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I have just passed 50,000km in my 2023 MG4 Essence 64. Maintenance so far nil except new windscreen after it was hit with a stone. Faults, drivers window stopped working & electric motor under tray bulging. Both fixed under warranty. Service, one at 40,000 km. Just required checks to all components & new pollen filter. Tyres still have 10-15,000 km tread left. Cost to run about $150.00 spent at fast chargers when on long trips. At home charged from solar exclusively from a 32 Amp charger purchased at the same time as the car. That cost $530.00 but energy cost zero. I reckon I have saved between $8-10,000.00 over an equivalent petrol vehicle.

You do seem to have range anxiety and that is normal for most people entering the full BEV sphere. When you have 48% of battery capacity left there is absolutely no need for concern. You can stop at any supercharger & just take as much as you need to get to your destination. I was getting low when coming back from Noosa to home near Yamba. Distance was about 100km & range 95km. I could have slowed down & made it but I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger & got 5 or 6 minutes at 130-140kW which was easily enough to get home at 110kmh & then some to run around town the next day. The last 20% of battery capacity takes almost as long as from 10% to 80% & it is considered bad form by most of us EV drivers to charge beyond 80% especially if someone is waiting. Planning long trips is something we all do as the charging infrastructure is still in its infancy. Back in the early 1900s there weren't many petrol stations & initially you had to buy it in cans from a Chemist. EV public charging is getting better all the time. Range anxiety no longer exists in China as they have the infrastructure in place already. I often plan a stop after about 2-3 hours driving and at a fast charger (50-80 kW) at a shopping centre. These are much cheaper than a Supercharger but slower. I then have a bite to eat, use the toilet etc & when I get back after 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour or so the car is back up to about 80% & I carry on. In my old ICE car I did the same but usually did not need to fill up if I left home with a full tank. I still had to fill up at my destination anyway. A lot of hotels & motels have "Destination Chargers". These are slow chargers like the wall charger I have at home. Some have type 2 cables but some don't so having your own is handy. You can charge the car over night and often it is free. The 3 pin charger that comes with the car is called a Granny charger & in Australia is limited to 8 amps. The maximum size portable chargers are 15 Amps & have a 15 amp plug. You can get a 32 Amp socket installed by your electrician but is will require a 6mm supply cable & you will need a 32 amp 7.4 kW charger. It is better to install a 7.4kW wall charger as it has all sorts of functions allowing you to choose to charge from solar or at off peak etc. My MG 4 is now 3 years old & has a maximum of 140 kW charging capacity. At a 350 kW charger I get at least 120 kW up to about 80% full. The problem generally doesn't lie with the car but with the grid supply to the supercharger. Most don't have a supply anywhere near as big as the cars capacity to charge and have a relatively small storage capacity which will be used quite quickly especially if there are several chargers & they are all being used at once. Note in China they now have 1.5 megawatt chargers for use with EVs having 1000 volt architecture. These can charge the EV from 10% to 80% in 5 minutes. The whole issue with having various apps & cards is a pain. Why they can't just all accept a credit card is ridiculous. I do have an RFID card for a couple of charging outfits & that is simple but it still charges to my credit card anyway. The best one is a company here called Evie & once the car is registered with the company I just plug in & it charges without any other requirements. When finished my credit card is charged & I get a notification & receipt on my phone. Way simpler than getting petrol. With no engine noise and effortless power & full torque from zero rpm your stress levels are definitely lower on a long trip. The RWD on the MG & 50/50 weight distribution provides superb handling & booting it out of a corner is magic. No other hot ICE car can compare. I am sure the Beamer is the same, most likely better. I hate driving the wifes ICE car and especially hate going in to a stinky petrol station.

Chinese startup Windrose was only founded in 2022 and planned to compete with the Tesla Semi but like most other Chines EV technologies has already surpassed Tesla. Their latest Generation 2 offering has a 700km range fully loaded & the next Gen 3 model will have a 1000 km range due out in 2028. They have their HQ in Antwerp & plan to sell worldwide. https://www.windrose.ai/ In China though heavy Electric trucks have just surpassed Diesel in sales. There are over 500,000 heavy electric trucks on Chinese roads already.

I had an odd experience at work yesterday. A work colleague and I sparred quite some time ago- around the time of the election - about Chump; he was defending Chump vehemently and of course I took the opposite position. We respectfully agreed to disagree and left it at that. I probably wrote about it on this thread. Yesterday was the first time in eons we were in the office coincidentally. To be honest, I had totally forgotten our conversation, but he dragged me aside and quietly conceded he was very wrong about Chump,, Interestingly, the final straw wasn't the criminal activity nor the corruption, but the invasion of Iran...

One positive about nomadding during the off season.... we are not paying tourist season prices. And the caravan parks are not crowded. We got a couple of nights in a nice (warm n dry) cabin at Mt Gambier - for $55 a night.

This was the head office of the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd. It is where I attended my recruiting interview in 1961. I got hired, and after 6 months in a suburban branch, I was transferred there to a department on the 2nd floor. I worked in that office for about 6 months before being transferred back to suburban branches. 50 odd years later, long after the bank no longer existed, (it had become part of Westpac), I worked for another company that moved into the building, and that is where I retired from in 2010. https://www.facebook.com/reel/2888786451478072

So does your car. Perhaps you should stop driving it.

--- FAMINE --- I feel that there are multiple food chain problems unfolding at present. Since they unfold in slow motion, the media seem to ignore it. 1. The Iranian (don't call it a) war is reducing available fertiliser and fuel. 2. The Ukraine invasion is causing a shortage of grain. 3. The changing weather cycles (don't call it climate change) are making for less predictable cropping (except for West Aust recent big crops). 4. The biggest El Nino event in centuries may mess up the american harvests. And maybe ours, too. 5. Australia has lost 70% of it's bird species. Biodiversity is vital to food chains. 6. The veroa mite (pestilence, anyone?) is damaging every food that needs pollinators. 7. The H5n1 bird flu has reached our shores. Among other things it has potential to interrupt Australia's most popular protein source - chooks. There must be other things that are being ignored. Am I being too paranoid?

My boss died. I went to his funeral. I kneeled down beside the coffin and whispered, "Guess who's thinking outside the box now?"

The BS in the ME has been the biggest shot in the arm for EV ever, No one wants to be Hung out to dry by people who hate each other's guts intensely and show no concern for how the rest of the World copes with the shortage. We don't import sun wind and tides and hydro.. It comes free and doesn't pollute and no country can block it unless it's a river from someplace, that gets Dammed and used up upstream.

If you have solar, smart meters are essential as standard meters are unable to deal with feed in tariffs. I am a VPP (virtual power plant) & buy sell electricity on the wholesale market. My monthly average buy price at the moment is 18.3 cents/kWh & my average FIT is 20.3c/kWh. I have a 18.64kWh battery & sell power to the grid usually from 5pm to 7pm when the price is high. This is all managed by my system provider as the spot price is checked every 5 minutes and my system is told what to do. It even curtails my solar production when the battery is full and the spot FIT goes negative so I do not pay for exporting to the grid.

Yeah. Not a word of praise for the people who risked injury to carry out the seach, and the effort needed to retrieve the body. I thought the the Police officer controlled his emothions pretty well. He seemed to be empathetic to the fact that the woman had died, and how the parents felt. But he really showed self-control when these hacks kept pushing the mistaken message line. You have to remember also that he wasn't at the command centre, so he was dealing with relayed information and most likely had never been in the area himself. I'm not just sticking up for him because I remember working with him when he was a fresh-faced Constable. I lost track of him thirty-odd years ago.

Don't mess with the elephant. VIDEO-2026-08-08-16-07-09.mp4

It's on topic. All these things with Toyotas happened in one local government region or another.

Saw it on the internet so it must be true. The pic alleged it was true at Mt Wellington. Of course the standard answer is.... Of course you didn't think it was cold. You ARE a Tasmanian, aren't you?

WE ARE changing the Climate for the worse The seas are warming up. Yes it IS a Pretty gloomy Message. Place More emphasis on stopping conflict and More on co-operation. Nev

I had another consultation regarding the cochlear implant on Friday. I chose the model I wanted and selected the colour, light grey, which is the closest to my hair colour. The audiologist went through the costings, listing all the things covered by the government, and those not covered. If you lose or damage the device, it is not covered, and you should add it to your household contents insurance. Then came the kicker. Every five years they do a software upgrade, like Microsoft and Applle, which is not covered. The cost? -- 8 - 9 thousand dollars, which you may be able to claim from your private health insurance. I have to check that out. I don't know if you have to get the upgrade, or if you can continue on the older version. Then again, I may not last till an upgrade is required, pretty likely not to the second one. I rang my brother and discovered his wife had just had a second one implanted, in the other ear. They hadn't been told of the upgrade cost. They will be checking it out this week.

We bought our MGS5 a month ago and have done 2000km. We just plug it in to a standard power point when it's parked at home. We have solar on the roof, and when it's charging at night Tassie uses hydro power. That 2000km represents about 3 tank fulls of diesel in our previous car, or about 165 litres (at current price around $430). For comparison the EV gets around 16kW/100k so 320kW. Even if we weren't using solar and paying full price (23c/kWh), that's about $74 for the same range. (If my calculations are correct!)

I don't recall anyone on these forums suggesting the extraction of energy from renewables is free.. maybe out in the big wide world they have.. .Clearly that is a fallacy. We have already dealt with the costs per mw/h of renewable sources v fossil fuels for electricity generation. And renewables generally win - although there are cases where it doesn't. But it is not just the cost of extraction - there is the cost of distribution and then there is the efficiency cost. And of course, the cleaning up costs and decommissioning costs.. Still for electricity generation, the costs generally favour renewables.. There is a cost that fossil fuels don't pick up (and to be honest, neither does the renewables pick up) and that is the inherent damage to the environment. There is no cost applied and effort performed to remove things like the additional CO2, which seems to be a major contributor to what is looking more like a looming climate emergency.. you know the thing the pesky scientists predicted using real facts and models.. and it seems to be coming a darn sight quicker than they had hoped. The cost of toxins such as nitrogen oxides and other respiratory and cancer linked toxins is early termination of people and in countries such as Australia, the taxpayer picks up the tab through the health service. Yes, this is also the case for the manufacture and operation of plant/technology for renewable energy extraction, but I would guess (but am happy to be corrected) it is a lot lower than that for fossil fuels - after all, accessing the renewable sources is a lot easier than accessing fossil fuels - I don't have to dig under the sea for it.. do I... And even sea born renewable energy - waves - are pretty accessible. But renewables don't pay for their emissions either (well, there is a carbon trading market, still, somewhere). But again, and I haven't done the research and am happy to be corrected - this cost from renewables technology is probably a lot less because they do a lot less of it. Yes, Li-Ion batteries - especially for cars - have a heavy CO2 footprint at manufacture - much more than an ICE engine. In early technology, the average technology meant it was about 5 years before the electric car broke even with the average emissions of ICE cars, after which the drop in CO2 emissions for the lifetime of a BEV over an ICE car increased dramatically. Here are the current numbers: The time even on a wholly coal grid is still 4 - 5 years, but batteries are lasting at least 8 (on average) and going a lot more.. So, even with the dirtiest grid, they are still doing well. But, we move to grids such as in Europe, Australia, Canada, and China, and the payback is down to 2 years, well within most ownership cycles of cars and well within the life of the vehicle. In Australia, the depreciation cycle is 5 years, so you are effectively getting, say 3 years almost emissions free driving in comparison. Obviously, the coal and gas and maintenance are emitting, as are replacement of service items - which are much less in a BEV than and ICE engined car.

When people say that wind and solar are free, they need to explain. Oil gas and coal are just as free, they are sitting in the ground waiting to be taken. On a cost per unit of energy, oil, gas and large open pit coal can be very cheap. So it is simply a choice based on lifetime capital and operating costs for the whole energy system. We distort that by applying subsidies.

I am so glad we have compulsory voting here. One of the best features of our electoral system.

The Farage party are claiming it as a victory. But, the parliamentary investigation into his £5m undeclared gift has resumed and if found he violated the rules of parliament, a recall petition is put to the electorate and if a certain percentage agree, it will trigger yet another by-election. The reality is that Clacton is one of, if not the most deprived electorate in the UK and immigration, of which Farage is a one trick pony politically, is being blamed by Clactonians for all their problems will mean that the recall petition is unlikely to get the numbers. Reforms winning electorates are all in deprived areas, and is more a protest about them being relied upon for votes be Labour and the Tories more than anything else.. and I would say the apathy of the electorate is partially the result of decades, if not over a century now of being promised the earth and still being sucked dry compared to those who live in marginal electorates. Pork barelling is alive where it will buy a seat. But, Reform's claims to a mandate by the people of Clacton are as hollow as the promises made to the people of Clacton. with a 44% voter turnout against an average turnout of around 65%, it represents 27& of the voting public of Clacton who have voted for him. Of course, we can't predict which way the other 66% pg voters in Clacton would have voted if casting a ballot was mandatory - I would imagine the spoiled ballot count would be high despite the onerous requirement of putting a tick against one person only; but I have a sneaking suspicion Farage would have found the numbers far tighter than the headline suggests.

Possibly unpopular with clothed people too 😊

That is her problem. She is a Trump Yes woman, though everyone who works for him has to be that or they are fired. Getting out before that happens is pretty rare. Anyone with a conscience wouldn't work for the orange man but her salary would have been better than she would ever get anywhere else I imagine, plus of course being in the limelight is something very attractive to some people.

I know, but it was funny.

I did rip this off Farcebook (while looking for a cheap and cheerless runabout before getting the next car)

A great number, that one. The main riff is based on John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillen. I must admit I prefer ZZ Top's use of it if I had to choose between the two.

La Grange is still one of my favourites.

Watching Foxtel last night. Fourteen adverts or program promotions per ad break.

When I was travelling for work I discovered that many ads are voiced and adapted locally. For example, "Kiwi kids are Weetbix kids". And many US ads were given Aussie voices, but these days they tend not to bother as we seem to have accepted US accents. And racially inappropriate actors in Aussie ads, which are simply run here without change.

Funny but it’s AI unfortunately.

I wonder how many of those trucks are used for long distance haulage like our. However, I would think that in Australia, most trucks are used for local work. Even the mud carters associated with infrastructure construction would not need to put up too many kms doing their daily work. We probably only need diesel for long haul where stopping to recharge would destroy schedules. Comments??

There's practically NO servicing. Tyres and wiper blades.. A lot of people I know are looking at them right now. Trump doesn't want them so they MUST be OK. Nev

He’s the world’s most powerful loser.

Then again, I could never get a HJ45 to go faster. It wasn't in their DNA.

Ya weren't drivin fast enuf. Had ya been goin fasta, those roos woulda just jumped inta tha dust behind ya.

My biggest gripe at the moment is TV commercials. Foxtel are the worst. You get a commercial so flick a channel or two to see what else is on, and you get another commercial, anything up to a dozen or so at the one time, particularly that damned Trevago ad with those idiots buried up to their neck. Not deep enough.

The severity of temperature and lack of rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere in the summer of 2026 could be the lead in to a famine that would affect the whole of Mankind. The high temperatures, and especially the lack of rain are already having deliterious effects on the economies of European countries. Allied to those are the effects of the war in the Ukraine which produces a great deal of Europe's grain. We don't know much about what is happening to agriculture in Russia, nor China. Here in Australian we are looking towards another summer of high heat and low rainfall. The high temperatures and low rainfall are without precedent in recorded European history. Thre have been famine years, but never before has such a huge population been affected.

3? Nev

Stay on the Medication. Would you rather they had stayed here and we went short of fuel as a consequence? Where's your logic? How do you suggest they get Overseas if not by plane in a reasonable time. Check how much Jet fuel your Mate Trumps Air trips Burn. He flies around in a flying block of flats which sits around idle when it's not flying near empty. He spends 1/4 of His time Playing golf and flies there in a B 747 with all his equipment in another GIANT cargo Plane. Now He even has a DECOY plane to get shot down instead of the one he sneaks off into. . HE Ignores Climate Change Calling it FAKE and wants to use Fossil fuel like there's no tomorrow. and fight a Bloody war over it, that disadvantages ALL OF THE WORLD. and is likely to cause a depression. Nev

This is an interesting short film about Broken Hill, made in 1953. Where I lived for 12 years.

The whole thing was a Contrived Stunt by Farage to deflect from what he was caught out doing. Taking money. People who throw money expect results for doing so. Money TALKS. Those who Pay the Piper CALL the tune. That's why the Pollies who work for the Already rich live higher on the Hog. IF they can get away with it. That requires the resources to keep things Quiet. ie Control of the Media. Nev

What about when Trump Plays golf and what the Military use?. When is the Last time a Plane FULL of immigrants Landed here.? Australians travel in planes and overseas like some people drive to town. IF you think flying overseas to do business is FUN you mustn't have done Much of it. The reason we still Have fuel to use HERE is because Albo got off his Bum, went overseas and negotiated it. Nev

But you can’t make beer out of the hops.

As His resignation was Farcical STUNT causing an election costing 250,000 Quid. Someone tell Nigel the Circus has moved on. And send him the Bill.. Nev

Adding the words "at Scrabble" to the end completely changes the question too.

My response was on two items, I should have been more specific. One was energy density, which Siso has addressed. The other is the UK powering itself by wind. That is like the old saying that ten litres of a toxin was enough to kill everyone in the world. Maybe, but it ain’t going to happen.

Sorry - couldn't resist A leader resigns and decides to not contest the next election. Hardly news, is it?

You prove my point, which was that the written word is frequently misinterpreted. The response is a comment on the example given to illustrate the point, not a comment on the point I was making. The comment in response, while not incorrect of itself, illustrates that the author of a text should take care that what is written is free from misinterpretation. However, an author cannot know how the mind of the reader will interpret the text.

She definitely has a quick mind, being able to jump from topic to topic instantly. I'll not get into a discussion about her beliefs. I'm hoping that my comment will be accepted as being a polite congratulation about a skill she has but I do not. Could she reenter politics after her children have grown a little? I don't think so because her reputation has been blackened by her association with Trump.