this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Futurology
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There are vast vested interests in keeping the fossil fuel industry afloat. It supports entire countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia. Not to mention the stock portfolios and wealth it gives to many among the richest and most powerful elsewhere.
I expect anti-battery disinformation will increase as panic sets in from those with a lot to lose.
It's in full swing. COP23 was about how oil can fuel the energy transition for example. Oil and gas companies are putting a ton of money into "it's not that bad" research, discrediting the reliability of renewables like "sun doesn't shine at night" and so on. TikTok even had a gas cooking trend because they can't compete with induction.
Not to mention that lobbying is still going hard for subsidies just to stay competitive. Media is screaming every time there's a battery fire but when someone a company is scaling up a redux-flow battery it's not newsworthy.
However, batteries + solar is getting waaay cheaper and you can't compete with cheaper.
It already has.
Every rich asshole out there with a sportscar out there or large truck is already spreading misinformation, because they know some people measure their masculinity by engine noise. And they know the value of their cars will plummet, so they're getting defensive and protecting their investment already.
Without being able to rev their engines to impress women, they also have to grow a personality. A large percentage of that community are basically sheep too honestly
They are still a minority, most of us just wants silent clean car that's cheap and safe to drive.
We also want batteries in our homes, we will buy as much batteries as they make, demand was never the issue. But supply is limited and that's the only reason we don't drive electric cars. Batteries and changing stations, people living in apartments have big disadvantage.
I agree.
That being said though, as battery range increases, the need for home chargers becomes less relevant too. Cars with 1000km range for instance, for most people would only need to find a charger once every 2 weeks or so. And we'll likely see charges in apartment carparks more regularly anyway
We'll likely also eventually see hot swappable batteries become commonplace too (there are already cars out there that do it).
That being said, hopefully the new sodium ion batteries will bring down the costs at least
It won't make a difference.
Battery deployments have already turned a profit on their original cost for stationary storage. There are enough clever businessmen out there that can now see the proof of this that the stationary storage market will explode. While I can see consumers not buying cars when they should because of disinformation the growth and improvement in batteries will continue without that. At some point they will change when it becomes a lot better than ICE.
But the consumer car market is a fuckup anyway because we should be working on getting cars off the road and funding public transport.
Good. I will gladly have all my oil stocks go to zero if it means we can reduce our dependence on it significantly across the globe.
I think disinformation is unfortunately a grey area these days. There are a lot of downsides to some of the green tech but anyone who brings it up is immediately called out as being somehow bribed by a oil company.
Iirc all these gulf economies which are reliant on oil are already massive investors in renewables too. They are also diversifying into tourism too with Saudi Arabia set to host 2034 WC and qatar hosting the latest one.