Electric car thread

[spacesailor]

An ex son-in-law had a wallet full  ' use one to pay the other ' , one day he was told to add up all the CC  membership & monthly account charges , shocking almost a $ thousand .

Big noting himself cost a lot.

( buys motorbike tyres from the states ).

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

Went for a walk & got picks of the " shopping centre EV power-bank" .

 

now I know it's " EVIE " .

spacesailor

 

Edited April 24 by spacesailor
Unable to fix picture

[facthunter]

There's potential for you yet. Why is the "Need Help" Bit inverted?  Nev

[red750]

https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/520km-in-5-minutes-chinese-giant-catl-unveils-shenxing-ev-battery/news-story/f794e0b0ec6bba72b993bbbc1f7c506d

[Jerry_Atrick]

 

 

[kgwilson]

I have been away for a while. I am coming up to 2 years of EV ownership. As with 90% of EV owners I charge at home. The MG4 came with a granny charger. You don't get one with some brands. Tesla give you nothing now. I have used the granny charger once & that was to make sure it worked. I installed a 7kW wall charger & I get free power for 2 hours a day. I also have 8kW of solar panels so my running costs are negligible.

 

The network is better than it was 2 years ago & there are now many "Destination Chargers" at hotels & motels & these are usually free. In the 25,000km I have driven so far I have spent about $150.00 at fast chargers. As with most people I don't do many long trips. The average car owner travels to/from work each day & except for long trips on holiday etc all charging is done at home.

 

The charging process varies and the simple way is to register with each of the main suppliers. I have with Evie, Chargefox, BP, Ampol & Tesla. I have an RFID card which is registered with 3 of them. I pull up, plug in scan the card & that's it. If there is a queue it is bad etiquette to charge to 100% as the last 20% will be slow. I have not had a problem waiting long & by the time I have been to the loo & had a coffee or bite the car is ready. In the MG4 the WLTP range is 450km. At 110kmh I get around 380. After that many I am ready for a break. From Coffs to Noosa I stop once for lunch & charge top up (20-30 minutes). Admittedly this is on the main highway & chargers are everywhere. The thing is the car has a built in Satnav with a charging planner & it knows what range there is and will tell you which charger to go to & in many cases can tell you if the charger is in use or not.

 

So where are we going from here? Well CATL, the worlds largest battery manufacturer has recently announced a new battery technology that uses a combination of 2 types (lithium & sodium) to provide a range of 1500km and can get 520km of range in a 5 minute charge. That is quicker than filling a petrol tank. The new tech breakthrough is with Sodium ion technology. Of course sodium is everywhere. The sea is full of it & it is cheap.

 

https://carnewschina.com/2025/04/21/battery-giant-catl-showcases-three-innovations-1500km-range-battery-520km-in-5-minutes-ultra-fast-charging-and-2025-mass-production-sodium-ion-battery/

 

This is now where battery & charging technology is up to. The only thing that will happen from now on is that it will get better & better. Already battery warranties are 1.5 to 2 million km or lifetime, The battery will outlast the rest of the car.

 

EV haters will continue to abound but they are being rapidly drowned out with reality & the uptake of EV ownership continues to climb (Tesla excepted due to the Musk factor). Worldwide 17 million new EVs were sold in 2024 representing a 20% increase on the previous year. The new government is not only supporting the switch to electric vehicles but also getting more home batteries installed. Since the election home battery installers have had a massive increase in orders and inquiries. The electric future is here.

[onetrack]

Kevin, how long does it take to charge the MG4 on the granny charger? I presume that charger simply uses a standard 10A, 240V socket?

 

Is the 7kW wall charger a 3 phase unit? What did the installation of that charger cost? I'm surprised they're measured in kW, I would've thought the charger would be measured in amperage capacity.

 

Do you get lower charging costs late at night, or in the wee small hours, when power demand is normally much lower?

[kgwilson]

13 hours ago, onetrack said:

Kevin, how long does it take to charge the MG4 on the granny charger? I presume that charger simply uses a standard 10A, 240V socket?

 

Is the 7kW wall charger a 3 phase unit? What did the installation of that charger cost? I'm surprised they're measured in kW, I would've thought the charger would be measured in amperage capacity.

 

Do you get lower charging costs late at night, or in the wee small hours, when power demand is normally much lower?

The granny charger that came with the car is limited to 8 Amp input or 1.84 kW and the inverter will probably provide about 1.5kW DC to the battery so to charge the 64 kWh battery from empty would take 2 1/2 days You can get 10 & 15 amp granny chargers from Ali Express  pretty cheap. The MG limit is probably due to the average idiot using a 1.5mm extension lead causing excessive heat plus leaving it coiled etc. 

 

Indeed the wallbox is rated at 32 Amps (7.4kW input single phase). 3 phase units are rated at 11 Amps or 22 Amps with 32 amps for all 3 phases. No point from my perspective as I only have single phase at home & the car inverter is also single phase. I installed it & and my sparky friend signed it off. Cost only about $100.00 for the 12 metres of 6mm TPS cable & a 40 amp RCCB. I hard wired the wallbox. It is called an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) as it just supplies AC power to the car. The car inverter then charges the battery. It is configurable in 1 A increments from 6A to 32A. This can be automated via software to link in with the solar supply though I don't have that version. The EVSE is from ZJBeny & cost $550.00. The flasher version was over a grand. If I need to charge on a cloudy day I just go in to the App on my phone & limit the input amps.

 

I get free power every day from 12:00 to 14:00. This is the daytime plan from my retailer. The night time plan provides power at about 5-6C/kWh from midnight to 4:00am but the daytime plan suits me better. My last 3 power bills have been credits & I am only getting 1.14 cents/kWh for export now.

 

When i get home I just plug the car in & it will charge between 12 & 2 unless I amend it from the car app on my phone which I do from time to time.

 

Last week I did a couple of longish trips & only had 7% of battery left when I got home. I charged for an hour or so while the solar was still producing & re-started the charge the next morning at about 9 am at 20 amps & increased it to 32 amps at about 11 am then left it till the car stopped the charge at 80% & ran it's cell balancing program for about 20 minutes & it was complete by about 2:45pm.

Edited May 12 by kgwilson

[old man emu]

As I drove on Tower Road, Bankstown Airport on Monday, I noticed that a couple of parking bays had EV charging units. Other than that I know nothing about them.

[facthunter]

I would like a White Charger.  Then I could dart into the Fray. Nev

[facthunter]

Do a Test Drive, OME. Nev

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, facthunter said:

Do a Test Drive, OME. Nev

That implies an interest in purchasing a vehicle. Purchasing vehicles involves parting with money. I've got none to part with.

 

But I would like to try a familiarisation drive, just to see how different or similar they are to ICEs.

[spacesailor]

OME ,

NRMA ' are going to do a free ' familiarisation with different eevee's .later this year . I must get 

a reservation to one . As some are not made for the elderly. 

I was watching a " MG 2023 on " slatteryauctions.com.au ",

& surprise , it sold ( with plates & a months rego ) for $ 20,500 . (  one half marketvalue ) .

a Tesla 3 is hard for me to ' duck my. head into  .

sspacesailor

[Jerry_Atrick]

Do you know what makes me larf.. Many here are pilots.. and yeah.. OK many are RAAus pilots.. But how much do we spend on a vehicle that most spend less than 50 hours a year using, and how inefficient is it (really at the GA level anyway), yet we worry about a battery in an EV.. Fair diddly dinkum.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Do you know what makes me larf.. Many here are pilots.. and yeah.. OK many are RAAus pilots.. But how much do we spend on a vehicle that most spend less than 50 hours a year using, and how inefficient is it (really at the GA level anyway), yet we worry about a battery in an EV.. Fair diddly dinkum.

There ya go, highjacking a great thread by chuckin in rational logic.....

[nomadpete]

And I've got a sailboat - the worlds most expensive and slowest way to go someplace for free.

Edited May 14 by nomadpete
But I can claim it's powered by the sun.

[facthunter]

Get under a cold shower and tear up banknotes. The same result with less threat to life. I plane is a great way to make a small fortune IF you start with a big one, and they don't call Farmers Peasants for no reason.  Nev

[red750]

[facthunter]

Bit off topic there.. Back to Batteries. The clean Future of personal transport free of the OIL monopoly and a local product for the fuel source. Independent of many  manipulative Fossil fuel protaganists wedded to profits from an inefficient use of a limited and polluting  resource imported and not secure. Nev

[onetrack]

Here's a story about how the Chinese are going all-out on a major onslaught on the major car manufacturers of the world - especially Tesla, but also the big global brands.

 

The Chinese are knocking up their own huge, specialised car-carrying ships to ensure they can flood the market with stocks of new cars, meaning no wait times, and multiple choices for buyers.

 

BYD sold 88,640 cars into overseas markets just in May alone, that puts them on course to sell 1,000,000 cars a year, just in exports. Meantimes, Australia's TOTAL car market (that's ALL manufacturers) is just 1,000,000 cars a year.

 

If you order a car from someone like Toyota, stock is limited and demand is high, so that means you have minimal choices, or you go on a wait list for months and months.

 

The Japanese manufacturers are about to get a rude shock, I cannot believe the number of BYD vehicles I'm seeing on the road now, and that is only going to increase. 

 

https://au.news.yahoo.com/byd-photos-show-ev-race-heating-up-as-china-looks-to-topple-tesla-its-insane-012054850.html

[Siso]

some figures on what it would take to power a large tractor on batterys

 

[nomadpete]

The doubters once claimed that those new fangled internal combustion engines can never match the reliability and endurance of horses on the farms. Or of steam traction engines. But I don't see many horse drawn ploughs or harvesters.

 

It's still early days for modern electric traction machinery.

 

Maybe it never will replace the farmer's trusty John Deere machines. Maybe it will.

[spacesailor]

I have the chance of a 2015 Tesla 85 Sd , one owner with high ks 210,00 ,

(  Newcastle to Sydney commute ) . Immaculate condition. 

Every one around me say no . Too old at ten years , & the battery could fail in a few years.

No way could I afford a newer " up- market  " electric car .

So, I leave the money for the " kids inheritance " .

I'd rather buy a nice last car .

spacesailor

 

[octave]

This video makes a good case against Henry's farm running only on electricity. I have no problem with that proposition.  This is of course with today's technology. Just to be clear a lot of people think that net zero means not burning fossil fuels at all.   This is not true. Net zero means a balance between greenhouse gases added and those removed.  The anti EV folks love to present the worst-case scenarios as if that proves something.  People have often said to me EVs are useless because I need to tow a caravan through central Australia. Yes this would be difficult at this stage, and I would suggest that such a person should not buy an EV at this time. My petrol-driven car would also be unsuitable for these kinds of drives.

 

It will probably be some time before Henry's farm can operate on only electricity and perhaps in the future it will use some other fuel such as hydrogen.  The massive imports of diesel are not really sustainable forever.

 

Enormous farms will take a long time to be in a position to adopt cleaner technologies however, smaller farms are modernising.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhnU2wlBnFs&t     

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

I have the chance of a 2015 Tesla 85 Sd , one owner with high ks 210,00 ,

(  Newcastle to Sydney commute ) . Immaculate condition. 

Every one around me say no . Too old at ten years , & the battery could fail in a few years.

No way could I afford a newer " up- market  " electric car .

So, I leave the money for the " kids inheritance " .

I'd rather buy a nice last car .

spacesailor

 

My take on it is that a 2015 Telsa is likely to give you issues with build quality more than the battery itself. But, yes, battery technology has moved forward from 10 years ago. But, like any other car, you can check it yourself, or get a pre-purchase inspection of the battery.. though it would be at a dealer: https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/transport/electric-vehicles/buying-a-second-hand-electric-car.html

 

The good think about a high mileage EV is that they suffer less vibration than an ICE car, so other biths that tend to fall off don't, and of course, there is simply less to go wrong with an EV anyway. 

 

A nice last car can be an EV... a lemon of a last car can be an ICE. There are still cars that have faults in their engine design and build leading to recalls.. Buy a second hand one of those where the dealer no longer supports the recall/warranty, and you're as SOL as if a BEV battery dies.. And the costs to fix/replace can be the same as a new battery. When you consider how mature the ICE engine technology is, and the body of knowledge built up over more than 100 years, it is a little damning on how bad that technology really is that there are still basic design and build flaws.

 

(SOL is 'Merican speak for ship out of luck).

 

Edited June 6 by Jerry_Atrick