do the math. Replacing all combustion engines in BC with much more efficient EVs is approximately 7 Site Cs.
A Tesla uses about 20kwh per 100 km. Let’s say the average car drives 10,000 km a year so that is 2000kwh or 2GWh. Times what, 2.5M cars in BC that would be 5M GWh per year. What does Site C produce ? About 5100 GWh (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_C_dam ) .. so 1000 site C dams ?
Please tell me that I am wrong.
I am wrong. 2000kwh is 2000MWh (not GWh) .. so only one site C dam is sufficient, more or less, to propel all cars in BC ?
The easier way to do this is figure out what the rough conversion using a similar, then applying it to the overall fuel consumption of the province.
Based on my own experience owning a Chevy Volt, 6.7L of fuel = about 17.9 kWh of electricity. Applying that to the 2015 fuel consumption of the province, we end up with 22,300 GWh.
My memory was a bit off. That’s 4.37 Site Cs.
This is probably a good time to explore geothermal energy. No dams, no flooded valleys, no emissions beyond construction. And base load power on demand forever.
By the time we need more electricity, most things will be more energy efficient (furthered by pricing) and we may even have new sources such as fusion by then. I’m all for building infrastructure but Site C needs an unbiased review like many other mega projects–reviews that ensure value for money.
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They didn’t decide to sell only hybrids. Read the story. They decided not to sell vehicles propelled by only IC engines. Pretty big step for a company that has been selling IC engines in cars for 90 years.
All manufacturers are heading away from internal combustion engines. They are just doing it at different speeds.
it is important when vehicle manufacturers take a stand. Look at Volvo’s invention of the three point sear belt, and their decision to then make it available to all other manufacturers. I suspect your hybrid has them, thanks to Volvo..
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