kgwilson

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

The newer superchargers are being installed with a battery buffer so they can deliver the full 350kW to the car even if the grid supply is only 150kW or less. During the day there is often a glut of power from rooftop solar and this leads to the spot price going negative. This is the time to fill up your batteries if you have them. I have just changed to an electricity supply plan that provides me with free power for 2 hours a day every day from midday to 2pm. As a retiree this works for me. My peak rate has fallen to 32c/kWh (was 42c) shoulder from 36c/kWh to 32c & off peak has increased from 27c/kWh to 32c/kWh and also my daily supply charge has fallen from $1.45 to $1.10. The downside of this plan is that my solar feed in tariff has gone from 7c/kWh to 1.4c/kWh. Based on my power consumption from the old plan the new one is considerable cheaper for me, plus I get free energy for the car. I was managing my charging based on solar generation but now I don't have to as when i am home the car automatically charges for the 2 free hours a day. I'll only need 2 to 3 days a week of free power in order to never have to pay for any charging at all, that is unless I go on a long trip. The existing grid is old and incapable of delivering what we need for the future. Successive governments have failed dismally in this regard and are trying to play catch up now. In NSW if you have a single phase 100 amp supply the maximum you can supply back to the network is 5kW/h so people with large solar systems on their roof have to use it or it just dissipates as heat. This is to protect the ageing network from falling over and causes the spot price to go negative. Future needs are not just EVs, everything is going electric. Look at power tools, lawnmowers, chainsaws, whipper snippers, eBikes & scooters. Then of course there is battery storage on every scale you can think of.

EV fires are incredibly rare but there has been a huge amount of disinformation spread by social media and the sensationalist press looking for headlines that they fail to verify. Between 2010 and June 2023 there were 4 EV fires in Australia. One was arson and the other 3 were parked in structures that burnt down. EV Firesafe has compiled the data and an EV has a 0.0012% chance of catching fire. Petrol and diesel cars have 0.1% chance of catching fire, about 100 times more likely but still a small percentage. Hybrids are more than 300 times more likely to catch fire than either pure ICE or EVs. https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/how-many-electric-cars-have-caught-fire-australia/ If a lithium ion battery experiences thermal runaway and catches fire the heat is extreme and they are almost impossible to put out until all the energy is dissipated & that depends upon the state of charge when the thermal runaway was caused. There have been quite a few fires caused in rubbish tips and even in rubbish trucks from old li-ion batteries that have been thrown out. The other main cause is people charging cheap electric scooters, bikes etc with incorrect chargers that have not built in limitations to prevent over charging. In some cases they keep charging till the battery explodes with pretty serious consequences. EVs have numerous safety mechanisms to stop anything like this ever happening. The battery charger is built in to the vehicle and will only charge at a given rate applicable to the battery no matter how much power you try to pump in. AC power first has to be converted to DC via the inbuilt inverter & the maximum from a single phase is limited to 32 amps or 7.4 kW. Some EVs will accept 3 phase power so can charge to a maximum of 22 kW. Most EVs have 400 volt architecture and some can charge at 350 kW from a DC supercharger. My EV has a maximum DC charging rate of 140 kW. Some of the new expensive EVs have 800 volt architecture and can charge at over 500 kW. In theory that means a car with a 100kWh battery could be charged from 0 to 100% in 12 minutes. Also the battery chemistry of EV batteries is not the same as your mobile phone or eScooter and is far more resistant to thermal runaway, plus of course the battery isolation function all EVs have if involved in a crash. Without it they would get a zero ANCAP rating. The newer LFP batteries are even better than the most common NMC EV batteries and BYD have produced a video showing nails and steel bars puncturing their blade batteries with no effect at all. The area punctured is isolated and the battery continues to operate. Sort of similar to self sealing fuel tanks in aircraft.

A cockpits common definition these days is where pilots & crew sit to fly an aeroplane but it is also used to describe a race cars drivers seating area. The words original definition was a pit where a cockfight happens and in the 1700s cockpit became the Royal Navy's term for the area where a coxswain, or ship's pilot, was stationed.

The emergency brake on the MG4 is the black flush mounted lever to the right of the rotary gear selector. It also actuates the parking brake but I never use it as the simple option is to press the rotary gear selector when the car is stopped. This takes the car out of drive or reverse & applies the parking brake automatically. For emergency braking you just pull the lever up with a couple of fingers and it is activated for as long as you have it pulled up.. I've never tested it though. All these electronic systems have to comply with ANCAP safety procedures so they have various parallel systems operating them in case 1 fails.

Some of the Chinese EV manufacturers have gone right over the top with all the screens some taking up almost the entire dashboard. Tesla though has opted for one centre screen which I personally do not like. It does make it easy for left or right hand drive but I prefer to have all the driving info directly in front of me. My MG has a screen directly in front of the driver with driving info like speed/odometer, battery %, power use, regen, ACC, driving mode, tyre pressures etc, and another bigger one in the centre with all the infotainment, Satnav, HVAC, car settings etc on it.

The MG 4 is the first car I've had with an electric hand brake. It is just a press of the gear selector dial to activate. Numerous cars have these now.

EV brakes are hydraulic like any other car. Mine has multiple brake assist features and most modern ICE cars have these as well. All these systems are automatically applied by electronics determined by what the software has been programmed to do when it detects certain conditions. Brake force can be applied to all or any wheel or combination of wheels. If the inbuilt radar and camera detect an obstacle or possible collision the brakes are automatically applied. For example I was driving down a suburban street and a woman stepped off the kerb between 2 cars. The car thought she was going to step into my path & slammed on the brakes. In fact she turned right and went to the drivers door from the front. I think the cars software did the right thing. This has happened a few times when reversing out of an angle park as well.

Nio has a model the ET7 with a 1000 km range. Nio CEO William Li, who has gained a reputation as China's Elon Musk, live-streamed his mammoth 1,044km journey from Shanghai to Xiamen on December 17 2023 in a test of the Chinese EV company's groundbreaking battery technology. He was left with 3% of battery & managed this during a cold snap in the Winter. The car has a massive 150 kWh battery. My car has a 64 kWh battery and I get 400km of range at 100-110 kmh (450 at 80kmh) so it isn't that special but of course it weighs 2434 kgs so as much as a big SUV.

The blue triangle is installed on all new EVs. There are probably older ones around that don't have them as they were made prior to the regulation. They would be required for a rego check but then you don't need a rego check until a vehicle is 5 years old. The blue trim on the logo of a Toyota hybrid doesn't inform anyone of anything.

There are all the same myths about tyre wear and cost. Wear is no different to ICE cars. It is the driving style that wears tyres out. At 13k mine show no noticeable wear at all but then I am not a hoon. Bigger low profile tyres are more expensive no matter what the method of traction is. As for brake pads, well they don't get used much at all. If I am in one pedal drive mode I almost never use the brakes & even without this not much either due to the regen doing most of the braking for me. A bloke with a 2018 model X Tesla from Brisbane got his first service done at 440,000 km & had the brake pads checked. They did not need replacing but he got them done anyway because it was convenient at the time. One of the things that concerned me initially about not using the brakes was cars behind me not knowing I was slowing down quickly. I then found out when the regen gets above a certain % it automatically puts the brake lights on. The same thing happens with auto hold which keeps the car stationary at traffic lights or whenever stopped without the brake pedal depressed. The manual advises you to use the brakes about once a week to stop the discs from rusting.

The McKinsey Mobility Consumer Pulse presentation released in June 2024 by McKinsey & Company that indicated that 46 percent of EV owners in the US are 'very' likely to switch back to gas-powered vehicles is based on data acquired since 2021 and the full report tells a different story & not just a headline grabbing statement. A lot has happened since 2021 & the sky is not falling in on EV owners, prospective purchasers or EV manufacturers as can be seen in the analysis below. Add to that the fact that this month EV production in China has now reached 50% of all vehicles manufactured there, the US & Europe have slapped huge import tariffs on Chinese EVs (100% in the US) in an attempt to protect their own EV manufacturers. Chinese EV technology is now several years ahead of the rest of the world and they are now the only good choice for sourcing of batteries and most US & European EV makers have capitulated & are installing Chinese batteries in joint venture deals. https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/27/unpacking-the-mckinsey-mobility-consumer-survey-henny-penny-edition/

Some of the Maga mob were asked if they would vote for trump if he became a dictator and they said YES. Then the system they have is considered a very flawed democracy that has been manipulated by the wealthy to maintain their influence and control. The whole electoral college process to select the President could over rule the voters. As it is Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 when he got in, was a long way behind in 2020 and who knows where this year. Joe came out with a few choice words after the debate debacle & hopefully there are enough intelligent Americans to keep the orange nutter out, this time for good..

He has hit the nail squarely on the head. It is the driving experience that is the game changer. The CEO of GM had a totally different outlook when I last looked at any interview or announcement from them. And yes Ford is the ONLY legacy US car maker that has NOT gone bankrupt. Of all the EV owners I know, there isn't one who is considering returning to an ICE vehicle. I also note that he has acknowledged and given credit to Elon Musk for re-inventing the EV and driving the change. I only watched the first 20 minutes when politics started coming in to the picture. About 95% of everything in any sort of battery can be recycled and this is where governments need to catch up and promote and subsidise setting up of battery recyclers like the one in Arizona, as well as legislating the recycling and promoting this to the stupid public till the message gets through. The problem is you can't legislate stupid. How dumb is it to bring a gas BBQ indoors to warm the house & that is just what happened the other day with a number of people poisoned by carbon monoxide.

ALL the Teslas in Australia are made in China. A mechanical door opening mechanism from the inside of the vehicle that over-rides the electronic locking mechanism as it is on my Chinese made EV is a good thing. I also have a manual key to get in from the outside. This is pretty common in modern cars.

If I was in the US I'd vote for "Literally Anyone Else". He actually exists & is going to stand if he gets the required number of signatures.

Some of the grey colours are horrible and just look like shiny mud. I reckon some were inspired by volcanic mud pools. For some weird reason they are trendy.

My last quarterly bill was $41.42. I have 8kW of solar panels and charge the car mostly when it is sunny. There have been a few cloudy days lately so I have charged a bit at off peak overnight. I get 4 hours of free power on Saturdays & Sundays so if I am home the car is being charged at full speed (32 AMPS or 7.4kW) then. MY EVSE (charger) can draw from 1 Amp to 32 Amps so depending on my solar generation I change it on the fly. I just got sent a publication called "The little book of EV myths" from Fully Charged. It is a PDF file with 47 pages of information correcting the rubbish commonly bandied about by the anti EV lobby which is supported by the right wing press and the fossil fuel industry. Well worth a read 20769 Little Book of EV Myths (Second Edition) PROOF 7.pdf

My choice to buy an EV was based on several factors in no specific order. This list is not exhaustive, just what came to mind when creating this post. 1. My old ICE car was 11 years old with 225k on the clock and was starting to have a few issues so it was time to upgrade to improve motoring reliability. 2. I am an Engineer and was impressed by the innovative engineering and technology of EVs plus the fact that driving one produces zero emissions, is super quiet, has no vibration, has an abundance of power, max torque from 0 rpm, & with almost 100% efficiency from the fuel it uses. 3. Maintenance is reduced dramatically. Teslas have no maintenance requirements at all. My first service is due at 40,000km & that is just to change the A/C filter & check fluid levels. 4. I produce more electricity than I consume so it made sense to use some of that to charge the EVs battery. I only pay for charging when more than 250km away from home. 5. Cost benefit analysis. Higher initial cost is offset by lower overall cost over the life of the vehicle. I have already saved over $2,200.00 in fuel costs since last September with no maintenance at all required. 6. My driving is not contributing to the global change in the climate. 7. Of all the motive technologies available, Electric made the most sense by miles and is easily the most successful. The future of survival on this planet is the use of electricity from non polluting sources. 8. I had enough money in the bank & figured that at 74 I should reward myself for my hard work in getting to this point in my life and besides who wants to be the richest person in the cemetery.

Scissor doors are more practical than gull wing doors especially in tight spaces. The MG Cyberster has these. They are a bit of a gimmick really & just another ego booster. https://www.mgmotor.eu/model/cyberster

Going up hills is is one of the reasons for my comment that power is effortless. You don't put your foot down at all even without cruise control on. The electric motor never has to rev harder and you can't hear it anyway. If you check the power value on the screen it will increase and decrease depending on the incline and goes negative (& turns green on my car) when going down an incline which means it is putting energy back in to the battery. If you are coming down a lengthy incline you will have gained some range by the time you get to the bottom. My car has 2 noise generators. The reverse noise generator sounds a bit like a reversing whine from a gearbox and is always on in reverse. The forward noise generator is a more subtle whine/woosh sound that cuts out at 35 kmh when tyre noise is loud enough to alert pedestrians. The electric traction motor makes no sound at all that I can hear. The kerb weight of my MG4 Essence 64 is 1672 KG which is no heavier than many ICE cars and lighter than pretty much all SUVs and 4WDs. After 13,000 km to date there is no noticeable tyre wear.

Compared to driving ANY ICE car driving an EV feels completely effortless. There is no noise or vibration and no change in engine note when acceleration is required. I drive SES utes & trucks & my wifes ICE car & recently a friends flash Mercedes C300. I went for a ride in a ROUSH which is a severely modified Mustang with 750HP on Sunday. The power was amazing but so was the noise. Off the line the MG could keep up with it for a couple of seconds as full torque starts from 0 rpm. The difference is stark. The Merc is very quiet & refined as it should be for its 6 figure price tag but there is still the rpm factor when the accelerator is pressed & the inevitable torque delay. I get in my MG4 & feel totally relaxed accelerate away with effortless smooth power, absolutely no noise and instant torque off the line. It is impossible to explain, you have to experience it. EVs are the future now, ICEs are last century. One moving part that rotates compared to hundreds of moving parts going up & down & all directions trying to tear themselves apart generating 30% of power & 70% or heat from the fuel consumed compared to close to 100% power from the energy consumed. No contest.