9 THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER SAY IN A PUB
Did you know that ...
... The lithium-ion batteries currently used in vehicles contain no rare earth elements whatsoever? Find out here what’s actually inside a battery. Likewise explained there is what rare earth elements are.
In other words, It states that electric car batteries involve NO exploitation of rare earth metals, third-world pollution or child labour.
Batteries contain rare earth elements
Bar Stool Nonsense No. 1
... A lithium-ion battery with 80% residual capacity still has a whole second life ahead of it as a household battery?
... It still has an additional 30 years or more of service life?
... 100% of a lithium-ion battery can be economically recycled already today?
... They’re already being recycled today, but only rarely, because they first have a whole second life ahead of them.
... And if you don’t believe that, then take a moment to google duesenfeld.com, for example...
In other words: A battery’s "second life" comes long before it’s time for recycling. And what’s more: 100% recyclable means no waste – none. That’s what sustainability is all about.
The issue of battery disposal has not been resolved
Getting It Wrong No. 3
... Today’s batteries guarantee 3,000 full-charge cycles, and then still have 80% residual range capacity?
... Which, in a Tesla Model S, gives you the following formula: 3,000 x 500 km battery capacity = 1,500,000 km?
... So, if on average you drive 15,000 km (9,300 miles) annually, your car will keep running for 100 years?
In other words: If you want to wear your batteries out in 3 years, you’ll have to drive your car 500,000 km (311,000 miles) every year. Have fun with that!
Batteries have to be replaced every 3 years
Bar Stool Bollocks No. 2
... Multiple battery manufacturing plants around the globe are already operating today, as of 2020, entirely on solar power, like Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 does in the desert of Nevada? Thus, the manufacture of batteries there consumes precisely ZERO harmfully generated energy.
Source: Fast Company News
In other words, Electric cars are environmentally superior to petrol-fuelled cars right from the very first kilometre driven.
Manufacturing a battery requires as much energy as one petrol-fuelled car burns to drive 60,000 km (32,400 miles).
Bar Stool Ignorance No. 4
... Maximilian Fichtner, Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, calculates that:
Extraction of the lithium for one average Tesla battery requires as much water as is needed to produce 10 avocados. Or 250 grams (half a pound) of beef. Or 30 cups of coffee. Or one half of a pair of jeans. And those jeans certainly won’t hold out for 1.5 million kilometres, it must be said.
Source: Berlin-based newspaper Tagesspiegel
In other words: Always stick to the facts and keep a sense of proportion.
Mining operations to extract lithium are highly problematic because they consume huge amounts of water.
Bar Stool Hoot No. 5
... That water isn’t being "consumed" at all? It vaporises and falls again to earth as rain.
What’s more: Crude oil production also consumes water, in similar locations. And huge amounts of it: For the daily extraction of 17.5 billion litres of oil, 46 billion litres of water are needed. "With this same volume of water, enough lithium for 1.5 million large Tesla batteries could be extracted – every day," says Fichtner. "And what’s worse: water used for crude oil production doesn’t vaporise, rather it’s often polluted with toxins."
Source: Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel
In other words: Bar stool urban myths can rapidly turn into embarrassing own goals...
That’s all fine and good, but the water is consumed in places that are already suffering from shortages
Bar Stool Embarrassment No. 6
... Other people, too, have already considered that and – contrary to our disappearing oil reserves – have already found a solution?
Because development work on batteries is advancing daily. So far, their price has dropped by half every three years, while their capacity and performance improve. New generations of batteries will be hitting the market in future, such as nickel-lithium batteries. They’ll have double the energy density of today’s batteries, and won’t need any cobalt at all. Progress is advancing at an exciting pace.
For everyone who doesn’t believe in major progress, here’s just one example: 20 years ago, 128 MB of main memory in a PC was really a lot. Today, barely 20 years later, even the most moronically simple PC has at least 4 GB – 30 times more. Progress is advancing at an exciting pace.
Source: Teslamag
In other words: The world has never stood still. Except in the heads of progress deniers and the most die-hard petrol heads.
Sooner or later the cobalt for batteries will run out
Getting It Wrong No. 8
... None of the major car or battery manufacturers sources their cobalt from dubious mining operations in the Congo? Tesla, too, for example, verifies that, end to end, its cobalt procurement from all 182 suppliers involves neither child labour nor kickback payments to gangs.
Moreover, the cobalt content in e-car batteries is steadily decreasing so much that, any more, Tesla needs only 2.8%. By 2025, that proportion is set to fall to 0%.
Source: Yova and Source: Teslamag
In other words: Not everything may be perfect right from the start. But, basically, most things are already good and getting better very quickly.
Cobalt is mined in the Congo by child labour under horribly cruel conditions
Bar Stool Drivel No. 7
Now, hold your horses – after all, electric vehicles already accounted for 2.6% of all new cars sold in Europe in 2019. Planners had envisaged only 1.2%.
Toyota was the last major car manufacturer to discontinue its hydrogen project. Diesel- and petrol-fuelled car sales are nosediving dramatically. Germany already has over 80 no-drive zones in urban centres to combat diesel soot and particulate matter from lorry and car emissions.
In addition, Tesla sold more of its Model 3 cars in the United States this year than the entire German mid-size car range combined (and in a number of European countries as well). In the Netherlands, one in every ten cars sold was a Tesla Model 3. In Norway, already over 50% of all cars on the road are electric.
At the 2019 International Motor Show Germany, there were no longer any carmakers who weren’t showing a new e-model. Even the conservative pickup drivers from America’s Heartland are pre-ordering their Tesla Cybertrucks like crazy. Opel is literally swamped with pre-orders for its affordable Corsa-E.
Source: I’m done with naming sources, google it yourself
Statista , Handelszeitung
In other words: No, there are no big changes coming. Sounds almost like on board the Titanic: "No, there’s no iceberg ahead."
Still, e-mobility is never really going to take off, anyway.
Bar Stool Baloney No. 9
"The nice thing about a pub is that everyone can have their say.
Including those who are clueless."
Still, it helps to know the facts, so you don’t make a fool of yourself.