Greg,
You can see the same dynamic playing out in the car world. I remember that one of the big justifications to accept the reduced range of electric offerings (even 20 years ago) is that 95% of the personal cars in the US travel less than 40 miles a day. But you can see the resistance to cars like the Nissan Leaf that has a range of 70 miles on a charge. People don't think about things like "opportunity charging" (something I do with my dinghy's Torqeedo on weekend Catalina trips, every time I go to the bar or burger stand, I snag a few free watt hours) or the fact that many households have an alternate car for longer trips.
So you can see that it doesn't really matter that the technology is a better solution for 19 out of 20 people, people are afraid to give up any perceived benefit. My brother-in-law once told me that he would no qualms about buying an electric vehicle as long as it outperformed his big SUV in every aspect (power, speed, range, capacity, etc.) and it cost less. Of course, if that vehicle was available, there would be NO reason to buy an ICE version.
It's kind of funny that we accept that every car and boat is a compromise, SUV's get bad gas milage, economy cars can't carry as much, sailboats are slow, power boats are expensive to operate, etc. But throw in the additional compromises of electric drives today, and suddenly the public can't figure out how to make it work in their lives.
But electric will never replace every ICE engine, it's just another option. Electric drive can be an excellent solution for the right problem , and a huge burden when forced into the wrong application. Just like a big SUV is usually not a efficient commuter vehicle for a single driver. Diesels don't typically make good race engines. And sailboats rarely make good ski boats... :)
There is no single best answer, it's all about picking the right tool for the job at hand.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Greg Martin" <ffmagellan@...> wrote:
>
> Eric, good point about the fuel usage. I came to the same conclusion as well, so the "bite out of BP" is mostly symbolic. It's interesting to consider though, what the main selling point is to electric boats. Some people are really motivated by "eco" reasons, however I'm pretty sure the argument that will win the day is if EP is shown (and if the buying public can be convinced) that the technical and practical advantages make the most sense. Are we safely at the point where we can all say, that for certain applications, maybe power boats in sheltered and pristine areas and for auxiliary power on day and coastal cruising sailboats- that EP is hands down, the best choice, technically and practically? If so, then it looks like a marketing and PR challenge to increase sales for these systems and change the boating world.
>
> -Greg
>
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