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[image] People would probably hate cars a lot less if they were limited in size and speed to a golf cart
(lemmy.world)
Pros of golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) replacing all private cars within a city:
- Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn't a viable suburban commuter vehicle, meaning you'll probably only take it to the nearest transit station
- Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn't likely to kill people
- Excellent visibility, so less likely to run over children
- Much smaller and lighter, so building parking garages for park-and-rides would be a lot cheaper and less objectionable than with our current style of cars
- Electric
- Smaller batteries than jumbo EVs
- Compatible with dense, transit-oriented city development
- Could be installed with mandatory speed limiters
Cons:
- Less profit for GM and ExxonMobil
It is when the vehicle is small & light like this.
Heat engines get more efficient with increasing size. Piston count can be increased (improving balance), or piston displacement can be increased (reducing friction, heat loss & gas leakage per unit volume)
Batteries on the other hand get better with decreasing scale, the net distance from source to sink is decreased so it needs less wire. The total number of elements is reduced so risk of fire is as well. The battery is more replaceable, so aging is less of a concern.
Range compounds the effect. Typically smaller vehicles have smaller ranges, and that's good for electric where the engine is much lighter than the fuel, but bad for ICE, where the engine is a massive brick of iron and the fuel can just be a couple jerry cans slung on the back
In cars, the trade-off is a hotly contested race, but you don't see many diesel skateboards or battery-powered containerships.