| The concerns I've got over EVs: 1. They're fundamentally a materials properties based technology. That is, you're dependent on storage substrates (especially lithium), conductors (especially copper), lightweight body materials (especially aluminium), and various specialty components within parts for the specific set of features of an EV. It turns out that lithium, copper, and aluminium are all at least somewhat constrained in overall availablity, some highly. A conventional oil-fueled car works pretty well with iron (exceptionally abundant), with carbon added for steel (actually something of a concern: 15% of global coal consumption is for coking fuel), and a few stray odd bits. Overall, an oil-fired ICE auto is far less dependent on specific material properties of scarce material resources than an EV. 2. Batteries simply don't have the energy densities of liquid fuels. Tesla's success has, frankly, stunned and amazed me, though much of it seems to come from exceptionally good energy management. There are uses to which that's all but certainly not sufficient. Heavy overland freight trucking, marine transport, and air travel -- a future with these in abundance will not run on batteries. There are some other options. Trucking using catenary cables or (literally) road trains, with battery capacity for a few kilometers of off-grid distribution, could work. Trains can be electrified, though doing so for the US rail network poses high challenges. Ships were once powered by the wind, and may well be in future. High-capacity, high-speed air travel is pretty much impossible without liquid fuels though. The alternatives are either a) hugely expensive or b) much smaller and/or slower. One option for air might be higher-speed zeppelins, possibly utilising solar power. The 1930s German zeppelins had peak speeds of about 80 mph, cruising of around 70 mph. That made for about a 30 hour Atlantic ocean crossing. Designs in the works suggest about a 140 mph top speed might be possible. An ultra-light, high-efficiency solar cell over the upper fabric of such an airship might supply much the needed motive power, and lift would be obviated through a lighter-than-air gas (probably helium). Airships have other problems -- they're fragile, have a limited service ceiling (the Graf Zeppelin cleared a mountain range in the USSR by only 150 feet, close to its 6,000 foot ceiling), and would be dangerous near storms or other disturbances. Landing in high winds is difficult. But they're at least an option. |
The distance between NY and London is ~3500 miles, which would make that trip 50 hours at the very minimum, not 30 hours like you suggested.
Travel to other countries would take even longer, unless your plan is to just ferry people over the Atlantic and distribute them via train after.