kgwilson

ALL the Teslas in Australia are made in China. A mechanical door opening mechanism from the inside of the vehicle that over-rides the electronic locking mechanism as it is on my Chinese made EV is a good thing. I also have a manual key to get in from the outside. This is pretty common in modern cars.

If I was in the US I'd vote for "Literally Anyone Else". He actually exists & is going to stand if he gets the required number of signatures.

Some of the grey colours are horrible and just look like shiny mud. I reckon some were inspired by volcanic mud pools. For some weird reason they are trendy.

My last quarterly bill was $41.42. I have 8kW of solar panels and charge the car mostly when it is sunny. There have been a few cloudy days lately so I have charged a bit at off peak overnight. I get 4 hours of free power on Saturdays & Sundays so if I am home the car is being charged at full speed (32 AMPS or 7.4kW) then. MY EVSE (charger) can draw from 1 Amp to 32 Amps so depending on my solar generation I change it on the fly. I just got sent a publication called "The little book of EV myths" from Fully Charged. It is a PDF file with 47 pages of information correcting the rubbish commonly bandied about by the anti EV lobby which is supported by the right wing press and the fossil fuel industry. Well worth a read 20769 Little Book of EV Myths (Second Edition) PROOF 7.pdf

My choice to buy an EV was based on several factors in no specific order. This list is not exhaustive, just what came to mind when creating this post. 1. My old ICE car was 11 years old with 225k on the clock and was starting to have a few issues so it was time to upgrade to improve motoring reliability. 2. I am an Engineer and was impressed by the innovative engineering and technology of EVs plus the fact that driving one produces zero emissions, is super quiet, has no vibration, has an abundance of power, max torque from 0 rpm, & with almost 100% efficiency from the fuel it uses. 3. Maintenance is reduced dramatically. Teslas have no maintenance requirements at all. My first service is due at 40,000km & that is just to change the A/C filter & check fluid levels. 4. I produce more electricity than I consume so it made sense to use some of that to charge the EVs battery. I only pay for charging when more than 250km away from home. 5. Cost benefit analysis. Higher initial cost is offset by lower overall cost over the life of the vehicle. I have already saved over $2,200.00 in fuel costs since last September with no maintenance at all required. 6. My driving is not contributing to the global change in the climate. 7. Of all the motive technologies available, Electric made the most sense by miles and is easily the most successful. The future of survival on this planet is the use of electricity from non polluting sources. 8. I had enough money in the bank & figured that at 74 I should reward myself for my hard work in getting to this point in my life and besides who wants to be the richest person in the cemetery.

Scissor doors are more practical than gull wing doors especially in tight spaces. The MG Cyberster has these. They are a bit of a gimmick really & just another ego booster. https://www.mgmotor.eu/model/cyberster

Going up hills is is one of the reasons for my comment that power is effortless. You don't put your foot down at all even without cruise control on. The electric motor never has to rev harder and you can't hear it anyway. If you check the power value on the screen it will increase and decrease depending on the incline and goes negative (& turns green on my car) when going down an incline which means it is putting energy back in to the battery. If you are coming down a lengthy incline you will have gained some range by the time you get to the bottom. My car has 2 noise generators. The reverse noise generator sounds a bit like a reversing whine from a gearbox and is always on in reverse. The forward noise generator is a more subtle whine/woosh sound that cuts out at 35 kmh when tyre noise is loud enough to alert pedestrians. The electric traction motor makes no sound at all that I can hear. The kerb weight of my MG4 Essence 64 is 1672 KG which is no heavier than many ICE cars and lighter than pretty much all SUVs and 4WDs. After 13,000 km to date there is no noticeable tyre wear.

Compared to driving ANY ICE car driving an EV feels completely effortless. There is no noise or vibration and no change in engine note when acceleration is required. I drive SES utes & trucks & my wifes ICE car & recently a friends flash Mercedes C300. I went for a ride in a ROUSH which is a severely modified Mustang with 750HP on Sunday. The power was amazing but so was the noise. Off the line the MG could keep up with it for a couple of seconds as full torque starts from 0 rpm. The difference is stark. The Merc is very quiet & refined as it should be for its 6 figure price tag but there is still the rpm factor when the accelerator is pressed & the inevitable torque delay. I get in my MG4 & feel totally relaxed accelerate away with effortless smooth power, absolutely no noise and instant torque off the line. It is impossible to explain, you have to experience it. EVs are the future now, ICEs are last century. One moving part that rotates compared to hundreds of moving parts going up & down & all directions trying to tear themselves apart generating 30% of power & 70% or heat from the fuel consumed compared to close to 100% power from the energy consumed. No contest.

Toyota only has one full EV the bZ4X & by all accounts it is not a bad vehicle but it has pretty poor range for the cost starting at 66k + on roads. Toyota has been bad mouthing EVs since inception and pushing hydrogen (now almost dead) and their mythical solid state battery (now apparently due in 2027 after the release date has slipped several times from 23 to 25). They are promising 745km range which has already easily been surpassed by CATLs 1000km range LFP battery in 2023. They are so far behind the 8 ball that they are now relying on BYD technology. Last year Toyotas global dominance faltered when the Tesla model Y became the biggest selling car on the planet, taking the crown held by the Corolla for many years and their worldwide market shrank for the first time in history. I am more than happy with my MG4. I get 400km at 100 - 110 kmh (WLTP range is quoted at 450km) & my bladder & concentration don't last that long anyway so a supercharge for 20 minutes (while I have a cuppa & tucka) is all I need for another 300 - 350km. It takes me the same time from Corindi to my place at Noosa as it used to in my ICE car but I arrive far more relaxed. That said the charging network is poor especially off major routes. NZ has chargers everywhere even in small towns. Of course distances are not as great. It is improving here but there is still a long way to go. The thing is that sceptical people look at the range and that is what they concentrate on & decide EVs are no good. 1000km range vehicles are here and will become common place in the next couple of years. How many ICE cars have 1000km range? Smart people look at their lifestyle & usually realise that long trips are few and far between as mostly they will be commuting to work and then going to sports or a few hundred km in weekends. Plus if you have solar panels you can travel locally for free like I do. Price is the big one for many but that is rapidly becoming invalid with the lower end of the market closing in rapidly on the cost of all but the most basic bottom of the barrel ICE car. You will never get me buying another ICE car. Even with the price I paid the total cost of ownership over 7 years is less than for an equivalent ICE car.

My MG4 cost $47,990.00 plus on roads and is insured for full replacement value. The premium through Youi paid last September when new was $712.26. Some equivalent value ICE cars cost considerably more to insure.

I remember not long after he was elected, Rex Tillerson the Secretary of State called "Trump is a complete moron" when Trump rambled on about wanting to increase the nuclear stockpile 10 time its current size. Simplistic and to the point but absolutely on the money. Of course Tillerson was fired.

He gets more unhinged after each new rant. If he gets elected the US is completely stuffed.

On a per capita basis Australia is one of the worst polluting countries on the planet.

Hybrids are complex and expensive to both build and maintain. They have been around for over 20 years now but battery EVs are now a much better proposition. Toyota a sold the first Prius in 1997 and ended production in 2017. The writing was on the wall and the success of Tesla was a major contributing factor. The fact that hybrids are still being produced and sold in quite large numbers is largely due to the range anxiety that some people have, though this is disappearing with new high end EVs with considerable better range than most ICE vehicles. Hybrids tend to be the worst of both worlds. They are not as reliable as pure EVs and have a pretty terrible range of under 100km. They are also far more likely to catch fire than ICE vehicles and several hundred % more likely to catch fire than pure EVs. They are generally more expensive to repair and a lot more complex than an ICE car or BEV. With range anxiety declining they will eventually die out. In some circumstances an EV with a small ICE engine to charge the battery may be a good option. Carlos Sainz won the Dakar this year rally in one. Nothing can deliver the power to the road like an electric motor. Of course this has been known for decades with Diesel electric trains and ships.

Her uncle certainly doesn't use complex words, mainly because he doesn't know any or doesn't know what they mean. He knows Cat, Camera, TV BigMac and even one that doesn't exist Covfefe. He said "I know words, I have the best words, but there is no better word than stupid". That describes him perfectly.