kgwilson

All EVs need an inverter to convert AC from the grid into DC which the batteries need unless you always charge from a public DC fast charger which supplies DC current direct to the battery. I don't know of any EV that does not have an inverter. Most prior to 2020 though had only a one way inverter, that is from AC to DC. Now the majority have reverse inverters so you can select to discharge power from the Type 2 AC cable connection on the car via a discharge adaptor to any normal 230 volt appliance. The level of discharge is set by the car but also the discharge adaptor. Most manufacturers set the limit in the adaptor to 10 amps. This is because the large majority of people don't understand electricity and will use a household extension lead that only has 1mm phase and neutral cores, then plug in a 6 outlet power board with multiple appliances and if the current was not restricted the cable would overheat and possibly melt the insulation and catch fire.

Rowan Atkinsons clip was sponsored by the Telegraph, an Anti EV tabloid. Many of the comments have been debunked, including the Volvo reference which is completely incorrect. The problem is because of his elevated status as a famous Actor the anti EV lobby has grasped this with both hands and not checked any of his claims. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/fact-check-why-rowan-atkinson-is-wrong-about-electric-vehicles

Battery storage instead of a diesel generator is eminently viable. A friend of mine who installed stand alone solar in 2011 has never needed his backup generator to this day. My EV can supply up to 32 amps to my house during a blackout. I don't have big enough cables or a proper feed in system to do this but we had a 4 hour power cut & I ran the fridge, freezer, radio, computers & some lamps and used hardly any of the cars battery. I did borrow a 2.5mm 20 amp extension cable to test it one day & ran the electric jug & a heater, total of 3.3 kW no problem. Based on my average daily use I could run the entire house for over 8 days from the full car battery. I've just installed a 6.6kW solar system to add to the 2kW system installed in 2013. The other day it was cloudy most of the day but I was still generating over 4kW of power at the time so even when the sun is not shining it still works. This would be a lot less if it was very heavy overcast and raining but at least along the Eastern seaboard this does not happen often or for very long at one time.

Why?

I was living in Buderim at the time and am still amazed at the photos I took of our back yard and pool areas. We had just listed the house for sale and were having an open home the following week. The pool ended up with over 450mm of sand & debris in the bottom from the empty block above us that was starting development. All the shoes, mats etc at the back door were swept around the house and down the drive on to the road. Most were never seen again but I picked up a thong that had ended up in a pile of rubbish about 500 metres away down 2 roads. I've never seen such intense rainfall before or since.

There are many outback farms that have now invested in their own solar systems and batteries that while there is an initial upfront investment pay for them selves quite rapidly. The system runs all the various households, sheds, pumps, and anything else that needs power including electrically powered farm machinery and vehicles. There are also plenty of small scale wind turbines on offer to supplement these. Twiggy Forrest is electrifying all of his mines and there are already many electric dump trucks operating, all powered by batteries charged from solar systems. Yes the dinosaurs still whinge but they will either move on and become part of the future or refuse to acknowledge inevitable change and be confined to the dustbin of history.

Coal fired power stations can only burn coal. There are dual fuel plants that have gas as an alternative but this causes greenhouse emissions and again is a non renewable. Most of the fossil fuel plants are already past their use by date and keeping them going a a very expensive exercise from a maintenance and fuel cost basis let alone their extreme CO2 emissions. Solar and Wind supplemented by battery storage is by far the least expensive even allowing for new transmission lines, as well as pumped hydro are the only viable alternatives. Nuclear is just too expensive with a very long lead time and then we have to work out what to do with the radio active waste. Now of course there is opposition from farmers out West who aren't keen on transmission poles on their properties so have become the rural equivalent of urban NIMBYs. Most though are happy to have Wind Turbines on their land when they can get 30k annually for each one they host. South Australia is the jewel in the Australian renewable energy crown. They are producing all of their energy requirements from renewables most of the time now and at times have become a net exporter of power to Victoria & NSW.

Sodium ion batteries have been in development for some years and at the beginning of 2024 had managed to get just over 160 Wh/kg at the battery pack level compared to the best NMC batteries approaching 300 Wh/kg. Sodium comes in at 1/3 of the cost of lithium and the batteries operate better at low temperatures reducing the need for battery heating. The tradeoff is less energy density but at much lower cost. Since the announcement in January of the first Sodium battery powered EV the Chinese JAC the price of lithium began to decline and has been on a downward trend ever since dropping 78% in the last year. Some of the price drop can be attributed to over production and lower demand.

The petrochemical industry has an important role to play even though we need to reduce a lot of the plastic rubbish we produce. The thing is by using this energy as fuel it can be used once and then it's gone with the resultant pollutants remaining in the atmosphere, acidifying oceans and a myriad of other things not conducive to a healthy environment. We need to just stop burning stuff or we will eventually all be stuffed.

You present people with verifiable facts and they still rabbit on about EVs bursting into flames or the risk is too high. Almost everyone has a lithium battery powered mobile phone not to mention the laptop & tablet plus a multitude of other battery powered tools, toys, watches & other items but put it in a car and that's different. Never mind the fact that they don't spontaneously combust, have a safety rating thousands of tomes better that the petrol or diesel car they currently drive. The world of battery powered and electric everything is here, like it or not.

The US has an uncanny knack of alienating the local populations wherever they are involved and that is not only in a hostile situation and it is not only political. Remember to "over paid, over sexed and over here" complaints during WW2. Not many countries want them there but they are often tolerated because of the economic benefits bringing money in to their economies.

There are a multitude of new battery technologies in various stages of development. Whether they get past the prototype or development stage is the $64 question. There are some that have huge capacity and a 100kW battery can be charged from 0 to 100% in under 5 minutes. These are still under development. Others have even more amazing specs. The big but is how long will they last. Until they resolve the high failure rate due to super fast charging, problems will continue. The heat generated is huge and that is all lost energy so there is a penalty to pay. They have been experimenting with liquid nitrogen to cool the charging equipment so that indicate the amount of heat generated. MY EVSE equipment consumes 7-7.1 kW when charging my car at it's maximum of 6.6kW. That is the maximum capacity of the on board inverter to convert AC to DC. The process of delivery through the heavy duty cable produces some heat and the cars inverter converts the AC to DC and there are kVArh (kilovolt Ampere reactive hour) losses as well. The high speed Superchargers charge in DC direct so they can be very fast. The Hyundai iOniq 5 can DC charge at 350kW so 5 minutes on one of these DC chargers will provide 100km of range. Maximum DC charge for my car is 140kW. I was aware of all this before I made my decision to buy the car. Now with 8.6kW of solar panels my home charging costs have dropped to zero (once the cost of the system is paid off).

I haven't been here for a while but a few things need comment. FACT. EVs are 3000 times less likely to catch fire than ICE vehicles. You don't have to believe me. Look it up. It is sensationalist media & social media that comes up with the EV fire stories that cannot be verified. Lithium batteries are everywhere and how many catch fire? There are about 17 billion mobile devices on the planet & nearly all have lithium batteries. Most reported fires are in scooters & bicycles that have poor charging systems or are charged with the wrong charger. EVs of course have battery management software. They cannot be overcharged or abused in modern EVs. Some will even refuse to charge when put on a charger if the software considers that the battery is being micro charged. This is when you leave the car on charge then drive to the shops & back & put it back on charge. There have been 6 EV fires in Australia in our entire history. 1 was arson, 3 were in garages that burned down so the EVs went with it, 1 hit a tree at high speed & the other the tailshaft of a truck at high speed. None have ever caught fire from chargers. For real information check out EVfiresafe.com The price of Lithium has plummeted. The supply is way more than the industry needs at present. Also Sodium batteries now have energy density rivalling NMC lithium batteries. Several Chinese EVs are now using sodium batteries. As well all of the minerals like lithium, manganese and cobalt are recyclable and fully recoverable from old batteries. It is just that not many EV batteries have got to that stage yet. Once below 80% of original capacity almost all are repurposed for household or industrial energy storage. It is only smashed up batteries that get ground down in to black mass & then the minerals extracted from that. The difference in carbon footprint of an EV compared to ICE in the manufacture process is miniscule compared to the fuel used in an ICE vehicle over its lifespan. A lot of the original studies forgot about the extraction, refining and transport costs of ICE fuel which is crazily high. My EV like many has a battery heater. When in sub zero temperature the car is kept plugged in & the battery kept warm. They have been doing this with ICE cars & trucks in Canada for decades. Diesel has to be pre heated when cold as it turns to gel & won't flow. ICE engines freeze solid if not kept above freezing. Some places have plug in points at parking meters so you don't come back to a car that is now frozen solid & can't be used till Spring. Most modern EV batteries will outlast the car. You may not like it but China now produces the best batteries in the world surpassing the US & Europe. China is the worlds largest EV manufacturer and also the worlds largest car exporter. They are building battery and EV factories in Europe right now. Some Chinese EV manufacturers are providing a 1 million km warranty with the battery. In Australia I only got 7 years as that seems to be the industry standard but CATL state the battery should last 1 million km before it degrades to 80%. If that is the case I'll be dead before the car is. I've just added another 6.6kW solar system to my roof. I've had a 2kW system since 2013. Now I can charge the car 100% from solar energy unless I am on a trip away further than my range. It will be paid off within 3 years at my expected EV use, maybe even sooner & that does not include household benefits as well. It is inevitable though that EV owners will have to pay road user charges as there is no excise tax on electricity. I won't be going back to ICE. Environmental is only 1 issue. Octave mentioned a number of others all of which are great. There are many more though, like instant torque power, low C of G, low maintenance & feeling fresh after a long drive among many others.

It's a big contrast the human behaviour as well. We seem to emulate possums.

If it is taking a casualty from the front line back to a medivac centre you can guarantee it will hug the ground to avoid being seen by the enemy or radar & it will know how to avoid objects and change course at will to avoid detection.

3 Americans get killed in Jordan and they unleash millions of dollars worth of missiles at multiple targets. The fact that 27,000 Palestinian civilians have now been killed is just Israel defending itself. And they don't have the balls to stand up to Putin & have no way to counter Xi either. There are millions of them who support a malignant narcissist compulsive liar with dementia & the rest support a geriatric who forgets his lines but does appear sort of sane. Their politically appointed judiciary ensures no genuine justice if it doesn't suit the current political agenda and the court system takes decades to finalise a case with a seemingly never ending appeal process. But if you have plenty of money things flow and things get done. The real problem is the massive gap between the super rich and poor which has been widening at an ever increasing pace. Bernie Sanders said the other night on the ABC that there a 2 individuals (Bezos and Musk) with more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population. They are heading for self destruction but I hope they don't take the rest of us with them

It is the modern empire in decline and it has been going on for some years now. They just can't seem to accept that they are no longer the worlds police force and can't understand why nobody likes them any more.

If he keeps on buying cigarettes he will eventually end up with a smoking related disease or go broke.

They could have filled them with high explosive and used them once as a super high speed drone. Just an initial setup and course programmed in to them. No maintenance required. The Kremlin would be a worthy target or even one of Putins mansions.

And we still don't have any fuel standards just like Russia and Mexico.

They would have been happy with the Taipans but we won't give them those. The MH90 is a good helicopter but our military got hold of it and made a pigs ear out of it

There are many issues with in wheel motors and its all around vibration and damping due to the wheel taking all the shock load. There is a lot of research and work going in to how to make these reliable.

Most of the work has already been done with ICE vehicles with strong chassis and suspension, wheels and tyres and good ones are not cheap. The advantage of the EV is no requirement for fancy transmissions. 2 speed electric would work easily and you could have one for each wheel but front and rear should suffice. and they do not require any mechanical linking. Torque is a huge advantage as it is there from almost zero rpm & not reliant on an engine to wind up. Even in my 2wd EV the instant torque is something you have to experience to know how amazing it is. Smallish swappable batteries would seem like a good idea as one could be on charge using solar panels while the other is in use. In China there are a number of EVs with swappable batteries that take less than 5 minutes to swap out. Then again if the battery was a decent size, say 300-400 km range, overnight charging would be easier. Towing capacity would not be a problem either with power available. Look at diesel electric trains. The power train is electric. Direct diesel does not cut the mustard. But the battery needs to be a decent size. Ground clearance would seem relatively easy. 4WDs are tall anyway and the battery could be right under the tray. The battery in my EV is as wide as the car & from firewall to in front of the motor at the rear but only 115mm high. A 4WD could be half that length but twice as high or more. Wading depth and waterproofing are easier as well. A converted land cruiser to electric spent several hours driving under Darwin Harbour last year. Weight is the only real issue and this is dependent on the size of the battery. My EV weighs 1670kg but feels as light as a feather & far easier to drive than an ICE car. It is the silent application of power and instant torque that provides this IMO.

There are plenty of electric utes and trucks available, just not in Australia. 200k seems a lot for a converted Landcruiser but then anything designed and built in Australia is going to be expensive simply because of low volumes compared to the development/build costs. LDV have an electric double cab Ute in Australia. It looks good but I don't know about its capabilities. Range isn't huge at 330km but it has 130 kW of power & 330 Nm of torque but at about 93k it is more than twice the price of the diesel equivalent. Still with solar charging it would be a good option for anyone that has that power available though it would take a long time to break even. 45k buys a lot of diesel.

I've had a grid connect 2kW solar system since 2013. Currently I charge my EV only at off peak which is all night after 10pm till 6am & all weekend. Before my EV purchase I analysed my normal driving habits and only go more than 200km from home a few times a year. I currently drive between 15,000 & 20,000 km a year. So it was a no brainer to put in a 7kW wall charger. I am now adding 6.6kW of solar at a cost of 4K to the 2kW I already have which means at peak I will be generating around 6-7kW total. On the days I am home when it is sunny I'll charge from say 11:00 till 2:00 & will get around 80% free. My EV electricity plan gives me 2 hours of free power on Saturdays & Sundays so I'll take full advantage of that & of course the rest of the weekend is off peak. I've calculated the 4k payback in 2-3 years. I'd really like a home battery but at present the cost/benefit is not there due to the high cost & the batteries are small. Within a few years there should be a few ex EV batteries on the market from car writeoffs or degradation beyond 80% but they will still have plenty of life left as a home battery. So the purchase of an EV was not just about the benefits of silent powerful driving with zero emissions but one of basic economics as well. Anyone with acreage or a farm and especially if in a remote area will reap far more benefits from installing large solar systems with decent batteries. A friend of mine with a cane farm (& an airfield) did this over 10 years ago with lead acid batteries as it was cheaper than connecting to the grid & his backup diesel generator has never been used except for testing that it still runs every now & again.