1) Guilty as charged. It's far from an apples to apples comparison, but if you compare like-to-like models of EVs and similar ICE vehicles you get the same story everywhere. Around 1/2 to 1/3 the range of the ICE vehicle, and 20-25% heavier.
E.g. the Chevy Sonic[1] & Bolt[2] are equivalent EV/ICE vehicles. They weigh 1300 & 1600 kg respectively, have the same cargo volume, but ranges of ~750 km (most pessimistic) & ~380 km (most optimistic).
So that's the like-to-like comparison. We can see that all things added up these vehicles are heavier and have much less range.
2) These volume savings are overstated and if anything work in the favor of ICEs, not EVs.
Look at a cutaway of the Chevy Bolt[3] or other reasonably priced EV like the Hyundai Ioniq or BMW i3[4]. Yes you get relatively more cargo volume in a Tesla Model S compared to other Sedans, but at that point you're paying tens of thousands for a luxury vehicle whose gimmick is things like the frunk. If you drop the same money on an ICE that optimizes for cargo space you'll come out way ahead.
3) A Tesla Model S's 85 kWh battery pack is 540 kg. If that's 3-4 adult Americans they've gotten a bit fatter on average since I last checked :)
In any case, that gets you a 420 km range, which tells you something about how heavy the car would be and how little space would be left for anything else if they were aiming for ICE-like range.
4) "Gas cars do not get significantly better fuel economy with empty fuel tanks": Yeah exactly. The point is that EVs inherently do not share this benefit.
5) Yeah we're talking about cars, but the point of bringing electric airplanes into it is to show how electric vehicles are weight and volume limited in an area where everything is done to bright the weight down, whereas someone might (wrongly) argue that for cars the weight doesn't matter that much.
And then there's the cost of the fuel. Electric car fuel is currently about 1/5 of the cost of gasoline and dropping. In addition, the cost of maintaining and electric is also much less than an ICE car so in terms of dollars per mile driven electrics are way cheaper. And that's where ICE really takes the head shot.
E.g. the Chevy Sonic[1] & Bolt[2] are equivalent EV/ICE vehicles. They weigh 1300 & 1600 kg respectively, have the same cargo volume, but ranges of ~750 km (most pessimistic) & ~380 km (most optimistic).
So that's the like-to-like comparison. We can see that all things added up these vehicles are heavier and have much less range.
2) These volume savings are overstated and if anything work in the favor of ICEs, not EVs.
Look at a cutaway of the Chevy Bolt[3] or other reasonably priced EV like the Hyundai Ioniq or BMW i3[4]. Yes you get relatively more cargo volume in a Tesla Model S compared to other Sedans, but at that point you're paying tens of thousands for a luxury vehicle whose gimmick is things like the frunk. If you drop the same money on an ICE that optimizes for cargo space you'll come out way ahead.
3) A Tesla Model S's 85 kWh battery pack is 540 kg. If that's 3-4 adult Americans they've gotten a bit fatter on average since I last checked :)
In any case, that gets you a 420 km range, which tells you something about how heavy the car would be and how little space would be left for anything else if they were aiming for ICE-like range.
4) "Gas cars do not get significantly better fuel economy with empty fuel tanks": Yeah exactly. The point is that EVs inherently do not share this benefit.
5) Yeah we're talking about cars, but the point of bringing electric airplanes into it is to show how electric vehicles are weight and volume limited in an area where everything is done to bright the weight down, whereas someone might (wrongly) argue that for cars the weight doesn't matter that much.
1. https://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/vehicles/s...
2. https://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/vehicles/b...
3. http://www.boronextrication.com/2016/04/03/2017-chevrolet-bo...
4. https://www.autoblog.com/photos/bmw-i3-ev-cutaway/