Electric car thread

[red750]

Participation has been down for a few weeks.

 

Our shed had a BBQ day today, run by the group from the ladies day. Quite a turnout.

[nomadpete]

I'm still saving up for a EV. But I put a self imposed deadline on myself.

 Only put 6 months rego on the old faithful Mitzi Outlander. With 350,000k on the clock she is getting a bit tired. At last oil change I gave her some 15w 50 oil which quietened the engine rattle down a lot.

[facthunter]

They depreciate fast. A carefully chosen Second Hand one might be worth considering.. Nev

[Brendan]

On 11/10/2026 at 2:42 PM, old man emu said:

Just wathed an Australian video about towing with a BYD Shark and its fuel consumption. The Shark has a small battery and IC engine for charging during use. The bloke was towing a 3 tonne caravan and crossing Queensland east to west. He said that his fuel consumption was 24 litres/100km crossing the Divide, but when he got out on the flat country it went up to about 44 litres/100km. He attributed the difference to the lack of regenerative braking in teh flat country.

 

With that flat country consumption, who could afford to use one of these for towing? As far as I can see, the Shark seems to be a good vehicle, if you are looking to drive a Toorak Tractor. 

My trucks use around 30-35 /100 km at gross weight of 27 tonnes .

 

 

[Brendan]

On 11/10/2026 at 11:46 PM, red750 said:

I know it's a totally different animal, but my 22 year old Holden Astra, a rebadged German Opel, has the turn indicators on the left of the column, wiper/washers on the right. My daughter, for God knows what reason, has her heart set on a Ford Mach 1, the electric version of the Mustang. It has the 'gear' selector on the right of the column.

I have ridden in a few evs the last 2 weeks in the US.  Uber rides, mustang mach e was nice . Kia evs good , didn't think much of the tesla 3 but liked the Tesla model s. All the drivers said they saved them a fortune compared to ice. But  on hot days  there range is cut right back running the aircon . My cousin in Phoenix bought a new all electric Audi last year but got rid of it due to range issues. I also got a ride in a hybrid camry, the driver preferred it because he doesn't have to lose time charging during the day and it returns around 55 mpg.

And waymo driverless taxis are everywhere now, cousin's husband said they have 10,000 of them and more on the way. 

 

Edited Thursday at 10:33 AM by Brendan

[old man emu]

We grew up comparing the fuel consumption of vehicles in terms of volume per unit of distance - mpg or l/100km. From those figures we could work out how much it cost to travel a given distance. Now we are given the "fuel capacity" of an EV in kiloWatthours (kWh). Shouldn't electricity consumption figures be quoted in km/kWh?

 

Here's an example:  A vehicle can go 80 kms on a 30 kWh battery. That's 2.6 kms/kWh. One kWh costs, on average 30 cents. That's about 12 cents per km. 

 

Yes, I know. If you have your own solar generation the electricity allegedly costs nothing (ignoring set up costs for the solar system). But go away from home and you have to pay.

 

 

[facthunter]

When you get in anything you need to Know How Long the fuel will keep you going.  (range). before you commit. A lot of fuel Gauges are not that accurate.. IF you got a Leak , or the engine for some reason consumed at above the Normal (expected ) rate, where would you be?  You need to know your Endurance always. ATC can ask you what it is.  Nev

[red750]

https://7news.com.au/motoring/tesla-roadster-revealed-with-flying-tech-08sec-0-100kmh-sprint-time-c-23030045

 

 

Watch the video at the bottom of the page.

[nomadpete]

Is that a useful vehicle, or just another vanity wankmobile?

[Marty_d]

Yeah- I'd be saying to Tesla shareholders - This is the guy you want to pay a trillion dollars? Some immature idiot who never grew up and spends your money designing rocket cars for other rich idiots?

[facthunter]

My Father used to say "There's a Fine line between Genius and Madness"  I think that applies with this Bloke. That rate of acceleration would average 3.54 "G"s NO practical use whatever but it is a noteworthy achievement.

[old man emu]

17 hours ago, red750 said:

https://7news.com.au/motoring/tesla-roadster-revealed-with-flying-tech-08sec-0-100kmh-sprint-time-c-23030045

 

 

Watch the video at the bottom of the page.

I hope that my reasoning is correct, bit if one goes from zero kph to 96.5606 kph in 0.81 seconds, that is an acceleration of 12G. Humand black out around 8G.

[facthunter]

AI gave me the 3.54 G figure and that was to 80Kph .   What "G" you can stand depends on the direction you are accelerating. If you were Prone you could take about 4 times as much.  Nev

[Litespeed]

 

I call a big fat bullshit to almost everthing Musk says and does.

 

I dont see his flying car as anything but hyper marketing that will be nothing like the car that is on sale.

 

The acceleration is technically possible but highly suspect. Some hyper electric cars can do a sub 2 sec claimed to 100, the worlds fastest is 1 sec and thats a special electric hyper go cart of small size and massive short term power. Its drivers report a very scary drive and G block would be a thing if not for the very short drive time. This is more that F1 acceleration.

 

Anything under 3 secs is extreme acceleration and requires great skill to safely use and the right conditions.  My BMW bike is capable of 2.6 sec to 100kmh and that feels extreme and keeps rocketing once you get past that.  80kmh overtaking can easily be 160 if passing a truck in mere seconds, any car capable of that type acceleration would be deadly in most hands. 

 

We absolutely do not need more cars like Musk is pushing.

 

On to the flying claims- absolute bullshit. The "car" that had rockets and apparently suction fans seems fake. Yes, the fans are possible as they are proven on the Mcmurty Sperling, but thats a track dedicated single seater and relies on pressure gradient to suck it to a surface. It has no rockets, and as soon a ground\surface contact is lost, so is the suction. 

 

I would think the flying one is a 200-300kg dummy made of carbon with thrusters and fans or even a electromagnet on the track it climbs and clings to. It falls and moves to smoothly in the video to be realistic. Or a hidden arm not seen on camera, I am sure his AI  could hide the arm.

 

I think its just a big bullshit campaign to push share prices and way overpromise as per normal.

 

I await years of promises, lost money and then followed by claims that the FAA banned it because it could "really Fly".

 

 

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, Litespeed said:

I dont see his flying car as anything but hyper marketing that will be nothing like the car that is on sale.

On the money there.

No practical use in real world transporting humans around.

 

No mention of the vast amount of energy required for VTOL.

 

No mention of what powers the thrustors which seemed to have blue flames, and I call BS on his claim that it uses compressed air - where is that stored?

 

No mention of range regardless of its power source.

 

Claimed to weigh 300kg - well that ain't a battery EV. And I can't see compressed air propolsion giving all that power.

 

Finally no chance it will go into production - unless he is just trying to prove Darwin's Theory. The average DkHd would remove themself from the gene pool with one of these.

Edited 5 hours ago by nomadpete

[facthunter]

Got your attention though hasn't it? Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, nomadpete said:

No practical use in real world transporting humans around.

We all know that heavier than air vehicles are real. Haven't all of us here broken free from the bonds of earth in a plane?  The thing that prevents general transport a la The Jestsons is how does one  quickly stop a moving vehicle the is in an almost fritionless environment.

 

Our ground vehicles can be stopped because their rotating wheels can be made to stop rotating by brake systems. It's not the friction between the tyre and the surface that stops a ground vehicle. It is the wheel no longer turning on its attachment to teh vehicle.

[facthunter]

Without friction, as on ice, you have NO control whatever as to where it ends up. It will go where Inertia and gravity sends it. Have you driven Much in the high Country in winter or a frosted road in the Morning?  Even worse on a Motorbike. Nev

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Our ground vehicles can be stopped because their rotating wheels can be made to stop rotating by brake systems. It's not the friction between the tyre and the surface that stops a ground vehicle. It is the wheel no longer turning on its attachment to teh vehicle.

Sure. That one aspect raises another energy requirement of non ground vehicles.

 

Land vehicles can stop without expending energy. Air vehicles require extra energy to stop or turn.

 

So apart from a very great amount of energy to levitate, even more energy is needed to stop and to turn. 

 

Historically, this energy requirement has hampered every previous attempt at flying (even our aeroplanes).

 

Has Mr musk found a new great lightweight energy source?

 

If not, the magical levitating car is just a PR exercise, probably aimed at raising money.

[Marty_d]

It's useless anyway. Musk himself said the rocket version would be illegal on public roads.

And if it's a normal EV weight (plus the weight of the rocket system) then one of the 5 second stunts it did probably drains the rocket fuel.