Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

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Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Apr 05, 2022 9:51 pm

Hertz to buy up to 65,000 electric cars from Polestar

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/04/tech/pol ... index.html

Swedish electric car maker Polestar is selling up to 65,000 electric vehicles to Hertz over the next five years, the companies announced Monday.

The move follows an order Hertz placed for 100,000 electric cars made by Tesla in October 2021.

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath previously told Automotive News Europe that stretch goal for 2022 was to sell 65,000 cars. Polestar sold 29,000 cars in 2021, which represented a 185% increase from 2020, according to sales figures the company released in January.


Volvo's Polestar unveils competitor to Tesla's Model 3
Hertz plans to order the compact Polestar 2, one of the EV company’s two vehicles currently on the market. The model features an Android Automotive OS-powered infotainment system that includes built-in Google applications, and has a 270-mile estimated range on a single charge, according to the company. Polestar has announced plans to increase its two-car lineup with a medium-size SUV, a compact SUV and a sports sedan by 2024, as well as the Polestar O2, an electric roadster concept car.

Electric carmaker Polestar prepares to leave Volvo behind
“The partnership with a global pioneer like Hertz will bring the amazing experience of driving an electric car to a wider audience, satisfying a broad variety of our mutual customers’ short- and longer-term mobility requirements,” said Ingenlath in a joint press release Monday. “For many of them it may be the first time they have driven an EV, and it will be a Polestar.”

Polestar spun out from Volvo in 2017 and has now established itself as a standalone electric car brand, though it “enjoys specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefits from significant economies of scale as a result,” according to the company. The company remains co-owned by Volvo and Volvo parent company Geely, a holding group focused on the automotive industry that recently released plans to go public in a deal expected to close in by mid-2022.

The EV maker made headlines after its Super Bowl ad seemingly swung at Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX ventures with the promise: “No conquering Mars.”

Polestar vehicles will first be available to Hertz renters in Europe starting this spring, with rollout in North America and Australia starting in late 2022.

The agreement with Hertz will be a help in Polestar’s efforts to establish itself as an alternative to Tesla for those interested in electric vehicles. Tesla is by has the best sales of electric vehicles worldwide with nearly 1 million EV sales last year.

Polestar is competing with other pure electric vehicle makers such as Lucid, as well established automakers such as Ford (F), General Motors, Volkswagen (VLKAF) and Nissan (NSANF) which are selling EVs in either the United States or Europe, if not both markets.

Polestar’s sales to Hertz will also help introduce electric vehicles to the broader public. In the past automakers that were looking to break into a new market have made an effort to sell their cars to rental car companies as a way of introducing their cars to a broader range of customers, essentially giving them a chance at an extended test drive.

Rental car companies desperate for vehicles
The sales also help Hertz, which with all other rental car companies has been struggling to find new cars to buy for their fleets. The rental car companies sold off a large percentage of their fleets in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic caused air travel to grind to a near halt. The rental car companies needed to sell cars both to raise cash and because in many cases they didn’t have anyplace to park the cars they had. Hertz filed for bankruptcy during this period of time.

But once travel began to rebound, the automakers discovered they didn’t have the supply of computer chips they needed to build all the cars for which there was demand. So they concentrated on selling cars to retail customers, who typically pay more for cars than those businesses such as rental car companies that paid less than retail customers.

Rental car companies couldn’t buy the cars they needed to replenish their fleets, leaving some customers unable to rent cars they needed, especially in some vacation markets. The rental car companies have been forced to buy used cars for the first time to supplement their fleets, and to hang onto the cars they have longer than normal.

The lack of available rental cars has also driven up the price of car rentals. While the consumer price index, the government’s main measure of inflation, shows car rental prices down somewhat since last summer, they are still up 38% compared to February of 2020, just before the pandemic started affecting US travel.

There could be some problems for those who rent electric vehicles from Hertz or any other company, though, even if they are fans of EVs.

While the owner of an electric vehicle might be able to charge the car at their home overnight, someone who is traveling and in a hotel might not have that option available to them. And while using public charging stations might be less expensive than filling up a gas-powered car, especially with gas now above $4 a gallon in most of the country, it can take significantly longer to charge an EV than it does to fill up a gas tank.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#2 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Apr 05, 2022 9:56 pm

GM, Honda are teaming up to build a $30,000 electric car

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/cars/gm- ... index.html

Building a cheap car that is also profitable for the manufacturer is shockingly difficult. Because of the high cost of battery components, it becomes even more difficult if that car is electric. But Honda and General Motors, two of the biggest car companies in the world, believe they can crack the code to producing a low-cost EV. And they want to do it together.

The two companies announced on Tuesday that they will team up on electric car development with the goal of selling millions of low-cost electric vehicles. All of the vehicles will rely on a shared battery architecture, but they will be continue to be branded distinctly as either GM or Honda cars. The automakers will also explore ways to develop new, cheaper batteries that improve vehicle performance and sustainability. GM and Honda are already examining new options like silicon, lithium-metal and solid-state batteries.

GM said that it will offer a compact SUV for less than $30,000 as early as 2027, though the company declined to say if it would be sold in North America. Honda declined to reveal pricing for new offerings that may emerge from the partnership. It has already said it will launch the electric Honda Prologue, an SUV, and an Acura electric SUV in 2024, and plans for additional electric vehicles later this decade.

“Both companies recognize that reaching our targets for zero emissions means accelerating the adoption curve and removing the barriers for consumers to transition to EVs,” GM vice president of electric and autonomous vehicles Ken Morris said on a call with reporters.

The automakers say they’ll share technology, design and marketing strategies to better succeed. Equipment and processes will be standardized, according to Honda vice president Rick Schostek.

“This win-win relationship enables us to accomplish more together than either company can do alone,” Schostek said.

Honda and GM have worked together for years, including on fuel cell systems and hydrogen storage as early as 2013. Honda joined GM’s electric battery development in 2018 and supports its fully autonomous driving efforts.

High costs remain a barrier to broad adoption of electric vehicles. The average transaction price for a new vehicle in February was $45,596, while the average transaction price for a new electric vehicle was $60,054, according to Edmunds. Shortages of needed parts like computer chips have been factors, as well as inflation, in increasing costs.

Tesla, which leads the world in electric vehicle sales, has raised prices for its vehicles recently. The cheapest Model 3, once promised as an affordable $35,000 vehicle, now sells for $46,990.

The least expensive electric car sold in the United States is the Nissan Leaf, with a manufacturer suggested retail price of $27,400.

GM and Honda will focus on developing compact crossovers, which account for 13 million units sold, according to Morris.

“This project aims to do something other manufacturers haven’t been able to achieve,” Morris said. “Develop a series of EVs in the most popular segments with great quality at high volume.”

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#3 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:20 pm

BMW reveals its new $120,000 electric flagship

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/business ... index.html

The BMW i7 is the fully electric version of BMW's new 7-series large sedan.

CNN

Electric vehicles, with their need for lots of expensive batteries, have often trended towards luxury. Electric cars from Porsche, Mercedes, and Audi have all hit the market in recent years. BMW has come out with its own electric cars like the iX and i4 and now the new i7, a battery-powered take on the brand’s new most expensive sedan.

While BMW is probably better known for its smaller 3 Series and 4 Series cars, the 7 Series is the brand’s showpiece for luxury and technology. The i7 is the electric version of a new generation of the BMW 7 Series flagship unveiled on Wednesday.

With a starting price of $119,300, the all-wheel-drive 536 horsepower i7 xDrive60 will be able to go 300 miles on a full charge, which is less than the competing Mercedes EQS or Lucid Air. It will also offer a V8-powered gasoline version, the 760i X-drive, with the same horsepower output and a starting price that’s $300 less. It will look almost identical. A gas-powered version with a 6-cylinder engine will have a starting price of $93,300.

This new version also highlights BMW’s flexibility-first electric vehicle strategy, which is different from that of luxury competitors like Mercedes-Benz and Audi. While those other luxury brands’ electric vehicles are based on dedicated EV chassis with little relationship to their gas-powered models, BMW emphasizes adaptable engineering as its edge.

BMW feels that it makes more sense to engineer gasoline- and battery-powered vehicles together.

BMW has engineered all its new models so they can be built with internal combustion engines, fully electric power or as plug-in hybrids that combine both electric and gas power. BMW executives insist this is not just a matter of fitting batteries and electric motors into cars that were intended to have gas engines. Instead, these vehicles have been designed, from the outset, to be built with any of these drive systems.

A major benefit of doing it this way, BMW executives say, is that it gives the company flexibility to easily produce more – or fewer – electric cars or gas-powered cars on the same assembly lines rather than having to commit manufacturing resources just to EVs. With cars and SUVs designed to be built as either, the car maker also doesn’t risk putting millions of dollars of development costs into an electric-only model that might find little demand in some markets.

Another benefit, BMW chairman Oliver Zipse said, is that customers needn’t choose between two completely different models when deciding whether they want an electric or gas-powered car. They can just decide they want to buy a BMW 7 Series, then choose whether they want the gasoline or electric version, just as they might decide whether they want a V8 or a straight-6 engine. Either way, customers get the same luxury car experience and design.

The downside of a common engineering platform is that, to enable both electric and gasoline power, designers need compromises. Cars with internal combustion engines need a large amount of free space up front for the engine, a smaller one typically under the trunk for the fuel tank, and often a long tunnel down the middle to connect the engine to the wheels. Electric cars, on the other hand, can have smaller electric motors mounted closer to individual wheels, and while they don’t have a fuel tank or a transmission tunnel, they need a large, relatively flat area, typically on the bottom of the car, for the batteries.

The Mercedes EQS electric sedan, for example, has only a short hood that houses some electronic components, and it has a nearly flat floor allowing more interior storage space.

Zipse insisted the 7 Series represents a superior full-size luxury sedan regardless of its power source. The driving experience will be excellent, he said, as will interior comfort and technology.

“There is no car with a more spacious, luxurious second row,” he said, during a meeting with journalists.

Back seats are a major reason for buying this sort of large car. In full-size sedans, there generally isn’t much more room (if any) in the front seats compared to smaller cars. The extra space usually goes to those in the back.

BMW drivers will hear "engine sounds" created in cooperation with Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer

As in many other high-end large cars, the back seats can recline while leg and foot rests rise from beneath seats. (BMW claims its seats recline more than competitors’, though.) The front passenger seat, if it’s unoccupied, can also move forward and fold down to allow more space.

BMW 7 Series buyers can get an optional 31-inch high-resolution video screen that folds down from the roof to provide entertainment for back seat passengers. Combined with an available high-end stereo system and powered window shades to block out light, the 7 Series can be a better place to watch a movie than someone’s own living room, according to BMW. Front seat occupants can also watch streaming videos on the center screen when the car is parked.

Four-wheel steering will enable the car to turn more tightly on curvy roads and in parking lots and to change lanes more smoothly on the highway. Inside, there are few knobs and buttons. Instead, buttons appear as lighted icons on a strip of what looks like decorative trim that runs across the dashboard.

The car’s headlights are obscured by dark coverings while, above them, turn signals and daytime running lights are housed in prominent narrow bars. As an option, the turn signals and daytime lights can include Swarovski crystals that sparkle in sunlight. As another option, the 7 Series’ large “kidney” grille can be outlined in lights at night.

For when the driver would rather not bother, assistance technologies allow the driver to completely let go of the steering wheel for long periods on divided highways. This technology, similar to General Motors’ Super Cruise, requires drives to keep their eyes on the road ahead at all times.

The 7 Series can automatically drive itself into and out of parking spaces even with the driver outside the vehicle using a smartphone app. It can also drive itself through a pre-programmed course, such as around pylons in a parking garage, on its own, a feature somewhat similar to Tesla’s Summon mode.

A sophisticated “head up display” which displays data in the car’s windscreen can align images and text so they appear as if laid over roads and other features in the real world. The system can also display parking regulations in the area.

Performance is a core part of BMW’s brand image. For decades, BMW’s marketing tagline was: “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” Executives now say that electric vehicles will take the lead in the carmaker’s performance pantheon with the fastest and most powerful versions of its vehicles being battery-powered. With the new 7 Series, the i7 shares its ranking as the most powerful version with the V8-powered 760i. There are no plans for a V12-powered 7-series model in this generation of the car.

A sophisticated air suspension works automatically to keep the car level even in fast turns. Computers can use data from GPS maps and cameras on the front of the car to predict when an upcoming curve will require the suspension system to react.

BMW has said that half of the cars the company sells worldwide will be electric by 2030. That includes Rolls-Royce and Mini vehicles. Both of those iconic British brands are owned by BMW, and plan to sell only electric vehicles by 2030.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#4 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:44 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:20 pm
A sophisticated air suspension works automatically to keep the car level even in fast turns. Computers can use data from GPS maps and cameras on the front of the car to predict when an upcoming curve will require the suspension system to react.
When I was working as a vehicle engineer, I drove a London double-deck bus fitted with a hydraulic self-levelling suspension.

It was most un-nerving having the vehicle remain upright however hard it was driven into a curve.
Whether the ultimate would have resulted in the vehicle tipping over I never discovered!

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:57 pm

They are silly, if we can't charge the buggers?

Give us the charge of multiple light brigades and whence comes that energy in this insipid land...?
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Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#6 Post by OFSO » Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:06 am

Whence comes the energy? Why we buy it from France of course, since they have not banned nuclear reactors. They must have plenty, as Germany, hypocrites as ever, buys electric from them as well as burning brown coal. So does Belgium. And the Netherlands.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#7 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:42 pm

The Chevrolet Corvette is officially going electric

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/business ... index.html

General Motors will produce a fully electric Chevrolet Corvette, GM President Mark Reuss announced in a LinkedIn post Monday morning.

Reuss didn’t say when the electric Corvette would come, but he hinted that a hybrid model could come relatively soon. “We will offer an electrified Corvette as early as next year,” he wrote. An accompanying video the company posted to Twitter showed what appeared to be a hybrid Corvette, and in another first, showed the front wheels spinning and throwing snow as if being powered. All Corvettes produced by the company previously have been rear-wheel-drive only.

While Reuss’s post implies a hybrid Corvette will be based on the current generation of the car, it’s not clear if the all-electric version will be a variation of this car or a completely different future model.

“Electrified” is an auto industry term encompassing everything from hybrid to fully electric vehicles, and anything with an electric motor can count as “electrified.” It has long been rumored that the current generation of the Corvette, the first with its gasoline engine mounted behind the seats instead of in the front, could be built with a hybrid system. Reuss has also previously hinted there would be electrified variants of the car.

Various companies are working on electric sports cars. Most all-electric vehicles in production so far have been four-door sedans and SUVs, as the need for batteries lends itself to larger and heavier vehicles. Tesla’s first car, the Lotus Elise-based Tesla Roadster, was an electric sports car, but the second-generation of Tesla Roadster, originally unveiled as a prototype in 2017, has yet to go into production.

Some manufacturers, such as Lamborghini, have said that current battery technology doesn’t allow for a optimum sports car performance from a purely electric vehicle. Lamborghini has been working on plug-in hybrid sports cars, though.

To date, the Corvette is only available in the base Stingray version with 6.2-liter V8 engine producing up to 495 horsepower. A 670 horsepower Corvette Z06 with a 5.5-liter V8 was unveiled last fall. The previous generation of the Corvette included included a 755-horsepower ZR1 version. Nothing like that has yet been announced for the current model but GM engineers have said a major reason for putting the engine in the back was to allow for better performance at extremely high horsepower levels.

Besides saving gas, hybrid systems can also be used in high-performance cars to add additional power and to provide for quicker acceleration since electric motors can provide power to the wheels more quickly than gas engines. Ferrari’s most powerful sports cars are hybrids, for instance.

Reuss has previously implied a hybrid Corvette was possible.

GM has said it plans to produce only zero-emission vehicles, meaning fully electric or powered by hydrogen fuel cells, by 2035.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#8 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Apr 26, 2022 9:59 am

OFSO wrote:
Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:06 am
Whence comes the energy?
Infernal combustion engines are horrendously inefficient at converting fuel into kinetic energy: about 30% at best. Electric cars are about 90% efficient or better in terms of converting electrical power into locomotion. There you have a massive energy saving. You don't need 'more' energy because you use so much less.

Then there's the colossal saving in the vast amounts of electrical power involved in processing crude oil into petrol and diesel. There's another vast saving.

Then there's the fact that the proles will eventually wake up to the fact that nuclear generation of electricity is the way to go for most or all of the baseload. That Jane Fonda film, together with the actuality of Three Mile Island, not to mention the Ukrainian and Japanese crackups or the almost unmentionable Windscale fire, gave the proles the heebiejeebies and they will need to be educated in the maths of small number statistics so that they can understand that nuclear fission generation of electricity is not the devil's work.

Then there's the fact that most sensible people who drive electric cars usually charge the things at night when demand for wigglies is at its lowest.

We almost have enough leccie to power all cars electrically already. We just need to up our game in building smaller newer technology nuke stations and lots of good old-fashioned hydro stations.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#9 Post by OFSO » Tue Apr 26, 2022 10:14 am

There is no such thing as "electrical power". Electricity is MADE and most of the present 'manufacturing' is inefficient or polluting or both. What is required of course to counteract this is sensible and educated politicians. Oh, sorry......

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#10 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:13 pm

You correctly used the word 'energy'.

So did I.

It is the increased energy efficiency of electric car motors which will blow away the the infernal combustion engine just as effectively as the infernal combustion engine blew away the external combustion engine.

It's already happening!

I'm luvving it. Life is so much nicer than in the old days of exfernal and infernal combustion contraptions which I remember in the days of my yoof. I'm living the future, though occasionally it would be nice to visit the Science Museum to see the way things used to be.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#11 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:04 pm

Also factor in getting the fuel from the pipeline terminal to the gas station and the cost/pollution of the tanker ships as well.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#12 Post by Rwy in Sight » Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:20 pm

PP, the latter part of your phrase applies to electricity generation to a great degree. And in Greece there is a case of some nuns who have blocked a high voltage line it would unblock a considerable amount of wind /solar energy because they don't want to see the pylons from their monastery. Now the line will change path at a great cost.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#13 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:27 pm

Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup begins crucial product launch

Heard on the news that the base model starts at $40,000.
I'm willing to bet that the average price will be closer to $70,000.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/business ... index.html

New York
CNN Business

The first all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning rolled off the assembly line in Detroit on Tuesday, with a great deal riding on its launch for both the company and electric vehicles overall.

Interest and demand in the vehicles have been very strong, with Ford taking 200,000 preorders for the electric version of the pickup that has been the nation’s best-selling vehicle for nearly a half century.

But despite the interest from buyers, it’s not a given that Ford will be able to pull off the launch without problems.

The automaker has had repeated issues in recent years with the launch of new versions of its most popular vehicles, most notably the 2019 launch of the Ford Explorer SUV. Quality problems with that launch cost the company billions and played a big role in the departure of two executives.

“There’s a lot riding on it,” said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Cox Automotive. “Ford has had its troubles with launches and now added to that there are all of these supply chain issues.”

Virtually all automakers have had to scale back production of new vehicles due to a shortage of computer chips and other parts and materials, often temporarily shutting factories. Those production bottlenecks have led to limited supply of vehicles, which in turn has resulted in record high car prices for consumers.

Bill Ford, the great-grandson of the company’s founder and the executive chairman of the automaker, compared the importance of the F-150 Lightning to the most important vehicle in the company’s history.

“The Model T over 100 years ago brought cars to everybody. Well, this vehicle will bring electric vehicles, particularly electric trucks, to everybody,” he told CNN’s Richard Quest Tuesday.

Krebs said she think that’s overstating the importance of the Lightning, but she agreed it is a breakthrough vehicle for the shift to electric vehicles on which Ford and other automakers are betting tens of billions of dollars.

The Lightning is not the first electric pickup to hit the market. Upstart Rivian, which makes nothing but electric vehicles, started production of its R1T pickup last fall, but has built only about 3,500 in its first six months of production. And General Motors has started production of the GMC Hummer EV pickup, but has sold only 99 of them in the first quarter of production.

The F-150 Lightning has beat both the Tesla Cybertruck and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, two of its main competitors, to market by a year or more.

And if Ford (F) and major automakers in the US market are going to succeed in transitioning from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric, as they say they intend to, they’re going to have to get American truck buyers comfortable with the idea of electric pickups, Krebs said.

“It’s really going to test the waters. Is there a market for electric pickups? How big it is?” Krebs said.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#14 Post by barkingmad » Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:58 am

I can’t help thinking this electric car fad is similar to the efforts of scientists and engineers in former times expending great intellectual energy and materials in the futile attempts to make a “perpetual motion machine”.

A wonderful idea but doomed to failure, it resembles the current mad dash for ‘clean’ self-propelled vehicles to be rushed into service in an impossibly short timescale.

Certainly a few of these devices are already in service with more in the pipeline, but the advocates of this new religion don’t seem to be looking further up that pipeline at materials supply security;

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/04/26/ ... lity-goal/

It has already been estimated that to change just the UK’s ICE powered population of cars to EVs would require 50% of the known world resources of the precious and rare metals required for their manufacture.

Hopefully someone here, if there’s anyone still awake in O-N, will correct my simple assessment of the future EV production problems and provide solid evidence that planet Earth has the resources and ability to effect this change in the ridiculously brief timescale trumpeted by the politicos and industry.

This always assumes that the leader of the “free” World, our old friend Klaus Von KnobSchwab, allows us to ‘own’ such an extravagant luxury as a car? ~X( :-? :-w

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#15 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:58 am

A wonderful idea but doomed to failure
Yes. It has failed twice already, but this time it has become too big to fail.

We are all too young to remember, but at the turn of the 19th/20 century most cars were electric cars. Then came the robber barons of the oil industry who savaged the electric car and imposed the absurdity of petrol guzzers instead.

Then there was a very brief revival when GM made an immensely desirable electric car, but did not market it properly (naming it 'Impact' was kinda dumb!) but they didn't actually sell any. Customers were carefully chosen and could only rent or lease the cars from GM. Various forces came together to quite literally crush the EV1.

There's a really good documentary on that subject. A link below.

Then along came the Tesla Model S. It really did change the world. Irreversibly, despite enormously malicious forces acting upon mainstream media due to catastrophic loss of profits from advertising. The rest of the car manufacturing world is now hurrying to try to catch up with Tesla. One day, one or more of them might succeed. Betamax was technically superior and first to market, but VHS was the one that really captured the video taping market.

When I bought my Model S I invested enough money in TSLA shares to fund the purchase its replacement 8 years thence, I'd no idea that the share price would explode in the way that it has ($48 to more than 20 times that much). Public charging stations now outnumber petrol stations in advanced countries such as Norway and the UK.

Electric cars are now here to stay, despite the best efforts of the Luddites and the oil and car industries.


Who killed the electric car?

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#16 Post by OFSO » Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:59 pm

The cars aren't silly, but this thread is, unless you are a wealthy landower generating electricity from the wind and with enough ground to park and plug in your ludicrously expensive Tesla. For those of us in normal accommodation with street parking it's a fantasy.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#17 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Apr 27, 2022 2:57 pm

Kerbside street chargers are very far from silly. They are eminently practical. The more modern ones are wireless, just like some mobile phone chargers, so you don't even need to plug into a power socket.

Installing them is as easy as installing electric street lighting or traffic lights or illuminated roadsigns or parking ticket machines.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#18 Post by Rwy in Sight » Wed Apr 27, 2022 3:17 pm

All the new features you mentioned don't take valuable parking spots in cngested cities. So OFSO's argument holds a lot of water on how difficult is for someone who lives in a congested street in a block of flat to have his car charged when the spot is taken by a conventional car who has been unable to find another parking spot.

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Re: Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

#19 Post by OFSO » Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:05 pm

UP lives in a very different world to most of us, and, dare one say, seems unaware of the fact.

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AL1: Electric Cars II - Silly!

#20 Post by Boac » Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:18 pm

Pity anyone lying injured in the road? Sounds like some work to do on the software! Still, might help with clearing away 'Insulate Britain' protestors =))

https://www.motor1.com/news/582194/tesl ... rashes-jet

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