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Electric cars?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • Already own one

    Votes: 10 5.1%

  • Yes - would definitely buy

    Votes: 43 21.7%

  • Yes - preferred over petrol car if price/power/convenience similar

    Votes: 78 39.4%

  • Maybe - preference for neither, only concerned with costs etc

    Votes: 38 19.2%

  • No - prefer petrol car even if electric car has same price, power and convenience

    Votes: 25 12.6%

  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.1%
  • Total voters
    198
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divs4ever said:
Biden has mandated built-in breathe-testers ( i assume only for alcohol abuse )
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No he hasn't.

The bill put before congress only says that at some stage in the future, cars should be fitted with technology that can "Passively" monitor the drivers ability and attention to make sure the driver is not impaired in any way or drunk.

It doesn't mention breathe-testers at all, never watch Fox News my friend.

Many cars are already starting to have features like this anyway, for example Teslas have a camera that monitors the drivers eyes and head to detect if the driver is not paying attention or is distracted.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/...biden/65-ab85122d-c5c6-42ce-8b12-fcb5a24c0278
 
yes BUT the EVs are relatively new so more regulations can be wedged in without manufacturers crying ( rightfully ) extra manufacturing disruptions etc etc

if fact you might be amazed what features have been discreetly added to limousines and some luxury vehicles for up to a decade

however now we are talking about the family runabout , and the base level commercial vehicle
 
worked for NWS for over 12 years , i know better than to watch FOX and anything on SKY is taken with a truckload of salt ,

after many decades of interaction with the advertising industry ( OOPS media ) , i see the advertorials , and then research from there if interested ,

you just assume because i am anti-Leftoid i must consume the other side of the two-party paradigm

i DO find it funny that the ex-member for Delaware is suddenly standing on a 'fair tax policy '

amazing times coming
 
Value Collector said:
Even if the electric drive chain was never invented, it is highly likely that the trend for cars to become smarter (hence able too have more digital bells and whistles) would still exist.
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Compare any mainstream car from 2000 versus a comparable current model vehicle.

The 2000 car has no ABS brakes indeed it may even still have had drum brakes on the rear, it has no electronic stability control of any sort, it has at most a single airbag for the driver, the heating and air-con is manually controlled, winding down the windows requires doing exactly that - winding by hand, and it would outright fail any current crash safety test.

That's the change is just a single generation of cars indeed there are still year 2000 cars in use today.

Go back to 1980 and you got an engine with points and a carb, a transmission with not many gears in it, a heater (no cooling function) and an AM radio that buzzed like crazy every time you drove under a power line. The car had effectively no safety features other than seat belts and a horn and even the belts would only help if you adjusted them correctly given that was still manually done. Environmentally well it literally blew lead out the exhaust and left behind a cloud of asbestos dust every time the brakes were used.

Cars are far, far better now with or without changing the means of powering them. Even the most basic new car sold in Australia today is better than any car was 40 years ago.

Whilst there's arguably some novelty value in obsolete technology, and I've had more fun in bare bones cars than anything modern, there's no way I'd want one as a daily driver. Just as I wouldn't choose to go back to listening to music on cassette tapes or watching TV on a tiny screen with a set of rabbit ears on top. Old tech seemed good at the time, since we didn't have anything better, but no way I'd choose to go back to it.
 

I totally agree, except that old tech in terms of cars anyway are so simple that someone of average abilities can work on them without the need for a engineering degree, so they become more of an emotional decision to own one rather than an intellectual one.

I still like going to see old cars when their clubs visit our towns and I look at a well loved classic car in a different way that I would look at an overly technological modern car.

Classic cars have a high human input which can be respected, modern ones are built by impersonal robots and are tools rather than a member of the family.
 

Same with Horses, ICE won’t disappear completely, they will just become the realm of hobbyists, every now and then a steam train passes by owned by a steam club, but it would be silly to allow the coal burners to enter cities everyday transporting passengers.
 

Of course. New tech does the everyday stuff but there is still a place for the 'good olde days'.
 
Perhaps worth mentioning just how far we've come in a relatively short period of time.

Steam locomotives were still current technology within the lifetime of quite a few people still living today - they remained in service well into the 1960's in many places including Australian cities.

Such is the extent and pace of change with technology that in developed countries at least, steam trains only exist as a tourist thing today.

FWIW the last one I went on was this - the track's steep enough that the loco is at the back, pushing the carriage ahead, rather than at the front pulling it. Not my video however:
 
I think it is not so much that you do not need a phd but that the parts arenot micro chip obsolete within 5y.
When you actually need to rely on a machine: real 4wd in real remote area, farm ute, etc you do not want some hill assist, or chip control injection.
You want full control and fixing ability.
Sure abs are great etc..but my neighbour camping var is spending its time at the dealer.EU pollution regulation means there is an O2 sensor..from what i understand which get damaged by our crappy local fuel.
When the chip fails, the vehicle goes in emergency reach the nearer dealer..drop to 40 or 50km..on the freeway wo warning and then 1k repair..with new part flown from europe..great for the planet i am sure..or everyone must have seen already the toyota hilux epidemy of failures smoking worse than a coal steam engine..
KIS ....often the best reliability factor..
 
qldfrog said:
crappy local fuel
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Diesel in Australia is no different to other developed countries and far cleaner than many. So any diesel engine manufacturer has no excuse on account of fuel.

For petrol, the permitted sulfur content and aromatics permitted is higher in Australia than most developed countries plus also a lower oxygen requirement than some especially the US.
 
Sorry to detract from electric vehicles (it won't happen again I promise ) but this article seems appropriate.

Australia's iconic old cars 'left to die' immortalised by car enthusiasts

Married couple Steph McCarthy and Maurice Linehan are scouring Australia's wettest and driest landscapes to preserve our iconic vehicles, while car clubs race against time to keep history alive.
www.abc.net.au
 
This is a game breaker in cheap personal electric mobility.

OLA and Indian company has launched an electric motor scooter. Top speeds are 90kph or 115kph. Range (two battery sizes) 121-181k.

Price. This is the head turner. $1350 !!!

The company has sold 80,000 in the first day and plans to produce 10 million vehicles a year including export. It is also building a massive charging network across India.

Ola's 70 mph electric scooters selling like hotcakes, two every second

Ola’s S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters are off to a massive start after the first day of sales, with...
electrek.co

Ola Electric Website

book.olaelectric.com
 
GM's Chevey Volt electric car has had some serious problems with batteries catching fire. In fact they have recalled all of their Volt cars and replaced the batteries.

However one customer who actually had a battery fire has ended up $12k in the hole with GM saying he can sue them.. Hard ball.

Ugly story which GM should never have allowed to happen.

GM leaves owner owing $12K after Bolt EV battery fire last year

A previous owner of a Chevy Bolt EV is still making car payments a year after he lost his car due to a GM-confirmed battery fire. This is his story.
electrek.co
 
Australia does produce electric motor scooters. Compare the price and the specs

Inventory

The Fonzarelli Model lineup are all electric, built with the performance you need to get around the urban jungle. An easy, gliding sensation gives you a unique feeling of freedom. Negotiate city traffic from 0 to 50 km/h in 3.9 seconds. The Fonzarellis have a range of up to 50 and 100...
www.fonzmoto.com
 
I agree the world needs to change to renewable energy, but I believe EV's could create a shortage of electricity in Australia. Why, they need to be charged, when will most people want to charge their EV's? When they are not using them, at night, at their home when solar not available. This will require either base load or stored energy:

excerpt from: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/resear...lectric-cars-will-challenge-state-power-grids

SEATTLE — When Seattle City Light unveiled five new electric vehicle charging stations last month in an industrial neighborhood south of downtown, the electric utility wasn’t just offering a new spot for drivers to fuel up. It also was creating a way for the utility to figure out how much more power it might need as electric vehicles catch on.

Seattle aims to have nearly a third of its residents driving electric vehicles by 2030. Washington state is No. 3 in the nation in per-capita adoption of plug-in cars, behind California and Hawaii. But as Washington and other states urge their residents to buy electric vehicles — a crucial component of efforts to reduce carbon emissions — they also need to make sure the electric grid can handle it.

The average electric vehicle requires 30 kilowatt-hours to travel 100 miles — the same amount of electricity an average American home uses each day to run appliances, computers, lights and heating and air conditioning.

A U.S. Department of Energy study found that increased electrification across all sectors of the economy could boost national consumption by as much as 38% by 2050, in large part because of electric vehicles. The environmental benefit of electric cars depends on the electricity being generated by renewables.

So far, states predict they will be able to sufficiently boost power production. But whether electric vehicles will become an asset or a liability to the grid largely depends on when drivers charge their cars.

Electricity demand fluctuates throughout the day; demand is higher during daytime hours, peaking in the early evening. If many people buy electric vehicles and mostly try to charge right when they get home from work — as many currently do — the system could get overloaded or force utilities to deliver more electricity than they’re currently capable of producing.

And, https://www.greencarreports.com/new...leads-the-world-in-per-capita-electricity-use

Norway's aggressive push for electric-car adoption is leading to record electricity consumption. Between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., five million Norwegians used as much electricity as 10 million residents of neighboring Sweden, according to Bloomberg.

Those factors have contributed to Norway having the second-highest electricity consumption per capita in the world, according to the World Bank, surpassed only by Iceland. Norway expects electricity consumption to grow 30% by 2040, Bloomberg reported.

In Australia it is my view that we need to make sure we "don't throw our the baby with the bath water", i.e. if we shut down too many fossil fuel power stations or make them unprofitable by putting pressure on electricity prices, giving the owners of power stations no option but to shut them down. We may not have the energy available when we need it.
 
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