kgwilson

Infotainment updates are completely separate to any system updates. While the car is capable of over the air (OTA) updates MG have not yet invoked this & I have to drive in to the dealer after making an appointment & leave the car while they plug in a PC or whatever. If it is not an essential or fix update they won't do it under warranty so I'll have to pay. But if I wait till the next scheduled service I get every update there is. The car is a year old & its first scheduled service is in a years time. The updates I know of are mostly cosmetic so I am not bothered as everything works anyway.

My MG 4 came with a Satnav system and has its own inbuilt GPS & Esim. Wherever I am, I can click on the Navigation icon & choose chargers & it will show all chargers within current battery range. Usually there are heaps. Drilling down will show the exact location, Charger brand, number of them and speed 50 kW, 350kW etc. Plugshare and ABRP (a better route planner) APPs for your phone show how many of the chargers are currently in use & can be used with Android Auto or Apple carplay. An upgrade to the MG system will show all Chargers along the chosen route with details as before, the time to get there and estimated battery level on arrival. Choosing one of these then directs you to that charger. I've not had the upgrade installed as I don't go on long trips often & the existing system is good enough anyway. I am happy that my normal weekly driving costs me nothing in fuel costs at all.

All it takes is a little trip planning and there are plenty of apps available to do that. All of the apps state which charging cables they have. Only the very early Teslas have the standard Tesla charging port and at Tesla charging stations they will usually have one of the original Tesla cables. This is the one least likely to be in use. Some Tesla charging stations are only available for Tesla owners because these were installed entirely at Teslas cost. Any installed after government incentives came in to play must be available to all EVs. Also all EVs imported in to Australia since 2020 are required to have a CCS 2 (combined charging system 2) port. Only pre 2020 Teslas had the Tesla port and old Nissan Leafs and some Japanese plug in hybrids have the CHaDeMo port.

The number of EV SUVs and UTEs is expanding rapidly & most have pretty big batteries. Power out put is generally much higher that for petrol or diesel variants and torque is available from 0 RPM. The issue is there are not many available in Australia yet and the cost is high. They are very versatile for a Tradie who may not do that many km per day and can use the power to load to provide battery charging for tools where no mains exists or 230 volts for big circular saws, lighting etc. There is a new Caravan in the US called the LightShip RV.The roof has 10kW of solar panels & battery and it has an E-Axle so the towing vehicle can run very efficiently. It can be used to power your house when parked outside as well. It is tall but the entire top section lowers for towing to reduce drag. Designed by a couple of ex Tesla engineers. It ain't cheap but neither is a large standard caravan. It has a fantastic future and is probably the benchmark for others to follow.

The blue EV badge on the number plate is aluminium and is an equilateral triangle with 25mm sides. It is held on to the number plate by 2 rivets. How it just fell off is pretty questionable and then how it punctured a tyre even more-so. OME there is a long list of what is checked at 40,000km all listed on the MG website. There is little to replace. Cost is $296.00 which in my opinion is a ripoff as they basically just have a look at everything. A capped price service regime with an ICE vehicle at $200/10,000km would be $800.00 in the same period. Brake fluid & aircon filter are the only things replaced. Battery coolant, windscreen washer fluid & electric motor coolant are checked & topped up if necessary which takes about a minute as the reservoirs are under the bonnet. I've no idea what new tyres cost. They are Bridgestone Turanza 235/45 R18 98W and at 15,000km they are not showing any signs of wear. The point at which an EV becomes more economical than an ICE vehicle is at around 33,000km according to analysis carried out in the US. Even accounting for the considerably higher purchase price in the past, the total cost of ownership is a lot cheaper over 10 or more years. This is all rapidly changing with the price of new EVs dropping all the time.

True, he's been so full of it for more years than anyone cares to remember.

They have deliberately kept it that way by ensuring their education system doesn't include information about the rest of the world and pushing patriotism to the highest level possible. For many years only 10% of Americans had passports. That now exceeds 40% but is very low compared to other countries. Among Trump rusted on MAGA supporters the percentage of passport holders is probably less than 10% & their knowledge of the rest of the world considerably less than that.

I do 95% of my charging at home for $0.00 from solar and free power from 12:00 to 14:00 every day which accounts for cloudy days. The charging cost relates generally to the charging speed. Superchargers capable of 350kW charging, cost the most (60-75c/kWh. Free chargers are generally at shopping centres & businesses & range from 7 kW single phase AC to 22 kW 3 phase AC. Other slow chargers of up to 50kW DC are pretty cheap usually 25-30c/kWh. There are other chargers called Destination chargers & these are mostly free as well. On my 550km trip I topped up at a 50kW charger while I had lunch at 30c/kWh (about 30 mins) which gave me plenty of range to reach my destination. The hotel had destination chargers which were 7kW AC chargers and were free for guests. I plugged in & the car was 100% full in about 4 hours.

My MG4 is just on a year old with 15,000km on the clock. It came with an unlimited km warranty of 7 years on car & battery. This has now been lifted to 10 years but with 250,000 km limit. No maintenance due till September 2025 or 40,000km whichever is first. There are no government incentives in NSW. In China & Thailand the battery is warranted for life which generally means when the car is worn out. There is a maximum of 30,000km per year though. I'd say this is to prevent Taxi/Uber drivers who drive professionally some over 100,000km a year from claiming after 1-2 million km.

The problem is he is a very rich dill. He is or was a visionary and got the electric car industry to mainstream acceptance and Tesla is (or was) the largest car company on the planet by market capitalisation. Space X has overtaken Boeing/NASA but his foray in to social media was his most visible slide in to the league of wealthy outspoken arseholes, even supporting another one called Trump. I'm glad I didn't buy a Tesla, I'd feel embarrassed. His attitude must be costing them sales. A friend of mine wanted to buy a Tesla but his wife can't stand Musk so he didn't.

He's been saying that for the last 4 years usually straight after he makes the stolen election claim.

Well no they don't. Since 2020 all EVs sold in Australia must comply with the CCS2 (Combined Charging System 2) standard. This was implemented in the EU some years ago and is now the world wide standard used everywhere including China. The CCS2 plug can be single or 3 phase for AC charging with a dedicated DC charging socket except as you would expect in the US where for some reason (probably linked to Musks donations & political clout) they have standardised on the Tesla proprietary plug even though it can't charge from 3 phase AC power. Japan still uses CHAdeMO as far as I know. The early Hybrids and Japanese EVs used a ChAdeMO (Charge de move) connector and there are still quite a few public chargers in Australia that cater for these vehicles. What has improved dramatically recently is the system of payments. Up till recently you had to have an App and there were often problems getting the app to connect with the charger. There were also RFID cards which worked better but were also a pain. Teslas though when connected to a Tesla charger just charged automatically. I have apps for Chargefox, Evie, BP Pulse, Ampol, & Tesla & RFID cards for Chargefox & Evie. Now when I go to an Evie charger I don't need an App or RFID card. My car is registered with Evie & when I connect to an Evie charger it just starts charging automatically & the cost is charged to my credit card. The thing is like over 85% of EV owners I rarely charge from a rapid DC charger as I plug the car in at home and during the day it charges from my rooftop solar. My electricity plan gives me 2 hours of free power every day from 12 till 2pm so I can still charge free on cloudy or rainy days. I've had the car now for 11 months and have only been on 3 long trips over 400km where I needed to use the public charging network. I put the route into the Satnav & the system tells me where the chargers are on the route & where the best stops are, whether food, toilets etc are available there and as I get close how many chargers are in use or free.

Hybrids are complex and have generally very poor range on the battery which are always small so they can keep the price below a pure battery EV. It is slick marketing by the legacy car makers who are desperate to maintain market share against the new EV companies. Most have less than 100km of range and while some in theory have more, most of the tests and reviews have demonstrated that the range quoted by the manufacturers is a very best case scenario and not able to be attained by an average driver. Also studies have found that plug in hybrids rarely have better fuel consumption than pure ICE vehicles because owners fail to plug them in often enough. The appeal is the price being lower than a pure BEV, the promise of cheaper running costs with the quoted lower fuel consumption, the reduction of emissions due to the lower fuel consumption giving a feel good factor to purchasers and the reduction of range anxiety that many people have that makes them balk at a pure EV purchase. The facts are that Hybrids are the worst of both worlds. They have small batteries very ordinary electric drive systems compared to any BEV and all of the maintenance costs & issues of an ICE vehicle and still spew out toxic emissions. They are also the most likely to catch fire by over 300% than ICE vehicles and many times more than pure EVs.

A lifetime warranty is determined by the list of conditions in the fine print. The headline gets the public interest as that is what it is designed to do & increase sales. The reality usually ends up being disappointing. I bought my last car in 2012 & it had a 5 year warranty with an extra 5 years on the mechanical components but there were heaps of conditions and individual bits that were excluded it was completely confusing. Luckily nothing went wrong in the 10 years.

MG have a lifetime warranty on its EV batteries in China & Thailand & have just announced a 10 year warranty on all of its cars in Australia including EV batteries but with a 250,000 km maximum which is 25,000km a year, much more than most people drive. The China lifetime warranty is limited to 30,000 km per year. When I bought my MG4 it came with a 7 year unlimited km warranty on car & battery. Despite all the wrong headlines rabbiting on about EV sales slumps and EV owners returning to petrol power, by the end of last year there were 40 million on the road world wide, with around 14 million new sales which was a 23% increase on the year before. Current sales are on track for around 10% increase in 2024 with world wide sales of around 17 million. The percentage increase is still well ahead of ICE percentages most of which fell and continue to fall in 2024. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-cars

If he gets in and makes good on that promise civil war is pretty much a certainty. Then again just add that to his 30,573 lies the last time he was in.

Legendary British Blues Rock musician, John Mayall has died aged 90. He is often described as the Godfather of British Blues and influenced many of the greats. People like John McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame and the great Eric Clapton began their careers with the band he formed called the Bluesbreakers in the early 60s.

While Biden has endorsed Harris she is not the presumptive candidate. There are at least half a dozen others that look like throwing their hats in the ring. A lot can happen in the month before the Democratic convention. They can spend up as well with more than 50 million being donated on Sunday. I doubt Trump has managed anywhere near that amount in the same timeframe.

Well it finally happened, an attempt at assassination. The first since Reagan or one of the Kennedy's I am not sure. While I don't condone such actions if it was successful things may have gotten easier for Biden. Now the recriminations begin. The MAGA mob will be baying for Democrats blood blaming them for everything to cause a 20 year old to try this. Not only that Donny will be full on using the attempt to his advantage. A bit like a Muslim Martyr would.

His death was reported as to be from natural causes, whatever that means. Unless the skin cancer was a melanoma that had spread, that is not likely to be the cause.

The attention of the US media should be focussed on Trumps unsuitability for office. He lied continuously through the debate but all that was lost in their full attention to Bidens gaffes & losing the plot for a few seconds. Bidens press conference later said all the right things but it was too late. If Biden decided to pull out my bet is that Gavin Newsom would put his hand up. He has already stated support for Biden but if there is no Biden in the race that changes everything. Kamala Harris has the credentials and capability but as a woman and black, not the charisma and public support she needs.

BMW doesn't have the best reliability record but when new they have heaps of power and superb handling with a pretty good driving experience. This has always been their hallmark. Anything that is highly strung is going to suffer in the reliability stakes. German engineering is no better or worse that any other. It all depends partly on how much you pay, how complex it is and how difficult the task it is designed for is.

The US system of democracy is extremely flawed. Some states have discriminatory legislation regarding voting and even if a candidate wins a state the electoral college can vote the loser in as their presidential nominee. The whole issue of Presidents installing judges that can and have sided with that president when a major issue is at stake is just pathetic, undemocratic and downright criminal is some circumstances. Also their heavily amended constitution that provides the President with extraordinary powers and immunity from prosecution would not pass go in a genuine democracy. How their system functions at all is a mystery with the House & Senate often dominated by opposing parties. It seems almost annually the government runs out of money to pay its public servants & there is horse trading at the 11th hour to pass the bill to allow these people to get paid. Compulsory voting would never work there. They'd all be screaming about freedom to vote or not. They talk about freedoms but have some of the most draconian systems and laws around, worse than some with totalitarian regimes.

The West is so far behind China it is almost laughable. Companies like Shell have been divesting for years in new Electicity supply industries. Shell owns Powershop in Australia who I am now with as my Electricity supplier. Shell has partnered with BYD to build the biggest EV charging hub in the world (well it was when it was opened in September 23) in Shenzhen near the Shanghai airport that has 258 charge points & can charge 3300 EVs a day with rooftop solar producing 300,000 kWh a year. https://www.shell.com/what-we-do/mobility/mobility-news/shell-opens-largest-ev-charging-station.html