<story><title>Worked for 52 Years, Still Running: 1912 C-T 4WD Electric Truck</title><url>https://bringatrailer.com/2018/01/20/worked-for-52-years-still-running-1912-c-t-4wd-electric-truck/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_red</author><text>My good friend is a material scientist for Exxon. He is employed to find &amp;quot;the next oil&amp;quot;. As he says, its all about &amp;quot;joules of energy per $1 landed cost&amp;quot; everything else is just noise.&lt;p&gt;Currently, $1 (retail price) of gasoline delivers more joules of energy than any of the competition. The rise of fracking has made nat gas a contender, but gasoline is still dominates.&lt;p&gt;Most comparisons to electric vehicles are actually a comparison of a car that runs on gas vs a car that runs on coal, guess which one wins?</text></item><item><author>cornholio</author><text>So much for the &amp;quot;big oil killed the electric car&amp;quot; conspiracies. The electric cars were always a contender, and the companies producing them would have loved to kill petrol cars. They were simply unable to compete with the high energy density of dead dinosaurs gushing out of the ground to be burned carefreely.</text></item><item><author>r41nbowdash</author><text>At the beginning of the 20th century something around 40% American cars was electric, same with 20% of the Berlin taxis.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a wonderful book &amp;quot;The Shock of the Old&amp;quot; about the meandering ways innovation takes.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Shock_of_the_Old&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Shock_of_the_Old&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>perl4ever</author><text>The vast majority (70%) of electricity in the US does not come from coal, and coal is even less used in states where electric cars are popular&amp;#x2F;encouraged. Over 99% of electricity generated in my state (NY) does not come from coal.&lt;p&gt;Sources:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;energyexplained&amp;#x2F;index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;energyexplained&amp;#x2F;index.cfm?page=electrici...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;state&amp;#x2F;?sid=NY#tabs-4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;state&amp;#x2F;?sid=NY#tabs-4&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Worked for 52 Years, Still Running: 1912 C-T 4WD Electric Truck</title><url>https://bringatrailer.com/2018/01/20/worked-for-52-years-still-running-1912-c-t-4wd-electric-truck/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_red</author><text>My good friend is a material scientist for Exxon. He is employed to find &amp;quot;the next oil&amp;quot;. As he says, its all about &amp;quot;joules of energy per $1 landed cost&amp;quot; everything else is just noise.&lt;p&gt;Currently, $1 (retail price) of gasoline delivers more joules of energy than any of the competition. The rise of fracking has made nat gas a contender, but gasoline is still dominates.&lt;p&gt;Most comparisons to electric vehicles are actually a comparison of a car that runs on gas vs a car that runs on coal, guess which one wins?</text></item><item><author>cornholio</author><text>So much for the &amp;quot;big oil killed the electric car&amp;quot; conspiracies. The electric cars were always a contender, and the companies producing them would have loved to kill petrol cars. They were simply unable to compete with the high energy density of dead dinosaurs gushing out of the ground to be burned carefreely.</text></item><item><author>r41nbowdash</author><text>At the beginning of the 20th century something around 40% American cars was electric, same with 20% of the Berlin taxis.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a wonderful book &amp;quot;The Shock of the Old&amp;quot; about the meandering ways innovation takes.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Shock_of_the_Old&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Shock_of_the_Old&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sergiosgc</author><text>&amp;gt; Most comparisons to electric vehicles are actually a comparison of a car that runs on gas vs a car that runs on coal, guess which one wins?&lt;p&gt;At least for Europe, this is not true. Electricity source varies by country, but it&amp;#x27;s in general a mix of 30%-50% nuclear, the rest is thermal or renewable. For thermal power-plants, the large majority are natural gas. Renewable percentage varies wildly between countries, but breaching the 50% barrier on a given year is no longer newsworthy.</text></comment>