Author Topic: Electric cars  (Read 695894 times)

culzean

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #195 on: September 17, 2017, 08:21:50 PM »
Another example of long battery life in a Tesla.

http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-400k-km-250k-mi-7-percent-battery-degradation/

Teslas batteries may well outlast the company.........................they are making a loss of $16,000 per car.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20170504/BLOG06/170509893/teslas-good-ideas-cant-pay-the-bills-forever

The Tesla autopilot has also been officially blamed for the crash that killed a driver when car hit a truck, the families response that  'the car did not kill our son' could well have been written by the Tesla legal department, Tesla refused to comment on whether an out of court settlement had been reached with the family - yeah right !! .   Big condemnation from the investigators was that even with cruise control set to high speed (up to 90mph) there was still no requirement for driver to even hod the steering wheel - seems to be a big gap where silicon valley meets common sense.

Other drivers have had close shaves using autpilot when it didn't detect stopped traffic in front of car,  luckily they weren't watching game of thrones on a video and were able to manually brake the car.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2017, 08:54:59 PM by culzean »
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Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #196 on: September 17, 2017, 08:56:35 PM »
Does your Jazz have cruise control? Do you have to hold the wheel to use it? I don't have cruise control on my Jazz but my Volvo didn't need me to hold the wheel.
Immediately after the incident Tesla admitted they needed to amend the software, and every Tesla was updated wirelessly. I have just had to wait 6 months for Honda to finally replace my airbags.
Tesla's accounts, as of 31st Dec 2016, showed a positive balance of $1,000M and Tesla Inc had a Debt to Total Capital ratio of 54.69%, a lower figure than the previous year's 105.43%. Even at a loss of $16,000 per car, Tesla has a long way to go before they are in difficulty. Even the article you linked to, said that Tesla has "incredible potential". And "Automotive News" receives most of its advertising revenue from the established motor industry! It is like reading an article in the "Daily Mail" that says immigrants are all crooks.

sparky Paul

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #197 on: September 17, 2017, 10:26:48 PM »
I don't understand why gas is used to make electricity (except as a cheap and quick short term 'patch' to build replacement for other 'dirtier' fossil fuels)

I think that just about hits the nail on the head.

Gas has a number of advantages over other electricity sources. It is cheap and fast to build. Amazingly fast, in fact. I also noted the local paper boasting of the thousands of jobs secured building the current project... and 15 jobs created for people to run it. Yes, just 15.

The latest combined-cycle gas turbines are said to be 60% efficient, but it's still poor in the scheme of things, really.

culzean

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #198 on: September 18, 2017, 09:29:09 AM »
Musk has proved very adept at getting American taxpayers money in the form of subsidies and cheap loans,  every Tesla sold carries around US$8,000 'discount' courtesy of hard working Americans tax,  it has got sweetheart deals from states to build plants there - he has also managed to dazzle and hypnotise investors into piling money in with no visible return.  Building cars is different to writing software, as silicon valley has found out. Silicon valley (Google, Uber etc) boasted that it was going to put the 'old fashioned' car makers out of business,  if you look now there is non-one from silicon valley trying to build cars,  all they are interested in is writing software for other car makers to use.  I have been involved with 'old style' car makers pretty much all my working life installing robots and technology, and it is a brutal, low margin dog-eat-dog business (relying on selling vast numbers of cars to make even a reasonably modest profit),  where one recall can cost you the profit you made on the vehicle in the first place.

It is early days yet and the established car makers are moving into territory Tesla had to themselves for a while...........it will be interesting,  another slice of humble pie anyone ?

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/detroit-stomping-silicon-valley-self-driving-car-race/
« Last Edit: September 18, 2017, 10:02:10 PM by culzean »
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Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #199 on: September 18, 2017, 10:27:12 AM »
It is early days yet and the established car makers are moving into territory Tesla had to themselves for a while...........it will be interesting
Without a doubt. Whoever ends up building electric cars in the future, EVs are here to stay, and the time of the ICE powered car is in the wane.

peteo48

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #200 on: September 18, 2017, 02:23:13 PM »
I agree Jocko. We are witnessing the end of the Internal Combustion Engine - the end of an era - an exciting era and one that has opened up personal mobility to millions but it's time for something else.

John Ratsey

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #201 on: September 19, 2017, 12:47:14 PM »
2022 HR-V Elegance, previously 2020 Jazz Crosstar

culzean

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #202 on: September 19, 2017, 04:42:22 PM »
Useful article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41268513.

Quite a balanced and common sense article,  quite a shock to get anything balanced from the BBC lately.  These days they are so liberal / left that it clearly shows in their coverage of pretty much everything.
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #203 on: September 19, 2017, 05:01:57 PM »
quite a shock to get anything balanced from the BBC lately.
My thoughts, exactly.

guest4871

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #204 on: September 19, 2017, 05:34:41 PM »
quite a shock to get anything balanced from the BBC lately.
My thoughts, exactly.

Even if it is an electric shock.

Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #205 on: September 20, 2017, 12:26:10 PM »
The news, today, is about an electric bus which has just travelled over 1000 miles on one charge.

The 40ft Catalyst E2 Max bus has a 660 kWh battery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41333063

culzean

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #206 on: September 20, 2017, 12:45:01 PM »
The payload of an electric bus is nothing compared to an HGV,  50 passengers at 100kg each is still only 5 tonnes, and 1 tone of luggage would be a lot.

You get to the point of diminishing returns when you try to run vehicles with a big payload (20 tones or more) off batteries where the weight of the batteries required becomes way too heavy and reduces the payload considerably - that is why one of the few heavy vehicles that is practical and in use runs off a big hydrogen fuel cell.
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #207 on: September 20, 2017, 12:55:49 PM »
I didn't say anything about HGV's. The bus has a huge floor area which allows for the installation of a huge battery. This is not the same as an HGV. Probably could be possible (just about) for a LGV though.
Stagecoach, for whom I drove, has a fleet of over 8,000 buses. That is a huge market for EV's

guest4871

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #208 on: September 20, 2017, 01:04:36 PM »
The payload of an electric bus is nothing compared to an HGV,  50 passengers at 100kg each is still only 5 tonnes, and 1 tone of luggage would be a lot.

You get to the point of diminishing returns when you try to run vehicles with a big payload (20 tones or more) off batteries where the weight of the batteries required becomes way too heavy and reduces the payload considerably - that is why one of the few heavy vehicles that is practical and in use runs off a big hydrogen fuel cell.

Presumably that's why the electric milk float died? We use to get an electric bakers van too. The fishmonger and butcher used cycle delivery.  All sounds quite modern now!
 
Tanfield recently set out to build battery powered courier vans for TNT but I think that too died a death.

Jocko

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Re: Electric cars
« Reply #209 on: September 20, 2017, 01:17:05 PM »
Back in the 50's our local Co-op had an electric baker's shop that used to trundle all round the town. It wasn't very fast but managed a 6 - 8 hour shift.

It was similar to this Smiths van here.

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