Electric car thread

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

them offering me a cuppa

I think that comment was a bit of hyperbole. Just an expression to convey the idea that the dealer didn't do the slightest thing to indicate some sympathy.

[willedoo]

I never realised how dangerous to pedestrians electric bikes and scooters are until today. I voted early which was at the local RSL and was walking back down the footpath to my car at the same time all the high school kids were heading home. More than half of the ones who passed me were  on ebikes and scooters and they were really putting the speed on. The problem is you can't hear them coming up behind you until what would be too late to avoid a collision if the pedestrian suddenly changed course. The one saving grace is that kids have good reflexes and once a couple of them go flying past, you know to expect more and to make sure you keep walking in a straight line.

 

It's hard to estimate their speed, but it would have been at least 15kph, some a fair bit more. To explain the environment, the footpath is not your normal footpath in town in a heavily built up area. The school is a couple of kilometres out of town and the RSL is at least 500 metres out of town from the nearest houses. There's only the RSL, school, council swimming pool and sporting clubs in that area. The bitumen footpath extends all the way out to the school for the kids to walk or ride home from school. You wouldn't see them speeding like that in the built up area of town for a couple of reasons. One is that they'd get caught doing it and the other is that it wouldn't be safe from their own point of view.

[spacesailor]

How many were wearing their hard hats ! .

spacesailor

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

How many were wearing their hard hats ! .

spacesailor

I didn't really think about it at the time but I think they all were. They probably have a bit of regulation at the school on that issue, like a staff member keeping an eye on them as they leave.

[spacesailor]

I have noticed here in Toongabbie area , heaps are not wearing their hat and , I told a young worker , ' cutting sheet metal '

to wear ear protection,  or , end up like me with , industrial deathness  .

( it means I'm getting old ) . LoL

spacesailor

Edited October 18 by spacesailor

[red750]

EV Factory Misses Out on Government Support, Shuts Down Completely

 

Amassive Swedish battery factory for electric cars is shutting down before even breaking ground, as Texel Energy has decided to withdraw its major investment.

 

Texel Energy’s planned battery factory in Malmö, which had promised up to 6,000 jobs, has been scrapped due to a lack of funding—especially without support from the Swedish government.

 

Read full report here.

[facthunter]

Another Assault on Battery event.    Nev

[kgwilson]

There are always budding entrepreneurs whenever emerging technologies look like being successful. Many of them fail or don't get sufficient backing to go ahead. Some get enough money to proof of concept and even prototypes and then are abandoned. Ideas and reality are two different things and investors want good returns. This is happening also with all the startups in the race to produce electric aircraft, automated air taxis etc.

[red750]

New EV Battery Promises 1,200-Mile Range but Requires Fuel-Style Fill-Ups

 

Read report here.

[red750]

A bit of drift-- This review was written by a Wales based writer and product reviewer, posted on Facebook.

 

Australia’s first hydrogen car comes to market, complete with charging stations in just 5 minutes. The car travels 900 kilometers with the tank full and purifies the air as it moves forward. 

For the first time, hydrogen fuel cell technology is being applied serialized in a commercial car and, above all, it allows for such important autonomy, with very reduced charging times. 

This is Hyundai Nexo, a small-cylinder car that beats all car manufacturers in the world and sets a sustainability record, with a charge of 6.27 kilograms of hydrogen that purifies 449,100 liters of air during the journey (as much as the consumption of breathing of 33 people for a whole day) and it only emits water down your exhaust pipe. This car produces no CO2 or other polluting emissions; just think that an equivalent vehicle, with a traditional combustion engine, emits about 126 kg of CO2 at the same distance. 

The hydrogen engine thus enters the automobile market and intends to join the electric one among the sustainable mobility solutions the world is adopting. Hyundai thus becomes the first automaker in the world to produce a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for the market.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Convert the hydrogen straight to electricity. I doubt you'd normally ever see streams of water coming out of an engine at that rate. Burning petrol produces water. More  water than the Petrol used..   Nev

[old man emu]

Got this from here: https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/how-economical-are-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-88672

 

A comparison between the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai (both of which are available here in tiny numbers as evaluation and government fleet vehicles) showed that either vehicle could travel 100km in freeway conditions on between 0.76kg (Mirai) and 0.9kg (Nexo) of hydrogen. Since the vehicles both have tanks of about 5.5kg capacity, that gives them plenty of range. Let's say 1 kg/100 kms. That's 550 kms which is said to be the range of my ICE with a 55 litre tank. 

 

The catch is the current wholesale price of hydrogen. At $15 or so a kilo, filling each car is about the same as filling a petrol car with a 50-litre tank. However, pundits predict that price will fall, but where it will ultimately land is anybody’s guess.

 

The $15 quoted in the article may be a bit high. In Australia, it is estimated that if green hydrogen were produced from high-quality onshore wind generation with a capacity factor of 45%, the cost would range from A$3.10-3.60/kg in 2020 to A$2.70-3.20/kg in 2030. 

[red750]

Both the Hyundai and Toyota hydrogen cars are only available to government fleets for testing. The Hyundai vehiclles cost $99,000 each and will be returned to the manufacturer after the 6 month trial. A 2021 model Toyota Mirai is availble to businesses on a three-year lease deal and equates to $63,000. Only 20 available in Australia.

 

 

[old man emu]

It's not too important to dwell on those two particular vehicles. I was simply exploring the cost of hydrogen fuel, if its use was widespread amongst the general public. The two test models could well be called prototypes, or proof of concept, and items falling into those categories are always way more expensive than they become when they go into mass production.

[Marty_d]

EVs are already mass produced. I think hydrogen cars may be the Betamax to EV's VHS.

[facthunter]

 Surplus Solar and wind  will provide energy for the Hydrogen.   Nev

[Marty_d]

True, and then use the hydrogen for generation. I may well be wrong but I think the range and lifespan of EV makes hydrogen cars unnecessary.

[facthunter]

With a reciprocating  motor I would think so. Electric is about 96% efficient and simple.   Nev

[willedoo]

A so called expert or analyst or whatever his qualifications are was saying on the radio that there's a future for hydrogen power in shipping and possibly aviation, but he gave a few reasons why he thought it won't be the future for vehicles. The way he explained it, it didn't seem to stack up against electric.

[facthunter]

Hydrogen is tricky stuff. It leaks easily and hardens some metals. To liquify it is not easy. Nev

[kgwilson]

As far as i know these hydrogen powered vehicles use fuel cells to convert the hydrogen to electricty & then power the car that way so in a sense they are EVs using a clean fuel to produce the electricity. They are not ICE cars burning hydrogen. The technology has been around for a long time. The big issue is the ability to store the fuel as in its liquid form the pressure is immense. That is being overcome with new technology.

[onetrack]

Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, and the cost and origin of the hydrogen source, are the two biggest problems facing hydrogen. The Japanese Govt is pouring mega-billions into hydrogen to ensure they have multiple sources of energy. But no-one has yet found a cheap and plentiful hydrogen supply.

 

The dream is "green" hydrogen, made from the electrolysis of water via solar electrical power, but that setup is far from low cost and far from being plentiful.

Current hydrogen is sourced from natural gas, and known as "blue" hydrogen. The process uses steam to "crack" the natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The CO2 is captured. It's far from cheap, and not ideal.

 

Then there's "grey" hydrogen, the same process as above, but the CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Also a less-than-ideal arrangement, and also not cheap.

 

"Brown" and "black" hydrogen are produced from brown and black coal. Once again, a costly and polluting process.

"Turquoise" hydrogen is produced by methane pyrolysis - using natural gas. Nothing about this process has any advantage over the above processes. The bottom line is the sheer volume of hydrogen gas needed to sustain the massive demand that is already being met by fossil fuels supply and infrastructure.

 

Battery development and improvements will more than likely keep H2 as a fuel on the back foot for a long time to come. The distribution infrastructure for H2 will need a massive allocation of funds, which no-one is prepared to stump up, at this stage.

[red750]

Three wheel half car from China.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/U4K58wJ4jJUhy9z2/

 

 

[red750]

The above car is a ElectraMeccanica Solo. 

 

 

Manufacturer    ElectraMeccanica
Production    2018–2023
Assembly    
Canada: New Westminster
China: Chongqing
United States: Mesa

[onetrack]

The new BMW iX3 EV prototype is on show, it's coming in 2025. It looks pretty sharp, as one would expect from BMW. But the lack of switches buttons and controls in the dashboard area, is one complaint area, that is being raised regularly by new car owners. They want the familiarity of switches and buttons, not to have to take ones eyes off the road, to look for a screen icon to touch.

 

The interesting part is BMW is partnering with the Chinese for battery technology, is using cylindrical battery technology, not prismatic cells, and has developed a dedicated, stand-alone EV vehicle platform, (BMW call it "Neue Classe"), which platform is not shared with any other BMW IC-engined vehicle. 

 

The new iX3 EV will use batteries from CATL, Eve, and Envision AESC, runs an 800V architecture, and has a reported range of 600kms.

 

Article - https://uk.motor1.com/news/741208/bmw-ix3-2025-patent-photos-leaked/

 

Photos - https://uk.motor1.com/photos/879224/bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-2024/#7702468_bmw-vision-new-class-x-2024

 

Edited November 17 by onetrack