You might want to consider electric. The fact that you never have to pay for gas again is nice, and there are some pretty economical models out there. Chevy's Bolt model is actually really roomy.
Nowhere to plug it in or charge it, and all our electricity comes from a large diesel generator so it's not much better for the environment either. Which is a shame, because I'm the perfect usage case for an electric car, range isn't really an issue on a tiny island!
I looked at a Chevy Bolt recently, but as Section9 says, snow and dirt must be considered, distance too. Saturday I encountered a fellow at a small rural gas station desperately trying to find a charging station. He had made a wrong turn due to construction on the Interstate, was sixty miles off course and didn't have enough charge to make it to either of the spots Tesla had marked.
Yeah planning becomes a pretty big deal with EVs, I make sure I can always make it to the next supercharger with at least 60 miles to spare, even though I have a theoretical range of 240. It's definitely not a system made for the more country areas, then again, there are models with 400+ miles of range. The snow and dirt aren't an issue for most people as far as I know. There are very few moving parts so there is less likelihood of something getting gummed up. The biggest problem in the north would be losing range due to the cold IMO
This is why I'm annoyed that I have nowhere to charge one, snow is impossible hereabouts and the island is only 75 square miles!
If you consider electric please consider everything. Electric cars arent that clean as you think if consider everything from building to recycling of said electric car. I am working in the german car industry and my company does automatic gears for BMW, Audi, Land Rover even Dodge and some other more expensive cars so i tend to look up whats going on with those electric cars. First the batteries need rare earth like Lithium to be made, so consider the environment destruction from mining tthat stuff. Second is the recycling of said cars. Here in germany arent even any companies that can deconstruct those cars and there are materials used in that cars that can not been recycled today including stuff the batteries. There had been a study that a diesel fuel car is still more environment friendly than a electric car for around 7 years if you consider making of the batteries and reccycling of electric said car. Third there is a security problem with the batteries after an accident. After an accident those cars have to be supervised for a few days cause that cars can start to buurn through to chemical reactions in that batteries even after 3 days. I think someone should consider this, if they want a "clean" car.
About that study... Electric is still the best direction to go in the future despite all the obvious drawbacks and obstacles to be overcome
Your article still doesnt mention the recycling of an electric car it only talks about electricity. Lets talk about the Cobalt you need in the batteries of that electric cars, wich is mostly won in the Democratic Republic of Congo and wich ecological problems come from mining that metal there not to mention ethical and human rights problems. Or talk about the stuff you need to recycle that Lithium Ion Batteries which are used in that cars. A normal car can be dumped nearly completly in a blast furnace to be reused which you cant do with the stuff an electric car is made.
Yet it's still our best bet, a solution doesn't need to be perfect to be better than what we have now, billions of gas guzzlers depending on fossil fuels. There's a ton of problems with electric cars and many we haven't even solved yet, but even then it's still better than the alternative.
I still cannot understand why solar panels don't come as standard in an electric car's ceiling to increase range and avoid getting isolated without being able to move...
Because one tiny solar panel is not enough. A car fully covered in photovoltaic solar panels can output around 2 kilowatts of power in optimal conditions, which really isn't enough to make the car budge. Teslas nowadays have a 100 kWh batteries so it would take 50 hours of direct sunlight to charge it. Tesla power consumption is about 200 Wh per kilometer, so one hour of charge would give you roughly 10km of range. That is assuming the whole car is covered in cells, and the sun is shining directly above. Real life scenario would more likely give you less than 1km range in one hour charge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S
I have seen "charge stations" (private ones, at least) with smaller solar panels than you could fit over the hood and ceiling of a car... And the point is, precisely, that if you run about 2 hours a day (go and back from work) but the vehicle stays 6-9 hours parked under the sun, even a "tiny" solar panel can compensate for the expended charge... (contingent on sun amount availability).
I dont disagree with you. But there are other alternatives than going full electro like hydrogen fuel cells which would work too. My problem is, that people tend to overlook the complete lifecycle of a product to decide if its environment friendly. A complete lifecycle includes the production with the winning of resources and the recycling of said product. We had the same discussion with shopping bags here. Alot of people tell you to use reusable cotton shopping bags. But they are only more environment friendly if you use them at least more then 350 times. As the production of the cotton produces more polution than a simple plastic bag.
I usually use plastic bags several times before discarding them. A cotton bag simply wouldn't last as long if it had to compete with resources/use.
