Recent content by LavaRand

I'm learning that even when manufacturer's don't explicitly mention 120V compatibility, by doing a little research I usually find out they support 120V charging after all. I guess 120V charging isn't considered a feature worth advertising. I'm not sure about quality but I ordered one of these...

I periodically rent cars and visit places for business, or visit my parents on their farm. Most of the EVs I rent come with an L1 charger cord, but I want to buy a portable charger cord that will let me charge faster than that when I have access to a better receptacle. Like a dryer receptacle...

It sounds like having an EV is like having a gas car, where all the gas stations are the price of California high-octane. But you have a gas pump in your garage that sells as much gas as you want at 1990s Texas prices.

I watched the electric trucker episode with the hydrogen semi. It definitely works, and has more range than electric. They have 350 bar and 700 bar standards for the hydrogen. But the thing is, it still essentially is an electric truck. It still has an electric transaxle, power control, and...

I hope you are right. I've been waiting for all these highly depreciated EVs to hit the used market for cheap....still waiting...even old leafs with clapped out batteries go for more than I think a car of their age and miles should go for.

A basic method would be (similar to how counties calculate their budgets and then choose a levy rate), they would first calculate and approve an annual transportation budget, B. Then they would project how many cars are currently or typically registered in the state every year, C. Then they...

Every tax policy has advantages and disadvantages. Taxing tires would be a cool idea if it were easier to enforce or generated more revenue or something, but it doesn't. Tire taxes have been tried before but it went out of favor because manufacturer's made tires with poor traction just to have...

From this thread I learned that a whole lot of states already have EV-specific annual taxes. I had no idea. At this point that looks like the solution we are going to get...the one we basically already have. Not surprising since it was the path of least administrative resistance...just forget...

With a prepaid system, there is no bill. You just have a card or a tag with a serial number, and when that tag goes through a tollbooth, a toll is deducted from that serial number's balance, and the gate opens. It's not tied to your identity, and nobody is sending you a bill because nobody knows...

When I've driven overseas in Japan or France, any time I got out of the city basically every expressway was tolled. They were generally smooth, fast roads, in good repair, with well-maintained facilities, but tolled. So it seems like that's how it's done already other places. When I lived in...

A topic that keeps coming up is how EVs should be taxed. This merits its own discussion. First let's review how ICE vehicles are taxed. In addition to fixed registration costs, ICE vehicles are subject to a fuel tax. There is a federal component that's the same across the country, and most...

That's what they do for land-speed records like the ones they record at the Utah salt flats. You have to perform a run, and then perform a run on the same course in the opposite direction within a certain amount of time. IIRC your slowest time is the one used for the record.

There is more than one problem in the world, and more than one solution. CO2 is a global problem and NOx and particle pollution is a local problem. Innovations like catalytic converters did wonders for NOx and smog. Probably saved millions of lives. But it didn't do anything for CO2 or...

I thought an AM radio was legally required in all cars.

The best way to store and handle hydrogen is to react it with carbon so that it forms a stable liquid hydrocarbon, which can be pumped and kept in cheap storage tanks. I jest, slightly, but the process of making synthetic hydrocarbons is getting efficient enough that it's starting to be used...