kgwilson

The only real difference between an EV & an ICE car is the propulsion system and the fuel. The electric motor or motors are very simple by comparison including the transmission to rotate the wheels, make hardly any noise are way more efficient and virtually free of vibration. The battery is heavy but keeps the CofG low so road handing and weight distribution can be as close to perfect as possible. This is true for the MG 4 and some other RWD EVs. A large percentage of current EVs began their life as an ICE car so carry over that baggage and many are front wheel drive so there has to be a compromise. There is a lot of talk about the cost and that only the wealthy can afford an EV (more specifically a Tesla). This as now old news and todays fish and chip paper. Tesla have reduced the prices across the range and they are more competitive with other quality brands. Almost all legacy car makers have a number of EV models in their lineup now. There are more than 300 EV manufacturers in China alone which is more than the rest of the world put together. The market analysts were predicting that EV and ICE vehicle prices would merge by 2025. This has already happened, just not in Australia. But the base model MG4, GWM Ora and BYD Dolphin are all sub 40k vehicles. They are all very good cars so the ethos that EVs are for the wealthy has well and truly gone, just not in the minds of EV knockers.

Tesla is no different from any other car manufacturer in that they have produced some models with faults that require recalls or repairs. Tesla though is always at the bleeding edge of technological advancement so problems will occur. I looked at a Model 3 and drove one. It is so different to any car I'd ever driven with a screen in the middle & nothing in front of the driver and electronics that did everything. The new model doesn't even have indicator stalks and things like having to use the touch screen to open the glove box seem odd even though they have a security purpose. The audio system even has 17 speakers. The earlier model only had 14. Lots of over the top stuff & futuristic technology. It was a lot flashier than my eventual choice, the MG4 but in my opinion not a drivers car whereas the MG drives like a sports car, plus the Tesla was an extra 15 grand. Lots of faults aside, Teslas are very popular and the Model Y is the largest selling car in the world beating all others ICE & EV. It is the first vehicle to topple Corolla for the last 22 years. Add to that it is also the biggest car company in the world by market capitalisation. Tesla must be doing something right to arrive at number 1 so quickly.

I read about the Nevada Gigafactory 2 years after it came on line in 2017 with the built in recycling plant. By early 2020 they hadn't recycled any batteries other than their own modules that had not made the grade. Seems like that is pretty much still the case. Now most of Teslas new batteries are being made by BYD & CATL. The Chinese are now firmly out in front in battery technology.

1. Batteries manufactured from 2022 by BYD & CATL are likely to last 20 years not 10. That is old outdated information. 2. All modern vehicles from tiny minicars to the biggest trucks are full of electronics and the cost of replacement outweighs the value of the vehicle even if it's ICE engine is still running. The thing is it won't run without these electronics so it is only useful as scrap. 3. It is true that there are few battery recycling plants. There are none in Australia that are capable of recycling EV batteries to my knowledge. The thing is none are needed at present. In the early years of car manufacture in the late 1800s to early 1900s there weren't any engine mechanics either. New technologies don't come with end to end processes when first released. 4. Much of the reason why there are no recycling plants is because there are hardly any EV batteries available for recycling. The early Teslas and Nissan leafs had pretty small batteries by todays standards and while some have been replaced, the old batteries have found new homes in houses or commercial buildings as most have about 80% of their capacity left. The only batteries that are scrapped are those that have been severely damaged in a car crash. Even many of the cells in these are able to be re-used. In the UK & Europe there are a number of "Black Mass" recycling facilities. The batteries are ground up and the individual minerals extracted so lithium, cobalt, manganese etc are recovered for reuse. Even so there are many 10 year plus old Teslas & Nissan Leafs still running perfectly well on their original battery. Recycling of lithium batteries is a growing problem. Almost all phones and electronic devices, power tools, electric bikes, scooters etc use lithium batteries and they do not have sophisticated battery management software just charging limit functions. They often get thrown in the rubbish rather than being taken to the shops where recycling bins are. Once rubbish is crushed so are the batteries and if there is sufficient charge left in them a short circuit will very quickly turn in to a thermal runaway with an ensuing fire. There needs to be government funding to get on top of this as the numerous minor fires will end up being massive eventually. The worst seem to be small lithium battery powered bicycles, scooters etc and it usually stems from ignorance where they are incorrectly charged, the wrong type of charger is used or some other user induced factor.

firstly, no I did not watch the video you posted just the original before it was behind the paywall over 6 months ago. Secondly I don't know who Simon Evans is so he is NOT "My Simon Evans" whatever that is supposed to imply. There were many errors and "Stop Burning Stuff" a subsidiary of Fully Charged who have just run the Electrify Everything show in Sydney have been correcting these since that time with verified facts. It has been adequately demonstrated by SBS that the Anti EV lobby cherry picked statements from Atkinsons video and have reposted them everywhere much to the delight of the fossil fuel industry. Since the original clip was published it has been modified several times to straighten up facts Like "batteries last 10 years" to batteries last upward of 10 years. In 2024 the best batteries are produced by CATL & BYD both Chinese and their NMC & LFP batteries are slated to last 20 years or even more, by which time most vehicles will be scrapped. Tesla is now using both BYD & CATL batteries as the US has not been able to keep up with these manufacturers and the legacy auto makes there have produced some very ordinary EVs (Tesla excepted) & they are not selling many. The CATL battery in my EV should last 1 million km with the battery management software installed by SAIC in my car. That is 50 years at the rate I drive but the car will be toast well before then. Also i will be well dead by then.

All EVs need an inverter to convert AC from the grid into DC which the batteries need unless you always charge from a public DC fast charger which supplies DC current direct to the battery. I don't know of any EV that does not have an inverter. Most prior to 2020 though had only a one way inverter, that is from AC to DC. Now the majority have reverse inverters so you can select to discharge power from the Type 2 AC cable connection on the car via a discharge adaptor to any normal 230 volt appliance. The level of discharge is set by the car but also the discharge adaptor. Most manufacturers set the limit in the adaptor to 10 amps. This is because the large majority of people don't understand electricity and will use a household extension lead that only has 1mm phase and neutral cores, then plug in a 6 outlet power board with multiple appliances and if the current was not restricted the cable would overheat and possibly melt the insulation and catch fire.

Rowan Atkinsons clip was sponsored by the Telegraph, an Anti EV tabloid. Many of the comments have been debunked, including the Volvo reference which is completely incorrect. The problem is because of his elevated status as a famous Actor the anti EV lobby has grasped this with both hands and not checked any of his claims. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/fact-check-why-rowan-atkinson-is-wrong-about-electric-vehicles

Battery storage instead of a diesel generator is eminently viable. A friend of mine who installed stand alone solar in 2011 has never needed his backup generator to this day. My EV can supply up to 32 amps to my house during a blackout. I don't have big enough cables or a proper feed in system to do this but we had a 4 hour power cut & I ran the fridge, freezer, radio, computers & some lamps and used hardly any of the cars battery. I did borrow a 2.5mm 20 amp extension cable to test it one day & ran the electric jug & a heater, total of 3.3 kW no problem. Based on my average daily use I could run the entire house for over 8 days from the full car battery. I've just installed a 6.6kW solar system to add to the 2kW system installed in 2013. The other day it was cloudy most of the day but I was still generating over 4kW of power at the time so even when the sun is not shining it still works. This would be a lot less if it was very heavy overcast and raining but at least along the Eastern seaboard this does not happen often or for very long at one time.

Why?

I was living in Buderim at the time and am still amazed at the photos I took of our back yard and pool areas. We had just listed the house for sale and were having an open home the following week. The pool ended up with over 450mm of sand & debris in the bottom from the empty block above us that was starting development. All the shoes, mats etc at the back door were swept around the house and down the drive on to the road. Most were never seen again but I picked up a thong that had ended up in a pile of rubbish about 500 metres away down 2 roads. I've never seen such intense rainfall before or since.

There are many outback farms that have now invested in their own solar systems and batteries that while there is an initial upfront investment pay for them selves quite rapidly. The system runs all the various households, sheds, pumps, and anything else that needs power including electrically powered farm machinery and vehicles. There are also plenty of small scale wind turbines on offer to supplement these. Twiggy Forrest is electrifying all of his mines and there are already many electric dump trucks operating, all powered by batteries charged from solar systems. Yes the dinosaurs still whinge but they will either move on and become part of the future or refuse to acknowledge inevitable change and be confined to the dustbin of history.

Coal fired power stations can only burn coal. There are dual fuel plants that have gas as an alternative but this causes greenhouse emissions and again is a non renewable. Most of the fossil fuel plants are already past their use by date and keeping them going a a very expensive exercise from a maintenance and fuel cost basis let alone their extreme CO2 emissions. Solar and Wind supplemented by battery storage is by far the least expensive even allowing for new transmission lines, as well as pumped hydro are the only viable alternatives. Nuclear is just too expensive with a very long lead time and then we have to work out what to do with the radio active waste. Now of course there is opposition from farmers out West who aren't keen on transmission poles on their properties so have become the rural equivalent of urban NIMBYs. Most though are happy to have Wind Turbines on their land when they can get 30k annually for each one they host. South Australia is the jewel in the Australian renewable energy crown. They are producing all of their energy requirements from renewables most of the time now and at times have become a net exporter of power to Victoria & NSW.

Sodium ion batteries have been in development for some years and at the beginning of 2024 had managed to get just over 160 Wh/kg at the battery pack level compared to the best NMC batteries approaching 300 Wh/kg. Sodium comes in at 1/3 of the cost of lithium and the batteries operate better at low temperatures reducing the need for battery heating. The tradeoff is less energy density but at much lower cost. Since the announcement in January of the first Sodium battery powered EV the Chinese JAC the price of lithium began to decline and has been on a downward trend ever since dropping 78% in the last year. Some of the price drop can be attributed to over production and lower demand.

The petrochemical industry has an important role to play even though we need to reduce a lot of the plastic rubbish we produce. The thing is by using this energy as fuel it can be used once and then it's gone with the resultant pollutants remaining in the atmosphere, acidifying oceans and a myriad of other things not conducive to a healthy environment. We need to just stop burning stuff or we will eventually all be stuffed.

You present people with verifiable facts and they still rabbit on about EVs bursting into flames or the risk is too high. Almost everyone has a lithium battery powered mobile phone not to mention the laptop & tablet plus a multitude of other battery powered tools, toys, watches & other items but put it in a car and that's different. Never mind the fact that they don't spontaneously combust, have a safety rating thousands of tomes better that the petrol or diesel car they currently drive. The world of battery powered and electric everything is here, like it or not.

The US has an uncanny knack of alienating the local populations wherever they are involved and that is not only in a hostile situation and it is not only political. Remember to "over paid, over sexed and over here" complaints during WW2. Not many countries want them there but they are often tolerated because of the economic benefits bringing money in to their economies.

There are a multitude of new battery technologies in various stages of development. Whether they get past the prototype or development stage is the $64 question. There are some that have huge capacity and a 100kW battery can be charged from 0 to 100% in under 5 minutes. These are still under development. Others have even more amazing specs. The big but is how long will they last. Until they resolve the high failure rate due to super fast charging, problems will continue. The heat generated is huge and that is all lost energy so there is a penalty to pay. They have been experimenting with liquid nitrogen to cool the charging equipment so that indicate the amount of heat generated. MY EVSE equipment consumes 7-7.1 kW when charging my car at it's maximum of 6.6kW. That is the maximum capacity of the on board inverter to convert AC to DC. The process of delivery through the heavy duty cable produces some heat and the cars inverter converts the AC to DC and there are kVArh (kilovolt Ampere reactive hour) losses as well. The high speed Superchargers charge in DC direct so they can be very fast. The Hyundai iOniq 5 can DC charge at 350kW so 5 minutes on one of these DC chargers will provide 100km of range. Maximum DC charge for my car is 140kW. I was aware of all this before I made my decision to buy the car. Now with 8.6kW of solar panels my home charging costs have dropped to zero (once the cost of the system is paid off).

I haven't been here for a while but a few things need comment. FACT. EVs are 3000 times less likely to catch fire than ICE vehicles. You don't have to believe me. Look it up. It is sensationalist media & social media that comes up with the EV fire stories that cannot be verified. Lithium batteries are everywhere and how many catch fire? There are about 17 billion mobile devices on the planet & nearly all have lithium batteries. Most reported fires are in scooters & bicycles that have poor charging systems or are charged with the wrong charger. EVs of course have battery management software. They cannot be overcharged or abused in modern EVs. Some will even refuse to charge when put on a charger if the software considers that the battery is being micro charged. This is when you leave the car on charge then drive to the shops & back & put it back on charge. There have been 6 EV fires in Australia in our entire history. 1 was arson, 3 were in garages that burned down so the EVs went with it, 1 hit a tree at high speed & the other the tailshaft of a truck at high speed. None have ever caught fire from chargers. For real information check out EVfiresafe.com The price of Lithium has plummeted. The supply is way more than the industry needs at present. Also Sodium batteries now have energy density rivalling NMC lithium batteries. Several Chinese EVs are now using sodium batteries. As well all of the minerals like lithium, manganese and cobalt are recyclable and fully recoverable from old batteries. It is just that not many EV batteries have got to that stage yet. Once below 80% of original capacity almost all are repurposed for household or industrial energy storage. It is only smashed up batteries that get ground down in to black mass & then the minerals extracted from that. The difference in carbon footprint of an EV compared to ICE in the manufacture process is miniscule compared to the fuel used in an ICE vehicle over its lifespan. A lot of the original studies forgot about the extraction, refining and transport costs of ICE fuel which is crazily high. My EV like many has a battery heater. When in sub zero temperature the car is kept plugged in & the battery kept warm. They have been doing this with ICE cars & trucks in Canada for decades. Diesel has to be pre heated when cold as it turns to gel & won't flow. ICE engines freeze solid if not kept above freezing. Some places have plug in points at parking meters so you don't come back to a car that is now frozen solid & can't be used till Spring. Most modern EV batteries will outlast the car. You may not like it but China now produces the best batteries in the world surpassing the US & Europe. China is the worlds largest EV manufacturer and also the worlds largest car exporter. They are building battery and EV factories in Europe right now. Some Chinese EV manufacturers are providing a 1 million km warranty with the battery. In Australia I only got 7 years as that seems to be the industry standard but CATL state the battery should last 1 million km before it degrades to 80%. If that is the case I'll be dead before the car is. I've just added another 6.6kW solar system to my roof. I've had a 2kW system since 2013. Now I can charge the car 100% from solar energy unless I am on a trip away further than my range. It will be paid off within 3 years at my expected EV use, maybe even sooner & that does not include household benefits as well. It is inevitable though that EV owners will have to pay road user charges as there is no excise tax on electricity. I won't be going back to ICE. Environmental is only 1 issue. Octave mentioned a number of others all of which are great. There are many more though, like instant torque power, low C of G, low maintenance & feeling fresh after a long drive among many others.

It's a big contrast the human behaviour as well. We seem to emulate possums.

If it is taking a casualty from the front line back to a medivac centre you can guarantee it will hug the ground to avoid being seen by the enemy or radar & it will know how to avoid objects and change course at will to avoid detection.

3 Americans get killed in Jordan and they unleash millions of dollars worth of missiles at multiple targets. The fact that 27,000 Palestinian civilians have now been killed is just Israel defending itself. And they don't have the balls to stand up to Putin & have no way to counter Xi either. There are millions of them who support a malignant narcissist compulsive liar with dementia & the rest support a geriatric who forgets his lines but does appear sort of sane. Their politically appointed judiciary ensures no genuine justice if it doesn't suit the current political agenda and the court system takes decades to finalise a case with a seemingly never ending appeal process. But if you have plenty of money things flow and things get done. The real problem is the massive gap between the super rich and poor which has been widening at an ever increasing pace. Bernie Sanders said the other night on the ABC that there a 2 individuals (Bezos and Musk) with more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population. They are heading for self destruction but I hope they don't take the rest of us with them

It is the modern empire in decline and it has been going on for some years now. They just can't seem to accept that they are no longer the worlds police force and can't understand why nobody likes them any more.

If he keeps on buying cigarettes he will eventually end up with a smoking related disease or go broke.

They could have filled them with high explosive and used them once as a super high speed drone. Just an initial setup and course programmed in to them. No maintenance required. The Kremlin would be a worthy target or even one of Putins mansions.

And we still don't have any fuel standards just like Russia and Mexico.