This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

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
Jump to new
The power tool companies earn big margins on battery sales, the last thing they want is to have a bunch of no name brand third party companies coming in and flooding the market with cheap batteries.

Suddenly they wouldn’t be able to lock customers into to purchasing an entire range, and they wouldn’t be able to make 400% mark ups on spare batteries, people would by the third party batteries sold on 10% mark up, and mix and match their skins based on which ever one was on sale that week.
 
sptrawler said:
Well I just love your passive aggressive approach to issues, when people have differing opinions to you, but it does show not everyone has the same view on issues.
From memory, thats two for two.
Click to expand...

OK
 

Nice. I like the current styling theme they use.
 
JohnDe said:
Nice. I like the current styling theme they use.
Click to expand...
Um it's pretty bland, same price as the Tesla 3 standard, but the reason I sold the Porsche has now moved on 20 years, so a low slung car doesn't work any better for my 20 year older body.
Actually my old Porsche was on sale recently on carsales for $90k, I sold it 20 years ago for $20k.
Never look at life in the rear view mirror.
 
Value Collector said:
The power tool companies earn big margins on battery sales, the last thing they want is to have a bunch of no name brand third party companies coming in and flooding the market with cheap batteries.
Click to expand...
Of course - the present arrangement is highly profitable so obviously they'd like to continue it.

It's not so good for consumers or the planet however.
 
Smurf1976 said:
Of course - the present arrangement is highly profitable so obviously they'd like to continue it.

It's not so good for consumers or the planet however.
Click to expand...
Absolutely IMO the battery should be a standard protocol, same as they did with phone chargers, each manufacturer having their own protocol is the epitome of restrictive trade practice, that inhibits cost reductions and increases manufacturing wastage.
Yet everyone can't stop ranting and chanting, about the emissions from cooling towers rather than scream about why we have to produce that unnecessary power , it does my head in.
But it doesn't get any airplay on the useless media, which is actually understandable, because IMO they have become the most useless interfering, with mindless direction, bunch of self centered muppets, spewing endless, aimless dribble, that has climbed its way out of the slime in the last 20 years. The days of impartial intelligent reporting has gone, it is now the time for the influencers, that can get the muppets to just suck up the content.
Just my opinion.
My rant for the year, luckily I don't think I will be here, when the chooks come home to roost.
 
Last edited:
sptrawler said:
muppets to just suck up the content.
Just my opinion.
My rant for the year, luckily I don't think I will be here, when the chooks come home to roost.
Click to expand...
Muppets, chooks...

Will they be bringing the white elephants with them?

Seriously, standardisation is a good idea with pretty much anything indeed it's a key to competition and lowering prices. That is, of course, exactly why manufacturers won't choose to go down that path.

Imagine though if we'd never had standardised household batteries, bolt sizes, audio formats and so on. As a society we'd be a lot poorer as a result.
 
So true smurf, remember when mobile phones came out and everyone was looking for a charger.
It has to happen eventually, when the dust settles, way too much inefficiency at the moment. But that always happens with new technology.
It's just a shame the useless media can't focus on something like this, which would advance Australia and the world in to the EV future.
What if Australia put forward a suggestion, to the world trade organisation, that they wanted a standard battery protocol.
 
And the funny thing is that there is nearly a de facto standard as a lot of even EVs but also laptops vacuums etc batteries nowadays rely on the same 18650 sub components.
So except for the management software burnt on the chips and the physical arrangements with cooling etc.they are often the same already.
It would be easy to ramp this up to standardised sub pack.
If you are rich show off guy,put 10 packs in your Lamborghini or Tesla Hipster special edition EV..or just drive a 2 packs cheaper MG or BYD
 
sptrawler said:
I cant understand the Im in the middle bit.
Isnt this whole excercise about maximum efficiency, minimum impact?
Click to expand...
Having standardised parts has a benefit whether you're swapping them routinely or whether you're only swapping them at end of life.

Imagine if every ICE car needed a special battery unique to that car and which no other car used. There's no chance anyone like Battery World or the RAA, RACV etc would carry batteries to fit every car on the road and you'd be pretty much stuffed with anything more than ~20 years old.

Or if all Ford cars used bolts with a particular thread that was unique to Ford, all Mazda had their thread, all Toyota had their own thread and so on and all with different heads too. You'd need a Toyota socket set to work on a Toyota, you'd need a Ford socket set for a Ford and so on because none of it fits. Heaven help you if you lose a bolt or nut, the only place that'll be able to get one will be a dealer.

Or if every builder used a special size of water pipe, meaning that any future plumbing changes you'd need to use only their fittings because nothing else fits their special 14.2mm pipe that nobody else uses and which they've ensured by patents nobody makes any sort of adapter or converter for. Now that'll be $2000 for the new garden tap Sir.....

Etc.

Standardisation of sizes, shapes and so on has value no matter how often the components are replaced.
 

The Ford Mondeo battery is different to the Toyota RAV4, which is different to a Mazda CX-5, and that battery is no good for the Mazda3, which won’t fit into the Holden Astra or the Toyota Land Cruiser, and that battery is useless for the Holden Equinox, and so it keeps going.

Now for the bolts. Ford like to use a bolt head size that is different to the a Japanese brands, thread pitches are all over the place & trying to use a bolt from a European car for an Asian car is more likely than not going to get you in trouble. Brake caliper bolts are pretty specific for each vehicle, as is sump plug bolts.

Have you looked at engine oils, automatic fluids and gear oils? There was a time when there was only 2, 3 or 4 types, now there are dozens and dozens. ICEV manufacturers have their own oil spec’s, which they keep changing for new models as they keep squeezing more power and economy from engines and less resistance from drivetrains, all the while trying to reduce wear.
 
rederob said:
I wasn't sure if I was watching tennis = love all
Or boxing =
Click to expand...

I’ve never been big on sports. I’m more of a book person. Dune by Framk Herbert comes to mind, and Mordant's Need by Stephen R. Donaldson.
 
Yep, same with tyres and wheels, headlight and tail lamps, electronic componentry, seats, door handles, windows, windscreens, and the list goes on and on.
It's a spare parts nightmare, and costing car owners a fortune in insurance because writing off cars is often cheaper than trying to fix them.

On the BEV battery issue, LFP degradation is minimal over a car's lifetime compared to nickel ternary (mostly "performance") batteries. Also on battery swapping stations, the electric motor scooter sector has solved this brilliantly:
(note in the video that a Taiwanese dollar is about AU 5 cents, so the monthly membership is about AU$14.)
You only need to watch the first 5.5 minutes, but after that it talks about the role of subsidies in effecting the transition. The question that needs serious thought in this regard is the extent that we - via the government - accelerate national innovation infrastructure so that less efficient markets are less of a drain on our productivity and competitiveness.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more...