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Well, we're taking the jump. My wife and I test drove 3 EVs today - MG 4, MG 4 Urban and MG 5. Kate had already put down a deposit on the MG 4, but after driving all 3 we're tossing up between the Urban and the MG 5. In all 3 cars the acceleration is brilliant. Handling is great. We found the Urban and MG 5 more comfortable because we're both tall (and possibly a bit wider than we should be). Over the weekend we'll decide which way to go and switch the deposit on Monday.

You know that old thought exercise about which famous people, alive or dead, you'd invite to you ultimate dinner party? People choose Einstein, Jesus, Confucius, Plato etc. I'd choose Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Putin, and Netanyahu. Catering by Erin Patterson.

NRMA also have a battery on their vehicle to transfer energy to an EV. Battery to battery can be very high speed so it does not take long to get enough charge into the empty EV battery to enable it to get to the nearest charger. using a generator would take hours to get very little energy in the EV unless it was a massive generator capable of 150 kW plus. I don't know of anyone who has run out though. EV owners are good planners, partly because the public charging network has not kept up with EV sales. Also because the cars software knows the range and can list all the chargers within range. State & federal governments are now putting a fair bit of effort into improving the number of chargers particularly in regional areas. There are plenty in large centres and along major highways. Installing chargers is a lot easier than building a petrol station & once built at huge cost it has to be supplied with fuel. Portable units are being installed in the outback. They have a large battery and solar panels & get delivered on the back of a truck. Several companies are supplying these to Outback farms etc. Larger ones have a small solar farm & big batteries to supply several vehicles at once. NRMA have one in the NT somewhere with 4 chargers. Public EV charging is only in its infancy & some of the early ones were very unreliable. Not so now & there are plenty that are capable of 350 kW way more than almost all EVs can receive. I am off on a 350km round trip tomorrow. The battery is fully charged (free from my solar system) & I won't need to top up anywhere. If I did though there are heaps of charging options. I just hit the go to button & the Satnav guides me to the neared public charger & lists all within range. Simples.

Geez, you've really been sucking on the Trump Kool-aid bottle, haven't you? What do you think is going to be the next thing to happen? A long-lasting peace plan engineered by Trump, where the Iranians lay down all their arms, and come meekly to the surrender table to sign the surrender document? You're off with the fairies, along with the Tangerine Toddler. He's so full of sh**, it's a wonder they haven't called the portaloo collectors to come and collect him.

This is beautiful.

Most People who've experienced such circumstances hate war and seek something better.. Nev

The mothers may have been under the same duress as the Iranian Women's Soccer Team who wanted asylum in Australia, with threats to their family in Iran. They may have had no say in who they married, the Muslim religion treats women worse than dogs. 9 year old girls are forced to marry. The mothers did not want that sort of treatment for their children. Bringing them here gives the kids a chance to grow up as caring compassionate human beings.

All UAE has to do is wait for the right time to activate the self destruct system they left in the aircraft.

I'm have got to stop starting posts with headline-like sentences. They are always misinterpreted. What I was trying to say was that it was a good thing that domestic solar installations were being done at a great rate and that the battery subsidy was a big help. It was my belief that the inability to store excess electricity was holding back the adoption of solar. That disability now seems to have been overcome That's good. An aside: I was nearly going to write that solar installation rates were going through the roof, but I didn't want to pun.

I never take a HTV card. Firmly of the belief that everyone who is eligible to vote should take their responsibility to engage in democracy seriously and number all boxes. It's not a big ask, once every 3 years.

Wait up..... I'm confused ...... I'll have to go back and find some episodes of 'Blue Hills' and 'Dad n Dave'...... that should clear this up.

So, since Trump is saving the world from the spread of mass killings and nuclear weapons, when can we expect him to make Israel give up their nuclear weapons?

Every ON voter questioned on TV, when asked why, said "We needed a change."

It seems funny hearing people refer to 4% as high interest rates. It was 17.5% when I took out a variable rate loan to buy my place, and the loan peaked at around 20%. My father was paying around 22% on his business loan at it's peak.

I tried the beer when I was up in the country, but it was hard to get, warm and tasted like the worst home brew you'd ever tried. Rotten egg gas smell when you opened them and no two bottles were the same. Apart from right hand drive cars driving on the right, another oddity was a couple of years later when Ne Win introduced new currency based on his lucky number 9. He also demonetized three existing notes which rendered 75% of the country's cash invalid. It wiped out most people's savings in a country that relied heavily on black market cash and hammered the economy. The military government was a bit crazy. In the first place I stayed there was a window between floors in the stairwell. In the distance seen out of the window was a big red building, and on the wall a poster with a stern government warning not to look at the big red building. I imagine in the big red building there would have been a government agent with the job of looking through a telescope to see if any foreigners were looking at the big red building. I wouldn't have even noticed the big red building if I hadn't seen the warning sign, so of course the natural response on reading the sign is to look out the window at the big red building.

I agree with you there Nev...the media in this country is shockingly bad. Journalism is now tainted with woke and left bias. Very few have any right bias its mainly left. What ever happened to unbiased fact based journalism that just gave you the facts and not the spin depending on who owns the media company The ABC used to until it was poisioned by idealogy and crap interviewers

Great man. He's done a lot for the world.

Nev's right though. For all their absolute stupidity for going off to join the caliphate, and the abhorrent isis, they remain Australian citizens with Australian passports. Any crimes they have committed over there, which are offences under Australian law or international laws that Australia is signatory to, will be charged. The children of course are innocent and should be given the same opportunity to grow up in Australia as any of us. To suggest we should somehow prevent Australian citizens from returning home is just wrong.

No need to squabble guys. Every tech answer has an application. Diversity of energy sources is like an insurance policy against one source stopping. Specifically relating to Energy, reducing the pollution caused by any industry, is a benefit to all humanity. We should wean ourselves off the fossil fuel industry because burning it causes many kinds of pollution. Sooner the better, as long as we do it progressively. And EV's are a great step in the right direction.

Random government thought......... At some point in the future there will be a need to reward a person who tells the truth. A No Bull Prize.

Aren't they called ESV's - Emotional Support Vehicles?

Have you got a NEW Cause Celebre, Mark? You can get artificial Spray on Mud for those Toorak Tractors. Enhance your MANLY Image (and that of your Wife ) when she takes little Johnie to Private school. each day. The whole 1-2 Kms that doesn't even get the engine Warm. Nev

What I can't understand is why people drive those kinds of vehicle around the suburban area. They take up 1.5 car parking spaces, and anyone in a medium sized sedan parked beside them can't see past them when exiting their parking space.

This presupposes that we are the only country attempting to cut CO2. Yes, our share is small, but all of the countries that contribute under 2% make cuts adds up to 30% (I am happy to back that figure up) How are these actions abhorrent? When you say you don't accept the science, are you saying that CSIRO is incompetent or part of the malicious conspiracy that you alluded to? I approach climate science like any other area. I have had people tell me that vaccination doesn't work or causes autism, etc. I reject this because I can see what CSIRO says. Being extra cautious, I can cross-check this with other respected sources. This seems to me to be a solid method of determining what the likely "truth" is. If you believe this is a flawed method, then suggest a better method. If the outliers in climate science are right, then why not the outliers in medical science or any other field? Vaccine sceptics also tend to cite "grand conspiracies."

When you run a diesel out it of fuel it will get air in the system will have to be Bled properly. Sometimes even changing a fuel filter has to be done by a competent person with the right equipment. Contaminated Fuel with water can cost thousands of dollars. None of this with EV's No turbos , No EGR Valves. No air cleaners No Mufflers to rot out. No need to warm the engine or watch it on a hot day. No starter Motor, gearbox or clutch to wear. Reduced Brake wear. Servicing reduced to tyres and windscreen wiper Blades. No fumes No tuning. . Dramatic revolutionary change. Nev

Run a Diesel to empty and you don't just fill it and drive away either. Same if you get contaminated fuel. The Longer you delve into electric the BETTER it Looks, Independence from war causing Oil and It's greedy Price and supply manipulators.. The Modern ICE Piston engines are remarkable but Now becoming an obsolete technology. Time to move on in your conceptions of it. It will continue to be even better as engines did in their day. Nev

The USA has been on Israel's side since Day-1 if the State of Israel. At the birth of the State of Israel, the Middle East was territory overseen by the British and French under United Nations mandates. The USA shouldn't have had anything to do with things there.

She'll be happy with the Storm today, a good win 44-16 over Wests Tigers.

Look at the number of informal votes and other minor parties/independents.

What a disaster of a weekend. My daughter's team Collingwood - beaten. My eldest son's team Essendon - beaten. What made it worse was the security at the MCG. Last year, security let two people with guns through the gate, even though the detector beeped. Now they insist on everyone emptying their pockets. My daughter had already removed all metal objects from her pockets, but they insisted that she remove everything else, so she put the metal stuff on the table to remove hankies etc from her pocket, and didn't beep when scanned. Then she missed picking up her keys and didn't realise till she got back to Mitcham and couldn't get into her car. Andrew had to go to the station and pick her up. They are going to the Melbourne Storm NRL game this afternoon and will go early so they can go over to the MCG to pick up her keys.

I have had my MG4 for nearly 3 years now & Have no regrets other than the price of the facelift 2026 model is 10k cheaper than what I paid. Still another 4+ years of warranty. I have had 2 problems, the first was a drooping rear undertray & the second was the drivers door window stopped working. The undertray is a known issue & is the cover for the electric drive motor. The window issue was just a poor connection. All new models have a 10 year warranty or 250k whichever comes first. Mine was 7 years but unlimited km warranty. I am 168 cm so no issue with fitting in. I like the edgy styling of the 4. It was actually designed by the Royal Academy of Arts & engineered by SAIC UK. It has sold very well around the world except in China. 50/50 weight distribution, low CoG & RWD gives really good handling better than most others anywhere near its price range. All the new models have LFP batteries so a bit less energy dense but no nickel or cobalt & they are cheaper to produce so that is reflected in the price drop. The new model has a bit less power but slightly better economy & a nice updated interior & a single piece spoiler, though I prefer the split spoilers of mine. The urban is FWD and has a bigger boot as there is no motor there. It has less power & range but unless you are doing long trips is a good buy for the price. For you i reckon the MG5 would be best. True SUV size though does not have the range of the MG4 nor the performance. Price depends on the spec level. I have the Essence with a 64 kWh battery so am biased but all the extra features were worth the extra money iIMHO. I'd go for the best offer without compromising your requirements. Do they still supply a granny charger? A lot of EVs no longer come with one. One thing I'd advise not to do is get talked in to one of their 7kW home chargers unless you get it thrown in for free. There are much better ones for much less on the market. I bought a ZJbeny for less than half the price & it is fully adjustable with app control, RFID, plug & play & OCCP capability. ZJ Beny make lots of chargers right up to massive super chargers. Also their V2L cable is over $200.00 & has a limited output of about 10 amps plus it is bulky. I bought a V2L adapter on line for $45.00 delivered & it has a max output of 32 amps but you need a big cable to take that load. Most of these are now limited to 16amps. Good to see another forumite joining the EV revolution. You won't regret the decision. I certainly haven't

Farley seems quite a sensible individual, with a very diplomatic turn of speech, unlike a lot of the ON rabble. It will be interesting to see what happens from here on in. A well-spoken, thoughtful individual such as Farley may bring a lot more credibility to the ON Party. However, the general trend of elections in recent decades is voters vote for whoever is in Opposition, just to express dissatisfaction with the ruling Partys performance. No matter who is power, they all appear to have no answers to the ordinary voters pressing problems - inflation, the cost of living, fuel prices, housing unaffordability, lack of job opportunities - they all perform dismally in these fields. I'd like to see some politicians with real backbone, take on the billionaires and giant global corporations, and tax them more heavily, and also lay into the betting conglomerates that wield so much power, and which every politician is too frightened to offend.

Bugger that...I have a rainbow to sell the daft bloke

"Real Australians" are a mythical beast invented by absolute fuckwits who spew their ignorance and racism on sites like this.

Even though election analyst Antony Green has retired from election night broadcasts, he still crunches numbers and runs his election blog. He comes up with some interesting stats. On his blog he was breaking down the S.A. Labor government's votes and swings and found that in safe Labor seats with a margin of 15% or more, there was a predominately large swing away from Labor, and in Labor seats with a margin less than 15%, there was a swing to Labor.

I agree with him too, but he forgot to add that the US is responsible for creating the new normal that he's complaining about.

People pay big money to go for long train rides, and the aura and advertising associated with the "Great Train Journeys of the World" is very prominent. Both the Ghan and the Indian Pacific make money from passenger traffic. These trips are advertised as "premium" tourism events, and the passengers pay high prices for premium accommodation, premium food and dining experiences, and associated events in towns that the lines pass through. A company named Journey Beyond runs these train trips and the whole operation is quite highly profitable.

David Attenborough turned 100 today.

these children were all born in Syria NOT in Australia ergo yhey are Syrians , let them all stay there with thier Traitor mothers

I am reading a book about the WW2 Burma campaign. The US 111 Brigade retreated from Blackpool to Indawgyi Lake and couldn’t take the badly wounded. They were all shot to save them from falling into Japanese hands.

The project won't be canned for good. This stoppage is just a reset to get all the unnecessary hangers-on, off the gravy train, so the project can get back to realistic costs. I've seen so many of these major projects just become an open cheque book for opportunistic businesses, charging anything they like, simply because lazy, inefficient management, just wants to see progress. Once the shock of the gravy train ceasing to exist comes home with a thump, the companies and contractors then become a lot more realistic and competitlve.

Show me the country that has "first past the post" voting, and which has a far superior style of Govt to the one we have here in Australia? FPP voting is highly susceptible to gerrymandering due to unfair electoral boundary distributions. This is the reason why Trump and the Republicans are seeking to alter electoral boundaries in many U.S. States to favour the Republicans. In FPP voting, smaller parties get no representation at all. The Republicans want the poor, the blacks, and Democrat voters to have no say in what they want to do, and to have no power to oust any Republican Govt. It's gerrymandering at its best. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting

They have 1,409,000,000 people. We have 28,000,000.

However, to balance the above..... Since September last year, the US military has conducted 47 strikes on civilians marine vessels travelling in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, leading to over 190 deaths. No criminal trials, no evidence provided to the public to justify the violence, merely an arbitrary allegation of terrorism with no transparency nor accountability for who they have summarily executed. The USA then sent its military into Caracas, killing more than 80 people, to abduct the President of Venezuela and replace him with a compliant proxy. It then commenced a military campaign against Iran that has already killed thousands, without even attempting to conduct themselves within the parameters of international law. The UN Security Council was not consulted, and no evidence has been provided to support its flimsy attempts of retrospective justification. The US President has made genuine threats to invade Greenland, Panama, and Cuba, without ever once bothering to even pretend to discuss a legal justification for the hostility. People who live in glass houses......

Comment dredged from the interwebbything... Today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before the world's media and made the following statement about Iran: “This is an international waterway, No country can control them. There is no international law that allows you to say, I’m going to put mines in an international body of water, and I’m going to blow up ships that don’t listen to us and try to go through.” “We cannot live in a world where a rogue state like this Iranian regime is allowed to claim, as a new normal, control over an international shipping lane,” I agree with him.

My sincere apology, Nev. You are absolutely right. I was talking shyte.

This happens only at very low state of charge. My EV has a 64kWh battery with 62.1 kWh useable. When the charge shows 0% it goes in to limp mode & will still run but only at very low speed. I can't remember offhand but about 20-30kmh for 30-40km before it dies. I have never tested this & don't know anyone who has. A car review outfit in the UK took a number of different EVs on a specified drive from 100% till they died about 3 years ago & discovered this feature in some of them. I practice I rarely get below 20% but have been down to 5% at the lowest point. There is a woman who lives in my car with a nice English accent who keeps me informed of what is going on. She greets me by name when I open the door and has lots of friendly advice. When the charge gets to 20% I get a gentle reminder to charge. When it gets lower than 10% she gets a little more agitated.