It is cheaper to generate electricity with renewables than to build coal fired power stations. Therefore developing countries will simply choose the cheapest option, renewables.
That is true, but it has only just become the case, and China has only just stopped building coal fired power stations. And they are not going to close them all overnight... Pollution and global warming is, by definition, global... so the cheap batteries we buy from the far East are made in inefficient processes powered by coal fired power stations...
Not true. Once full self driving is realised, and it will be, it's just a matter of data. Then transport as a service will take many cars off of the road. Once you can get a robo taxi for 20p per mile, why would you bother owning an expensive car. It just makes owning a car pointless. At that point, it will be cheaper than getting the bus.
Unfortunately, congestion is not a case of car ownership. It's when too many cars want to use the same pieces of road. Data tells us that most people work weekdays. Data tells us there is a rush hour. Congestion is solved by working from home, cycling or using public transport. I work in London a lot of the time, and can't work from home. The congestion in Inner London, where I'd get charged with £24/day to access by car (£12.50 ULEZ, £11.50 congestion) is caused mostly by the ubiquitous Prius, as it does not pay either of these charges. The users of these cars are not the owners, they are all taxis, operating with with manual or AI driven apps. There's no ownership there, but still congestion...
At the point where a hired (self driving) taxi is cheaper than public transport, we grind to a halt, unless we use the Underground.
The congestion charge and the large number of electric vehicles to avoid the charges in London haven't improved congestion, it's worse at times as people avoid public transport in the current pandemic.
I don't agree, most people will charge at home. They will leave for work every morning with a full battery, charging again at night. Only when you go on a long journey would you need to visit a rapid charger. My wife has a nissan leaf, and has had it for over a year. She has never visited a "rapid charger".
She's fortunate that she doesn't have to make long journeys.
I'm freelance, and there is only one car journey to work and back where I'd get away without a charge. I have three early adopter friends, one binned his Leaf two years ago, and went to a hybrid, another has just sold his Leaf and gone to a cheap Euro 4 old petrol (such is avoiding ULEZ), both quit for range reasons, which gets worse as they age. The third has the latest and greatest, and is an excellent planner, and has done Canterbury to Newcastle without any hassle. Looked at the footy grounds where I work, not much charging. I would be mad not to wait for the charging to be in place.
If you listen to Elon on Hydrogen, he says the following, (and he is one of the smartest blokes on the planet IMHO) Hydrogen as a fuel source is DUMB. To get it from water is about 50% efficient, trying to "hold it" is incredibly difficult because it is so small, it leeches out of anything that you try to hold it in. If there is a leak, and it burns, it does so with an invisible flame. All in all, hydrogen is about as good as fossil fuels when you have factored everything in.
Elon is a smart guy, but he doesn't need to be smart to know to rubbish his competition. He has no incentive for hydrogen to work... on the contrary... Not sure how smart it it is to trash Tesla share prices by publicly having a toke or two, but we all make mistakes.
Hydrogen is incredibly light, very common, and burns to create water. When we burn petrol to generate electricity in a hybrid, we're dirty. Petrol is about 35% to 40% efficient...
For sure the problems will be solved, but maybe not how we think, in the meantime I salute the early adopters, but for the rest of us the big issue with any new car is outlay, so like the masses I'll be hanging onto what I've got until it croaks. 16 years on the current XJ900, and 21 years on the same model. Not sure how good an electric car will be secondhand, but if battery life problems are sorted, then it could work very well. I'm trying to work out how I'd rig a charger round here.