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Know your History

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Wish I had written this piece.

Lifted from Charging points still sticking point for electric vehicle drivers | ZDNet

It was 1909 and you did something that resulted in you being derided by your friends, picked on by the luddites and simply ridiculed by most of those you encountered: you bought a car. The press was full of letters to the editor about the noise and the stink that these things brought with them. On more than one occasion cars were destroyed by organized public groups protesting them in their community.

If you owned a car you had a huge problem; how were you going to refuel the thing? There were no car dealers at the time - your car was shipped to you. In most communities the General store had to be convinced to carry gasoline which these new engines ran on. That was ridiculous too as everyone knew that gasoline was a waste product from the refinement of kerosene which everyone needed. Gasoline was essentially free since most of it was dumped into our waterways by the refineries.

If you were lucky you lived in a town with two or three other "Horseless Carriage" owners and you could get some buying power... and perhaps the kerosene dealer would come by your house with a hand or horse drawn cart filled with gasoline for you auto.

It took 20 years before "service stations" became the preferred method of fuel delivery on a national basis. I don't think we should expect anything different when it comes to this new technology...
 
There was a "fuel standard battle" with the first ICE cars as well.
Early cars ran on alcohol ( ethanol ), I think most could run on either. The Model T could run on alcohol, gasoline or a combination of both.
If you were out in the country, you used alcohol because it was what was available, if you were near a supply of gasoline you used that instead.

My favorite conspiracy theory is that Rockefeller incited prohibition with donations to the anti-drinking movement to stomp out production of cheap alcohol.
 
Reminds my of all those foolish souls who bought a portable cellular phone when it only would last an hour on a battery, there was very few cellular towers to give proper coverage and they needed to be stored in a briefcase or bolted to the floor of a Mercedes or Cadillac.
 
Reminds my of all those foolish souls who bought a portable cellular phone when it only would last an hour on a battery, there was very few cellular towers to give proper coverage and they needed to be stored in a briefcase or bolted to the floor of a Mercedes or Cadillac.

Hey my parents VELCROed ours to the floor of their Bronco. I remember when they had a friend that got a cell phone and they made a mobile to mobile call. Back then it cost almost 1$ a minute.
 
Don't forget the steam cars. I remember reading discussions in old World Almanacs -- they were sure that horses-and-buggies were on their way out, but were unsure what would replace them. The consensus for almost a decade was that electric cars would be used for in-city driving and steam cars (which could burn coal or wood, both easy to get) for long trips across the countryside. Internal Combustion Engines were finicky, unreliable, expensive, used obscure fuels, were dirtier than electric cars, and had less range than steam cars.
 
Don't forget the steam cars. I remember reading discussions in old World Almanacs -- they were sure that horses-and-buggies were on their way out, but were unsure what would replace them. The consensus for almost a decade was that electric cars would be used for in-city driving and steam cars (which could burn coal or wood, both easy to get) for long trips across the countryside. Internal Combustion Engines were finicky, unreliable, expensive, used obscure fuels, were dirtier than electric cars, and had less range than steam cars.

The big problem with steam power is that it must be maintained right on schedule or you have an explosion. That's why it really only worked well for railroads, mines, and farm equipment.