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An Anonymous Coward writes:

"Today I want to compare the life story of Concorde – the world’s first commercial supersonic airliner – with the story to date of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and to suggest a possible future for the latter. Concorde turned out to be a technology too far, and I suggest that BEVs are heading the same way."
"Better technology will help, of course, but not enough. In 1974, when I bought my first electronic calculator, the AA battery had a carbon rod core and an outer casing of zinc. Intensive research and development since then has provided us with the lithium-ion battery, which can store six times as much electrical energy in the same volume. However, the energy density is still 40 times worse than petrol. Experts suggest that the best we can hope for is an improvement by a factor of two over the next 50 years.

None of these problems will be solved in the next few years, and there is now evidence that many car manufacturers are having second thoughts about involvement in the sector. The most likely outcome is that BEVs will be a rerun of the Concorde story, ending up as a short-lived plaything for the wealthy few, and for a similar complex set of reasons."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/battery-electric-vehicles-evs-supersonic-airliner-concorde/ [telegraph.co.uk]

I think a mix of EV and ICE is best, both have strong and weak sides. It is stupid to develop a crash program for expensive technology as a solution to what many good scientists consider a non-problem.

Original Submission