The EV thread

[cookie2]

No big outback trips planned Cookie?

No, not at this stage DJ. Maybe a road trip or two which I could do in my present vehicle though.

[DJC]

Inverse has a good exploration of EV battery life and replacement costs based on actual data:

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/tesla...ement-cost

The site has many other objective EV articles.

[northernblue]

Inverse has a good exploration of EV battery life and replacement costs based on actual data:

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/tesla...ement-cost

The site has many other objective EV articles.

That article gives similar numbers to what the Chinese ev owners are claiming.
Did Tesla tweak their battery chemistry in 2017 or so ?

[Gointocarlton]

Good day to get "Greta" the 5L 98 RON guzzler out and give her a good thrashing.

#farktheevs

[DJC]

"According to the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), lithium-ion batteries cause at least three fires in recycling streams every day, but the real number of blazes is suspected to be much higher."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-29/l...c_news_web

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWvI1daNils

[DJC]

A genuine alternative to EVs?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-29/t...c_news_web

I hope Toyota perseveres ... and the petrochemical industry gets on board to bring down the cost of producing hydrogen.

[Thryleon]

A genuine alternative to EVs?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-29/t...c_news_web

I hope Toyota perseveres ... and the petrochemical industry gets on board to bring down the cost of producing hydrogen.

I think this is where Kruddlers argument is most important.  Which way is the future?  Odds are the car industry doesnt know.

The one thing that the car industry generally agrees on is that driverless vehicles are the future.  To be honest, I hope so.  There is an element of me first selfishness that has pervaded the roads for the last 10 years, where people are seemingly oblivious to driver etiquette and it all results in line jumping, delays, accidents, and general traffic slowdown. 

[DJC]

I think this is where Kruddlers argument is most important.  Which way is the future?  Odds are the car industry doesnt know.

The one thing that the car industry generally agrees on is that driverless vehicles are the future.  To be honest, I hope so.  There is an element of me first selfishness that has pervaded the roads for the last 10 years, where people are seemingly oblivious to driver etiquette and it all results in line jumping, delays, accidents, and general traffic slowdown. 

The thing is that there’s so much investment in EVs that manufacturers and governments don’t want to back another horse.

Hydrogen is earmarked for the next generation of heavy vehicles but Toyota is really the only company promoting the use for light vehicles.

Our environment doesn’t really suit EVs (outside of major population centres) or driverless vehicles; the latter can’t be programmed to deal with kangaroos, emus, etc.

I struggled at first when driving in the UK; the other drivers were incredibly considerate and courteous.  So different to the behaviour of most Aussie drivers ?

[kruddler]

I think this is where Kruddlers argument is most important.  Which way is the future?  Odds are the car industry doesnt know.

The one thing that the car industry generally agrees on is that driverless vehicles are the future.  To be honest, I hope so.  There is an element of me first selfishness that has pervaded the roads for the last 10 years, where people are seemingly oblivious to driver etiquette and it all results in line jumping, delays, accidents, and general traffic slowdown.

Yep.

This is where the government need to do their homework, and IMO they are dropping the ball.

If you wanna make hydrogen the 'next big thing' then a good way to start is to try and retrofit existing petrol stations with the ability to have hydrogen fuelling there. Don't need to build brand new filling stations, use what we have.
As the hydrogen uptake gets more prominent, you could phase out pertrol and deisel more ad more at these stations. It can be a gradual changeover that grows with the market.
Now i don't know the logistics of that, but thats for the government to work out.

Of couse, they need to make sure that car manufacturers continue to go down this path as well....which is hard for them to know.
What would/could be beneficial is to build our own cars in Australia! Imagine that, become innovative in manufacturing again, rather than being at the beck and call of the rest of the world.

Imagine if we could manufacture and mine our own hydrogen and hydrogen cars. We'd be future proof. Don't worry about a pandemic cutting us off from the rest of the world again, we'd be self sufficient.

But governments don't think that way. So we are left in limbo.

[ElwoodBlues1]

China have recognized the shortcomings of EVs for heavy transport, long range and Industrial uses and are investing in Hydrogen for those purposes but Hydrogen car sales have collapsed in Europe by 70% and fallen in other parts of the world.
China dont seem as interested in Hydrogen passenger vehicles which is shame even though home sales were the only ones in positive territory in the world in the past year.
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transpor...-1-1490002.

Aussies tend to vote and act with their hip pocket as the major guide and EV's are selling due to the cheap chinese vehicles flooding the market and unless hydrogen vehicles could be made cheaper and have better refuelling infrastructure its hard to see them taking off even if they are better for range, quicker to refill and probably suit Aus conditions better.
The debate reminds me of VHS vs Beta.....the latter was the superior technical product but VHS had the better marketing and won the day...