It would be more realistic if coal abundant areas used EVs. Its more effective to use coal to produce electricity and power prewar EVs, rather than invent a brand new type of car that wouldn’t be fast or effective.
The main problem with this is sourcing the lithium. Most of the world’s lithium just comes from a few mines overseas. The main mines are nuked, and even with international trade starting up again, there remains difficulty in shipping goods overseas. This is also the issue that plagues the electronics industry as a whole, just swap lithium in Bolivia for rare earths in Inner Mongolia. There are few preexisting electric cars to go around (most are in big cities that got nuked, plus the problem of EMPs) and there are even fewer electric charging stations. Factions that possess the ability to make or import EVs are probably just going to opt for combustion vehicles instead. Not saying that there are zero EVs, but they’re probably smaller, lighter vehicles and are either tiny, scrappy little things or imports that can only be found in developed coastal factions.
The postwar wasteland cars are of a crude make. These are not like prewar cars. They’re mechanically simple and involve minimal electrical components. They’re more like Mad Max buggy vehicles or, at best, cars from the earlier half of the 20th century. Most people can’t even do that much, and are still stuck with horse and wagon. There will be an article on transportation later on that goes more into this.
Steam cars are definitely inefficient—there’d be more of them around if they were—but you’d be surprised at what 1930s-level steam technology was capable of. Some of those later-model steam cars perform surprisingly well and can go reasonably fast. Granted, most postwar steam cars (what few exist) are not at that technological level either, and are pretty clunky things rigged up by redneck engineers. Natural gas cars have a bit more precedent, as there are still companies that make them, but I think they’re mostly in Eastern Europe. There’s definitely a safety hazard posed by natural gas as your fuel source.
Thank you very much, I'm incredibly flattered that there are people who find this series interesting. I also greatly appreciate when readers ask thoughtful questions about the lore. It's fun to see readers get engaged, and it's fun to get to elaborate on side notes like this that aren't clearly evident from the main articles. Glad you're enjoying the read!
It’s funny how that turned out, but the cats as food thing was a part of Fallen Continent long before this Springfield thing blew up in the media. I was more getting at those Southeast Asians that live in Central California than the Haitians. The main Haitian influence on Fallen Continent is their practice of eating dirt cookies (as seen in the famine foods article) and, as we’ll get to in the very distant Florida article, they’re a major contributor to Caribbean/Gulf Coast piracy.
Indiana is a small state that has some cool and unique stuff going on. SPRA is one of the more distinct socialist factions in the country, since they’re not just student revolt libtards and are more like weird rationalist types who want an equal, rationally-ordered society. The Lincolnites in Illinois are your textbook-example woke college kids, by contrast. The ASFR is more like a red army state, and the Cajuns are somewhere between the Khmer Rouge and the French Revolution. I’m by no means a leftist, but I want to portray a wider range of leftist movements and ideologies and give them the benefit of the doubt for the sake of telling an interesting story.
Indians also has some cool minor warlords, and the New American Alliance is neat because it’s a really unorthodox kind of faction that defies the typical “trying to rebuild the USA exactly like it was before” mentality of most other USA claimants.
It would be more realistic if coal abundant areas used EVs. Its more effective to use coal to produce electricity and power prewar EVs, rather than invent a brand new type of car that wouldn’t be fast or effective.
The main problem with this is sourcing the lithium. Most of the world’s lithium just comes from a few mines overseas. The main mines are nuked, and even with international trade starting up again, there remains difficulty in shipping goods overseas. This is also the issue that plagues the electronics industry as a whole, just swap lithium in Bolivia for rare earths in Inner Mongolia. There are few preexisting electric cars to go around (most are in big cities that got nuked, plus the problem of EMPs) and there are even fewer electric charging stations. Factions that possess the ability to make or import EVs are probably just going to opt for combustion vehicles instead. Not saying that there are zero EVs, but they’re probably smaller, lighter vehicles and are either tiny, scrappy little things or imports that can only be found in developed coastal factions.
The postwar wasteland cars are of a crude make. These are not like prewar cars. They’re mechanically simple and involve minimal electrical components. They’re more like Mad Max buggy vehicles or, at best, cars from the earlier half of the 20th century. Most people can’t even do that much, and are still stuck with horse and wagon. There will be an article on transportation later on that goes more into this.
Steam cars are definitely inefficient—there’d be more of them around if they were—but you’d be surprised at what 1930s-level steam technology was capable of. Some of those later-model steam cars perform surprisingly well and can go reasonably fast. Granted, most postwar steam cars (what few exist) are not at that technological level either, and are pretty clunky things rigged up by redneck engineers. Natural gas cars have a bit more precedent, as there are still companies that make them, but I think they’re mostly in Eastern Europe. There’s definitely a safety hazard posed by natural gas as your fuel source.
You’re right, I forgot about the EMP. Also your series is the best thing I’ve read in a long time
Thank you very much, I'm incredibly flattered that there are people who find this series interesting. I also greatly appreciate when readers ask thoughtful questions about the lore. It's fun to see readers get engaged, and it's fun to get to elaborate on side notes like this that aren't clearly evident from the main articles. Glad you're enjoying the read!
"even domestic cats" must be Haitians
It’s funny how that turned out, but the cats as food thing was a part of Fallen Continent long before this Springfield thing blew up in the media. I was more getting at those Southeast Asians that live in Central California than the Haitians. The main Haitian influence on Fallen Continent is their practice of eating dirt cookies (as seen in the famine foods article) and, as we’ll get to in the very distant Florida article, they’re a major contributor to Caribbean/Gulf Coast piracy.
I'm really excited for Indiana. The socialist freigeld is interesting
Indiana is a small state that has some cool and unique stuff going on. SPRA is one of the more distinct socialist factions in the country, since they’re not just student revolt libtards and are more like weird rationalist types who want an equal, rationally-ordered society. The Lincolnites in Illinois are your textbook-example woke college kids, by contrast. The ASFR is more like a red army state, and the Cajuns are somewhere between the Khmer Rouge and the French Revolution. I’m by no means a leftist, but I want to portray a wider range of leftist movements and ideologies and give them the benefit of the doubt for the sake of telling an interesting story.
Indians also has some cool minor warlords, and the New American Alliance is neat because it’s a really unorthodox kind of faction that defies the typical “trying to rebuild the USA exactly like it was before” mentality of most other USA claimants.
Really creative article. Great work!