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"Ford secures battery supplies for 600,000 EVs a year from 2023"

So you don't count mesquite?
I'm talking about average residential lots in and around the San Antonio - Dallas Central Texas corridor, where suburbia has cut down everything. I only wish I lived in a spot, or had enough land that nuisance trees were a concern. :giggle:

We seem to have mostly texas live oaks and cedars..

Most of our builders seem to clear cut everything, plant some little baby tree, then if you're lucky, in 15 years you have a couple trees on your lot.

Unfortunately, quite a few of my neighbors suffered tree damage/death from the unusual freeze we had here during the power outage debacle. Just within the most immediate 10 houses near my house there are at least 4 dead fully mature trees. :( Now some of those yards have zero trees, nothing but dead grass from the drought we are having. Some of the remaining trees were "injured" from the freeze and seem to have lost half of their branches/leaves compared to before.

It sucks!

On the plus side, my few trees seem to have survived ok.

edit.. the attached are not my trees, just trees I found to show the type of trees I was talking about.
 

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Cycling on footpaths is illegal in much of Australia for anyone over the age of 12, unless you are accompanying someone 12 or under.

Cyclists are required by law to cycle only on dedicated cycle lanes or the roads. Cycling infrastructure in Australia is extremely patchy but where something half decent is provided which actually goes somewhere helpful it gets well used.

But largely cycle and pedestrian infrastructure design here is a very poor afterthought. Always, always the car is given primacy. It's just bass ackwards.

In the 1970s local schools would have entire sections of the yard devoted to bicycle parking. Hundreds of bicycles. If a kid got dropped off to school in a car it was quite unusual, generally because something was wrong - they were injured or something - or needed help transporting some particularly difficult to carry school project.

Nowadays it's a conga line a mile long of SUVs dropping kids off at school. It's so sad.
 
Cycling on footpaths is illegal in much of Australia for anyone over the age of 12, unless you are accompanying someone 12 or under.

Cyclists are required by law to cycle only on dedicated cycle lanes or the roads. Cycling infrastructure in Australia is extremely patchy but where something half decent is provided which actually goes somewhere helpful it gets well used.

But largely cycle and pedestrian infrastructure design here is a very poor afterthought. Always, always the car is given primacy. It's just bass ackwards.

In the 1970s local schools would have entire sections of the yard devoted to bicycle parking. Hundreds of bicycles. If a kid got dropped off to school in a car it was quite unusual, generally because something was wrong - they were injured or something - or needed help transporting some particularly difficult to carry school project.

Nowadays it's a conga line a mile long of SUVs dropping kids off at school. It's so sad.
Sounds like you are talking about the United States.. sorry to say that's our situation over here too. (n)
 
Here in the ozarks several varieties of oak, as well as hickory and black walnut are very common hardwoods and where the ground is too poor for hardwoods the eastern red cedar grows thick. There is also a fair amount of pine. The undergrowth includes red bud and dogwood trees.
All of that is supported with an average of about 45" of rain annually. The drought we've been in for the last month was interrupted this week with 4" of blessed rain.
 
Yes, however, are the supply chains going to keep up with that sort of growth over the next 5 years?
Exponential trends are way easier to maintain in the early stages. It gets significantly more challenging each year. The other charts you show are more like a typical sigmoid function, which looks exponential in the early stages for a while but flatten out. Why they flatten is the issue at hand.

Don't get me wrong, I agree the transition is happening, I just don't think it will be as fast as many think.


Norway is a great example of a government regulatory and taxation regime being used to drive a transition. Will the same be true of the USA?

Norway's tax and incentive structure makes ICE vehicles more expensive than their EV counterpart. So it's little wonder people choose the cheaper EV option.

It's the other way round is the USA (and Australia) where EVs carry a significant price premium over an ICEV alternative.

Norway buys ~ 150,000 cars per year (just 1% of the cars bought each year in the USA). Scale matters.
Norway charges a vehicle tailpipe emissions tax.
Norway does not charge any import tax on EVs, which are applied to ICEVs.
Norway does not charge 25% VAT on EVs, which is applied to ICEV.
Norway does not charge road taxes for EVs, which are applied to ICEV.
Norway does not charge road tolls for EV, which are applied to ICEV.
Norway reduces company car tax by 50% for EVs.
Norway's governments are required to purchase only zero (tailpipe) emissions vehicles.
Norway provides more favourable parking arrangements and lane access arrangements to EVs.
Norway invested heavily in EV charging infrastructure.

Also, 96% of Norway's electricity is generated by hydroelectric power plants. Highly dispatchable, lots of capacity, very low emissions.

How many of the above are going to apply in the USA?
Interview with Ford CEO about the lightning.

Ramping up to 2 million EV units in 4 years.

Sandy says: Americans want the new technology NOW.
Could be 25% next year if supply would be available - 50% in 4 years 80% 2028
 
The story by @Hedges is reason number 35 to own an EV. My EV can be remotely turned off and located via GPS and it saves a video of the person who stole it. It also doesn't use a key. I should clarify the key thing. One uses a Fob and the other uses the Bluetooth on my phone but does have a key card for use in emergencies.
Which also means that government officials can shut it down anytime they like if they don't like you or what you've been doing.
 
In a good designed city you office/work would be 5-10 minutes by foot. Or 2-3 minutes by Bike.
And you would only need to go there 2-3 days a week.
The vast majority of rural residents don't want to live within 10 minutes of their work BY CAR, let alone walking.
 
don't know how Australia's infrastructure for Bikes is.

In many parts of Europe Bike Trails are separate from the road - and I mean there is at least a curb, often a meter+ of grass and a few trees.

While in the US you got a white line painted on the right side of the street. (which isn't save at all, and not even planned out - since those end many times in random objects)
View attachment 105008

Then you got those beautiful ADA compliant sidewalks separate by a curb and 5-6 feet of grass and trees. in many areas in the US, perfect for cycling, but not allowed, and nobody uses them. Because it's too far to walk anywhere. Let's think about that. They already allocated the space for a bike line - so the total easement is wide enough. What about - adding that 4 feet of concrete/asphalt on the road to the sidewalk and paint the white line there.
Unfortunately far to many cyclists in the US then think the appropriate behavior is to then ride in the middle of the vehicle lane blocking traffic.
 
Personal experience. A personal favorite was in Florida recently who couldn't use the 15' wide shoulder but instead had to be in the middle of the traffice lane going over a relatively high bridge at a walking pace.
 
Personal experience. A personal favorite was in Florida recently who couldn't use the 15' wide shoulder but instead had to be in the middle of the traffice lane going over a relatively high bridge at a walking pace.
That suggests to me you likely don't have a lot of personal experience with riding bicycles. Road shoulders are terrible places for cycling, the road debris blown there by vehicles is quite dangerous and often results in punctures.
 
That suggests to me you likely don't have a lot of personal experience with riding bicycles. Road shoulders are terrible places for cycling, the road debris blown there by vehicles is quite dangerous and often results in punctures.
Shoulders are terrible places for cars and people too. For some reason, much of Texas thinks pedestrians either shouldn't exist, or should walk on the shoulder.
 
"It will also start using LiFePO4 cells in the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning."

Ford has positioned itself well to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act that just passed the U.S. Senate today and will be signed into law after a vote in the House. As it stands right now Tesla might only have the base Model3 that could qualify for the $7500 point of sale rebate, while right out of the gate Ford has the MachE and the F150 Lightning. It looks like Gm will have the Bolt, Equinox, Silverado and Blazer going into 2024.
 
The vast majority of rural residents don't want to live within 10 minutes of their work BY CAR, let alone walking.
would like to see the source to this claim. Many rural residents are even closer - a farmer lives where they work. No car required but a truck and tractor to work.

But please re-read the sentence from you quoted - was I was talking about city design - not rural design.
 
That suggests to me you likely don't have a lot of personal experience with riding bicycles. Road shoulders are terrible places for cycling, the road debris blown there by vehicles is quite dangerous and often results in punctures.
second that.

There should be bike TRAILS and not bike Lanes - separated
A personal favorite was in Florida recently who couldn't use the 15' wide shoulder but instead had to be in the middle of the traffice lane going over a relatively high bridge at a walking pace.

You probably have not ever been to a place where the car wasn't the design preference for city drawers. Bikes shouldn't be on the road, they should use a bike trail on the side walk. "Bike lanes" are nothing but a compliance joke and encourage that dangerous behavior you are seeing.
 
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