kgwilson

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.

My old 2012 Mitsubishi had a space saver tyre. It got used twice in 11 years. Got me home & to the tyre shop at 80 kph. My new MG4 hasn't got a spare wheel but has a tyre pump & a can of goo. That'll work for a nail but not for a major slash etc. However the car comes with free roadside assist for the first 7 years. There is a button in the roof console behind the rear view mirror & pressing that sends a help message with the GPS location of the car to the roadside assist mob who in Australia is NRMA. NRMA have my details in their database & ring my mobile number to ask what's wrong & advise when they will be out to fix my problem. Hopefully I'll never need to use it.

Well I woke up this morning at about 6:00 so am still woke. I won't be woke after about 11:00pm tonight for 7 or 8 hours & then I'll be woke again. I don't like being woke in the middle of the night.

Russia seems to do this all the time. Make up a story that has absolutely no basis in fact and is easily debunked but the Russian public are fed their official line and anything to the contrary is banned from publication.

A frog walks in to a bank and asks for a loan. The loans officer asks for his name. Kermit the frog says, Kermit Jagger, What's yours? Patrick he says Patrick Whack. How much do you want. I want $30,000.00 says Kermit. 30 thousand, good grief you're just a frog. I have a famous father says the frog, Mick Jagger. He is a good friend of the bank manager, go and ask him, he'll vouch for me. Look says Patrick it doesn't matter who your father is you can't get a loan without collateral. Kermit then fumbles about in his pocket and eventually pulls out a tiny pink elephant perfectly formed and says this is collateral now go and see the manager about my loan. So Patrick reluctantly goes in to the back office and bumps in to the bank manager on his way out to lunch and quickly relates the story in a a very condescending manner & then shows him the pink elephant offered as collateral saying what the hell is this supposed to be. The Manager says It's a nick nack paddy whack give the frog a loan his old man's a rolling stone.

He got out of NZ before he was booted out. He originally headed the tourist board there but made a series of blunders with failed campaigns and high tailed it to Australia claiming to have come up with the 100% Pure NZ slogan that became a famous tourist attraction statement but in fact had nothing at all to do with it. This was his BS claim to get the job with the Australian Tourist Commission & he was sacked from that job & then entered politics where he became a fundamentalist christian happy clapper and Malcolm back stabber. Went on holiday to Hawaii when the country was burning, grabbed peoples hands when they refused to shake his and the final insult of appointing himself to multiple ministries without telling anyone. One of the worst if not the worst Australian PM ever.

Greenlands ice sheet has been there for 2.6 million years.

I just saw that the 2024 Dakar Rally has just been won by Carlos Sainz & he is 61 now. The interesting thing is that it was in an Audi with an electric drive train powered by a generator driven by an internal combustion engine but it saves 60% of emissions compared to a standard ICE drive train so more or less a hybrid. Of course this is not a new concept, diesel electrics have been around for 120 years but now modern technologies have enabled this in rally cars. It is the torque available from zero rpm and getting that on to the ground that blows ICE powered vehicles away.

Trump can and he also has alternative facts. All the discussion on Woke & I still don't know what it is.

Extremes of temperature, wet and dry have always been there from the start of our recorded history mostly less than 100 years ago. It is the long term trends and by that I mean in the last century that are the most worrying aspect and the steadily increasing temperature medians are triggering extremes of heat, cold and wild weather rarely seen before, again in our very short term recorded history

Most ICE vehicles don't get past 200-400,000km in their life time. At that point they are worth very little & even if the engine is still good, the rest of the car is pretty tired and maintenance costs mount considerably. The batteries now being produced by CATL, BYD, LG, Panasonic etc using the same NMC chemistry as they have been for some years now have improved in quality and longevity dramatically. Some Chinese EV manufacturers are now providing a 500,000 km warranty on the battery. This is in China only but shows the confidence they have in the latest battery technology. Much of the improvement has come from battery management software that looks after the battery for the owner rather than relying on humans to manage it. My car has a 7 year unlimited km warranty on the battery. Others, generally more expensive EVs have 8 and 10 year warranties. Tesla built its first Gigafactory in Nevada in 2016. Included was a battery recycling facility. As at 2021 they had not recycled any batteries at all other than damaged ones. This is because used EV batteries have a ready market as battery storage in houses and commercial buildings and are still good for many years. When an EV battery is toast it is recycled as black mass. All of the minerals are recovered and can be reused in new batteries. The first Tesla roadster in 2008 based on the Lotus Elise chassis had a 50kWh battery which degraded to about 70% after 5 years and 80,000km. That is laughable now but those numbers are still being used by all sorts of anti EV people and publications. 1 million km is now a basic standard (at least from CATL) before the battery degrades to 80% of new. Newer technologies are even better including LFP & Sodium and others in the pipeline promise massive improvements. In 10 years time 1000km range will be normal with 5 minute charges giving 400km of range as a minimum. Already some EVs can get over 100km from a 5 minute charge. I am happy with my slow home charger and power from my rooftop solar. In 10 years time I'll be in my 80s & probably not driving much but at least I won't have pumped any emissions into the atmosphere between now and then.

When he won the IOWA republican selection some of the evangelicals were interviewed & asked why they voted for Trump, responded that god told them to.