kgwilson

When it was produced it was funny. Yes Dave was making fun of the Australian accent, so what. It is history. Dave Alen was one of the best comedians of his day. Much of his material is still hilarious. At the time he lampooned the catholic church all the time and was roundly criticised for it from the conservative religious bigots then.

On 24/04/2024 at 3:05 PM, Marty_d said:

Labor tried to put a price on carbon.  The big miners spent millions in advertising against it.  Tony Abbott with his "$100 lamb roasts" and "Great big new tax" slogans managed to confirm that a sizable portion of the electorate are f*cking stupid.

 

So yes.  We should have had a proper carbon tax years ago.

Just like other sensible countries in the world.

There are few if any subsidies for installing rooftop solar now. The market is very mature with 30% of Australian households with some solar electricity generation. However you do not pay the full price for a solar system as there are RECs (renewable energy certificates) provided by the federal government. For home owners these are called small scale technology certificates or STCs. Usually you provide authority to the supplier/installer and they apply for and receive the STC subsidy and that is deducted from the price you pay.

I paid $3,500.00 for a heat pump water heater and got $990.00 from the Clean Energy Council based on the number of STCs generated. These STCs are tradeable and are purchased by industries to offset their emissions. The heat pump produces 4 times the heat energy that it consumes and all of the power comes from my rooftop solar system. When I installed the 6.5 kW solar system in February the installer applied for the STCs & that was deducted from the total cost of the system.

They haven't managed to tax the sun yet. They will tell me though that in the not too distant future I can't use the sun to move me down the road without clipping the ticket.

Well just as well God doesn't exist then.

Trump may not be a complete idiot but he sure acts like one. He has a very poor vocabulary, extremely poor general knowledge, doesn't read books, eats mainly junk food and tramples on anyone to get his way. He is a bully a consummate liar (over 33,000 when in office) and a 100% Con Man.

He preys on the fundamentalist christians who have been so indoctrinated by their religious masters almost from birth they are incapable of forming their own views and the rest of the below 50% intelligence level of the population who he has convinced will do things for them if elected.

America and wealth distribution is a major problem when 4 people have more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population and 1% of the population own 33% of the entire wealth of the country. The gap between haves and have nots has been widening for years and Trumps original baseless claim of draining the Washington swamp of the Wealthy elite when he was the worst of them is totally laughable but all his adoring morons still believe him.

The only hope is that enough of the smarter percentage of the population vote and he loses again. If this happens he will scream rigged even louder and as has already stated there could (he said will be) be a bloodbath.

Well what if the Tesla had a full battery and over 500km of range? There is a new Chinese battery manufacturer with a semi solid state battery that has 720 Wh/kg, more that double the best Lithium  batteries available providing 2000km of range with the same physical size and lighter weight than the best of the current lithium based battery installed in the Zeeker-1 which has 1000km of range. Also for those who doubt the huge advancements in battery technology CATL, the worlds largest battery manufacturer has just announced 2 batteries with a 1 million and a 1.5 million km warranties. These are designed for buses and large machinery but it shows how far battery storage and longevity has come in a very short time.

I am sure most EVs have similar functionality but my car has an inbuilt E-SIM. If I leave the E-key in it and someone drives off with a full battery the car will stop less than 5km from home as I have it geofenced via the MG iSmart app on my phone. Pretty simple and works just like Lime Scooters and other electric scooter hire companies. I have configured the system to do this. It wouldn't work if I left the phone in the car but I never do that anyway. To release the geofence I have to get in to the phone & that needs my fingerprint or facial recognition access. Also if the E-key is stolen I can disable it and just use my phone to start and drive the car.

On 20/03/2024 at 5:20 PM, willedoo said:

Plan A - Japanese subs, Plan B- French subs, Plan C - American subs, Plan D-?.

How about one or two of the 21 decommissioned nuclear subs in Rosyth & Devonport in the UK. A new coat of paint & some no more gaps here & there, chuck in some new plutonium rods & we're away. Plus they have the capability of firing Trident nuclear missiles as a bonus over what we're planning to spend $368 billion on. Given the cost of dismantling them they'd probably pay us to take them. It's a Win-Win all round.😬

On 03/03/2024 at 11:59 PM, onetrack said:

The Ausgrid workers will flatten the battery over lunchtime, keeping the A/C on in the truck, while they have lunch!

Airconditioning uses a tiny amount of battery power, typically 2% or less. It runs from the 12 volt battery system as do all of the other ancilliary systems in an EV (computers, lighting, infotainment, etc). I leave the A/C running when at a shopping centre & return to a cool car.

It demonstrates the vulnerability of manned equipment. Ships, aircraft and tanks have been the favourite targets with pretty good success. Personally I don't think there is much of a future in manned hardware other than perhaps aircraft carriers and other large transport systems to get gear to the war zone and subs that can hide well.

What's a lightbulb?

Where is the crazy stupid button?

The one thing that you can rely on, is everything that Russia says happened didn't.

OTA (over the air) software updates are becoming more common especially with EVs as software manages absolutely everything but also with a lot of ICE cars as well. Without software the ICE engines in modern cars would not run at all. Though my car is capable of OTA updates, they will not supply the access keys or passwords. This means I have to go in to the dealer to get an update and if this does not occur during a scheduled service I have to pay for them to plug it in & wait while it gets downloaded & updated.

My first scheduled service is in 2 years and there have already been several updates released. Everything works fine so I don't need to drive 60km to pay for an update that I may not even notice. The process is a fairly blatant attempt to extract money from customers as they are not getting anywhere near the continuing revenue they do from ICE customers.

The car has an E-SIM & GPS built in to it so it can be tracked anywhere. I can check it's status from an app on my phone anywhere, turn on the aircon or heater etc so when I get to it it is already cool or warm as soon as i open the door, it can be geofenced as well plus a bunch of other things.

This is now common and where the world of personal transport is headed. Self driving is still in its infancy but I reckon in the very near future car ownership will decline in favour of renting when required. You will use an app & order the car. It will arrive, driverless & you will get in & go to a pre planned destination or tell it where to go on the fly.

Chrysler also got Government  money in 2008-9, GM got $US18 billion & Chrysler got $US4 billion but then Fiat came to the rescue so that is how Chrysler ended up as part of the Stellantis group when it swallowed Fiat.

I don't think the problems are unique to Ford. The entire US auto industry is in decline and has been for some years. During the 2008 financial crisis GM was bankrupt & had to get bailed out by the government as it was deemed to big to fail. It shed all of its subsidiaries around the world and is a shadow of its former self. The government sold the last of its shareholding in 2015 losing US$10 billion in the process. If there was no protection of the US auto industry both Ford & GM would be history. Chrysler merged with Fiat and eventually has become part of the Stellantis group based in Holland.

Even back 25 years ago when i was on a business trip to the US I asked one of the managers of a company why there were so many Japanese cars appearing on US roads (he drove a Honda) & I got a one word answer "Quality".

The US EV market is a disaster. Tesla has just kept on doing what it does and has the top selling car in the world. The government wanted to change the new vehicle landscape to help meet its emissions target so there were huge subsidies given to US auto manufacturers to produce EVs so they did. Many were vehicles the US public didn't want and a lot were pretty ordinary with many faults. EVs began piling up at dealerships and sales were slow. Then some 3000 dealers sent a letter to Biden saying they couldn't sell EVs for a variety of reasons but omitting one major issue, lack of required regular maintenance so reduced income for them as most manufacturers subsidise the capped price servicing etc during the warranty period. Sounds like a solution searching for a problem with a hurriedly cobbled together scheme with more holes than a Swiss cheese. Reminds me of the Pink Batts disaster here back in the early 2000s

So there are masses of unsold US manufactured EVs (except Teslas) everywhere. The US won't allow imported EVs from China but do get European EVs.

As for Chinese EVs most will never be seen anywhere but in China. My car is Chinese built but British Engineered and designed & has had rave review world wide. A local motoring critic was quite scathing of the Chinese made MGs and rated the driving dynamics from below average to positively woeful. His comments were that the MG4 was like a car from a completely different company. Build quality is definitely not British as it is excellent with everything feeling solid and well fitted together. Some reviewers have said better than some Mercedes models. The MG4 is also the 2024 UK car of the year and that is against all comers, & also Car Sales Australia Car of the year.

The Chinese now own brands like Volvo and have joint ventures with Mercedes and BMW and use European designers. China overtook Japan last year as the worlds largest exporter of cars.

Battery longevity is something there will never be agreement on. There is always anecdotal evidence of poor battery performance & longevity just as there is proof of early model Teslas having travelled more that 500,000 miles (800,000km) on the original battery and are still going well. As for weight well my car weighs 1670kg which is not a lot more than the equivalent ICE car and a lot less than most SUVs and pretty much every Ute.

The only real difference between an EV & an ICE car is the propulsion system and the fuel. The electric motor or motors are very simple by comparison including the transmission to rotate the wheels, make hardly any noise are way more efficient and virtually free of vibration.

The battery is heavy but keeps the CofG low so road handing and weight distribution can be as close to perfect as possible. This is true for the MG 4 and some other RWD EVs. A large percentage of current EVs began their life as an ICE car so carry over that baggage and many are front wheel drive so there has to be a compromise.

There is a lot of talk about the cost and that only the wealthy can afford an EV (more specifically a Tesla). This as now old news and todays fish and chip paper. Tesla have reduced the prices across the range and they are more competitive with other quality brands. Almost all legacy car makers have a number of EV models in their lineup now. There are more than 300 EV manufacturers in China alone which is more than the rest of the world put together.

The market analysts were predicting that EV and ICE vehicle prices would merge by 2025. This has already happened, just not in Australia. But the base model MG4, GWM Ora and BYD Dolphin are all sub 40k vehicles. They are all very good cars so the ethos that EVs are for the wealthy has well and truly gone, just not in the minds of EV knockers.

6 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Well, here's a few extended reads for you, as regards Tesla build quality woes ....

 

I always keep uppermost in mind that the bloke behind Tesla design and production is a pretty dislikeable, arrogant, divisive, and ruthless character.

 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/

 

https://www.topspeed.com/10-most-common-problems-with-new-tesla-evs/#autopilot-failures-and-power-steering-issues-can-be-life-threatening

 

https://cleanenergyrevolution.co/2023/11/20/tesla-model-3-fault-rate-is-the-highest-of-any-car-report/

Tesla is no different from any other car manufacturer in that they have produced some models with faults that require recalls or repairs. Tesla though is always at the bleeding edge of technological advancement so problems will occur. I looked at a Model 3 and drove one. It is so different to any car I'd ever driven with a screen in the middle & nothing in front of the driver and electronics that did everything. The new model doesn't even have indicator stalks and things like having to use the touch screen to open the glove box seem odd even though they have a security purpose. The audio system even has 17 speakers. The earlier model only had 14. Lots of over the top stuff & futuristic technology.

It was a lot flashier than my eventual choice, the MG4 but in my opinion not a drivers car whereas the MG drives like a sports car, plus the Tesla was an extra 15 grand.

Lots of faults aside, Teslas are very popular and the Model Y is the largest selling car in the world beating all others ICE & EV. It is the first vehicle to topple  Corolla for the last 22 years. Add to that it is also the biggest car company in the world by market capitalisation. Tesla must be doing something right to arrive at number 1 so quickly.

I read about the Nevada Gigafactory 2 years after it came on line in 2017 with the built in recycling plant. By early 2020 they hadn't recycled any batteries other than their own modules that had not made the grade. Seems like that is pretty much still the case. Now most of Teslas new batteries are being made by BYD & CATL. The Chinese are now firmly out in front in battery technology.

54 minutes ago, onetrack said:

There is still an underlying problem with EV's - and that is the fact that the manufacturers, especially Tesla, want their EV's to be just another disposable electronic device, like a mobile phone.

They are doing nothing to ensure that their EV's have a long lifespan.

 

The simple fact remains that a good IC-engine vehicle is good for a 25 year lifespan (barring mechanical disasters) - but the average EV is essentially scrap after 10 years.

They are not made to last, simply because of the huge level of cheap electronics in them - not to mention the battery that is toast at 10 years.

 

We've all seen how late model IC-engined cars are scrapped when they have a major electronics/ECU failure - when the repair/replacement cost of the failed item exceeds the depreciated value of the car.

It's all very well to say, "Oh, but all of the EV is recyclable! - so that makes it all worthwhile!". However, there's just one big fly in the ointment there.

 

Hardly a single recycling setup - no matter what they're recycling - ever pays its way. Virtually every recycling operation must receive huge Govt subsidies to continue their operations.

This applies to nearly every currently recycled item - be it plastic, cardboard, tyres, batteries. The only recycling that actually pays is metals recycling - and even then, the metals must be in sizeable volume before any metals recycler is even interested in taking it.

The W.A. Govt alone is currently handing out $70M annually to recycling operations - in the form of straight-out grants, free land and various other subsidies. It's a hidden cost to all Australians.

 

There is hardly any lithium battery recycling being carried out at present - despite the massive volume of batteries being produced and in use. Only around 6% of lithium batteries are recycled.

Ecobatt is the only battery recycler operating in Australia, and I currently have no idea of how they're funded, or what it costs to recycle batteries - but I'll wager that they get subsidised in some form.

 

https://www.ecobatt.net/expired-electric-car-batteries-set-to-be-a-major-problem/

1. Batteries manufactured from 2022 by BYD & CATL are likely to last 20 years not 10. That is old outdated information.

2. All modern vehicles from tiny minicars to the biggest trucks are full of electronics and the cost of replacement outweighs the value of the vehicle even if it's ICE engine is still running. The thing is it won't run without these electronics so it is only useful as scrap.

3. It is true that there are few battery recycling plants. There are none in Australia that are capable of recycling EV batteries to my knowledge. The thing is none are needed at present. In the early years of car manufacture in the late 1800s to early 1900s there weren't any engine mechanics either. New technologies don't come with end to end processes when first released.

4. Much of the reason why there are no recycling plants is because there are hardly any EV batteries available for recycling. The early Teslas and Nissan leafs had pretty small batteries by todays standards and while some have been replaced, the old batteries have found new homes in houses or commercial buildings as most have about 80% of their capacity left. The only batteries that are scrapped are those that have been severely damaged in a car crash. Even many of the cells in these are able to be re-used. In the UK & Europe there are a number of "Black Mass" recycling facilities. The batteries are ground up and the individual minerals extracted so lithium, cobalt, manganese etc are recovered for reuse. Even so there are many 10 year plus old Teslas & Nissan Leafs still running perfectly well on their original battery.

Recycling of lithium batteries is a growing problem. Almost all phones and electronic devices, power tools, electric bikes, scooters etc use lithium batteries and they do not have sophisticated battery management software just charging limit functions. They often get thrown in the rubbish rather than being taken to the shops where recycling bins are. Once rubbish is crushed so are the batteries and if there is sufficient charge left in them a short circuit will very quickly turn in to a thermal runaway with an ensuing fire. There needs to be government funding to get on top of this as the numerous minor fires will end up being massive eventually. The worst seem to be small lithium battery powered bicycles, scooters etc and it usually stems from ignorance where they are incorrectly charged, the wrong type of charger is used or some other user induced factor.

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

A comment like that is a clear indication that you did not watch the video. Raising that point by Evans is completely irrelevant to Atkinson's comments. It smacks of a snide comment in Question Time. Sure, Atkinson is well known to the public through his career in entertainment. In fact Atkinson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

 

Remember that Atkinson got into comedy while he studying  at uni. After receiving top grades in science A levels,he secured a place at Newcastle University, where he received a BSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1975. He subsequently obtained an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering at The Queen's College, Oxford in 1975. His master's thesis, published in 1978, considered the application of self-tuning control.

 

Can your Simon Evans match those qualifications? Better still, who the hell is this Evans bloke? Atkinson may have published in an Anti EV tabloid, but the video I posted outlined the connections Evans has with some interesting organisations. Evans is from a website called Carbon Brief, is a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy. We specialise in clear, data-driven articles and graphics to help improve the understanding of climate change, both in terms of the science and the policy response. Which is supported by  European Climate Foundation, which provides our funding. In the spirit of transparency, this funding totalled £1,176,376 for the financial year of 2022. Do I detect a few parts per million of bias?

 

Did Atkinson bag electric vehicles? Hardly at all. He seems to be all for EVs in congested urban areas where travel distances are short, but traffic flow is slow, leading to unnecessary emission of combustion products. Did Atkinson champion alternative combustible fuels? Not so much champion, but acknowledge that they were a possibility with further research.

 

What Atkinson pointed out was that the EV isn't economically viable if people adopt a throw-away mentality to cars by turning them over after a very short period of three years. You'll say that the expected serviceable life of an EV battery is 10 years. I'll go along with that. So what Atkinson is saying is that if you buy any vehicle, no matter what the power source is, don't ditch it in three years. It is better for the environment to use the resources that went into making the vehicle for as long as possible. That, is a convoluted way, is sequestering carbon by not having to use, let's say, the same amount twice more over the ten-year life of the vehicle.

 

However, keeping vehicles for a long period, not matter what power source, seems to be anathema to the European Union which now wants to ban the repair of any vehicle more than 15 years old.

 

 

firstly, no I did not watch the video you posted just the original before it was behind the paywall over 6 months ago. Secondly I don't know who Simon Evans is so he is NOT "My Simon Evans" whatever that is supposed to imply.

There were many errors and "Stop Burning Stuff" a subsidiary of Fully Charged who have just run the Electrify Everything show in Sydney have been correcting these since that time with verified facts. It has been adequately demonstrated by SBS that the Anti EV lobby cherry picked statements from Atkinsons video and have reposted them everywhere much to the delight of the fossil fuel industry. Since the original clip was published it has been modified several times to straighten up facts Like "batteries last 10 years" to batteries last upward of 10 years.

In 2024 the best batteries are produced by CATL & BYD both Chinese and their NMC & LFP batteries are slated to last 20 years or even more, by which time most vehicles will be scrapped. Tesla is now using both BYD & CATL batteries as the US has not been able to keep up with these manufacturers and the legacy auto makes there have produced some very ordinary EVs (Tesla excepted) & they are not selling many. The CATL battery in my EV should last 1 million km with the battery management software installed by SAIC in my car. That is 50 years at the rate I drive but the car will be toast well before then. Also i will be well dead by then.