Are we on the brink of an electric car revolution?

[adam2]

Four wheel drive is most useful in poor road conditions, and need not add significantly to weight nor to running costs.
Therefore I can not support an extra tax on 4WD vehicles.
I would support a tax based on weight, and possibly also on top speed.

[Potemkin Villager]

https://youtu.be/yOA7qKMcjcE

Fascinating insight into how exciting it can be owning a Chinease EV!

[Ralphw2]

I love these hatchet job videos that are totally devoid of context, statistics or balance.

It may be true that more BYD Evs go up in flames than Nissans or Kia’s or vws . But then there are almost certainly more BYD Evs than the other makes combined. Not that you could tell from this video. Western statistics report that EVs are less likely to go up in flames than ice cars, although the flames are often harder to put out, and the fires usually start when the car is charging, so that they rarely lead to fatalities. I do not have equivalent stats for EVs in China, but I very much doubt that the maker of this video has them either.

So, if Chinese batteries are so dodgy, do they fail to mention that large numbers of western Evs, including many all American Teslas, are fitted with Chinese made batteries? The purpose seems entirely to spread fud against the biggest and most successful national ev industry.

I would think twice before buying a Chnises ev, but battery fire risk would not be a factor in that decision

[Potemkin Villager]

I love these hatchet job videos that are totally devoid of context, statistics or balance.

For sure he has an agenda. The phone videos are quite scary though. Wherever they are made
the battery safety, life and quality are the weak link in the EV dream.

[Potemkin Villager]

I love these hatchet job videos that are totally devoid of context, statistics or balance.

For sure he has an agenda. The phone videos are quite scary though. Wherever they are made
the battery safety, life and quality are a very weak link in the EV dream.

IMHO the current EV project is doomed because it is attempting to replicate current overpowered and
oversized ICE vehicles. It might make sense if people were told they could have "green" EV transport but it would
have to involve smaller, slower and lighter vehicles and not expecting to travel so far and so fast.

Of course there is not much hope of that idea being a great vote winner.

[Potemkin Villager]

Fascinating article on "Range Rage" and how Tesla treats it's customers.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/sp ... obal-en-GB

" Advisers would normally run remote diagnostics on customers’ cars and try to call them, the people said. They were trained to tell customers that the EPA-approved range estimates were just a prediction, not an actual measurement, and that batteries degrade over time, which can reduce range. Advisors would offer tips on extending range by changing driving habits.

If the remote diagnostics found anything else wrong with the vehicle that was not related to driving range, advisors were instructed not to tell the customer, one of the sources said. Managers told them to close the cases.

Tesla also updated its phone app so that any customer who complained about range could no longer book service appointments, one of the sources said."

[Ralphw2]

The “electric Viking” has a YouTube video on the Chinese fires. It is a bit short on direct evidence too, but he points out that some of the “ev fire” videos are of petrol fires. He does say that BYD is having major reliability problems with its plug in hybrid cars, but it’s Evs are extremely reliable. He implies without direct evidence that the drive train on the plug in hybrids are causing the fires, which then spread to the batteries. Plug in hybrids are horribly complicated machines that almost never get the efficiency ratings claimed, as this is only possible in very specific usage patterns, and most are simply bought for the tax incentives and driven entirely as a less efficient ice hybrid car.

[Potemkin Villager]

The yellow peril strikes again, just feel the xenophobia laced paranoia and nett zero outrage Britain's finest press manage to compress in a one sentence bite!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -data.html

"Warning that China will use electric cars to spy on Britain: Ministers fear Beijing could use vehicles imported to help the UK hit its Net Zero targets to hoover up huge amounts of data"

[Ralphw2]

And Nissan, google , Apple and all the other entities don’t?

Every app in the App Store , every supermarket , every phone company, every police force, every intelligence agency is gathering everything it can about you, me, and the neighbour’s cat.

[Potemkin Villager]

https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/l ... -vehicles/

" Despite their lack of tailpipe emissions, however, it’s good to note that many stages of a BEV’s life cycle are still quite emission-intensive, specifically when it comes to manufacturing and electricity production.

Advancing the sustainability of battery production and fostering the adoption of clean energy sources can, therefore, aid in lowering the emissions of BEVs even further, leading to increased environmental stewardship in the transportation sector."

The graphic in this article is quite revealing.

[kenneal - lagger]

The straight replacement of ICE vehicles with their battery electric version shows that our governments haven't really adopted any sustainable policies at all. There has been no effort to cut anything other than fossil fuel use and even that had been minimised and is now being minimised further with recent policy announcements.

Governments still haven't grasped the idea that sustainability involves using a lot less of everything than we now are. We are still wedded to continuous growth in everything and if something shows signs of running out we will look for a replacement to use until that, too, is exhausted. The concept that we can continue to use infinitely more stuff and the rest of the world can actually catch up with our use and equal it is still economic orthodoxy!

The concept that we can continue to increase our population to bolster economic growth into the future is economic orthodoxy! Do our politicians not have any common sense? Probably not. They are more concerned with getting re-elected than they are with addressing any difficult questions about what is sustainable.

A true electric car revolution would involve the production and sale of slower, smaller, lighter, more economic cars and we are nowhere near that.

[Ralphw2]

The internet is going nuts over the new Tesla model. I have to say the model is, from a European point of view, nuts. It is very unlikely ever to be sold on this side of the pond, not least because it is made of highly rigid stainless steel with right angle corners all over it. It would put pedestrian crash survival chances back by at least 50 years. I amazed it even got past US safety regulations. It is quite literally a tank with bullet proof (or not) glass and must have a massive production carbon footprint and extremely low efficiency. It is not even very practical as a workman’s pickup truck. It is a massive waste of limited resources to have even designed it, and I cannot see Tesla ever selling enough to recoup the development costs.

[clv101]

Agree with all of that, however...

...and I cannot see Tesla ever selling enough to recoup the development costs.

I expect it will sell enough in the US alone to be 'worthwhile'. The biggest risk factor is if there are significant faults, shortcomings, recalls etc that burst the Musk-hype bubble.

[Forever_Winter]

I think the new Cybertruck will sell just fine (at least in the US). The video I saw showing it beating a Porsche, while towing a Horse on a trailer won't do any harm. There's probably a waiting list as long as your arm.

Most people buy Teslas for the performance, and tax incentives, rather than saving the planet. At least that is what my nephew says, given that he's the owner of a Tesla Model X ...

[clv101]

Videos like this, whilst a pointless gimmick for almost everyone, will sell Cybertruck:
https://youtu.be/Pj2jMhwKuv4?si=COTO73IIOTHE4d2L