Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I think a lot of progress is being made on electric car infrastructure. Tesla was first to the game, but until other players jumped in en masse, it was going to be niche. We're seeing that come around now.

It's still not where I'd like it to be, but I also don't need to worry about replacing any of our vehicles for ~6-7 more years at this point. At that time my Flex will be likely showing it's age, and as the kids go off to school I won't need such a large vehicle. By then I think the market for BEVs will be mature enough that the charging infrastructure will make BEVs convenient for potentially everything but long-haul travel. And given the charging rates that these cars are getting, maybe even "good enough" for long-haul. And if not, my wife's RX will probably go ~3 years beyond the Flex before it's time to replace it, so it would be useful for the long-haul stuff.

We're getting there. I'm sure politicians will claim that they were forward-thinking and their interventions made it happen when it happens, but it's all [as always] just a matter of economics. When the market and the technology and the price align, switches happen. Until then, it's nearly impossible to "force" it to happen even with incentives.

 

When i bought my car last year, I had the notion that it'd be the last regular-engine car I'd ever buy.  Not assuming or hoping necessarily, just assume it to be the case.

Depends on how long you keep your cars. I got mine in 2016, but the last one I had I got in 1997. So, who knows what I'll get in 2035. Maybe nothing.

I’m always jealous of individuals that can pull this off. Unfortunately I like fast cars too much, which isn’t a great investment strategy.

In 1980, I was reading multiple articles about running out of oil.  I figured by 2000, there would be almost no gasoline or Diesel powered vehicles with reciprocating internal combustion engines on the market.  Today, the "problem" for some is an over supply of oil.  Gas is cheaper today than in 1980 inflation adjusted pricing (slightly).

The main "polluters" today are coal fired plants which are being shut down fairly quickly because NG has become the fuel of choice for making electricity.  Coal is pretty dirty all the way from mining to burning to scrubbing to dealing with the fly ash waste.  NG produces about 2/3rds as much CO2 per kWhr and has much lower levels of regular pollutants.

The increase in renewables is largely replacing nuclear power in many countries, so the net on CO2 production is near zero.  India and China are growing rapidly so their need for additional electricity and transportation is high.  The advanced countries have already used carbon based fuels to advance their economics, so I and C want a similar kind of delay before they do much.  The problem is I and C are very significant generators of CO2 and that isn't dropping.

I see no practicable solutions here, so I'd spend SOME effort on figuring out how to deal with the future PROJECTED climate.

I like fast cars too. I'm just getting older and don't push them like I used to. Although I did get up to 110 last week, on accident.

Yeah, the new pickup is so quick and so smooth, I accidentally had it over 100 on a road trip recently.  Also accidentally had it up to 85 towing one time.

My i s c & a aggie wife loves the engine and ride so much in the twin turbo F150, she wants the new Explorer Sport with the same engine.  She says she'd rather have that, than the BMW 4-series with the retractable hardtop.

The GTI is pretty quick but at least you know when you're going 85.  It has this interesting gauge that shows your ground speed.

The CTS was almost too quiet at speed though it had a similar gauge.

I love how even pretty basic cars today are as quick as they are 0-60 compared with many "muscle cars" of the 70s.

The 70s were bad times for cars in general.

The GTI is pretty quick but at least you know when you're going 85.  It has this interesting gauge that shows your ground speed.

The CTS was almost too quiet at speed though it had a similar gauge.

I love how even pretty basic cars today are as quick as they are 0-60 compared with many "muscle cars" of the 70s.

The 70s were bad times for cars in general.

The early 80s had some real clunkers too, from a performance perspective.

The dynos of turbo engines often are fascinating (to me) as they show flat torque from roughly 1800 to 4000 RPM.  One can feel the difference in driving engines are similar hp if one is boosted and the other is not but has larger displacement.  And the mpgs may not be much different in the real world, but turbos can "trick" the fuel economy tests.

Well I CAN drive the turbocharged 3.5L V6 "appropriately" and get better mileage than the V8s, it's just not as much fun.  And that flat torque response through much of the RPM range is why I love it so much for towing.

The electronic gauge packages are cool, I can set it to show  fuel economy in mpg and watch in realtime to see how my driving inputs affect the fuel economy.  But it's more to set it to watch the Turbo Boost and see how much is being applied when I hit the gas.