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The fact that both combustion engines and electric motors find themselves inside the same 18,000-person complex in Dingolfing, BMW’s largest in Europe, makes it a microcosm of a shift overtaking automakers the world over. A visitor can see that 625-horsepower engine—more than twice as powerful as the original from 1985, a luxury product relentlessly branded as “the ultimate driving machine”—then walk around the corner and see its puny electric replacement. You start thinking the better slogan might be “the ultimate combustion engine.” As in: last of its kind.
Deep within Dingolfing you can find the human representations of the end of a 100-year technological era. These workers have electric flashes stitched onto their blue factory smocks, and their jobs are focused on the BMW i3—the company’s only all-electric model—as well as a lineup of plug-in hybrids. There were just a few employees marked with electric patches in a remote corner of the factory back when BMW first started gearing up for electric vehicles. Today, electric works occupy about 10 percent of Dingolfing.
In just a few years BMW will sell a dozen battery-powered models. The transition is already proving painful and expensive. Last month, expecting a 10 percent slump in profit this year, the company said it would begin a 12 billion-euro efficiency campaign to pay for this battery-focused revamp. Starting in 2021, meanwhile, BMW plans to eliminate up to 50 percent of drivetrain options. About a third of its 133,000-strong workforce has been trained to handle production of electric vehicles—and it’s clear that all of today’s employees won’t be necessary for tomorrow’s tasks.
Soon BMW's engines will roar no more?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Friday April 12 2019, @02:58PM (3 children)
i dont think ICEs will disappear completely.
Probably not. Here in the UK - a very small, densely populated country (you can tell how dense the population is - they voted for Brexit), 30% of electricity generated is lost in the transmission lines. Another 10% would be lost charging the car batteries,.
If a significant fraction of traffic is electric, the result is going to be a massive increase in demand on the network - which is not easy to expand, and a massive demand for raw energy.
A more sensible option than distributing it over the grid would be using the gas network and locally generating at point of need. Small generators are about 10% less efficient than big ones - which beats the pants of 40% losses. You are welcome to use solar and wind power - but use it to make gas.
Or, use (human and animal) waste to make bio-diesel, and fix the problem of particulates with a half-decent filter, and the NOx problem by not running the engines so dammed hot. The mania for hot engines to reduce CO2 is what led to NOx.
Besides which, according to the actual data, pollution in the UK is 50% of what it was in 1970, despite having 10 times the number of vehicles. There is a ton of fake news out there.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @05:28PM
Why use solar and wind to make gas? Locally generated solar/wind wouldn't suffer the large transmission losses, as long as you can generate it when/where the cars are charging. (ie the work/daytime parking lot more than the home/overnight one.)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @08:59PM
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmenergy/386/38607.html [parliament.uk]
Also 10% on top of 30% is 37%, not 40%. 1 - ((1 - 0.1) * (1 - 0.3)) = 1 - (0.9 * 0.7) = 1 - 0.63 = 0.37.
Yep, very dense spin, Doctor.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday April 13 2019, @02:23AM
.... including in your post.
As the AC posted, your figure for transmission losses is absurdly exaggerated.
Since most EV charging occurs at night, when electricity demand is low, any increase in peak demand on the network is likely to be small. Yes, overall, more electricity will be used, but peak load probably won't increase much, if at all.
You propose a new infrastructure for mass adoption of bio-diesel in cars. It would probably be more efficient to use the bio-diesel in generators and use that electricity to power electric vehicles, which are much more efficient than ICE vehicles.