kgwilson

Xaiomi is now the 2nd largest phone manufacturer in the world after Samsung. They produce all sorts of electronics, appliances etc and their new EV is one of the best available. So good that the President of Ford in the US drives one. I chose an Xaiomi phone to replace my old 2017 LG G6 flagship model over everything else. iPhones have become boring and look the same from the iPhone 11 up to the iPhone 16. The Xaiomi has features never seen on any iPhone with better cameras etc at 1/3 the cost (purchased direct)

Also it is a finite resource and can only be used once creating toxic by products like carbon monoxide and greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide among the many pollutants from the exhaust.

Australia is always slow to get on board with new technologies but finally we get to a point of critical mass & things take off. No-one is going to set up an EV battery recycling plant until there is enough stock to make it viable. Virtually all old EV batteries and those from car write offs after a crash are repurposed for use in houses and businesses. A typical house battery is 10-15 kWh whereas old EV batteries can be 30 to 80 kWh and cost less. They have many years left in them even when they have degraded to 80% or less of their original capacity. Already in the EU, US & China & probably many more countries lithium batteries are being recycled in recycling plants shown in the video posted by Octave. Black Mass, the name for the ground up components recycles 95% of all the lithium, cobalt, Nickel and other rare earths. So as the world electrifies much of the minerals needed to manufacture new batteries will come from recycled old ones.

My MG4 EV has a battery pack that can easily be removed for repair or replacement. MG (SAIC) introduced what it called its MG MSP (modular scalable platform) in 2022 when the MG4 was first introduced. The battery pack is just 110mm thick and sits under the cabin flat floor of the car behind the front and in front of the rear running gear. It can easily be disconnected and dropped out for repair or replacement. The batteries are both LFP & NMC lithium ranging from 50 to 80 kWh. There is little point in having a fast swap process in my opinion as like at least 85% of EV owners we charge at home via an AC slow charger and only at fast DC chargers when on a long trip. As I have said before I need a break after 400 km so am happy to have the car charge for 20-30 minutes while we have lunch or whatever. If I stop at a 350 kW supercharger the charge time is half that and it is very poor etiquette to let your car sit at a charger after the battery is full. Also most of us fully understand that the last 20% of charging takes nearly as long as the first 60% or 70%. All modern EVs have GPS & internet connectivity so you get alarms to say when the battery has reached certain charge levels. I have done 27,000km now and recently borrowed an OBD2 scanner & plugged it in to the car. It shows heaps of data but the battery health was the most interesting to me. It was still showing 100%. 95% of my charging has been done at home with my 32 Amp wall mounted EVSE & has cost virtually nothing as I get 2 hours of free power a day plus I have 8kW of solar panels on the roof.

This is just one of the many reports along with detailed studies providing evidence of how good modern EV batteries are. This is largely due to the quality of the manufacture and the BMS (battery management system). The BMS takes care of the battery as a large number of people don't have any idea how to look after them, and for those who do, saves them a job. The BMS continually monitors and adjusts battery voltage and charge rate etc far better than could be done manually. Every time I charge my battery to 60% and up to 100% the BMS runs its diagnostics and equalises the voltage of all the cells at the end of the charging session. Of course it doesn't do this when charging at a fast DC charger as there is no time available for it to occur. It performs other roles too like monitoring temperature and organising cooling or heating as required. From information gleaned from EV forums there are some owners who are obsessed with battery management but equally there are many who don't give a rats. It doesn't really matter which side of the spectrum you are on as the batteries in most cases will outlast the car they are in no matter what you do.

To be clear an inverter is used only to convert AC to DC current so is only used when charging from a granny charger (max 10amps) or an EVSE A/C power supply. Single phase is a maximum of 32 Amps (7.4kW) & 3 phase 11 kW up to a maximum of 22 kW. Fast & super chargers can deliver up to 350kW but this is DC current so is delivered direct to the battery. No inverter involved at all. The latest technology in China has chargers of more than 1 megawatt & can charge the latest batteries in under 5 minutes.

The inverter in my EV doesn't get hot & doesn't have any cooling system. It is only used when A/C charging at 32 amps. DC charging is up to 140kW. The delivery cables are liquid cooled. The battery has coolant as does the transmission. My EV is almost 2 years old & is not due for its first service till September. There is not much to do. The service schedule is mainly just checks. The most time consuming part of the service is the software updates. An EV is pretty much the same as any other car except it does not have an engine, gearbox or conventional differential. With regenerative braking I hardly ever use the brakes so they will last a long time. What has been found to be true is that the batteries are lasting a lot longer than anticipated partly due to habits of owners. 2000 charge cycles is from zero to 100%. Most owners plug in when the battery gets down to 20% or more often after a few days when they get home. Also unless going on a long trip most owners only charge to 80% as the last 20% takes the longest time. Charging to 80% is called "Health mode". That said even with NMC batteries charging to 100% has no detrimental effect unless the battery is left fully charged for several weeks or months without use. Plenty of EVs have enormous mileages on them. There is a Tesla High Mileage group on Facebook where owners with more that 500,000 miles (800,000 km) post information. Most are still on the original battery. Some have more than a million km on the clock.

There are plenty of Shopping centres that provide a few EV chargers free for customers. As time goes by I am sure that there will be a lot more of these and more chargers as the EV numbers increase. They only need to be slow A/C chargers so they are cheap to install. In reality A/C chargers are not chargers at all. They are EVSE's (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment). All they do is supply A/C power as the Inverter/Charger is in the EV itself. They do not even have to provide the cable. EV owners just keep a type 2 cable in the boot and plug it in when they get there. This is happening at Hotels & Motels (called Destination Chargers) and at some shopping centres already. In inner city high density housing areas some Councils are putting in A/C charge points on lamp posts for use by apartment dwellers who do not have off road parking. By the end of the decade these will be everywhere.

At the moment most EV charging points do not have energy storage & rely on a large cable from the grid. If a petrol station did not have large tanks of petrol stored underground and relied on petrol & diesel being supplied via a pipeline, it would have to be a very big pipe when multiple vehicles were refuelling at the same time. The first very large EV charging station is near Shenzhen Airport opened in 2023 with 258 chargers and charges 3,300 EVs every day. It is jointly operated by BYD & Shell. The site is also covered in solar panels and has battery storage which is continually topped up from the grid & solar. The concept that you will need a megawatt of supply if 10 vehicles are being charged simultaneously at 100kW assumes no storage. Part of the basic premise of the grid using renewables is storage and exactly as petrol stations require storage so do EV charging stations. The only difference is that there is no giant fuel tanker required as the batteries are continually being supplied. My EV has a theoretical range of 450km & can charge at 140 kW from a DC supercharger. It has a 64kWh battery. At 110kmh I get around 400km. I do not have a 400km bladder & stop at a charge point when the battery reaches around 20%. At a super charger the charge is back to 80% in about 15 minutes. That only gives me time to visit the loo & grab a very quick bite. Normally though I will find a slower (50kW) charge point as they are cheaper & spend about half an hour to have a better lunch. There is a company I think based in Darwin that has designed an EV charging module with battery storage and a mini solar farm that can be delivered anywhere in the outback. It requires no grid connections & has 4 charging points. Sounds like a great idea to me and blows away the argument that EVs are no good in remote locations in Australia.

One of my neighbours has an electric push mower & the good thing is he can mow at any time and not annoy anyone as the only noise comes from the spinning cutting blade which is not much. He has had it for 5 or 6 years and says he will never go back to petrol. He has a spare battery but can get his suburban block lawn mowed with one of them. he just swaps them after each mow & the just used one is put on charge. It usually still has some charge left.

If i was in the market for a ride on it would be battery powered without a doubt. I have owned several ride on's over the years & it is the noise, fuel and vibration that are the biggest issues with engine maintenance next. All these are gone with a battery electric mower.

Remember Trump telling Zelenskyy he was gambling with WW3, well he may be just about ready to start it himself if he commits to dealing with Iran. If that happens you can bet the rest of the Arab world will have a go at all the US bases and interests they can get to. No matter how powerful the US thinks it is, it will not be able to defend everything and the only result will be a lot of destruction or use the nuclear card & that would be the end game.

I just watched a short clip on battery powered trucks getting the battery swapped. This is in Auckland NZ. The swap took less than 4 & a half minutes, quicker than putting diesel in the tank & the battery is recharged in 2 hours. The battery weighs 2.8 tonnes.

Canada isn't a threat to anyone except Trumps America. If they stopped supplying cars and car parts, oil, electricity, minerals etc Trump would have to get everything from elsewhere at higher costs plus his tariffs as they don't have everything there anyway.

One of the most annoying things about buying stuff from stores in the US is that you never pay the advertised price. When I arrived in New Orleans for a conference after over 20 hours travelling, I decided to buy a 6 pack of beer as the mini bar prices in the Hotel were outlandish. I bought a 6 pack & there were 4 separate taxes added on. It's a long time ago but I remember one was for a local school. The beer was also awful.

Tell Trump our red mud is full or rare earth minerals & he can have it cheap for less than 1k/tonne plus 20% tariff.😀

His latest effort with the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa was nothing short of Trump lies (fake news) and totally embarrassing, lambasting SA using dubious news reports in publications quoting SA government critics who have no credibility at all. He continues to alienate every country he encounters (except Russia).

Here on the North Coast of NSW we have had the wettest late Summer & Autumn I can remember. Since ex tropical cyclone Alfred in late February/early March there have been few fine sunny days. The problem is that the high pressure anti cyclones have remained to the South of the country when they normally migrate North as Summer comes to a close. This means that there is an Easterly flow on to the mid North to North East coasts which pick up moisture from the Tasman & drops it along the coastal fringe. Troughs develop and we get plenty of showers, many heavy & then as now a major trough has developed & everywhere from Taree to Coffs has been hit by a massive deluge. This morning i emptied 135mm from my rain gauge. The ground has been sodden since early March & there is water & mud everywhere. Already we have had 1200 mm year to date. This pattern has meant massive drought for the West of NSW & Victoria & it is sad to see the state of farms and livestock there. Hopefully as this current trough moves South a bit will get to those who desperately need it.

I have 2 Chinese made inverters. Probably around 90% of all home rooftop solar systems have Chinese made inverters. As with almost everything you buy now you register the warranty and provide your Email address and other contact details. My units are connected via WiFi to my network and when I log in to the web enabled system to check production statistics that information is accessible if required by the manufacturer. I am pretty sure that the warranty registration process has this specified. Everything I have purchased in the last few years has an on-line product registration process where your email and other contact details are stored. The manufacturer is more interested in selling more of their products and improving performance to stay ahead of their competitors than spying on you. In my case and it would be the same for the vast majority of other consumers of these products they would not find anything worth while & if they were able to do something even remotely strange and it was found out that would be the end of them.

The granny charger that came with the car is limited to 8 Amp input or 1.84 kW and the inverter will probably provide about 1.5kW DC to the battery so to charge the 64 kWh battery from empty would take 2 1/2 days You can get 10 & 15 amp granny chargers from Ali Express pretty cheap. The MG limit is probably due to the average idiot using a 1.5mm extension lead causing excessive heat plus leaving it coiled etc. Indeed the wallbox is rated at 32 Amps (7.4kW input single phase). 3 phase units are rated at 11 Amps or 22 Amps with 32 amps for all 3 phases. No point from my perspective as I only have single phase at home & the car inverter is also single phase. I installed it & and my sparky friend signed it off. Cost only about $100.00 for the 12 metres of 6mm TPS cable & a 40 amp RCCB. I hard wired the wallbox. It is called an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) as it just supplies AC power to the car. The car inverter then charges the battery. It is configurable in 1 A increments from 6A to 32A. This can be automated via software to link in with the solar supply though I don't have that version. The EVSE is from ZJBeny & cost $550.00. The flasher version was over a grand. If I need to charge on a cloudy day I just go in to the App on my phone & limit the input amps. I get free power every day from 12:00 to 14:00. This is the daytime plan from my retailer. The night time plan provides power at about 5-6C/kWh from midnight to 4:00am but the daytime plan suits me better. My last 3 power bills have been credits & I am only getting 1.14 cents/kWh for export now. When i get home I just plug the car in & it will charge between 12 & 2 unless I amend it from the car app on my phone which I do from time to time. Last week I did a couple of longish trips & only had 7% of battery left when I got home. I charged for an hour or so while the solar was still producing & re-started the charge the next morning at about 9 am at 20 amps & increased it to 32 amps at about 11 am then left it till the car stopped the charge at 80% & ran it's cell balancing program for about 20 minutes & it was complete by about 2:45pm.

I have been away for a while. I am coming up to 2 years of EV ownership. As with 90% of EV owners I charge at home. The MG4 came with a granny charger. You don't get one with some brands. Tesla give you nothing now. I have used the granny charger once & that was to make sure it worked. I installed a 7kW wall charger & I get free power for 2 hours a day. I also have 8kW of solar panels so my running costs are negligible. The network is better than it was 2 years ago & there are now many "Destination Chargers" at hotels & motels & these are usually free. In the 25,000km I have driven so far I have spent about $150.00 at fast chargers. As with most people I don't do many long trips. The average car owner travels to/from work each day & except for long trips on holiday etc all charging is done at home. The charging process varies and the simple way is to register with each of the main suppliers. I have with Evie, Chargefox, BP, Ampol & Tesla. I have an RFID card which is registered with 3 of them. I pull up, plug in scan the card & that's it. If there is a queue it is bad etiquette to charge to 100% as the last 20% will be slow. I have not had a problem waiting long & by the time I have been to the loo & had a coffee or bite the car is ready. In the MG4 the WLTP range is 450km. At 110kmh I get around 380. After that many I am ready for a break. From Coffs to Noosa I stop once for lunch & charge top up (20-30 minutes). Admittedly this is on the main highway & chargers are everywhere. The thing is the car has a built in Satnav with a charging planner & it knows what range there is and will tell you which charger to go to & in many cases can tell you if the charger is in use or not. So where are we going from here? Well CATL, the worlds largest battery manufacturer has recently announced a new battery technology that uses a combination of 2 types (lithium & sodium) to provide a range of 1500km and can get 520km of range in a 5 minute charge. That is quicker than filling a petrol tank. The new tech breakthrough is with Sodium ion technology. Of course sodium is everywhere. The sea is full of it & it is cheap. https://carnewschina.com/2025/04/21/battery-giant-catl-showcases-three-innovations-1500km-range-battery-520km-in-5-minutes-ultra-fast-charging-and-2025-mass-production-sodium-ion-battery/ This is now where battery & charging technology is up to. The only thing that will happen from now on is that it will get better & better. Already battery warranties are 1.5 to 2 million km or lifetime, The battery will outlast the rest of the car. EV haters will continue to abound but they are being rapidly drowned out with reality & the uptake of EV ownership continues to climb (Tesla excepted due to the Musk factor). Worldwide 17 million new EVs were sold in 2024 representing a 20% increase on the previous year. The new government is not only supporting the switch to electric vehicles but also getting more home batteries installed. Since the election home battery installers have had a massive increase in orders and inquiries. The electric future is here.

Chanel 7 turned comments off on their Spotlight page about this after getting thousands of messages pointing out the facts & rubbishing their claims. I saw the advertising for the show & figured it would be a full on anti EV show but didn't watch it. It astounds me that productions like this that are based on complete lies, the producers know it and are allowed to air it but then free to air TV is in such rapid decline it shows their desperation for an audience. So any sensationalist rubbish will, they hope, slow the decline of their audience and keep a few sponsors and advertisers from leaving.

Before Trump & Musk began their destructive mismanagement a few short weeks ago I was reading an article about the worst cars of 2024 from a prominent Auto mag. The first statement on the worst cars was "everything from the USA that isn't a Tesla". Now it is everything from the USA including Teslas if current sales have any thing to do with it. They do seem to have an unhealthy relationship with enormous gas guzzling Pickup trucks producing more emissions than any other brands. Interestingly though RAMs are built in the US but the company is owned by Stellantis with its HQ in the Netherlands. Trumps plan to ban Chinese cars and tariff imports from everywhere & the RAM price is indicative of his ignorance of where all the components for the US auto industry come from.

Was he there with Paul and Mary as well?