Electric Vehicles

Islander11

Islander11

Well-known member
Over the past few years I have been following the progession of EVs. Last year I was convinced this was the way of the future. The more I read, and the more information I got, the more skeptical I have become. For those who have any interest, watch this video to the end, it's not long.
I believe we have had the wool pulled over our eyes.

 
Also this….

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Why I’ve pulled the plug on my electric car

As I watch my family strike out on foot across the fields into driving rain and gathering darkness, my wife holding each child’s hand, our new year plans in ruins, while I do what I can to make our dead car safe before abandoning it a mile short of home, full of luggage on a country lane, it occurs to me not for the first time that if we are going to save the planet we will have to find another way. Because electric cars are not the answer.

I can’t even roll it to a safer spot because it can’t be put in neutral. For when an electric car dies, it dies hard. And then lies there as big and grey and not-going-anywhere as the poacher-slain bull elephant I once saw rotting by a roadside in northern Kenya. Just a bit less smelly.

Two out of three roadside chargers are broken or busy at any one time
Not that this is unusual.
Since I bought my eco dream car in late 2020, in a deluded Thunbergian frenzy, it has spent more time off the road than on it, beached at the dealership for months at a time on account of innumerable electrical calamities, while I galumph around in the big diesel “courtesy cars” they send me under the terms of the warranty.
But this time I don’t want one. And I don’t want my own car back either.

I have asked the guys who sold it to me to sell it again, as soon as it is fixed, to the first mug who walks into the shop. Because I am going back to petrol while there is still time.
And if the government really does ban new wet fuel cars after 2030, then we will eventually have to go back to horses. Because the electric vehicle industry is no readier to get a family home from Cornwall at Christmas time (as I was trying to do) than it is to fly us all to Jupiter. The cars are useless, the infrastructure is not there and you’re honestly better off walking.

Even on the really long journeys. In fact, especially on the long journeys. The short ones they can just about manage. It’s no wonder Tesla shares are down 71 per cent. It’s all a huge fraud. And, for me, it’s over.

Yet the new owner of my “preloved” premium electric vehicle, fired with a messianic desire to make a better world for his children, will not know this. He will be delighted with his purchase and overjoyed to find there are still six months of warranty left, little suspecting that once that has expired — and with it the free repairs and replacement cars for those long spells off road — he will be functionally carless.

He will be over the moon to learn that it has “a range of up to 292 miles”. No need to tell him what that really means is “220 miles”. Why electric carmakers are allowed to tell these lies is a mystery to me. As it soon will be to him.

Although for the first few days he won’t worry especially. He’ll think he can just nip into a fuel station and charge it up again. Ho ho ho. No need to tell him that two out of three roadside chargers in this country are broken or busy at any one time. Or that the built-in “find my nearest charge point” function doesn’t work, has never worked, and isn’t meant to work.

Or that apps like Zap-Map don’t work either because the chargers they send you to are always either busy or broken or require a membership card you don’t have or an app you can’t download because there’s no 5G here, in the middle of nowhere, where you will now probably die.
Or that the Society of Motor Manufacturers said this week that only 23 new chargers are being installed nationwide each day, of the 100 per day that were promised (as a proud early adopter, I told myself that charging would become easier as the network grew, but it hasn’t grown, while the number of e-drivers has tripled, so it’s actually harder now than it was two years ago).

There are, of course, plus sides to electric ownership. Such as the camaraderie when we encounter each other, tired and weeping at yet another service station with only two chargers, one of which still has the “this fault has been reported” sign on it from when you were here last August, and the other is of the measly 3kWh variety, which means you will have to spend the night in a Travelodge while your stupid drum lazily inhales enough juice to get home.

Together, in the benighted charging zone, we leccy drivers laugh about what fools we are and drool over the diesel hatchbacks nonchalantly filling up across the way (“imagine getting to a fuel station and knowing for sure you will be able to refuel!”) and talk in the hour-long queue at Exeter services about the petrol car we will buy as soon as we get home.

We filled up there last week on the way back from Cornwall, adding two hours to our four-hour journey, by which time Esther wasn’t speaking to me. She’s been telling me to get rid of the iPace since it ruined last summer’s holidays in both Wales and Devon (“If you won’t let us fly any more, at least buy a car that can get us to the places we’re still allowed to go!”).

But I kept begging her to give me one last chance, as if I’d refused to give up a mistress, rather than a dull family car. Until this time, a couple of miles from home, when a message flashed up on the dash: “Assisted braking not available — proceed with caution.” Then: “Steering control unavailable.”

And then, as I inched off the dual carriageway at our turnoff, begging it to make the last mile, children weeping at the scary noises coming from both car and father: “Gearbox fault detected.” CLUNK. WHIRRR. CRACK.

And dead. Nothing.
Poached elephant.
I called Jaguar Assist (there is a button in the roof that does it directly — most useful feature on the car) who told me they could have a mechanic there in four hours (who would laugh and say, “Can’t help you, pal. You’ve got a software issue there. I’m just a car mechanic. And this isn’t a car, it’s a laptop on wheels.”)
So Esther and the kids headed for home across the sleety wastes, a vision of post-apocalyptic misery like something out of Cormac McCarthy, while I saw out 2022 waiting for a tow-truck. Again.

But don’t let that put you off.
I see in the paper that electric car sales are at record levels and production is struggling to keep up with demand. So why not buy mine? It’s clean as a whistle and boasts super-low mileage. After all, it’s hardly been driven . . .
 
Good video.
Enjoyed watching it.

I’ve been saying EV’s are hypocritical from the start.
Hypocritical, because the emissions don’t come out of the tailpipe, they come out of the smoke stack at the power plant.
And that’s just for operating the thing.
Never mind making the battery, and then disposing of it at the end.

Feel good technology for naive people.
 
Environmental savings aside, there's no doubt that we need to find a renewable energy source for transportation. Oil is a finite resource, and we will run out of it. The same could be said for the technologies used for batteries as well. That's why I don't think the solution is battery tech, it's more along the lines of hydrogen.
 
67 AGAIN said:
Make electricity with hydrogen…?
Click to expand...
That's the plan! That's how hydrogen fuel cell cars work, it's hydrogen and steam that create electricity that powers motors.

Last month they make a big breakthrough in this technology, they were able to scale the hydrogen reaction a little bit. However, they said that they were at least 50 years away from making this technology more scaleable for widespread real-world applications. Hey... it's a start!
 
There is also the question of where jurisdictions will get the funds to replace those they are now collecting as part of fuel taxes. I am not sure if it has happened yet, but some states were talking about charging a much higher fee for the yearly registration of electric vehicles to offset what is not being paid in gasoline tax.

** Found this article after my original post:


Some people I know who recently purchased Tesla products were bragging what their 5 year operating costs would be, only quoting what their estimated electricity costs would be. I asked what they had for brakes, steering components, axles and bearings, suspension, door handles, power seat and heater motors, and all of the other components of a vehicle, other than the engine, that wear out, or fail, from time to time.

Then there is the battery issue. Compare replacing an engine in just about any Mustang to the cost of a battery replacement. Or rather than replace the battery, you can do what this guy did:

driving.ca

Tesla owner blows up his 2013 Model S after seeing repair bill

Finnish man claims battery replacement would have cost at least $29,000, video nets over 5 million views
driving.ca driving.ca

Some day an electric vehicle may be a viable option for me, but they are no where near there yet.
 
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"Some people I know who recently purchased Tesla products were bragging what their 5 year operating costs would be, only quoting what their estimated electricity costs would be."

Even if their 5 year operating costs were zero, the upfront cost of purchase is so high, they will never see a savings over an ICE.
 
Islander11 said:
"Some people I know who recently purchased Tesla products were bragging what their 5 year operating costs would be, only quoting what their estimated electricity costs would be."

Even if their 5 year operating costs were zero, the upfront cost of purchase is so high, they will never see a savings over an ICE.
Click to expand...
!!!!NOTE!!!!!
This thread can turn politcal, Note I will delete political arguments, even though we know most governments are the ones making these decisions, keep that in mind posting on this thread.


Currently a tesla has to go to montreal to be fixed
I wonder if anyone allowed for transport to and from?

Alberta oil reserves are currently at 200 years, with out looking north Atlantic,
artic, and other provinces, other countires have bigger oil reserves
Battery tech is suppose to improve, but Lithium supplies are not as great.

Biggest problem is the supply of electricity and distribution, no-one talks about this
Example, turn the oil off in Nova Scotia ( same rest of Canada) even if we had the supply,
current power lines can't handle that load, so all has to be upgraded, think about that for just a minute.

Also most homes in NS are still 100 amp service 60%. for cars currently you need 200amp
Just to hook up cars, if your getting rid of oil you will need more for heat pump systems as well.
Ahh and the car manufactures are making faster, bigger home chargering systems that can charge a car fully in
3 hours, but homes would need 300 amp service for this to work,

All this said, where is all this power coming from, Solar on large scale is not suited to Canada,
Wind makes most sense but folks are now fighting that because it massively upsets eco systems.

The reality of it is, they can say what ever they want, put in new laws, but there is no way they can meet supply demand in the same
time frame they are trying to force everybody and every company to switch at some point, some of this will put us in a bad spot.
My guess is some future Gov may have to back track on some of this, we will see.
 
Another thought, Major oil companies project sales of oil world wide to rise for
50-60 years when it peaks and starts to decline, they are the ones investing billions to make trillions
I would bet on them before most Gov economists, so what does that mean?
 
Very good points. They are putting the car before the horse (pardon the pun). You have to eliminate dirty electricity first. I think on a large industrial scale, nuclear is the only option. Then you find a green way to mine and process lithium and cobalt. Then and only then, can you call an EV a green option. We're 30 years away.
 
Islander11 said:
Very good points. They are putting the car before the horse (pardon the pun). You have to eliminate dirty electricity first. I think on a large industrial scale, nuclear is the only option. Then you find a green way to mine and process lithium and cobalt. Then and only then, can you call an EV a green option. We're 30 years away.
Click to expand...
I agree with Nuclear, but were in Canada, would take 10 years of arguing and enviourmental studies to get it approved and
another 10 plus year to build it
 
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Here’s my Plan

I’ll be 61 in May

Leasing Impreza a 2022 for 36 months

Will keep Leasing reasonably priced AWD vehicles on 36 months leases with the last one ending in April of 2034, the year before Only So Called Green Vehicles are Sold New in Canada.

At that Point we Buy a Hybrid gas powered AWD Car (wife and I will be 72) and we will get that one Rust Checked Annually and keep it Long term into our 80’s.

Our last vehicle, the 17 Mazda CX3, we put 70,000 kilometers on it over a 5 year period so I’m Not overly concerned about the Price of Gas.

The Impreza Wagon with AWD we are Leasing would have Cost $30,000 Tax In to purchase.

The AWD Electric Vehicles I see are all $70,000 plus

Not in our Budget

If We want to Drive to Montreal in our gas powered car, we can Stress Free without having to Stop to Charge, we can stop, fuel up, use Washroom and be back on the road in 10 minutes 👍
 

Ford hits pause on F-150 Lightning​






By Jake Perez, Editor at LinkedIn News

Updated 14 hours ago



Ford is pumping the brakes on Ford F-150 Lightning production and shipments indefinitely over a possible battery issue with the electric pickup. Specifics haven't been disclosed, but CNBC reports pre-delivery quality inspections brought up the potential problem. Ford has not provided a timeline for lifting the pause, saying it needs to do a "root cause analysis" first, and it indicated it's not aware of any incidents linked to the issue. The F-150 Lightning is one of a select few EV trucks on the market, and its success is key to Ford's EV shift.
 
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