kgwilson

Typically French with weird looks & where do you put the shopping bags. Great round town concept though & you could easily just park it bum to kerb.

I haven't been here for a while. A few comments. EV sales world wide continue to grow despite a downturn in some markets & that downturn also applies to ice cars. Toyotas sales have slumped in China despite growing in other markets but with a world wide decline. 40% of all cars now sold in China are pure electric 1000km range is now common among the top level Chinese EVs. Nio, BYD, Geely & Tesla (Chinese built) now have 1000km range options NMC & LFP batteries are proving to last much longer than even the pundits thought. CATL now provide a 1 & 1.5 million km warranty for new bus/truck batteries in China. Geelys Zeekr has a battery that can be swapped out in under 4 minutes at an automated battery swap station. A good small hatchback EV in China now costs 16-20k. Battery prices have reduced by over 40%in the last year though that is not reflected in new EV pricing mainly due to many manufacturers selling at a loss & so are now making up for lost profit. The surge in Chinese EVs around the world has started a price war especially at the +60k end of the market. So what do these comments mean for us in Australia? The future is here, it just takes a while to trickle down to backwaters like Australia where our charging infrastructure is abysmal and prices are high. There are few places that can repair EVs after a crash & many Insurance companies write them off after relatively minor damage. There is a general reluctance to change which is normal but not sensible. Smart vehicle service organisations will be upskilling to take advantage of the increase in EV numbers. Those who don't will eventually die out. A year ago EV sales were about 2-3% of all vehicle sales. That number has jumped to just over 10% now. There are a lot more hybrids (mainly Japanese) around than a year or so ago. These appeal to many but the facts show that they are not as efficient as they have been made out to be by the manufacturers, they are complex with 2 propulsion systems and expensive both to manufacture and maintain. My top of the range MG4 cost 47k but then that is less or similar to a hot ICE hatch. It has 150kw (204 hp) of power available from zero rpm & beats most ICE cars off the line, has superb handling & makes no noise except from the tyres & noise generator at 20km/h or less. It costs virtually nothing to run as I charge at home from solar energy & requires very little maintenance. The first scheduled service is at 2 years of 40,000km. Teslas do not have any maintenance schedule at all. So yes I am a convert and won't ever go back to an ICE car. The argument over whether EVs are really greener continues but this article provides some interesting findings. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-27/comparing-electric-cars-and-petrol-cars/103746132

Well no you can't. When the charger is plugged in it is locked so can't be removed until you tell the car to unlock it and charging power is stopped.

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.

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.

EVs have been driven across the Nullabor, and all around and across Australia. There are plenty of you tube clips and documented road trip data to show this. It is true that the public charging network is poor but it is improving. It doesn't bother me much as I've only done 2 long trips in 6 months. I charge the battery at home from solar power so my driving costs virtually nothing, though public chargers can be expensive. Then so is petrol & diesel & it gets dearer the further away from main centres you go. A company in Darwin is building modular charging stations that can be delivered on the back of a truck anywhere in Australia with 2 to 4 charging stations and a mini solar farm to keep the batteries full. The cost is miniscule compared to establishing a petrol station and the fuel does not have to be continually transported there. The anti EV lobby is a bit like the anti horseless carriage lobby of the late 19th century. There were no petrol stations when the first cars hit the road. Fuel had to be bought from a pharmacy. ICE car production won't disappear till the mid 30s & then ICE cars will continue to operate for 10 or so years after that. Things will change as they always have though some will have to be brought in to the future kicking and screaming. The writing is on the wall. In the last 300 years humanity has used up most of the fuel it took 4.5 billion years to amass. Now there are over 8 billion of us. Changing how we inhabit this planet is not an option if we are to survive at all. It won't bother anyone reading this as we will all be dead. People being born now are the ones who will have to fix what we have created. I hope they can.

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.

I put in a 2kW system in 2013. Fully installed with all the subsidies deducted it cost me $4,500.00 In February I installed an additional 6.6kW system. I got 4 quotes from 7.5k to 4k. When making the comparison I found the cheapest system had the best panels & a good quality 5kW inverter. Though the maximum out put of the panels is 440W each (there are 15 of them) this is rarely achieved so they always install a 5kW inverter. After checking everything out I took a punt & went with the cheapest quote ($3,990.00) They had excellent reviews, the best warranties and an on line documentation process plus they were the only one to advise I needed an export control device (also included) as the maximum feed in to the grid in NSW from single phase is 5kW. The inverter has a WiFi module and I can track the system from anywhere in the world from a phone app or from a PC. I had no idea who the installer was till he rang me & I found he lives just around the corner & installed my original system in 2013. He has installed 4500 systems so far. Since the 14th of February the new system has produced 1.8 megawatts & I am charging my car solely from the solar energy I produce. My guess is I will pay the system off within 2 years just from free power for the car battery without considering that everything else used during the day is from solar energy plus the 7c/kWh feed in tariff I get for what I don't use. Peak energy production around mid-day is just under 7kW.

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.

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.😬

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?

Getting back to electric cars and battery size and weight. Fully Charged asked CATL if they could visit their manufacturing plant fully expecting a very resounding NO. Their resident reporter in China was amazed when they said Yes. The video does not show any of their super secret stuff but provides a good insight into how car traction batteries are made and the extremely complex and precise processes that are employed to make them. The average Lithium NMC (nickel managese cobalt) EV batter has an energy density of between 150 & 200 Wh/kg. LFP EV batteries are a bit lower at between 100 & 150 Wh/kg. However they are now producing a NMC battery for Aviation that has more than doubled the energy density to 500 Wh/kg. Also late last year researchers in China have reported 711 Wh/kg in pouch type lithium batteries. If they manage to get to 1kW/kg the battery in my car would weigh only 64kg https://youtu.be/j1jWp9WxGLM?si=eAy-DAqv0n_8oD0R

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.

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.