Electric + Human-Powered Vehicles

[stylofone]

I've been visiting an elderly relative. She has quite a wide social circle and is annoyed that so many of them are in thrall to Sky news nutters and the Murdoch press. I had a chat to one of her neighbours, a Trump lover and enthusiast of pseudo-scientific youtube fad diets. He is, of course, of the opinion that EVs are a woke green delusion and they will just go away once everyone works out how terrible they are. But he also seems to have recently absorbed the idea that a change is under way in the car industry, and that hybrids are the real solution, not those crazy left-wing EVs. He took a great interest in my Corolla hybrid, he asked how long I'd had it. He was surprised when I said four years. It seems that until they were touted as an anti-woke consumer option, he hadn't paid much attention to them.

I told him I was planning to go fully electric with my next car, carefully explaining that with my surplus rooftop solar power, I could get the equivalent of "free petrol" for the vast majority of my driving, and by the time I needed to replace the battery in an EV, it would be fully funded, and most likely a better battery by then because the technology will have improved. So it would be like an upgrade.

This old bloke actually has a heart of gold and is not some raving right wing aggressor. What I hope happened is that he will place greater weight on an exchange with a real-life human rather than some online ghoul.

[Irrev-Black]

Not an "Elmo Sunk" product...

[stevebrooks]

Chevy Silverado EV RST, claimed range of 440 miles, these guys drive it flat for 460 miles range, so around 700km range, that's huge compared to any other truck out there. I can see this outselling most other electric trucks in the same price range and some cheaper models, people would be happy to pay a lot of extra for that extra milage!

Still expensive at around AU$145,000, but there are more expensive pickup trucks around.

[nibble]

Chevy Silverado EV RST, claimed range of 440 miles, these guys drive it flat for 460 miles range, so around 700km range, that's huge compared to any other truck out there. I can see this outselling most other electric trucks in the same price range and some cheaper models, people would be happy to pay a lot of extra for that extra milage!

Still expensive at around AU$145,000, but there are more expensive pickup trucks around.

Something about that dude that makes me watch his videos.

[stevebrooks]

Chevy Silverado EV RST, claimed range of 440 miles, these guys drive it flat for 460 miles range, so around 700km range, that's huge compared to any other truck out there. I can see this outselling most other electric trucks in the same price range and some cheaper models, people would be happy to pay a lot of extra for that extra milage!

Still expensive at around AU$145,000, but there are more expensive pickup trucks around.

Something about that dude that makes me watch his videos.

It's the bald head, that's why everyone like me as well

[stevebrooks]

I've got to ask, are. they. stupid? Toyota that is, first it was hydrogen, the new magic engine that will make EV's redundant. What is it now? Well you'll never guess, "Liquid Nitrogen Engines." Yes you read that right, liquid nitrogen engines powered by the process of liquid nitrogen turning gaseous and expanding, providing power to make cars move.

Ok I get it, Toyota has, essentially, missed the boat on EV's, whatever they do now they will be playing catch up with China and other countries mass manufacturing EV's. New batteries on the way, cheap solar panels and essentially free energy for using your car locally within a few hundred kms of home, versus, well Liquid Nitrogen, cooled in huge factories, pumped into cryogenic trucks to the newly installed cryogenic tanks at fuel stations, which will cost, how much? Around 50c a gallon to produce, so I assume that's US as it's gallons, transport, storage, and of course if we start using it in all cars massively increased production and storage facilities will need to be built, it will cost money.

All that versus, well, essentially free power from the sky, minus cost of installing of solar panels and home charger of course, but they are essentially one off costs, hence the original question. Again as it is with hydrogen, starting 10-15 years ago ok, maybe they would be a competitive technology, but it's simply to late. I mean arguably Hydrogen has been in testing since the early 2000's and they haven't made a noticeable blip compared to EV's, so I give zero chance to LN2 powered cars, absolutely zero.

[stevebrooks]

KIA EV9, expensive, very practical for large families though.

One of the things I have to wonder about the current crop of EV's, with most being top end cars in price, is that because the higher the total price of the car the smaller the proportion of cost is involved with the battery pack? This would affect profit margins, a small, cheap car with an expensive battery pack will only have a small profit margin, but an expensive car with the same battery cost, or even slightly higher, will always have a higher profit margin.

So hang on for cheaper battery technology before really cheap EV's hit the market?

Anyway, the EV9, $107,000, but that's not out of the ballpark for similar sized and equipped ICE SUV's;

https://www.news.com.au/technology/moto ... 7eea196339

[Irrev-Black]

Here is a nice video about cars, from the Climate Council.

[joele]

BYD seem to be continuing to improve their LFP batteries.

Fast Technology reports BYD electric vehicle (EV) battery subsidiary FinDreams has developed the new Blade pack to be about 25 per cent more efficient than the brand’s existing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/b ... m-of-range

https://carnewschina.com/2024/04/08/byd ... this-year/

[stylofone]

The BYD battery improvement and similar developments look very promising. Everyone's looking for the big breakthroughs with solid state etc., but the incremental improvements in existing technology at this rate are just as radical. The anti-EV right wing echo chamber is going to have a head-on collision with reality very soon.

I was also reading about the ideas of futurist Tony Seba. He seems to have a pretty good track record. Basically he says the ICE car will be a dinosaur by 2030. He has a lot of other predictions related to this which are quite credible.

https://thedriven.io/2023/05/10/seba-sa ... plunge-75/