kgwilson

The price drop is for all purchasers not businesses. My model which was $50,400 on the road is now $39,990 on the road. At the time I got a State incentive of $3,000 so it was $47,400 all up. The price had already dropped to $47,900 on the road now there is a factory bonus of $8,000 to bring the top spec car to under 40k. There is a facelift model due out in early 2025 so the price drop is to try to get rid of current stock before then. Deals like this happen all the time with all manufacturers. Mazda has been offering big discounts on unsold 2022 models. There are also some good prices on demo cars with only a thousand km or so on the clock.

This is just confirmation of what EV and battery manufacturers have been saying and demonstrating with battery warranties. My MG4 came with an unlimited km 7 year warranty on car & battery. That has now been extended to 10 years and in Thailand & China the warranty is extended to a lifetime warranty. I don't know if this is for the original owner or whether it is transferable to second and subsequent owners. It is capped at 20,000 km a year which is fine for most people so won't apply to taxis & hire cars or probably any used commercially I imagine. After 1 year and 16,000 km my car is reporting battery state of health as 100%.

Even an old Lee Enfield 303 would be better but a modern high velocity small bore hunting rifle with a good calibrated scope would be way more accurate. Then again this is a America with about 500 million guns and 300 million stupid people.

There are lots of them and most are cheaper than Telstra They bulk buy bandwidth from Telstra and sell it to customers at a cheaper rate. Still uses the Telstra network. My mobile plan is with Amaysim which uses Optus. I get unlimited talk & text nation wide but only 4GB a month in data which I hardly ever use. Unused data rolls over and I currently have a credit of over 150GB. The plan costs $30.00 for 90 days. Similar plans are available from other Telcos with Telsta as the carrier but they are more expensive than Optus. I have found that most places I go to I have coverage although Telstra seems to cover more remote areas but there are exceptions. I was on a 4WD driving course west of Dorrigo & there was good Optus coverage there but no Telstra coverage at all.

Budget direct is usually one of the cheapest for cars & property. My house & contents was with Youi as well but the premium has gone ballistic in the last 2 years with 36% & then 24% increases. I used compare the market & got a much better deal with Budget Direct & I saved nearly $500.00. There is a first year special discount of 30% & there is no flood cover that I had before but I don't need that as we are not in a flood prone area. Next year I will do another check. Loyalty to an Insurance company or in fact any supplier of goods and services is a thing of the past. if you are still using the same organisation or even brand for anything for many years you are almost certainly not getting the best deal any more. Comparison websites are good but they all have affiliations with various companies so only provide information from those companies. They have to disclose this and it is sometimes not easy to find.

She probably has bigger hands than him so he wouldn't want too many clips of handshakes going viral. I find it interesting how Kamala was virtually invisible for most of her vice presidency allowing Joe to take the limelight and finish his time after a pretty long and distinguished career. She may not have initially considered running when Joe put his hand up for the almost obligatory 2nd term but she certainly has grabbed the baton and shown the world her obvious capabilities, eloquence and can easily rile Trump into making a fool of himself, though he can do that on his own without assistance. I read somewhere, might have been here, that it is easy to tell when Trump is lying. He plays the accordion when ever he lies. Since I read that I've noticed he does it almost every time he speaks.

We had some very warm Summer like temperatures in late August on the 30th parallel but today it started sunny & got to 19 deg at 11am, then the Southerly kicked in & it was 16 deg by 1 pm. With the wind chill it feels like 8 deg & that's bloody cold for mid Spring in the sub tropics.

Youi

The parts supply for brand new models of any vehicle is always a problem. This doesn't just apply to EVs. My MG4 was one of the first in Australia but there were virtually no parts available at that time & the supply from Shanghai was very slow mainly due to the factory having such a backlog of orders for new vehicles, supply of spares was on the back burner. A year later that has changed somewhat. The Bridgestone tyres it came with were specifically made for EVs with very good rolling resistance. When my car was new they weren't even available at all in Australia. Now no problem. I imagine the same was the same for a windscreen. I am getting one replaced next week as I got a stone chip & that turned in to a crack. The new one was sourced within a day. The cost is around 3k which is ridiculous but this is common for any vehicle with all the electronic stuff as all the sensors have to be recalibrated etc. Attached to the windscreen is a box of electronics including 2 cameras, a forward collision radar, a GPS, an emergency call system with its own eSIM and cellular system antenna. The full process is going to take 3 - 4 hours. The cost of insurance is no different to any car. It cost me $712.00 for fully comprehensive cover of 50k. This year the cost has gone up by $15.00. I don't know where the EV high Insurance cost rumour started but it is wrong. One problem is that there are few trained technicians able to fix the electrics and batteries which in the early stages led to EVs being written off when there was relatively minor damage. This is changing as more technicians get trained. The high voltage battery consists of multiple modules and individual modules can be repaired or replaced. The HV battery on the MG 4 is designed to be easily removable so it can be dropped from under the car on to a trolly and worked on, tested and replaced. The complete HV battery weighs about 400 kg.

He came close by bombing Syria.

NRMA had a lot of free charging points all over the State. Most were quite slow at less than 50 kW but they were free. Most of these are no longer free as the original incentives to install & run them has expired. Chargefox that installed them now charges for them but they are not expensive at around 30 cents/kWh. The faster the charger is, the more expensive they are. Tesla Super chargers seem to be the most expensive, at least for non Tesla owners at 60 to 70 cents per kWh but they are fast at 350 Kw.

Hybrids are being heavily promoted by legacy car makers as a clean alternative to ICE even though they are not. The scaremongering around EVs in the press has manifested itself in the new car market by manufacturer promotion of Hybrids so they can have a bob each way. The fact that the electric range of hybrids is very poor doesn't matter. They are cheaper than pure EVs mainly because of the tiny battery so that is a plus to the buying public. They are being promoted as a greener alternative to ICE vehicles which is true too but they stlll burn fossil fuels and spew out toxic emissions. The other main attraction is the (now) irrational Range Anxiety fear. They are also far more complex that either an ICE vehicle or pure EV so have higher maintenance requirements and are much more likely to catch fire than either. There is also a trend towards plug in hybrids and several studies have noted that the fuel consumption values touted by manufacturers are rarely met mainly due to owners who don't bother plugging them in which indicates a poor attitude towards energy efficiency. The other issue which to me is most important is you do not get the EV driving experience with totally noiseless power, instant torque, regenerative braking, hardly any servicing, & one pedal driving among the many EV advantages plus the long term total cost of ownership being less. For me also is it costs me nothing for fuel as my car runs on sunshine, that is unless i am going on a plus 400km road trip.

The problem is that these large fossil fuel behemoths have too much influence with Politicians & provide huge donations to all sides of politics. State & Federal governments need to stand up for the people who have elected them & cancel some of these deals & get LNG shipped to the East Coast via rail.l If there was a war on this would be done instantly.

Toyota and other legacy car makers have been actively campaigning governments to allow them to continue producing ICE vehicles well past the original targets. What they have seen is a large swing away towards EVs and they are unprepared and are failing to compete with Chinese EV manufacturers who are now producing more than 2 thirds of the worlds EVs at the present time. Volvo is owned by Geely, a Chinese car manufacturer who produce some of the best upmarket EVs you can buy. Zeekr is one of their brands. EV sales have not plateaued as is often touted by the ICE manufacturer & fossil fuel company friendly press. By the end of 2024 there will be around 17 million new EVs on the road. At the end of 2023 there were 14 million new EVs on the road. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-cars There has been a slow dawn of car sales world wide in the 3rd quarter of this year. This is what got the press to sensationalise parking areas full of new cars waiting to be sold, many saying they were EVs when they weren't. Even channel 7 got on the band wagon when a whole lot of Teslas were pictured in a car park in Melbourne awaiting delivery. These were stated as unsold Teslas which of course was BS. Teslas are ordered on line and are sold before being shipped from China. The slow down is largely due to tough economic conditions around the globe. Toyotas global sales have dropped 3.5% mainly due to a fall of 27% in their biggest market, China. In many markets there was a slowdown in EV sales when government incentives stopped but these have largely rebounded now. Toyota was an early adopter of hybrids but put its energy in to trying to develop the hydrogen market with nothing going in to the EV sector. Toyota is now way behind the EV 8 ball and is now partnering with BYD to produce EVs for them. Their first entry into the Australian EV market is in fact a rebadged and urbanised Subaru which is a good car but far too expensive for what it is.

Again another weird anomaly of the American system is that all former Presidents are entitled to be addressed as President.

Solar panels and animal grazing has been around for a few years now. With panels mounted half to 2 metres above ground level and spaced a bit more than intense solar farm panels the grass is able to grow quite well under the panels and of course between rows. When it rains the run off from panels spreads out to ensure there is plenty of moisture to nourish the grass underneath. Not only that but the animals get shelter from the sun and rain. https://reneweconomy.com.au/more-than-6000-sheep-now-call-australias-largest-solar-farm-home/

One story is he was shot down by one of Ukraines own missiles & that led to Zelenskyy giving the top man the sack.

The Japanese and now the Chinese have come up with many weird sounding names for cars. To them the name probably sounds cool but to native English speakers they are just plain strange. It is probably safer to just have a number for the different models but then that gets confusing too when they add alpha prefixes or suffixes to the number just to confuse everyone even more.

Sydney Opera House to Dubbo is 392km so within range of most modern EVs. There are plenty of charging stations all the way there and at almost every reasonable sized town around Dubbo and other towns in the area has them. EV owners going on a trip use a number of Apps to locate chargers along the way. One called Plugshare lists most chargers. Open the link below and zoom in and you will find public chargers everywhere. The map is provided by plugshare. https://evpowerhouse.com.au/ev-charging-stations-australia-map/?srsltid=AfmBOor2YW9sTerfnMddVhMQQ8gP0a5sy3VWCE-b4ED_6MOSbgpMXV2H

One of the benefits of electric propulsion is the availability of full torque from virtually zero rpm. This is why modern ships and locomotives are Diesel Electric where the diesel is just generating electricity. My MG4 has a 150kW (204HP) motor and will accelerate from 0 to 100kmh in just over 7 seconds. A few years ago this was supercar territory. At the traffic lights an EV will beat every ICE car available unless the ICE car is revving its head off & the brake released or clutch dropped. A Tesla model Y Plaid (only sold in USA) will get from 0 to 100kmh in 1.9 seconds & considered dangerous by many as it can cause blackouts. The MG4 X power will do 0 to 100 in 3.4 seconds. Sub 4 seconds is now common at the more expensive end of the EV scale. The EV driving experience is unbeatable. It just does everything so effortlessly. I can get around 450km on a full charge if I drive conservatively but that is boring and not the way i like to drive. The design engineers at MG in the UK did a great job with 50/50 weight distribution, RWD etc producing a Corolla sized hatchback solidly put together in Shanghai that is really fun to drive. Throwing it around winding country roads leaves a smile on my face every time. On the Pacific Highway I cruise at 110kmh & still get from Coffs to Brisbane on a charge easily (around 400km). Lunch & 20 minutes on a fast charger & I get to my place in Noosa with heaps of charge left. Slow vehicles are no problem. Foot to the floor & the power/torque is instant. Even an uphill incline doesn't have anywhere near the same effect as an ICE vehicle. The power meter % value goes up but there is no noise or motor tone to indicate anything different. I have not noticed any appreciable difference to the range. All EVs have to make a noise at low speed. The reverse noise generator on mine is a whine like a reverse gear in a manual car. The Drive noise generator is a lower tone that changes to a woosh sound & cuts out at 35kmh when tyre noise becomes apparent to those outside the car.

Asymeo, You are entitled to your opinion on such things, however the above issues are not that relevant to the subject of this thread. To address all readers as "You" is disingenuous when that word relates to different countries or governments in the context of your post. Much of your commentary is also not backed by verifiable fact. Breaking the monologue in to paragraphs would be a good start.

It means that they source their energy from certified green energy suppliers as they cannot produce enough on the rooftop to run everything especially at night unless they have installed batteries.

It makes sense to do this anywhere is Australia given the amount of Sunshine we have but it does take forward thinking people and planning plus additional up front cost. The ongoing benefits and payback easily outweigh the initial cost. It shows that too many of Australian business managers are not thinking in to the future and are only concerned about short term gains. Shell OIl on the other hand knows very clearly that the writing is on the wall for them and partnered with BYD to install a 258 bay EV charging hub next to Shenzen Airport in China which is covered in solar panels producing 300,000 kWh of energy annually. This was opened almost a year ago. https://www.shell.com/what-we-do/mobility/mobility-news/shell-opens-largest-ev-charging-station.html

Car crashes are NOT accidents. Almost all are caused by driver stupidity, inattentiveness, incapacity or neglect. Even those caused by mechanical failure are often due to poor or no maintenance. 50 years ago most of these would have resulted in fatalities. Seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, rollover cages etc have lowered the risk of the crash being fatal dramatically. These scenarios are precisely why authorities have had to come up with AEB & FCW systems. They may not be perfect but they are light years ahead of the idiots we have on our roads.

Yes my last car was new in 2012. Now there are heaps of new things that manufacturers have to comply with to receive a 5 star ANCAP rating. The SOS button on the roof electronic cluster is common now. How it works may differ by brand but with mine it sends a message to MG automatically forwarded to the contracted service agent in the area that they need to contact the car owner. The button provides the precise GPS location, owners details etc. If out of mobile coverage then you just have to wait till they get there. This is part of the 7 year warranty. I imagine there will be an annual fee after this time is up. Some of the systems take a bit of time to get used to and there were a couple that scared the crap out of me when I encountered them for the first time. For example I was reversing out of an angle park & the car just stopped instantly. I thought I'd hit something & got out to check but nothing. I realised it was the collision avoidance system that operates if it thinks I'm likely to hit a pedestrian, cyclist or another car. This system works for all 360 degrees & the 360 degree camera comes on automatically with the danger quadrant highlighted. It happened when I was driving past a school with lots of parked cars etc. I was doing less than the limit of 40kph & saw a woman walk out between 2 cars, turn towards me as if to go to the drivers door of her car. The system slammed on the brakes as it thought she might walk out in to my path. I'd already figured out she was just going to get in to her car but the system is obviously not programmed to consider that possibility and erred on the side of caution. Initially it annoyed me but in hindsight I think the system did the right thing.