Electric + Human-Powered Vehicles

[Irrev-Black]

(SNIP)

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.

Something about that size, with more advanced battery tech, and I'm in!

[stylofone]

(SNIP)

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.

Something about that size, with more advanced battery tech, and I'm in!

Based on the Atlantic article, there is probably already something being made in China which would meet your requirements.

If you are allowed to ride bicycles on the road you should be able to drive one of these little guys. There would probably be objections that vehicles like this are too slow. My response to that would be that all urban roads with a speed limit of 50km/h could be reduced to 30km/h. Problem solved! Roads which really need to have a higher speed limit should have a special lane for low-speed vehicles - bikes, e-scooters, quadricycles (which the Freeman would probably be classified as in the EU), or there could be new roads built which are like big cycle lanes. I think this would be a much better use of public money than subsidising big fast heavy EVs which have too much lineage from fossil fuel cars.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadricyc ... ification)

[Irrev-Black]

One of the Mastodon folk has a thought worth spreading:

2d *
phocks
joshua byrd @phocks

My fear with these new fandangled EV cars (which will most-likely be our next car after this one dies) is that they will be completely un-serviceable by end-users or you'll need to pay some billionaire a monthly subscription to fix your own damn car. I reckon we need to be working on some kind of global right-to-repair legislation for EVs right about now.

https://bne.social/@phocks/111844396917283790

[joele]

I'm in two minds about self servicing.

Tyres brakes etc sure you can service (though can do that already), but when it comes to the high voltage components I am not sure self servicing is a great idea?

I mean I am not legally allowed to do my own 240v wiring at home and the car is even more dangerous (higher voltage and amperage supported).

[stylofone]

One of the Mastodon folk has a thought worth spreading:

2d *
phocks
joshua byrd @phocks

My fear with these new fandangled EV cars (which will most-likely be our next car after this one dies) is that they will be completely un-serviceable by end-users or you'll need to pay some billionaire a monthly subscription to fix your own damn car. I reckon we need to be working on some kind of global right-to-repair legislation for EVs right about now.

There's a lot of BS around from the fossil fuel lie factory, but it is completely in character for car companies to prefer that their customers send a good car to landfill rather than repair it. Making battery replacement harder would be a a terrible temptation for them. They need to be forced to provide this service at a reasonable price.

Along with his general tendency to be evil, Musk's admiration for Apple products makes me think that if he gets his way there will be a lot of rusting early model Teslas sitting in driveways not being driven, just like there are drawers full of multiple old iphones inside the house.

[Irrev-Black]

There's a lot of BS around from the fossil fuel lie factory, but it is completely in character for car companies to prefer that their customers send a good car to landfill rather than repair it. Making battery replacement harder would be a a terrible temptation for them. They need to be forced to provide this service at a reasonable price.

Along with his general tendency to be evil, Musk's admiration for Apple products makes me think that if he gets his way there will be a lot of rusting early model Teslas sitting in driveways not being driven, just like there are drawers full of multiple old iphones inside the house.

On one side there's the John Deere/Apple type corporates, affording themselves godlike powers over their products forever... "The Fruit Co giveth activation, and Fruit Co reserveth the right to brick your devices. Do not User Service.", and then there's the European GovCo, making the Fruit comply with common industry standards.


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... e-eu-rules

Of course Sulky Pouties are expected.
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/04/eu ... ne-cables/

Ford EV owners are getting access to some Muck-mobile charger tech:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4659 ... a-adapter/

Compatibility could best be regarded as a black art.

[stevebrooks]

There's a lot of BS around from the fossil fuel lie factory, but it is completely in character for car companies to prefer that their customers send a good car to landfill rather than repair it. Making battery replacement harder would be a a terrible temptation for them. They need to be forced to provide this service at a reasonable price.

Was reading an interesting article the other day about the first days of EV's in California, and why Toyota stopped making them. The EV1 by General Electric, the Rav 4 full EV by Toyota were popular at the time, the killer in the end for Toyota was being sued by Chevron for patent infringement over the large NiMH batteries they were using in their cars, basically they were made to stop after Chevron purchased the company that owned the patents. They could use smaller batteries, so that's when the Prius and Hybrid's got to be so big on Toyota's car manufacturing policy. Of course there was pressure by the fossil fuel industry to lessen clean air regulation and etc, but they alone wouldn't have stopped Toyota because the cars were actually quite popular at the time.

[stylofone]

There's a lot of BS around from the fossil fuel lie factory, but it is completely in character for car companies to prefer that their customers send a good car to landfill rather than repair it. Making battery replacement harder would be a a terrible temptation for them. They need to be forced to provide this service at a reasonable price.

Was reading an interesting article the other day about the first days of EV's in California, and why Toyota stopped making them. The EV1 by General Electric, the Rav 4 full EV by Toyota were popular at the time, the killer in the end for Toyota was being sued by Chevron for patent infringement over the large NiMH batteries they were using in their cars, basically they were made to stop after Chevron purchased the company that owned the patents. They could use smaller batteries, so that's when the Prius and Hybrid's got to be so big on Toyota's car manufacturing policy. Of course there was pressure by the fossil fuel industry to lessen clean air regulation and etc, but they alone wouldn't have stopped Toyota because the cars were actually quite popular at the time.

So it wasn't the Stonecutters, it was Detroit and Big Oil all along!

[stylofone]

This has the potential to change the landscape. Potentially it means all-electric brands like BYD and Tesla can sell credits to the companies selling dirty cars.

All companies have an incentive to get more electric cars on the market.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-04/ ... /103425022

[Irrev-Black]

Half-hour seminar on EV battery fires. Contains sensational footage in places.



Bonus: Tesla "flaming submarine".