I haven't done enough homework on some of the fringe uses, nor enough number checking on the 'decentralization' of power sources consequences. But for that miniscule bunch who wish to be somewhat removed from shopping malls and convoys of single-driver cars and concomitant noise - clearly there's been progress and refinement in such things as inverters (or DC powered tools / gadgets) and all the rest in the chain.

You may not match the artificial daily rate charged by a local centralised utility, but by not wasting the power you do use, your bill for amortization may be close enough for govt. work. And you can then live with reasonable comfort - off the grid. You have to know stuff though.

When I attended a few meetings of a local electric vehicle group, a few years ago - found the usual suspects. Folks who like to know how most things work, and usually do know. Surprisingly I found that among the ones I spoke with, there was no Pollyanna overlooking of entropy and the 'subsidy' of reusing artificially cheap materials for which the energy overhead had already been paid. I think they just settled for, 'OK it's good enough to be worth the effort and to gain experience of the trade-offs'.

Though I decided not to play (got enough projects for time sumps) I deem such work and workmanship - one means by which we keep alive the lore of self-sufficiency ergo: it's 'Good'. Recall the chestnut that, at turn of last century the 'avge. man on the street' [we didn't let women even vote then, let alone wind motors] -- had at least a useful metaphor for how most machines in his life worked. (Even to the Carnot cycle!)

Today we have creeping dumbth. Few know how even a tiny fraction of the stuff works, and don't want to find out. As subtlety and complexity of the machines grow -- lore dies, especially in the dreary mindset which office work ever promotes: Brain the size of a planet and they have me opening doors yada. So most brains are numbed for the duration in any basic mercantile environment.

If building e- cars does no more than keep a few minds occasionally flushed-out from programming the daily marketing lie: can they be all bad?


Ashton
Yeah.. anti-bizness per se. All it ever teaches at root, is how to become comfortable with small lies, then progressively larger ones. Wiring a contactor gets you melted stuff if the diagram was a lie. (Would that the cumulative consequences of an actual lying society (?) were manifested as starkly!)