The chinee are flooding Euro markets with cheepcheep EVs, in UK they are
like £12k, cheeper than anything any brit or euro builder can build and
cheaper than any other vehicle on the market. A big RORO dumped off
like a thousand of them a few weeks ago at some UK port. They are
likely low-powered, low-range tin cans that might appeal to some if they
have travel that would fit within the limitations of a low-end EV. Saw
a report that the chinee are building so many more EVs than needed for
domestic consumption that they are also dumping them in Germany etc.
where they are awaiting release to the markets (if that happens). If
the brits and euros cut their own throats with EV mandates and allowing
chinee imports that will be the death of local auto manufacturing, EV
products or not. Not sure they would be approved for US markets but who
knows what our elected fools will do.
The other issue that is looming as EV adoption increases is charging the
things. You would need a home charger of some significant capacity to
charge them quickly (probably minimum 40A if not much more). For those
who don't have their own house where they could install a charger, they
have to rely on public chargers or in their apartment complexes etc. It
takes quite a bit of time to charge an EV although supercharging can be
fairly fast but 2 problems -- the batteries can't take multiple
sequential fast charges so will drop charge rate and increase charge
time, and if multiple cars are at multi-outlet charging station there is
not enough current from the grid to do them all at once, so the chargers
choke the current among each charger and then it takes longer. So you
see these long queues at charging stations when everyone decides they
need juice for tomorrow, or they are on a trip and hit a charging
station along with many others, and they can sit for hours waiting for
the queue to move. Both these issues are problematic if you want to go
on a longer trip in any reasonable time, or even charge your car in some
reasonable time for your daily commute.
Check out a youtube channel MGUY Australia, he has been putting out some
pretty amazing vids about the whole technical and practical nonsense of
mandating EVs.
I think the things have a place in the world and technically are kinda
cool (not that I would be keen on one) but are the not the end game.
Plug-in hybrids with regen make a lot more sense. Interestingly in
Norway where electricity is quite plentiful and apparently relatively
cheap, EV adoption has been high (subsidies, COA, etc.) but I saw that
many people have a gasser they keep too, for longer trips and in the
winter when EV range goes to shite due to the cold. So a mix is what
the market votes for even when an EV is a relatively cheap option.
--FT
On 5/7/24 11:58 AM, Randy Bennell via Mercedes wrote:
I am not a real fan of the electric vehicles being pushed upon us by
the fools who think they are wonderful, but I see enough propaganda on
a daily basis to make me think about them.
Some of you folks are engineers etc and likely have a better grasp of
this sort of thing than I do, so here are my current thoughts on the
subject.
It appears to me that most of the current crop of electric vehicles
are high powered and very quick. Some or perhaps most are also all
wheel drive. They are also generally quite expensive. They require
high powered chargers to charge in reasonable periods of time and the
batteries do not last for the long haul and are expensive to replace.
I am wondering why. Would it not make a lot of sense, if one is trying
to make a wholesale change to the vehicle world to build lesser
vehicles. Use smaller motors that use less power. That should either
extend the range or permit smaller batteries of perhaps both would be
possible. That should also result in lower electrical use for charging
purposes so it would be less expensive to operate them. If the battery
was smaller, it should weigh less and special tires might not be
required and the tires should last longer. Most would not require all
wheel drive so there would be maybe 2 motors rather than 4 of maybe
even, only one motor like we have enjoyed in the past. Smaller
batteries should be less expensive to replace. Maybe they could even
be swappable entities rather than require a lot of work to replace.
Despite the fact that "luxury" cars are popular, there must be a
market for more basic cars without all of the electronic gadgetry in
cars like the Tesla.
Randy
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
--
--FT
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
