kgwilson

I agree with your comment and i am very observant so always check traffic movements in the other intersecting roads. I always wait till the traffic has stopped before going. The power delivered is effortless and there is no noise. I don't plant my boot, that would be stupid. My car is RWD with approx 50/50 weight distribution & weighs 1650kg. I've never spun the wheels even in the wet but the instant torque is great when overtaking.

My MG4 is a Corolla sized hatchback although with the similar interior space of a 2-2.5 litre ICE car. It has 150kW (204HP) of power & nowhere near the same as a model Y Tesla which has between 194 kW & 255 kW depending on the variant & that is only the RWD models. The thing is that power is developed from 0 RPM with full torque available from that point. Just normally driving off from traffic lights I am usually way past the intersection before ICE cars even get going.

I have seen my SOC go up on a long downhill run from Dorrigo to Bellingen on the Waterfall way. It added about 50km to the range at the bottom. Going up used a lot more though than I recovered which is expected. When going downhill for a long stretch it is a good idea to use the highest regeneration setting. One Pedal driving is the highest in my car as it will bring the car to a standstill without using the brakes. I use OPD usually in towns as there is so much stop start driving. EVs are very economical in city driving partly due to the stop/start & Regen but also due to when stopped no energy is being used at all except for the 12 volt electrical system that runs everything except the cars traction system.

The battery management system in EVs is very sophisticated so all you have to do is plug the car in. You can't overcharge the battery. The original wisdom was that you should only charge NMC batteries to 80% for normal use & to 100% when going on a long trip. Real world use has established that it doesn't matter and that the batteries are lasting up to twice as long as previously thought to at least 500,000 km. This is reflected in the current battery warranties from CATL, the worlds biggest battery manufacturer, of between 1 & 2 million km. The only issues with charging to 100% is that the last 20% takes almost as long as the first 80% and that you should not leave the battery sitting at 100% for months at a time. This mistake has been made by people going away somewhere for a few months to a year or more & finding that the battery has degraded when they use the car again. Leave it in the garage with 60-80% charge & come back a year later & there will be little if any degradation. The advice is that LFP batteries can be charged to 100% all the time but the same advice for NMC is valid for LFP when not using the car for extended periods. So in the real world scenario it doesn't matter what type of battery the EV has, just charge it based on your own requirements. My MG4 has a 64 kWh NMC battery & i charge it when I get low cost electricity & from the solar panels, usually to 80% as that is sufficient for all my normal weekly use. So far the cost has been zero. Of course there was the up front investment in the cost of the car & the solar & battery system. The original payback was estimated at 5-6 years, but that has now reduced to 2-3 years on current charges.

At the same time he says the war is over because the 60 days without Congressional approval has passed. This is something he won't get & is calling that amendment unconstitutional. So somewhere between $US 25 billion & $US 1 trillion. According to the Pentagon the first 6 days cost $US11.3 billion & other sources say the true cost is between $US 630 billion and $US1 trillion. So back to the Epstein files? No he is diverting attention once again to Tariffs by increasing duty on European cars to 25% claiming without evidence as always Europe has reneged on the original deal.

If you want more expensive energy build new coal fired power stations and you will also get added pollution and greenhouse gasses we are trying to reduce. Plus it would take up to 8 years to build. The problem is venture capitalists and banks won't touch this option with a barge pole. Why? Among many reasons it is just not financially viable. The grid was neglected for 20 years by successive governments & population increase along with increased demand for electricity and the costs associated with upgrading the grid are enormous. Add the constant complaints from people who don't want transmission lines on their land and the costs of compliance and you get a logistical and financial nightmare. Storage is the answer. See Octaves comments. I have 9kW of Solar & an 18.6 kWh battery & don't use any grid power and I charge my EV for free as well. Rooftop solar produces more power during the day than all of Australias fossil fuel power generators combined. There is so much the wholesale price in the middle of the day is almost always negative. I sell most of my stored energy during peak demand & keep enough to cover my use overnight & during the peak morning period. Not everyone can do what I do but there are 4 & a half million houses with rooftop solar & all of these could have a home battery. The state and federal home battery subsidies have been so successful that half of the original $2.3 billion expected to last to 2030 was used up in 6 months. Now an additional $4.9 billion has been added along with changes based on battery capacity.

He wouldn't last 5 minutes anywhere else either. The US is the only place where there are enough stupid people to elect a convicted felon, 6 time bankrupt, accused rapist, malignant narcissist, poorly educated conman because he appeals to fundamentalist christians and is a billionaire.

I watched this program on the ABC & could not believe the stupidity of the reporter. He borrowed an EV & knew nothing about the cars capability. If he did he'd know that the satnav will tell him all of the chargers within range & guide him to one. You cannot fill a petrol car in 2 minutes & pay for the fuel etc. He should have already downloaded the apps before leaving. He was at an Evie 350kW charger & if he already had the app & registered the vehicle as most people do, all you do is plug the charger cable in to the car, it charges, you then click stop remove the cable & drive away. You are automatically charged & details are stored in the app. Everything Sam Evans said is spot on. I felt like complaining but then thought why bother. Anyone with half a brain & an interest in going Electric will make their own mind up. I did & it was the best car purchase decision i have ever made. My fuel cost is zero as I charge from my solar panels. When going long distance I check the location of chargers on route & know the range. The car has a longer range than my bladder so when I need to charge I take a break & have a bite to eat. If it is down to 20% charge 20 minutes later it is at 80%. This is usually quicker than than I am. Often I will go & unplug & move the car so someone else can use the charger. It is coming up to 3 years & 45,000 km since I bought my MG4. First service in 2 years & nothing had to be done except update the software. The only downside is that the new facelift model is now 10k less than I paid but now EVs are no longer an expensive way to get in to a new car with the latest small models cheaper than their petrol equivalents.

The Nickel mining story was aired 6 months ago. Almost all of the nickel is for the stainless steel industry, not EVs. The presenters fossil fuel bias and links have been well established. Channel 7 had to close comments within a couple of days as almost all were highly critical of the claims made. NMC batteries for EVs are now in the minority but even so 98% of all minerals including lithium, cobalt and nickel are recovered in battery recycling so are not wasted and reduce the need for expanded mining. LFP is now the dominant technology for EV batteries but sodium batteries are becoming available and making major inroads in to the battery storage industry. They are also between 30% & 60% cheaper given the abundance of sodium & ease of extraction. Start with evaporating sea water to get NaCl, common salt, separate the 2 elements and you have sodium and chloride.

The Trump photo passports are a special edition to celebrate the 250th anniversary & cost more than a normal one. It is a great way to get extra special attention from immigration officials around the world especially countries Trump has bad mouthed which is all of Europe, UK, China, japan, all of Oceania, most of central & South America & both immediate neighbours. No sane American who travels would want one. BTW the photo of the Aussie flag is probably genuine as the flags were being installed on lamp posts by workers from the Washington municipal authority. Someone discovered it fairly quickly & they were taken down but it is an indictment on the American education system that teaches only American geography, history etc so council workers & obviously some of their superiors wouldn't know the difference. King Charles speech to Congress was eloquent and covered a number of touchy subjects that criticised the US & Trump without naming names & he received a lengthy standing Ovation. Trump had no idea that he was being told to pull his head in & thought it was wonderful.

It isn't just Trump. The US has always done as it pleases. It used to be "Not our fight" as in only getting in to WW1 in 2017, then in WW2 Roosevelt couldn't get the support of Congress & only got involved after Pearl Harbor. Since then we have honoured the treaties like ANZUS & got involved in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan sent peacekeepers to other places the US has screwed up. Trump has just insulted every ally the US has ever had as in his comments about Afghanistan. He starts a war then complains NATO won't come to his aid. NATO is a defence treaty, an attack on one is an attack on all, not if one member attacks someone then everyone else attacks as well. Complains Australia won't help with the blockaid on Hormuz when we were never asked. The list of his stuffups and insults is endless & reportedly is considering recognising Argentinas claim on the Falklands as punishment for the UK not supporting him in his crazy actions against Iran.

And it is a fusion reactor with no radioactive waste, something we have not been able to replicate for any length of time so the simple option is to use it and we are via solar, wind, hydro and every other form of energy capture and use other than those that have been stored as fossil fuels for millions of years.

He isn't even good at golf. There have been numerous videos posted of his caddies shifting balls to more favourable positions & prior to his foray in to politics was a poor investor as well having been bankrupted 6 times. This time of course he has posted sycophantic Yes men & women to all the important and influential roles, dismantled many of the departments that provide checks and balances and breached the constitution and rules more times than you can count and the Senate & Congress have become paralysed. He thought he had control over the supreme court having appointed sympathetic judges but obviously some of these actually have a conscience. His tariffs were deemed illegal & the Epstein files got released though missing all the important stuff that would implicate him, his ICE thugs have been called to account after murdering 2 protesters in Minnesota so he was getting into pretty hot water. A diversion was required. What better diversion than to start a war. It is all beginning to unravel now & he is becoming more erratic and lashing out via his social media platform. Then picking a fight with the Pope was the last straw. There are a lot of loyal catholics in the US so how he is going to survive this one is hard to say. Only his appointees & the MAGA nutters seem to be supporting him right now. Most of his media supporters from Fox News and right wing influencers have railed against him. He was called insane just this month by Marjorie Taylor Greene, former Georgian congress woman initially one of his staunchest allies. Not only that but the protests against him in the US have grown to massive proportions with over 3200 events in all 50 states in late March estimated at more than 8 million participants. As well he has virtually no friends left in Europe & the rest of the World except Israel, Russia & North Korea. I hope we are witnessing his downfall and that it won't be too long before the world can sigh a collective relief.

He keeps confirming with every post that he is a complete and utter F@#$wit.

They had Cyclone Vaianu last week and in its wake it left a massively unstable weather pattern and the huge downpours and local flash flooding has caused much more damage than the cyclone did. Here on the NE coast of NSW it is tinder dry. The grass is now completely browned off & crunchy to walk on. We are supposed to be getting showers today & the rest of the week but nothing at all as yet with a blue sky, full sun and a lot of wind.