Electric car thread

[old man emu]

Not quite a conversion on the road to Damascus, but it looks like I'll be taking my first ride in an EV next week. My son has bought a BYD Shark 6 for himself

and a BYD Sealion for the family car.

 

My son has a business pimping up 4WDs. He worked out plans to do what he wants to his Shark and has had initial talks with the sellers of BYDs, interesting them in his idea. If his talks produce anything, his business will contract to do up these cars as special vehicles, which will add something special to retailer's offerings. 

 

From what he says, he thinks he will be starting limited production around Spring. As well as doing this stuff with BYDs, he will still be doing similar work on the usual suspects.

 

It's good to see a young man (geez! He's 36!!) having a go. I can only wish him success. However, no matter how successful he becomes in business, he'll still be my dickhead of a son.

[old man emu]

Just on another EV related topic. BYD recently announced that development of Sodium phosphate batteries has proved successful and that BYD is moving towards full production of this type of enegery storage. I think that the main advantages of sodium phosphate technology is a lower cost of raw materials and the elimination of the fire risks associated with lithium batteries.

 

BYD knows about economies of scale. Sodium phosphate batteries can only become the universal standard if the majority of manufacturers are using them. To get this change started industry-wide, BYD has apparently not patented the process, but is freelky sharing the knowledge with everyone who makes batteries. 

 

We shall see what we shall see.

[facthunter]

You will Love the test drive IF you allow yourself to. The Shark rides Beautifully. It HAS to be the way of the future. Gradually but surely.. Nev

[facthunter]

It is a truck so it's not an SUV, but the suspension is really good. Nev

[old man emu]

Since it wil be my son's family coming up for the funeral, it will most likely be the Sealion that I will drive. It's funny, but the thing that I want to test is how the vehicle decelerates from 100 kph to 80 kph. I have found just where to take my foot off as I approach the 80 zone at the edge of town and slow to 80 as I reach the speed sign. Similarly, I know where to back off from 100 as I approach my driveway.

[facthunter]

I think you'll cope. The less brake you use, the more electro regeneration but use the Brakes IF you have to like anything else. Some people consistently use less fuel than others do by thinking about how to  and applying it. Nev

[kgwilson]

My EV has 4 levels or regenerative braking. 1 is a bit like a normal ICE car, 3 is like applying brakes moderately & OPD (one pedal driving)

is adaptive based on how you take your foot off the accelerator. Take it of suddenly and it brakes very quickly & slower if you take your foot off slower. I use the brakes occasionally to stop the discs from rusting and becoming pitted. I know of a Tesla that had done nearly 700,000 km & went in for new tyres & they checked the disc pads & found them less that 30% worn.

[kgwilson]

On 18/02/2026 at 7:28 PM, old man emu said:

Just on another EV related topic. BYD recently announced that development of Sodium phosphate batteries has proved successful and that BYD is moving towards full production of this type of enegery storage. I think that the main advantages of sodium phosphate technology is a lower cost of raw materials and the elimination of the fire risks associated with lithium batteries.

 

BYD knows about economies of scale. Sodium phosphate batteries can only become the universal standard if the majority of manufacturers are using them. To get this change started industry-wide, BYD has apparently not patented the process, but is freelky sharing the knowledge with everyone who makes batteries. 

 

We shall see what we shall see.

Sodium Ion batteries have started to appear in a number of Chinese EVs. Battery cost is around 60-65% less but energy density is considerably lower at this stage of development though those using Sodium Vanadium phosphate have a much improved energy density but higher cost. CATL the worlds largest battery manufacturer is producing them under the Naxtra brand. Their big advantage is high output under harsh conditions from -40 to +70 degrees celsius

[red750]

One of the world’s biggest car companies has suffered a massive $37 billion loss and blame has been laid squarely on one key reason.

Stellantis, whose giant portfolio of car brands includes Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Ram, Chrysler, Jeep and Maserati has just recorded a net loss of €22.3 billion ($37 billion) it said was due to “over-estimating the pace of the energy transition”.

In other words lack of demand for its electric vehicles.

It has now made “a strategic shift to put customer preferences and freedom-of-choice back at the heart of the Company’s plans”.

Last month the planet’s fifth biggest car company behind Toyota Group, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group and General Motors was forced into an embarrassing backdown because customers had simply not signed up to its green energy dreams.

Those dreams have now become nightmares.

The $37bn loss was even greater than the $29bn predicted.

“Our 2025 full year results reflect the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition and of the need to reset our business around our customers’ freedom to choose from the full range of electric, hybrid and internal combustion technologies,” Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said.

“In the second half of the year we began to see initial, positive signs of progress with the early results of our drive to improve quality, strong execution of the launches of our new product wave and a return to top line growth.

 

news.com.au

[Marty_d]

On brighter news, review of the new electric Honda WN7 bike.

 

https://www.visordown.com/reviews/2026-honda-wn7-first-ride-ride-review

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:09 PM by Marty_d

[facthunter]

red, that's News Corpse BS.  NOT worth reading. Nev

[onetrack]

Stellantis' loss is purely and simply, shocking management, right from the top. Poor quality products, overpriced, constant poor assembly and poor manufacturing complaints from customers being ignored, a CEO who rewarded himself with a disgusting US$39M pay package, while his company was hiding massive problems and heading for a cliff.

 

Not to mention massively overpriced spare parts, and after-sales service that treated Stellantis customers like they were dog shit on salesmans shoes.

 

Remember the local Jeep owner who publically destroyed his new Jeep "lemon" that had mutliple faults that Jeep/Chrysler wouldn't fix under warranty? Jeep Grand Cherokee sales went from 16,582 annually in 2014, to just 645 in 2024!

 

Not exactly a stunning sales record! And every one of Stellantis' 14 automotive products has the same problems!

Senior management in this company needs to be sent back to Business School, to learn how to manufacture products that are relatively fault free, that people want, that are competitively priced, and where the customers get treated like the valuable clients they are! - not treated like they're just a nuisance!

 

Edited 21 hours ago by onetrack

[facthunter]

They buy struggling companies and don't help their  Name much. Nothing really to do with electric vehicles worthiness per se and I'll never get back the time I wasted reading the article. Nev

[kgwilson]

Pretty much all of the legacy auto manufacturers are declining. Stellantis is a basket case. Toyota has had its head in the sand for years thinking electric vehicles will disappear. They still have good sales in the West but are down worldwide considerably. Why is this happening? Unless you have been underground for the past few years it is obvious. Electric vehicles are taking over. Tesla made them mainstream but not for the average car buyer due to cost and the fossil fuel industry promoting misinformation. The rise of Chinese car manufacture is the main reason.

 

The world wide forecast increase in EV sales in 2025 was 21%, the same was in 2024.. The year ended with sales passing 25%. The December numbers in Australia were 38% up on the previous year surpassing expectations. EV sales now make up over 13% of car sales in Australia. China has now passed Japan as the largest supplier of cars to Australia. We are though one of the slowest EV converts in the Western world. Other reasons include range increases, very little maintenance, long warranties and most of all lower cost as basic small Chinese made EVs have reached price parity with ICE equivalents.

 

EV market share in the UK reached 23% by the end of 2025 with the rest of Europe 19.3%. The Nordic countries are way ahead with Noway (97%) & Denmark (70%) Sweden a bit lower at over 40% but 60% including hybrids.

 

Trump land has gone the other way as you might expect with a 1% decline overall other than in California, Washington & Colorado. Trump won't allow Chinese EVs in & GM, Ford & the US part of Stellantis are losing ground and bleeding capital by producing mediocre EVs. If it wasn't for Tesla the US market would be stuffed. Musk has done a good job of helping this occur.

[onetrack]

Your not correct on Toyota's position, they are still going gangbusters, and it's largely due to hybrids. They picked that EV's uptake would be slow, and that hybrids could fill in in the meantime, and that's where they're winning.

 

https://www.drive.com.au/news/toyota-breaks-global-sales-record-tops-2025-charts-for-sixth-year-running/