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Electric Cars - the discussion continues.


Phil Perry

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Ford has lost an average of US$36,000 on every EV they've built in the last quarter (July to Sept 2023). Ford have come out with a statement that is obvious even to Blind Freddy - "new-car buyers do not want to pay more for battery-powered models, compared to traditional petrol and diesel-powered vehicles". Well, Dohh!

 

It's the simple reason why people are not abandoning their current petrol and diesel vehicles wholesale. We are probably typical. SWMBO's 2.5L, 11 yr old Camry gets about 7L/100kms. We fork out about $60-$80 about every fortnight to fill it up (even at $1.85 a litre). It'd take 20 yrs of fuel savings to pay for even the cheapest EV of the size of the Camry, on the current market pricing.

 

It might be just fine for those on $300,000 a year to lash out on a new $120,000 Tesla - it's probably just a huge tax deduction for them, anyway - but for us oldies on pensions, we're going to driving dinosaur juice transport for a long time to come yet, until new EV's reach parity pricing with new IC vehicles.

 

https://www.drive.com.au/news/ford-losing-36k-on-every-electric-car-it-builds/

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OME, I think your Hertz information is a little skewed. Hertz are travelling just fine, earlier this year they were a recommended stock to buy. They did go into bankruptcy, thanks to COVID - in 2020 - but pulled out of bankruptcy just a year later, in 2021.

 

However, you are correct about Hertz griping about the cost of repairing Teslas, and the value of their Tesla fleet dropping, thanks to Teslas major selling price drop.

 

Hertz currently own 35,000 Teslas, and still plan to buy 100,000 Teslas - but just not on the original time frame, which was for a quarter of their fleet to be EV's by 2024.

They originally said they would have their 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022, but I suspect Tesla were never capable of filling that order in that time frame.

 

Interestingly, EV's still only make up 11% of the Hertz fleet. However, this figure is still more than double the national EV ownership level in the U.S., which currently runs just under 5%.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/26/hertz-pulls-back-on-ev-plans-citing-tesla-price-cuts-repair-costs.html

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7 hours ago, onetrack said:

OME, I think your Hertz information is a little skewed.

I confess. Saying that Hertz was heading for bankruptcy was click bait. However, EVs are hitting Hertz's bottom line.

 

 The rental car company reported lower than expected margins for the period ending September 2023, and the CEO Stephen Scherr said EV repairs were one challenge. Musk frequently says that electric cars require less maintenance than counterparts with internal combustion engines (including plug-in hybrid electrics). But electric vehicle owners can face unique maintenance needs, as well. Nikhil Naikal, CEO of Kinetic, a startup that provides repairs for electric and autonomous vehicles, said “The reality of electric vehicles is that they can be 1,000 pounds heavier or more than gas vehicles, and they move faster, with higher torque.  It’s just physics — the ability to overcome inertia so quickly is going to effect their suspension systems, the brakes and steering columns. They especially require tire-swapping, because the tires wear out more quickly from that high torque and weight.”

 

So Hertz is faced with lower trade-in prices for the vehicles it bought new, but a lot cheaper than the price an individual would pay. There's no aftermarket source for replacement parts that are cheaper than OEM parts for things like body parts that get damaged. The usable life of tyres on EVs might be shorter than those of an ICE due to the higher weight of the EV if its tyres have a similar compound to those if ICE vehicles. Finally, hire cars of both types are flogged, so the drivetrain and brakes get a hammering.

 

Put all those things together, and the costs of operating a massive fleet of EVs shoot up. Already Hertz is reporting that the daily profit for EVs is less than that of its ICEs. Hertz is going Green, but it's green around the gills.

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I agree that ev's need to be as cheap as the cheapest ic cars before they can be expected to take over. I still expect this to happen soon. ( ten years)

Since converting a farm buggy to electric, I have noticed that electric SHOULD be a lot cheaper. It mainly needs cheaper batteries than the lithium types we have now.

 

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On 02/11/2023 at 9:51 AM, Bruce Tuncks said:

Since converting a farm buggy to electric, I have noticed that electric SHOULD be a lot cheaper. It mainly needs cheaper batteries than the lithium types we have now.

Bruce - you're supposed to recharge, not replace the batteries when they go flat! :evil grin:

Edited by Jerry_Atrick
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  • 1 month later...

What's the go with those headlights if that's what they are? Looks like 2 eyes with the iris wide open so most of the pupil is exposed. Putin will have these on the front line in Ukraine so they can see what the Ukrainians are up to no doubt. Russia has always had the knack of building ugly vehicles.

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Chatted to an X EV  owner today , he told me . He sold the EV as his travelling companions,  

Were unhappy with " going out of their way to find his ' charging stations ' ' .

He now owns a large Toyota Landcruiser Sahara V6 .

Weird! , couldn't get his friends to go electric. 

spacesslor

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On 20/12/2023 at 1:40 PM, willedoo said:

Look out Tesla - here's Russia's latest EV offering, called the 'Amber'. The customers will be lining up for this one.

 

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The story behind this thing is that the Avtotor plant in Kaliningrad, known for producing cars from BMW, Ford, KIA, and Hyundai until Western sanctions prompted them to look for a new venture, commissioned the Moscow Polytechnic University to design them a new car to build. So the university invented a clown car.

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