Are we on the brink of an electric car revolution?

[kenneal - lagger]

My diesel Discovery has an almost full tank but the three 20 litre jerry cans I have plus a 15 ltr one have only about 10 litres in them. I was about to fill them up just before the crisis came on. That has prompted me into a policy of "empty one, fill it straight away" rather than "empty them and then take them all to the garage in one go to save fuel." I had rather forgotten the reason to keep a store of fuel as many people probably have. My food stores are well up to scratch though especially as it is autumn and the garden is fairly full.

My wife has managed to get a full tank now as we are off to Wales to see my Mum on her birthday for the first time in two years. Hopefully she will be awake this time so she can see us! It's about two and a half years since she has seen us!! Old age!! Who'd have it?

[kenneal - lagger]

Here's an interesting blog from a long term owner of an older EV, it has a smaller battery than modern ones, and who lives in a terraced house, so has no on street charging facility. With both those disadvantages he would still by an EV over a fossil fuelled car.

[PS_RalphW]

Replacing my low range Nissan Leaf with a long range one has removed almost all range anxiety. The drawback from an environmental point of view is that I no longer feel like a climate criminal if I hop in the car to save me a 10 minute walk across the village, and think little of driving a 100 miles round trip to the theatre or museum, where previously I would only drive to one 10 miles away. I am not doing the planet much good in a car with a quarter of the emissions if I drive 4 times as far.

[kenneal - lagger]

I can see where you are going, Ralph, but the blogger said that he uses his bike more than he did before owning an electric car as he leaves the car at home for short trips. So perhaps use the bike for trips that you would have used the car for and use the car for the longer trips. Electric bikes can be very good and use a fraction of the energy of a car.

[Potemkin Villager]

Yes it seems a clear case of the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate better known the rebound effect which states that anticipated efficiency savings are often diminished by increase in demand.

[BritDownUnder]

I put a deposit on a Hyundai Kona electric a few months ago. With an expected delivery month of next July and the current supply chain issues I am not holding out much hope of ever getting it but as I have enough money now, I thought, Why not?

I thought about getting a Tesla but since the Model 3s for sale in Australia were Chinese made I thought nope. They are a much better car but cost more too. Having said that the Kona parts are probably mostly made in China.

[Potemkin Villager]

Yes it must be increasingly difficult to avoid the "Yellow Peril"
so beloved of Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen!

[kenneal - lagger]

There is a real need for aftermarket or affordable battery packs for cars. My youngest lad bought a Mitsubishi Outlander hybrid in 2014, the battery is now in such a poor state that it only manages 4 miles on a full mains charge and won't get past 1 mile on regenerative charging. The replacement battery is several thousand pounds, an amount that many people won't spend on a car of that age, so it spends 90% of the time on petrol now.

That's one of the penalties for being an early adopter!

I can't see a standardised battery happening very soon. If you look at historic vehicle production there wee thousands of opportunities for standardised components but the industry wasn't interested. The wouldn't even standardise components between their own models most of the time. Light clusters, for instance, could have been standardised over a few manufacturers and saved a fortune: seats; steering wheels; wheels. How many different carburettors were there? OK they changed with engine size.

So I don't hold our much hope for batteries unless there is an international governmental edict. If their is one it should include recyclability.

[Catweazle]

We live in a country that hasn't managed to standardise a jam jar.

[kenneal - lagger]

Neither has Europe! Nor the US, China or anyone else!

[PS_RalphW]

Just about the only thing that cars have standardised is 12 volts for the traditional electric circuits.
Battery and charging technology is still evolving rapidly, with 800V systems beginning to replace 400V, and solid state batteries getting closer to market. LFP batteries with zero cobalt are already found in some Teslas. Even the Nissan Leaf has changed the mounting points, connection plugs and other details as is moved from 24KWh up to 62KWh in the same car chassis. Not that this has stopped enterprising garages getting a growing trade in upgrading batteries in older Nissan Leafs.

The reason Tesla has cornered the market to the extent it has, is precisely because it does not use as many off the shelf modular components made by dozens of third party companies. It builds far more in giant integrated factories and everything is managed through a centralised computer network. This sharply reduces the complexity of the wiring looms and reduces the number and complexity of electronic circuits in the car. The level of control this provides over, for example, battery management to eek out range and speed recharging is dramatically better than the competition, and makes them far better at integrating the latest technology updates. It also helps they only build evs.

[clv101]

Things are certainly moving fast, from what I've read solid state batteries (likely lead by Toyota) could be a big improvement. I've particularly pleased to see vehicle to load technology start to appear - basically a 16A 240V output from the charge port.

[BritDownUnder]

Yes it must be increasingly difficult to avoid the "Yellow Peril"
so beloved of Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen!

As far as I know Joh was not really known for the White Australia policy though he was almost certainly in agreement with it although he was very interested in selling Queensland's resources to Japan. He is better known in Australia for his expert role in the knifing of Labor PM Gough Whitlam.

As for avoiding Chinese made I think it is quite hard. For example I think every touchscreen in the world is made in China as are a lot of other things I guess. I am happy to spread my spending about a bit to ensure some equality.

There is some development of a hydrogen powered pickup truck in Australia that will be offered for sale for an eye watering $250,000.

[adam2]

Even the 12 volt battery was not standard for many years, with 6 volts remaining popular at least into the 1960s. Many military vehicles used 24 volts, sometimes called 28 volts. American civilian Jeeps were 6 volt, the army version was 24 volts.
I think that some very early vehicles may have used 4 volts, never seen one, but lamp catalogues listed "4 volt headlight bulbs" into the 1950s.

It was proposed that new petrol/diesel vehicles would use 36/42 volt electrical systems as a new standard, but AFAIK this was never widely adopted. Generally accepted to be a money making scam, with 36/42 volt spare parts to be hugely expensive. 24/28 volts as used on buses and trucks was rejected, allegedly because people would use cheap and already mass produced parts.

[Potemkin Villager]

When getting jump leaded I noticed that my neighbours' Toyota
pickup had two 12V batteries (and an impressively large alternator).