From The Mobilist Inbox This Week
Not so fast for EVs, LFP’s comeback, tinkering with lithium sulfur
Each Wednesday, The Mobilist highlights reader articles on Medium, comments, and updates.
About that fait accompli: Across the world of electric vehicles and batteries, the accepted wisdom is that Americans — and motorists everywhere — are on the cusp of a big switch. En mass, they are about to discard their long-cherished combustion vehicles and adopt EVs. Last week, though, I profiled Toyota chief scientist Gill Pratt, who said, Not So Fast. Pratt said the Japanese carmaker expects motorists to continue to demand all sorts of vehicles, and that Toyota’s plans are to serve these many markets. Some Mobilist letter-writers agreed with him, but most did not.
On the former side, here is Nadav Gur:
“The story is one of practicality. My plug-in hybrid gets me 700 miles per tank AND can take me from California to Utah or Mexico without necessitating long stops for charging. As long as I stay in town I can literally kiss gas goodbye. But if I want to go into Death Valley, I can still go there. As long as charging is slow and sparse, a plug-in hybrid is more useful for many.”
And this opposing view from Jonathan H:
