Electric + Human-Powered Vehicles

[stevebrooks]

A crowdfunding campaign raised $15,000 to put a charger in at a pub in Braidwood. Apparently the power's on, they just have to get the software all sorted. Admittedly it's on a road heavily used by EV-loving ACT residents, but it's a pointer to the future, chargers will be sprouting like mushrooms soon.

Pic ripped from fb

charger.jpg

Nice, this is one of the good things about electric charging, you can put a charger just about anywhere, try burying a 20,000 liter petrol tank in your back yard and see how long it is before you get in trouble, there's all sorts of hoops to jump through, ecological protection plans, access rights and restrictions, parking allowance etc, you can't just pop a fossil fuel station in your house/garden, but you can pop an electric charging station there.

Hmm, there's a thought, I wonder if you could have one installed out the front in a parking area on your land and then charge passers by to charge their cars as a business! Would make an interesting business model, most blocks of land could fit a half dozen charging bays out the front and have everyone pay by credit card. Not sure where the government licensing regulation would fall for such a mini EV recharge setup, like a service station but without the other services, just electricity.

[stevebrooks]

Is it just me or are reviews of hybrid cars getting worse, take this one for instance, the GWM Tank 300. It appears in every test it was driven to maximise the fuel use and the only measure gives was Liters per hundred kilometers, not a single word about the amount of charge in the battery, how far you could drive it for short trip purely on battery power.

For instance;

On our test drive, which included long stretches of freeway driving, it averaged roughly 11L/km. In town, where hybrids are usually at their most efficient, that crept up to 14L/100km.

Long stretches of freeway driving? Where power will be provided almost exclusively by the smallish petrol motor, then city driving, is that after flattening the battery on long stretches of freeway driving just so you can show how bad it is in stop go traffic using the petrol motor exclusively? Did you charge the battery up and then do a quick trip down to the local shops then measure how many liters per hundred kilometers it used?

I mean this may genuinely be a bad hybrid car, but based on the information provided, it appears to have been tested solely as a petrol vehicle so you can't really tell. Maybe it would be useful as an electric town car and then used for the occasional long trips, the test seems genuinely lacking in important details. If I was GWM I would be having a word with news.com about biased reviews.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/moto ... 6fadb8042b

In fact the review for the new 2024 model is even sparser;

https://www.news.com.au/technology/moto ... 8893cba4d4

[Irrev-Black]

Is it just me or are reviews of hybrid cars getting worse, take this one for instance, the GWM Tank 300.

(snippetty doo dah!)

Something objective from advert-driven media whose big bosses make money from fossil foolery? Nah. Ain't going to happen.

[stevebrooks]

Now I am getting curious about this, another review this time of an all electric but a glowing review, however still no mention of battery size or range, is it simply that EV makers are encouraging reviewers to not mention these because ICE car buyers simply don't understand or can convert how this applies to liter per hundred kilometers and what conversion factor will let them work out what it will cost to recharge compared to refuel?

https://www.news.com.au/technology/moto ... 35011953a8

[joele]

Now I am getting curious about this, another review this time of an all electric but a glowing review, however still no mention of battery size or range, is it simply that EV makers are encouraging reviewers to not mention these because ICE car buyers simply don't understand or can convert how this applies to liter per hundred kilometers and what conversion factor will let them work out what it will cost to recharge compared to refuel?

Try and find out what battery technology is in the car, even on the manufacturers website (let alone the reviews)..

And FFS we don't need electric cars with artificial engine noise, do we? I actually love that my car is quiet...

[stevebrooks]

Now I am getting curious about this, another review this time of an all electric but a glowing review, however still no mention of battery size or range, is it simply that EV makers are encouraging reviewers to not mention these because ICE car buyers simply don't understand or can convert how this applies to liter per hundred kilometers and what conversion factor will let them work out what it will cost to recharge compared to refuel?

Try and find out what battery technology is in the car, even on the manufacturers website (let alone the reviews)..

And FFS we don't need electric cars with artificial engine noise, do we? I actually love that my car is quiet...

No we don't need speakers that make sound, but if it did I would want a Tardis sound.

[Irrev-Black]

Now I am getting curious about this, another review this time of an all electric but a glowing review, however still no mention of battery size or range, is it simply that EV makers are encouraging reviewers to not mention these because ICE car buyers simply don't understand or can convert how this applies to liter per hundred kilometers and what conversion factor will let them work out what it will cost to recharge compared to refuel?

Try and find out what battery technology is in the car, even on the manufacturers website (let alone the reviews)..

And FFS we don't need electric cars with artificial engine noise, do we? I actually love that my car is quiet...

No we don't need speakers that make sound, but if it did I would want a Tardis sound.

I want clip-cloppetty hoof noises with random snorts, neighs, and whinnies.

[Irrev-Black]

A bit speculative yet, but hopes for a solid-state lithium-ion battery.

https://the-riotact.com/anu-chemist-opt ... yet/739007

[stevebrooks]

Well, that's a turn up for the cards, apparently if you buy a cybertruck from Tesla there's a clause in the purchase agreement that says you aren't allowed to resell it! I'm not sure that's even enforceable, but the theory is they don't want other car manufacturers buying second hand ones and taking them apart to see how they work. While that's laughable as an excuse, if they tried that on me I would just give it away to the other manufacturers of they wanted one, but it's moot because I would certainly never buy one.

Tesla has quietly brought back the anti-flipping clause to its Cybertruck Motor Vehicle Purchase Agreement after removing it in mid-November in the wake of significant blowback from customers and fans. Once again, if a Cybertruck owner plans to resell their vehicle early, they could face a $50,000 penalty.

https://insideevs.com/news/700286/tesla ... es-orders/

[stylofone]

Here's a broader picture of consumer choice in the Chinese EV market. Hm, Punk Cat or Ballet Cat? Hard to decide.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... ca/677290/

The author has a detailed look here at the world cheapest EV, the $US1200 Changli Freeman, known in China as an "old man happy car". Admittedly it's not much more than a mobility scooter... but cheaper even than many of them.

https://jalopnik.com/this-is-the-real-w ... 1844044528