Electric car thread

[Litespeed]

I think managing the "cranks" of the anti EV brigade is a bigger priority.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

A human is flat out to generate 1/6th of a horsepower. Nev

Then how come it only takes two to fill a theatrical horse costume?

[Marty_d]

55 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Then how come it only takes two to fill a theatrical horse costume?

Do a tug-of-war between the theatrical horse and the real one, the answer will become clear...

[old man emu]

Well! I'll be a horse's .....

[spacesailor]

Man powered flight .

On such low ' horsepower ' , 

I made a tiny piece for the " puffin " .

spacesailor

PS  : They didn't say if they used my contribution. 

[red750]

Tesla’s Cybertruck, touted for its rugged design, faced a bizarre setback at a car wash. After the wash, the 6,600-pound truck shut down, rendering its console blank and transforming it into a giant metal brick.

Despite its intended off-road prowess, the vehicle struggled with mundane tasks. Tesla advises against washing the truck in direct sunlight to prevent corrosion, and offers a special “Car Wash Mode.”

“Failure to put Cybertruck in Car Wash Mode may result in damage,” the company’s manual reads. “Damage caused by car washes is not covered by the warranty.”
.

[facthunter]

You can lead a horse to water,  but you can't make it drink..   Nev 

[Litespeed]

You can't make a horse drink...but you can drown it.

[kgwilson]

I heard some comments the other day that the US is going to ban Chinese car imports on the pretext that they are somehow able to be controlled from China and now there is talk of mobile phones being able to do the same thing. This means that there will be no more mobile phones as they are ALL made in China including iPhones & Samsung & every other popular brand.

 

While I am at it the current proposal to shut down the 3G network is a fiasco. Some other countries have shut down the 3 G network such as the UK but they still have the 2 G network operating to account for all the millions of low end devices that use it. The proposal to ensure all phones are capable of VoLTE (Voice over Long Term Evolution) is also a major problem as some new and very expensive phones don't actually use VoLTE in 4G but use a conversion process to use the 3G spectrum so they will be incapable of making emergency calls with no 3G.

 

When Telstra was asked how many roaming phones were in Australia they had no idea & took the question on Notice. When they checked the answer was 2.3 million. The Telcos are quite happy with the shutdown as it will force many people to upgrade their devices when they shouldn't have to.

 

Check this out

 

[old man emu]

The problem with the owners of the IT industry is that while they do a lot of work improving their operating systems, and from those improvements come the products to utilise the new operating systems, they have forgotten the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

Let me say that I am happy with my current Pentium-powered computer with its Core 15 CPU, and which originally had Windows & installed, but now runs Window 10. It does the simple tasks that I want - Internet surfing, word processing, a couple of Excel spreadsheets and Paint. If I had the time I'd play with Inkscape and maybe even get into so 3D printing G-code. 

 

What I'm not happy with is the urging by Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 11. For what I need computing ability to do, W-11 offers not advantages. I'm afraid I haven't had the medical procedure to have a mobile device surgically inserted into my fundamental orifice. Even the updates to W-10 leave me wondering where things have been moved to after the installation.

 

One of these days, when I am not so occupied with rearranging the design of the hovel, I might pull out the stuff I need to reassemble my CNC machine. It runs operates on W-7, which is sufficient for the CNC software and the "Arrh, me hearties" copy of Rhino 4.

[spacesailor]

I have three good working ' laptops ' ,

The problem is all the WiFi receivers are outdated. they still work well " wired " . That means take the laptop to the modem, or get a long Long wire .

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

I think you'll find the dismantling of the 3G network is all to do with freeing up another big slice of the 3G bandwidth spectrum, so the Govt can auction those bandwidths off to other users. There's a huge pent-up demand for those bandwidths, and the last time the Govt had a bandwidth auction, they raked in billions from the Telcos that bought them.

I STR Telstra paid around $1.8B just for a small handful of frequencies that they plan to utilize in the near future.

[red750]

We have a small portable wifi dongle which my daughter uses with her iPad. We've been receiving emails and texts fropm Optus on a regular basis for months asking us to check if it will work with the 4G network. We went to an Optus shop 3 months ago and they confirmed it will be OK, but we still get peppered with messages. 

[onetrack]

Back to the EV subject. It appears the long-held belief that EV's are virtually free to run, is taking a good hit to the nuts. The cost of recharging at privately-owned recharging stations is rocketing and becoming a constant cost burden. In places such as the U.K., it can cost more to recharge an EV than to refuel an IC car!

Australian charging rates are rocketing at unreasonable levels, and of course, the charging companies can always someone to blame, in the form of the energy generators.

 

Naturally, the EV aficionados point out that you always recharge at home, so the cost is much lower. However, that's not always something you can do - if you're moving around quite a bit, this means you have to plan all your driving around your home location being readily within reach.

 

https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/motoring-news/public-ev-charging-costs-rise-to-rival-petrol/news-story/f1767b47bd8013fb66ed0511ebd50173

 

Meantimes, the EV sales are showing some curious features. One, is the staggering (and unsustainable) number of EV brands and models on offer. This can only end in tears as many of them disappear, leaving owners of the defunct models out on a limb.

 

The second interesting feature is the staggering discrepancy in month to month sales figures. Sales were slow but gradually increasing in the early part of the year, then there was a massive jump in May and June sales. I would expect this was due to the ending of some EV concessions, but I'll wager a lot of if was driven by end-of-year tax breaks.

But the sales then slumped badly in July and August, and only show signs of minor recovery in September, despite the fact that many EV manufacturers reduced prices by substantial amounts last month.

 

I saw an article that outlined how the majority of EV buyers were in families that had at least $200K of combined household income. This indicates to me that tax breaks and novated leases for the wealthy, have been driving the "EV boom", and it's a false boom. Only when families of modest income start buying EV's, will there be a total and final turn in the EV market against IC-engine vehicles.

 

In another article, I saw where there has been a 17% increase in diesel-fuelled vehicle purchases, as the desire to stay with diesel, continues to be a market driver for many.

 

https://thedriven.io/2024/10/04/australian-electric-vehicle-sales-by-month-and-by-model-in-2024/

 

[facthunter]

Hard to TRUST anything that's published about EV's. Compared to a "Hybrid" there's not much to maintain.  Nev.

[onetrack]

Aaah, but you also have your EV listening, watching and recording everything you do in it! Then, when the Chinese want to get nasty, they'll blow it up on you!  😄

[old man emu]

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

Only when families of modest income start buying EV's, will there be a total and final turn in the EV market against IC-engine vehicles.

It really was only when Ford started tuning out Model Ts at a price that was within the reach of a large portion of the population that motor vehicles started replacing the horse. I'm surmising that the early adopters were the more well-to-do MIddle Classes and transport businesses which found the motor vehicle more economical that the horse. One sales to that group had been established, then the unit price started coming down to within reach of the factory worker. The motor vehicle massively altered the cultures where it was commonplace as well as creating whole new human environments and commercial and recreational activities.

 

EV are just another species of motor vehicle. As their price comes down and the necessary alterations are made to the infrastructure required to supply their energy source, then I suppose the ICE vehicle will lose its dominance. Not saying that there will be a total extinction of ICEs. They'll be needed for some tasks.

[old man emu]

8 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Then, when the Chinese want to get nasty, they'll blow it up on you!

So that's who made the pagers for Heballah!

[spacesailor]

One diesel rumour was the outback stations were 

not pumping regular petrol due to ' young people sniffing ' the fumes .so I changed from petrol to diesel to be certain I could get fuel wherever I needed it .

Try Buchanan hwy WA .

Keep driving east , from Stuart hwy . Topsprings service station.  Then Buchanan hwy,to Timber creek  WA . 

spacesailor

[kgwilson]

Most new cars now have E-Sims in them. As there are multiple computer systems in all new cars they need to be connected to the internet just like your phone or home computer for updates and improvements. The hype about the Chinese wanting to access everything you have is complete rubbish. Their success is due to being commercially competitive and being better than the Wests traditional manufacturers. Oldies will remember when we called everything made in Japan as "Jap Crap" & it was, till they became better at most things than we were.

 

Now the Chinese have turned the world on its head once again, originally producing poor copies of Western products but now dominating the world in most things. The USA is scared shitless about what has happened. Musk pre-empted it by building Teslas in China & so did Apple. Every iPhone & Apple computer is now made in China. Biden has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese vehicles & is moving to ban them altogether citing Chinese spying through software embedded in them. He knows that the Chinese vehicles are way better & cheaper than US made cars & will totally annihilate the US Auto industry. This Chinese spying stuff is of course complete garbage as it was with the ban on Huawei 5G equipment. Huawei just happened to be the best and cheapest 5G gear available undercutting everyone else so we banned it and lied about them being able to listen in. If the Chinese wanted to do this it would already be happening given that almost all of our electronic equipment for private & commercial use is made in China.

 

The hype & hysteria is being generated by the US just like it was back in the McCarthy era when Reds under the Bed and the Communist tide coming to take over led to the devastation in Indo China where the US and us hanging on to Uncle Sams coat tails led to millions of deaths for no valid reason at all.

 

The era of globalisation is now fast receding back to protectionism & if Trump become President the US will begin to recede back in to isolationism, somewhere it hasn't been since before WW2.

[red750]

There are many stories around with the introduction of AI. I read where the robotic vaccuum cleaners filming yoyr house and recording data is to facilitate the AI programming. Then there are the stories that Amazon has hundreds of people analysing the recordings made by the Alexa smart speakers. Maybe AI is analysing it. Something has to be listening, the way targeted adverts for stuff you are talking about all of a sudden pop up on your internet. Google have been data stripping your web searches for years.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I genreally agree with @kgwilson. Japan was the first to really to what China is doing today; then Taiwan (which to some, is China). India had a go, but never really got there, although they are a powerhouse, it is more through population size and cheap labour than technological advances and innovation. China is the new kid on the block, but while the US (and the rest of us) are packing our dacks, there are a few reasons why we should be alert:

 

• The Chinese government has an active influence in day to day operations of companies it is interesteed  in. They have recently arbitrarily detained leaders of companies that ddidn't bow to their demands (Jack Ma, for example) and they will use coercion and threats and "the law" to achieve outcomes they are interested in.
• The Chinese heavily subsidise their industries extensively - well except the companies that may fall into the first point and don't acquiesce to the governemnt. This is pretty well document and the CCP have admitted it, for tactical reasons apparently, whatever that means.
• The labour market is artifically suppressed: One of the differences between more free-market economies is that the Chinese government totally controls the labour market. When you have arbiotrary power, you use it. One of the probelms is that in an economy like China, as it becomes wealthier, wages and conditions would rise, as they did for Japan and Taiwan, and the cost side of the equiation would more or less balance itself out against peer economies (of which the US and Europe as a whole, are). However, wages and other employee costs are kept artifically low to keel the price competitive both at home and abroad.

Not to mention that the current Chinese government is starting to try and flex geopolitical muscle, there is little wonder, the US and its allies are tetchy

[nomadpete]

Totally agree, Jerry.

The example of Japan post ww2 is not similar to chinas recent economic rise. Because Japan operated economically in the same world playpen as the rest of us.

Modern china has noted that Japan eventually plateaued. 

China played by isolationist economics (which works a treat while you are leading the world in manufacturing). Its totalitarian gov heavily supported manufacturing in ways we never see in 'our' world.

 

US of A cannot win nor recover) by using isolationist policy now - because it is no longer leading in world manufacture. It will shrivel faster than ever.

 

Ironically, the communist system has beaten the capitalist system..... by being better at capitalism!

[kgwilson]

Government subsidisation has and is happening in all economies.

 

The US government owned GM for some time after it went bankrupt and propped all the others up. The only US car maker never to have gone into bankruptcy is Ford but they also took government money. A third of the US car industry is now owned by Stellantis, a Dutch company. The Australian car industry never made a profit if the subsidies were removed and apart from that it was foreign owned and the owners demanded even more subsidies to keep it going until it all got too expensive and too hard for such a small market.

 

The Chinese labour market is well controlled but they now have a huge middle class with money to spend and a pretty big wealthy class with plenty of billionaires. In The US the so called free economy allows for people to get paid $7.50 an hour with no holiday or sick pay. 4 people in the US have more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population. The crazy part about it all is many of those 40% support Trump and his policies will make everything worse for them & better for his billionaire supporters like Musk.

[Marty_d]

Not to mention the US bailouts of banks during the GFC - some of which got spent on multi million bonuses for the very people who caused or contributed to the problem.