General Motors Plans 20 All-Electric Cars By 2023 (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: General Motors joined a growing group of automakers promising an emissions-free future for cars by pledging to sell 20 all-electric vehicles by 2023. The largest U.S. automaker, which generates most of its profit with large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, plans to have a lineup of both battery-powered cars and hydrogen fuel-cell autos, which also run on electricity. Two new EVs will debut in the next 18 months to follow the Chevrolet Bolt that's been on sale for less than a year. The planned lineup demonstrates GM is doubling down on electrification despite the Bolt's slow start in U.S. showrooms and companies' inability thus far to profitably sell EVs. The automaker has delivered fewer than 12,000 units of the battery-powered Bolt, which goes about 238 miles between charges. Deliveries have primarily been concentrated thus far in California, which mandates sales of emissions-less vehicles.

Comments

Re:The reality distortion is strong with this one

[MightyMartian]

Electric cars don't work when the power goes out, ICE powered cars do.

That is until you go to gas up, and there's no power to the pumps.

Re:The reality distortion is strong with this one

[quantaman]

Electric cars don't work when the power goes out, ICE powered cars do.

Gas pumps need electricity to pump the gas. If your gas station is out of power then you're not getting any gas.

On the other hand, during an emergency if your charging station does have power then you can charge your car, even if the fuel trucks can't get through.

And you also have the option of charging your car at your house with a generator or solar panels (though that would be pretty inefficient).

Re:The reality distortion is strong with this one

[Rei]

In Florida with Irma, 2/3rds of the entire state's power went out. Let alone in the worst hit areas.

And EVs continued working like a dream there, for the reasons mentioned in the article.

Hike into town, find a working gas station with a generator for the pumps

Yeah, good luck with that when you join us in the real world.

Meanwhile, find any home or business with power from any source - somewhere that maintained their grid connection, somewhere with a natural gas generator, somewhere with solar, whatever - and you can charge. Not like you generally need to. Unlike gas, which has terrible efficiency when driving in the sort of low speed / stop-start conditions of disaster aftermath, EV ranges become much longer at low speeds, surpassing gasoline. And can "idle" with the AC on for 1/2 to 1 order of magnitude longer.

The article presents peoples' real-world experience with EVs in real-world disasters. Including one that was the greatest electrical system disaster in US history. You're free to disbelieve it if you want.