Are we on the brink of an electric car revolution?

[clv101]

Have a look at this video, https://youtu.be/UvzRfUGAB_s
A tour of the BYD factory in China. This is how the west gets left behind.

[Catweazle]

Have a look at this video, https://youtu.be/UvzRfUGAB_s
A tour of the BYD factory in China. This is how the west gets left behind.

That's the fancy front end of Chinese manufacturing, the real marvel is the investment in machinery and training. I'm holding a tyre valve I got from a tyre repair chap yesterday, it has multiple turned brass and steel components, a spring, seal, dust cap and rubber overmould where it fits into the wheel. This part sells to the local garage for 7 pence. What must the manufacturing costs be, to be able to ship it half way across the world and sell it to the garage for 7 pence ?

[BritDownUnder]

Have a look at this video, https://youtu.be/UvzRfUGAB_s
A tour of the BYD factory in China. This is how the west gets left behind.

That's the fancy front end of Chinese manufacturing, the real marvel is the investment in machinery and training. I'm holding a tyre valve I got from a tyre repair chap yesterday, it has multiple turned brass and steel components, a spring, seal, dust cap and rubber overmould where it fits into the wheel. This part sells to the local garage for 7 pence. What must the manufacturing costs be, to be able to ship it half way across the world and sell it to the garage for 7 pence ?

Maybe it was made at a loss in order to put the companies in the West that used to make it out of business and then become the monopoly manufacturer. I think it used to be termed 'laser manufacturing' and is one of the reasons how the once large British motorcycle industry got clobbered by Japanese manufacturers.

I like the industry involved in this video. Smashing a bit of hot metal with a large hammer to make a railway wheel (or whatever it was).

[PS_RalphW]

Not really ev specific, but my new Nissan leaf tried to do an over the air software update last week, but it failed, probably a checksum error or similar on the download. It has now got stuck in a loop where it cycles through the failed download messages and cannot be reset. The car still drives fine but the messages block the sat nav screen.
As a software developer my guess is that the system failed to clear the 'download in progress' flag. I took the car back to the Nissan dealer and after 3 days investigation they are stumped and reduced to proposing to replace the entire infotainment system costing several thousand pounds because that is what the service manual says to do when that particular error code appears..

I am not entirely sure that the memory module that the stuck flag will be stored in, is even in the infotainment module.

This is what happens when mechanics try to repair a computer on wheels.

I am not attempting to point out the likely outcome of their actions because they are the experts on the car with the official training of how to follow a simple flow chart. It is all being done under warrenty.

[clv101]

Complexity!

I've often thought it wouldn't be the existing car companies that come out on top as the industry moves electric.

[BritDownUnder]

As a software developer my guess is that the system failed to clear the 'download in progress' flag.

My work laptop got caught in a pending reboot and would not allow any other software to be installed.

At least electric cars are not using Windows software. I hope.

[PS_RalphW]

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/10 ... ns-windows

Don't know about the new model...

[BritDownUnder]

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/10 ... ns-windows

Don't know about the new model...

Heaven help us.

[Potemkin Villager]

"I took the car back to the Nissan dealer and after 3 days investigation they are stumped and reduced to proposing to replace the entire infotainment system costing several thousand pounds because that is what the service manual says to do when that particular error code appears.. "

good job it wasn't out of warranty

[PS_RalphW]

Twp more trips to the garage, one to fit the replacement hardware, and a second to install all the software updates, and the car is back to working. At least they gave the car a free charge to cover my travel costs.

As a note, the government taxes electricity at recharging stations at 20% Vat, not the domestic 5% rate. This is the first small step to recovering the tax l lost from petrol /diesel and excise duty.

Public rapid charging rates are between 25p and 69p a KWh, at 69p you may be better off buying fossil fuel.

[Catweazle]

Will the long-term trend for electric cars be for lighter, slower vehicles ? Advanced "networked" self-driving cars should need less acceleration and braking, and less inbuilt safety cages/devices. With intelligent route planning and smoother traffic flows lower peak speeds will deliver the same
or better overall journey times. Being able to send your car off to park itself out of town, and come to get you later, should reduce congestion in busy areas. If your mobile phone is GPS enabled, your car will be able to arrive at just the right time to collect you.

Imagine the possibilities.

[PS_RalphW]

Currently the clear trend is bigger, heavier, far more powerful than necessary. They are still selling at the premium end of the market, which is in direct competition with the ever growing SUV arms race.

Self driving is currently a pipedream in UK's messy, untidy and busy streets.

Range is still a big anxiety which stops some people buying, partly due to the terrible state of UK charging network. Hence bigger heavier batteries. Making electric motors more powerful costs very little and so is a big win in the marketing department.

[johnny]

I took the car back to the Nissan dealer and after 3 days investigation they are stumped and reduced to proposing to replace the entire infotainment system costing several thousand pounds because that is what the service manual says to do when that particular error code appears..

This is what happens when mechanics try to repair a computer on wheels.

5600 km on mine since I bought it, and it just does its job. Don't take it below 20% SOC, and rarely (maybe 5 times?) fully charge it. 65-75% sitting around in the garage seems to work fine for a day or two worth of traveling around. Higher efficiency in warmer weather than winter when I bought it.

Hopefully it doesn't ever require an over the air update.

[Potemkin Villager]

A very well heeled member of my community garden group has recently got a VW ecar.

The cockpit looks like the deck of a space craft but apparently has no warp control!

I will follow with interest their experiences.

[clv101]

The cockpit looks like the deck of a space craft but apparently has no warp control!

Indeed, this extra, unnecessary technology is what puts me off the current crop of EVs. I'd like something super simple, utilitarian, less to go wrong, less expensive etc. EVs have the very real potential to be significantly longer lasting than ICE cars - but all the extra IT limits this by adding more complexity, points of failure and more to go obsolete.