Name your EV poison

[Sabantien]

One of these hybrid F trucks they're talking about bringing out.

I need more range than pure electricity can give, and I saw recently Range Rover are planning to release a hybrid, and they reckon over 1,000km from it.

You'd have to assume Ford will be looking to use the electricity to increase range, as well as boost performance. And my town is small enough my little runs around town would be fine on pure battery.

[Sprintey]

Probably do it in stages - hybrid first, then eventually EV.

Have installed solar on a savings/years basis, eg if solar saves 3k in power bills then 3-4 years to pay off. If batteries save a further 1k per year, then maybe 8 years... Which currently is not as attractive.
If the EV charged by these saves 5k fuel per year and costs 20k for a city runabout, I'd feel happy outlaying capital for a 4 year payback by bills saved. (Assume battery bank in place for charge other than day at home)
If the hybrid takes it from 5k to 1k in fuel spend without the battery bank needing to be installed, at 20k it pays off in 5 years and might be a better transition waiting until batteries become more cost effective. So very interested in next Corolla hybrid as hybrid being extended to whole range including Ascent Sport base model.

With the money saved, that can benefit the economy and spent on other things, snowboard tuition, fine Australian made whisky (look it up), quality Australian clothing startiups, soon-to-be classic AU Falcons and Fairmonts...

[johntolhurst]

If you invest at 15% interest rate for five years, you double your money. So if you are looking at a payback in 5 years, you are looking a return on the investment of 15%.

For anyone borrowing money at 5%, investing for a 5 year payback is a no-brainer. On that reasoning, anyone with a mortgage now should be investing in solar, or solar/battery because of the savings and we do have 25% solar in Australia. Batteries at home to charge the car with seem to be inevitable on those numbers. In fact I don't know why I havn't done it yet!

[stefcio007]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Will electric cars be like phones? After a couple of years of regular charging my phone could almost be called a landline rather than a mobile phone.

At least for Tesla owners this doesn't appear to be a problem.

Tesla battery data shows path to over 500,000 miles on a single pack (electrek.co) - https://electrek.co/2016/11/01/tesla...y-degradation/

[stefcio007]

Originally Posted by johntolhurst

If you invest at 15% interest rate for five years, you double your money. So if you are looking at a payback in 5 years, you are looking a return on the investment of 15%.

For anyone borrowing money at 5%, investing for a 5 year payback is a no-brainer. On that reasoning, anyone with a mortgage now should be investing in solar, or solar/battery because of the savings and we do have 25% solar in Australia. Batteries at home to charge the car with seem to be inevitable on those numbers. In fact I don't know why I havn't done it yet!

Govt. still pays us 60c/kW with the power company giving 6c/kW for a total of 66c/kW. Once that contract runs out then it's a no brainer to either feed that into your house grid instead of the local grid or store it in a battery bank and use it during peak (ie Tesla PowerWall).

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

Probably do it in stages - hybrid first, then eventually EV.

Have installed solar on a savings/years basis, eg if solar saves 3k in power bills then 3-4 years to pay off. If batteries save a further 1k per year, then maybe 8 years... Which currently is not as attractive.
If the EV charged by these saves 5k fuel per year and costs 20k for a city runabout, I'd feel happy outlaying capital for a 4 year payback by bills saved. (Assume battery bank in place for charge other than day at home)
If the hybrid takes it from 5k to 1k in fuel spend without the battery bank needing to be installed, at 20k it pays off in 5 years and might be a better transition waiting until batteries become more cost effective. So very interested in next Corolla hybrid as hybrid being extended to whole range including Ascent Sport base model.

With the money saved, that can benefit the economy and spent on other things, snowboard tuition, fine Australian made whisky (look it up), quality Australian clothing startiups, soon-to-be classic AU Falcons and Fairmonts...

While the Tasmanian drop ain't bad, you can't beat a fine Macallan.

[Sprintey]

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

How about a B series instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xORfYWPzib4

That is absolutely epic. Love how the arrangement is in a V formation! There's life in the old Falcons yet...

[johntolhurst]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

That is absolutely epic. Love how the arrangement is in a V formation! There's life in the old Falcons yet...

I like how it sound like a high performance electric train. That endless whine is really cool, says to me everything is engaged.

[Sprintey]

Yes a bit of noise is nice, evoked a supercharger

[johntolhurst]

Kind of Sound, vibration, power and torque character for the tune. All these personality traits your car can have will go. Does that mean EVs are souless, and not the kind of thing you would want as your treat, your indulgence, your poison? Seems to me cars are not going to be what they are to present and past generations. More and more people will think of them as nothing more than a way to get from a to b. It won't be the soul of the car that matters at all will it? Or am I just being stuck in my generation?

[naddis01]

I found this one interesting with a battery swap setup.



SEVEN SEATER NIO ES8
WATTSINWHEELS May 14, 2018 0
If you haven’t heard of car manufacturer NIO, get used to the name now because this start-up EV company is serious. How serious? A start-up with 4000 employees and 19 locations across China serious.





Watts in Wheels previously published a story about the NIO EP9, an electric supercar developed out of their Formula E division. The ES8 is NIO’s 7-seater production car now on sale in China and is directly aimed at taking sales away from the Tesla Model X. The ES8 starts at about $90,000Aud and is about half the price of a Model X in China.

The ES8 bodywork and chassis is aluminium, the light weight construction helping return a range of about 350kms, what’s more the ES8 employs a quick-swap battery system that can be swapped in minutes. NIO are aiming to build more than 1100 battery swapping stations in China by 2020.











The ES8 will accelerate to 100kmh in 4.4 seconds… that’s a 7 seater family car that can do the 0-100kmh sprint as fast as an Aston Martin DB9 GT 5.9L V12. 644 horsepower is delivered to all four wheels from dual-electric motors. All reports say the ES8 is packed with safety and info tech, the build quality surpasses the Tesla and it looks great too. It also brags to be the world’s first production car to have an in-car AI system.

[johntolhurst]

The front looks like it failed to get into the latest marvel movie, and there's no glovebox, so obviously, that ain't gonna fly.


Seriously though, the future? blink and you'll miss it!



We could do something like that in Australia, if we had a population 50 times as big. 50 new solar driven desert eco cities, yay! we can get there!