kgwilson

There are all the same myths about tyre wear and cost. Wear is no different to ICE cars. It is the driving style that wears tyres out. At 13k mine show no noticeable wear at all but then I am not a hoon. Bigger low profile tyres are more expensive no matter what the method of traction is. As for brake pads, well they don't get used much at all. If I am in one pedal drive mode I almost never use the brakes & even without this not much either due to the regen doing most of the braking for me. A bloke with a 2018 model X Tesla from Brisbane got his first service done at 440,000 km & had the brake pads checked. They did not need replacing but he got them done anyway because it was convenient at the time. One of the things that concerned me initially about not using the brakes was cars behind me not knowing I was slowing down quickly. I then found out when the regen gets above a certain % it automatically puts the brake lights on. The same thing happens with auto hold which keeps the car stationary at traffic lights or whenever stopped without the brake pedal depressed. The manual advises you to use the brakes about once a week to stop the discs from rusting.

The McKinsey Mobility Consumer Pulse presentation released in June 2024 by McKinsey & Company that indicated that 46 percent of EV owners in the US are 'very' likely to switch back to gas-powered vehicles is based on data acquired since 2021 and the full report tells a different story & not just a headline grabbing statement. A lot has happened since 2021 & the sky is not falling in on EV owners, prospective purchasers or EV manufacturers as can be seen in the analysis below. Add to that the fact that this month EV production in China has now reached 50% of all vehicles manufactured there, the US & Europe have slapped huge import tariffs on Chinese EVs (100% in the US) in an attempt to protect their own EV manufacturers. Chinese EV technology is now several years ahead of the rest of the world and they are now the only good choice for sourcing of batteries and most US & European EV makers have capitulated & are installing Chinese batteries in joint venture deals. https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/27/unpacking-the-mckinsey-mobility-consumer-survey-henny-penny-edition/

Some of the Maga mob were asked if they would vote for trump if he became a dictator and they said YES. Then the system they have is considered a very flawed democracy that has been manipulated by the wealthy to maintain their influence and control. The whole electoral college process to select the President could over rule the voters. As it is Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 when he got in, was a long way behind in 2020 and who knows where this year. Joe came out with a few choice words after the debate debacle & hopefully there are enough intelligent Americans to keep the orange nutter out, this time for good..

He has hit the nail squarely on the head. It is the driving experience that is the game changer. The CEO of GM had a totally different outlook when I last looked at any interview or announcement from them. And yes Ford is the ONLY legacy US car maker that has NOT gone bankrupt. Of all the EV owners I know, there isn't one who is considering returning to an ICE vehicle. I also note that he has acknowledged and given credit to Elon Musk for re-inventing the EV and driving the change. I only watched the first 20 minutes when politics started coming in to the picture. About 95% of everything in any sort of battery can be recycled and this is where governments need to catch up and promote and subsidise setting up of battery recyclers like the one in Arizona, as well as legislating the recycling and promoting this to the stupid public till the message gets through. The problem is you can't legislate stupid. How dumb is it to bring a gas BBQ indoors to warm the house & that is just what happened the other day with a number of people poisoned by carbon monoxide.

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.

Like I said if you are out of range of cellular tower it will send the message via the built in GPS. I get our SES vehicles serviced at NRMA & we have had flat batteries they have been called out for and the service has been good. They now have a battery and EV charging cable for any fool who has run out of battery but have never had to use it. Any callout is going to take time. The driver isn't normally sitting at the depot waiting for a call. Usually they are at home so they have to get organised , go to the depot and then drive for how ever many hours it takes to get to the breakdown. If it is the Nullabor highway it could take all day even if it only is from the nearest roadhouse. That is the risk you take when driving in remote areas. You need to plan for such possibilities.

If you live in the outback or where there are a lot of gravel roads it makes sense to have a spare tyre. Well over 90% of vehicles never get off major roads and some hardly ever get out of the city. Manufacturers of both ICE & EV have looked at statistics and determined providing a spare wheel is expensive and takes up valuable space so thy are no longer included. It started with space saver spares, then run flat tyres & now a repair kit. Many drivers have absolutely no idea how to change a wheel or even where the spare is. All they know is how to call NRMA. Back in the 60s Citroen put the spare under the bonnet but for most cars that isn't an option The front boot/trunk (froot/frunk) in an EV is also filled with air conditioning, coolant etc so there is nowhere to put a spare. Many cars can hold a space saver spare in/under the boot but it is an optional extra. My MG4 does not have a spare wheel & I don't care. I haven't had a puncture in the last 250,000 km of driving & if I get one there is the repair kit which consists of a pressurised can of gunk, a safety triangle and an electric tyre pump. It also has an e-Sim which knows where the car is within 5 metres and an emergency button on the ceiling console that sends a signal via the cellular system or if not in range of a tower via a GPS satellite providing a latitude/longitude grid reference to the emergency service provider to come & get me. First they try to ring me & if I am out of range they just turn up hopefully sooner rather than later. This is part of the 7 year warranty. After that there is a fee which is just the normal NRMA membership charge.

The Tesla Model Y Plaid (only sold in the USA) has 2 electric motors driving all 4 wheels and produces 1020 horsepower and 1420Nm of torque. It is the quickest car ever produced with a 0 to 100 kmh time of 1.9 seconds. It does not spin the tyres. It is quicker than a formula 1 race car, at least to the first corner where the F1 car gets around that far better..

You can call me an EVangeslist if you like. I have owned my MG4 Essence 64 since last September & have 12,000km on the clock now. I'd never buy another ICE vehicle. The public charging infrastructure is terrible. A lot of the fast chargers are hard to operate or are out of service. Only the Tesla fast chargers seem to always work, possibly because they have good service teams, I don't know. So far I have spent about $60.00 to travel 12,000km. I have been to Noosa once and Brisbane twice but other than that no more than 200km radius from home. I have a 7.4 kW wall charger and 8.5kW of solar panels & only charge when the sun is shining. If the solar is not producing much I reduce the current going to the car battery so as I don't have to import power from the grid. EVs are just a natural progression of technology. The only reason they didn't catch on in the early 1900s was battery technology. Electric motors just make sense. One moving part and almost 100% efficient compared to hundreds of moving parts and 30% efficiency of an ICE vehicle. Then there is instant torque available from 0 RPM, not to mention no noise, no emissions or vibration. They have been expensive but costs are coming down and batteries are getting cheaper. There are now several Corolla sized EVs for less than 40k and all are bigger inside. There isn't much of a 2nd hand market but that will change over time. The thing is the warranties are great and service requirements very low that not many are getting on to the used car market yet. There are quite a few funky looking inner city EVs available in the UK & Europe now & cost less than $20 grand. They are not fast, small, seat 1 or 2 only have a small battery but are perfect for driving around a city. As for the glut of EVs unsold in lots, well there is an element of truth in this but nothing like the press would have you believe. Production in China has gone ballistic and they were shipping EVs around the world before there was even dealership infrastructure & cars ended up sitting at ports waiting for that to be set up. The Teslas coming in to Australia are all Chinese built and unless Tesla has changed its strategy they are all built to order. China tried but could not go toe to toe with the legacy auto makers. Many of them built factories in China & beat the Chinese hands down. China found its mojo in EVs and battery technology and has crushed the rest of the world in manufacturing, technology and price. China is now the largest car manufacturing country on the planet as well as the largest exporter with 40% of sales EVs. They have scared the US out of its wits and there is now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs sold in the US to try and protect the declining motor vehicle industry there. The other side of the coin is that there is a glut of ICE vehicles arriving in Australia. Most of the legacy manufacturers are advertising like crazy at present with the magic phrase "In Stock" appearing in most of the TV ads. It took 3 years to get back on track after Covid. Everything was in short supply, now there is an over supply. Nothing is as simple as it seems and the fossil fuel industry, big mining and legacy car makers have been lobbying governments to slow the move to electrification and the media with shareholdings in these industries are telling them and the gullible public what they want to hear.

Fully Charged & Everything Electric have been scorned to death by the UK right wing press for several years and every time their claims are debunked. It doesn't stop them though, probably because their major shareholders and supporters are invested in the fossil fuel & mining industries right through refining, transport and the legacy auto makers who are desperately trying to stop or delay governments emissions reductions targets by any and all means at their disposal.

I owned 2 Triumph Heralds in the early 70s, one a car & one a wagon. I never had mechanical issues with either though the bodies did rust, but then so did all cars of the era. Easiest engine to work on as well, given the entire front end hinged over the front. I was a Hang Gliding nutter at the time & we got 4 gliders on the roof & 4 in the car & it still went up lots of inclines in top gear due to the long stroke engine. Not an admission of poverty at all, rather a prudent and cost effective form of transport..