ICE dead in 5years, not in Australia, I think germany passed laws to stop production of ICE cars by 2025 or something, i heard japan was talking about something similar? Just last year Australian government voted down any measures to reduce cost of electric cars (to buy and run), so Aus is a looooong way behind, again

28hrs is worst case scenario, but not incorrect. A 15amp socket would cut that down to about 19hrs, so parking up at 5pm and leaving by 9am would get you pretty close to full. My point was that going on a roadtrip from Brisbane to Cairns would take a long time, mostly due to having to wait for the car to charge. I honestly dont know how common 15amp sockets are, I need one for my welder and have had to pay one to be installed at every house i've been at. There are a range of Tesla superchargers from Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne so they could top you up very quickly, from dead flat within 9hrs (i think less actually but i've forgetten the exact numbers). Its surely an adjustment to traditional driving practices, but honestly not far from being where we need to be, or just a little extra planning and time will get you there.

 

TESLA just announced a software change in some models. To provide a higher charge level on the batteries, and as such extend the range.


The FLA folks evacuating were sweating the range of their TESLA"s!!!


Carl

 

Re the 5 year thing, I seriously doubt it will happen anywhere really by the time those deadlines come around. The have no real plan to generate the extra power needed and the countries doing the legislating are strapped for power now in deep winter. My guess is initially it will be mostly about hybrids and people can pretend the ICEs arent really there.

As you say there will be a whole lot of new habits and norms to create as we go into EV world. Will be interesting to see how the whole charging thing work on the road when there are numbers out there. As filling takes a couple of hours not minutes I am guessing eventually it will look like old drive in movie lots :-) Personally I am hoping they work out fuel cells.

 

Don't Electric Vehicles merely move the carbon emissions to another place?

All that extra electricity has to come from somewhere, and if Hydro isn't available, don't plants still have to *Burn* stuff to make steam for the turbines?

On a planetary, or even local scale, what difference does it make if emissions are here or there?

Sure, there's a lot of talk about wind (a blight on the landscape) and solar, which husband and I have looked into, but the cost is still too high for an array to pay for itself within any reasonable time -- Unless you're the power company expecting all your customers to foot the bill.

I think I'll just wait before I get all in a tizzy.
(';')

 

Maybe some main roads/ highways roads will be powered with 'Wireless Power Transfer' so you could travel anywhere, charging as you go. Adding in the 'Solar Road' idea ive seen could be a interesting way to combat power generation, I read that a country was trialing a few thousand kilometres of it. cant imagine the government being thrilled about that, so much infrastructure! but its a great long term plan!

Yeah the power has to come from somewhere LnrB and Australia isnt exactly plush with clean energy production methods. That said, a large scale solar farm is being built behind the sunshine coast and South Australia is getting a giant battery. Its coming slowly. In the mean time i'll be getting a bunch of solar panels on my house, so when government and policy catches up, i'll have been running green for some time. theyre expensive, but there are heaps for sale second hand. I think i could cobble something together to power my house and car for a few days of darkness for 15-20grand. I have a small family spending $4-500/quarter of electricity, adding in fuel savings of $3000year, i'll be all squared within a few years, that and fuel and electricity are only going up in cost.

 

Yes at the widely deployable consumer level you are mainly just moving emissions from one place to another, and creating new issues with Lithium and rare earths mining.

The long game (oil will run out eventually) means that you have to start somwhere and it wont be efficient at first. I expect that there will be lots of wrinkles and really I'm not convinced that current EVs are going to be the long term answer. As an example, very recently R&D people over there accidentally discovered a compact and productive way of generating Hydrogen, it may change the fuel cell game totally.

One thing that totally aggravates me in this discussion is the rainbows and unicorns people that think you can run an economy on wind and solar and batteries and that capability is here now. Reality (which they are either disconnected from or choose to ignore) is that even the biggest fanboy locations like Denmark, Germany, Cali, South Australia all have neighbours to lean on. Its easy to preen and virtue signal when you can just tap someone else on the shoulder for coal, nuke or hydro power when the wheels inevitably fall off.

 

My point exactly!
(';')

 

eLINOR eKYUP

 

Elinor:


Apologies. Messy fingers, or lack of Nestle's Classico coffee.


I 'm wiH t nesate emESSY

 

I am with you and husband's thinking. Much to be resolved before concluding that solar is the "deal". Much like the nucleur is the "deal". perhaps not.


Carl

 

2 of our neighbors have solar from different companies. One had panels installed about 10 years ago and already has had to replace several of them. They're still under warrantee (until that company goes belly up) but the Massive inconvenience until they arrive is just plain unmanageable.

The other neighbor bought the place with solar already installed and mostly perfected, but he's still on the grid during stormy days in Winter, of which there can be Weeks without a break.

Like every new technology, price will come down and quality will go up. We'll just wait for that before plunking down several tens of thousands of our hard earned on what is basically a toy/status symbol at this time.
(';')

 

no doubt many new and updated theory about power generations!

my guess is we need major breakthru's in Hydrogen power cells!

myself known about the subject was way back 1979 in Daytona Fl, during race week, a meeting of the big companies engineers, worldwide guys included.

there end meeting was Hydrogen cells for hiway transportation.

BUT my very1st time heard about it, was in 1968(worked for the GE,(General Electric), Massachusetts.

there was a building in the huge GE complex, and NO access of what it was, steel bar windows and doors, one night everything quiet, i asked a Security guard what it was, he said , dont really know, "something called Hydrogen fuel cells, i guess for the space shuttle or something ?"

 

With the price of power in the US I am surprised that solar gets up at all at the consumer level.

We are passing $.30c per kWh here and its only going north. We have 3kW (nominal, it has never produced that) and it keeps a lid on the bill over summer. We probably get more benefit from the solar hot water heater, its an ungainly looking evacuated tube set up but is very efficient and heats water with minimal sun and at low sun angles (unlike the lunchtime power from the panels)

Anyway Itchy , this is the famous JF thread drift, we will regain focus with another car update :-)

 

i remember them , was popular back 25yrs, and seemed to go away.

a lot of swimming pools used them in cold weather Fla. electric for startup and switch over to solar after a set temperature , a good friend had the setup!

we went swimming in Febuary, but was a dash into house when getting out of pool!

 

They arent the cheapest option but work very well. Constantly sense the difference between the tube temp and tank, and when the tube temp is higher the water circulates. My only issue is that it can superheat in summer and over pressure the tank, so I have to wind the pump control back to minimum in summer, and max the rest of the year. Electricity backs it up for cloudy days.

 

Well, so far my energy "conservation" is in three ways.


1. Tankless water heater. It has it's quirks but works.


2. I have two window AC units. One up front, and one back here. I only use one at a time. Dependant on where I am, I close off the other "half of the house. Doors are to be used.


3. I follow LBJ's policy. Turn off the lights in the rooms not used.


4. Most light bulbs in the house are CFL or LED. I've a bunch of the olsd filament bulbs???? Spares? for what???


Carl

 

Way to go itchyback! I'm curious to see how you mount those Tesla modules - my original plan was to use those as well but I'm working on something even smaller and lighter with the same 90kWh

If there's anything I can do or knowledge to share, let me know!

 

Eek, i had not considered this yet
I've emailed the engineer to get his thoughts. The rear subframe has to be completely redesigned and i'm hoping in that process i can do something to resolve that still using the xj40 hubs. I have a sinking feeling that wont cut the cheese. . Things get more complicated and/ or expensive from there.

 

Now you can see why I went the direction that I did! Many nights I stayed up scheming how to make the Tesla drive unit work and in the end I decided it was too big an undertaking for me. If you come up with something elegant, maybe I'll copy your idea!

 

.

quite right,, some place on this site video of Sir William Lyons , saying that his design engineers where not satisfied with the rear XJ suspension setup, but time was short so went with it anyway.

saying it is not a race car.