why don’t you drive an EV?

why don’t you drive an EV?

Because we have a rock-solid old Subaru that seems destined to make it to the age of 30, but if it dies eventually, I'm thinking we'll go EV.

BTW we recently learned that the Chevy Bolt is apparently designed such that the box for a 55” flatscreen TV fits PERFECTLY in the back with the seats folded down. Like somebody had to have made a CAD volume with just those measurements and made sure it would fit.

https://www.carboncounter.com/

i'm actually considering getting rid of my car, as i am fully remote now

at least the pandemic has brought on a few good things

loooool https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2021/03/29/vw-volkswagen-name-change-voltswagen-electric-cars-tesla-competiton/7048576002/

*looks at calendar* uh premature 4/1 still seems more likely.

haha apparenty nope

We know, 66 is an unusual age to change your name, but we’ve always been young at heart. Introducing Voltswagen. Similar to Volkswagen, but with a renewed focus on electric driving. Starting with our all-new, all-electric SUV the ID.4 - available today. #Voltswagen #ID4 pic.twitter.com/pKQKlZDCQ7

— Voltswagen (@VW) March 30, 2021

lot of americans taking the opportunity to get priggish about VW's history while the most prominent car company in the US *right now* is run by a space fascist eugenicist.

would definitely drive an EV voltswagen microbus while wearing my patagonia baggies, grateful dead shirt, and merrell hydro mocs, for peak west coast awfulness, but it will cost around my annual salary so unfortunately it will only be a terrible dream

well apparently it *was* an april fools joke but now everyone is talking about their involvement with the National Socialist German Workers' Party so good job i guess?

Is buying a new electric car every few years better for the environment than maintaining an old car? I may have a bias as my car was built in 1973.

making an EV is marginally worse for the environment than making a regular car and much worse than making no car.

https://tnmt.com/infographics/carbon-emissions-by-transport-type/

making and then driving an EV is probably better than a clunker after a few years, but it's going to depend on how much you drive, etc.

I’m not buying a non peer reviewed study with that disclaimer attached.

Try this one that uses the Argonne GREET lifecycle emissions model.

https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/the-climate-change-mitigation-potential-of-electric-vehicles-as-a-function-of-renewable-energy

No car is definitely better but if you have to use a car it’s considerable better to use an EV

the disclaimer is pretty clear that it's back of the envelope, and nothing more than back of the envelope can be said in response to a vague question about whether to replace an existing ICE car.

but fwiw the abstract of that paper says:

"The lifecycle EV carbon emissions for a vehicle powered by the 2016 US grid is 30.82 metric tons... An average internal combustion engine vehicle (25.4 miles per gallon) is responsible for 68.38 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime"

which is almost exactly consistent with the back of the envelope calculation which says an ICE car produces about twice as much CO2 as an EV if you amortize manufacturing costs. and it's a whizzy infographic that doesn't cost $5 too.

Is buying a new electric car every few years better for the environment than maintaining an old car? I may have a bias as my car was built in 1973.

― Peter Greenaway's Fleetwood Mac (S-), Tuesday, March 30, 2021 8:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

old cars - basically anything pre-90s iirc - are significantly worse for the environment in terms of emissions than regular ICE cars

No doubt. I barely ever drive anyway so I guess it's a moot point.

Actually I'm not even sure why I felt the need to reply to this thread, but hey, ILX right?

otm

This is a statistic I’ve not seen before and I would guess most others have not either. https://t.co/pMwC01eQEl

— Norman Levine (@levinepmc) May 1, 2021

If the U.S. commercial aviation became completely carbon-free it would be equivalent, in terms of CO2 reduction, to reducing passenger vehicle emissions by about 11 percent. (Source: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100ZK4P.pdf via Aaron Gordon’s newsletter)

Price point on the electric F-150 is damn impressive. If I was still commuting around LA, hauling computer/server gear, all that - I'd be on the preorder right now.

I want this minivan

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1132297_canoo-prices-its-evs-starting-at-34-750-for-lifestyle-vehicle-due-in-2022

Well, Electro Voice is a good mid-budget option for casual live venues. Perhaps for wedge monitors in a rehearsal space.

https://c1.zzounds.com/media/productmedia/fit,2018by3200/quality,85/sx100_1-dff3a90196b807449d3436d46c45d47e.jpg

But if I were looking for reference speakers in a professional studio, I might look more toward Genelec, or the new Neumanns.

no wheels on those speakers.

one of the appealing things about the F-150 (which I will not be getting, but i hope this shows up on other vehicles) is AC outlets. if every other car can charge a phone (or a fridge or an oxygen concentrator) then that's a big deal in a natural disaster.

real giggers put everything on a wagon afaict

Canoo's first model—a minivan now dubbed the "Lifestyle Vehicle"

this is deviant shit i can tell

they all look so much like "The Howard"

one of the appealing things about the F-150 (which I will not be getting, but i hope this shows up on other vehicles) is AC outlets. if every other car can charge a phone (or a fridge or an oxygen concentrator) then that's a big deal in a natural disaster.

Already was a big deal in Texas back in February:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/18/some-texans-use-2021-ford-f-150-hybrids-to-power-homes-amid-winter-storm.html

Electro Voice a proud Minnesota company

xp oh nice. the new hyundai has ac outlets too https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/05/hyundai-reveals-us-specs-for-ioniq-5-electric-crossover/

xp i still have some old EV sentry monitors in storage. pretty good and cheap first set.

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-08-at-8.14.59-AM-1440x710.png

not an ev and not for me, but 40mpg and under $20k is a big deal

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/06/fords-new-maverick-is-a-cheap-and-cheerful-hybrid-pickup-truck/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78zjz/is-it-good-for-the-environment-to-replace-my-used-car-with-an-electric-vehicle

By now, it is common knowledge electric vehicles (EVs) are better for the environment than gas cars, because they are more efficient and don't directly emit harmful gases that warm the planet. However, I am occasionally asked a slightly different question which is harder to answer. Say you have a perfectly good gas-powered car that may last several more years. Is it still environmentally friendly to replace it with an EV?

tldr yes

i would drive the electric f150.

i won't be able to afford to, but i would

not an ev and not for me, but 40mpg and under $20k is a big deal

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/06/fords-new-maverick-is-a-cheap-and-cheerful-hybrid-pickup-truck/

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, June 8, 2021 1:08 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

that is ridiculously cheap

We came really close to pulling the trigger on a Chevy Bolt, which is a great car, except for the fact that it's a slow charger, even at its fastest. So basically any longer trip we might take that took advantage of the good range for a cheaper EV (260+) would need an added couple of hours on each end to charge, which kind of sucks. Normal charge is like 4 miles an hour, level 2 more like 20. That was still too slow for us.

What makes a truck "cheerful," I wonder.

"cheap and cheerful" is a british phrase that i used for years before realizing everyone here thought i was talking about things being cheerful.

just happy to see pickup that's a reasonable size

https://i.imgur.com/OZR9fSv.jpg

Replace that video screen on the inside with this and I'll think about it.

"cheap and cheerful" is a british phrase that i used for years before realizing everyone here thought i was talking about things being cheerful.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, June 16, 2021 10:26 AM (five hours ago)

well what does it mean?

cheap but ok

rather than cheap and bad or cheap and of a very high quality

its similar to jacked and jaunty

basically "cheap and shitty" but, crucially, not so shitty that it doesn't work, so let's move on and never consider it again until it breaks, at which point we will gaffa tape it up and resume not thinking about it

if you only need to use it for a shorter period of time than "until it breaks," bonus

lol https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/gm-recalls-every-chevy-bolt-ever-made-blames-lg-for-faulty-batteries/

gonna need some major government intervention to get people to buy all these electric cars

The scale of battery production coming online in the next decade from auto firms is mind boggling pic.twitter.com/ZMTiiqyrCa

— hk (@hassankhan) September 8, 2021

do any of them have stick shifts and a cassette deck?

as someone who spent the last 19 years driving stick before getting a PHEV, i dont miss it. i thought i would but...nothing.

p sure the tape deck could be arranged.

the braking + downshifting ability is kinda key for me -- it's less an EV issue and more an automatic transmission issue

I didn't realize until recently that you can't coast in some of them.... taking your foot off the gas accelerator puts the brakes in motion.

taking your foot off the gas accelerator puts the brakes in motion.

wait what??? ... no, I mean, just no.

That’s a ludicrous price. They’re definitely cheaper down here and sell well to Volvo loyalists. However USD25K gets you this range rover knockoff. I haven’t driven one myself but the general word is it’s a lot better than anything else you can buy at that price ice or electric.

https://www.omodajaecoo.com.au/models/jaecoo-j5-bev

A lot of chickens coming home to roost this week. I don’t see how Honda survives the decade other than as brand stuck on an out of date Toyota or Nissan. Even Toyota are starting to see the error of their ways. 20 years of spending on anti climate action lobbying and setting money on fire to work on hydrogen rather than working on EVs is really going to hurt them.

Australia’s only a small market but they typically have 22-25% of it and there’s a rumbling that byd might knock them off the top spot this month or next.

I think BYD has already passed everyone in Japan. That Jaecoo looks great.

Meanwhile, my Mach-E just keeps zipping along...

ed what do you make of the fact that so many automakers canceled their EVs to pivot to hybrids right before the biggest oil shock in history?

Abject stupidity. One of the key problems the legacy car makers have is that doing what they are doing is a lot more profitable than scaling EVs. By most metrics Toyota is more profitable than BYD (although the China domestic market is in a bit of a price war right now).

I goes right through the value chain - dealers actively work against selling people EVs because they earn less commission, less service revenue and the car companies also don’t really back their EV products with marketing, pr, advertising etc. Absent the big sticks and carrots of regulation and incentive, of course they are going to ditch their EV products.

Massive risk though because, as we are starting to see in Australia, EVs are starting to cost less than their petrol equivalents. If the EV companies could work out how to market these things then we might get somewhere. Absent the Iran war we’d still be stuck at EVs been at or below 10%.

Now the tyrant’s tariffs are much lower and there’s oversupply in China, maybe some of these pure play EV brands are going to try the US.

Australia’s latest contribution to bringing on the thunderdome has been to let one of its two remaining (and government subsidised) oil refineries catch fire.

This is not the first time this refinery has caught fire and not even the first time in the last ten years. No foul play is suspected, nos sabotage, it’s not the igrc or the mossad - it s a bunch of Aussie ocker blokes with a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to maintenance.

10% of Aussie fuel out of the market. (We have 1, possibly 2, fucked lng export terminals as well)

For someone who works in the EV industry this is a good day because Suddenly everyone wants some consulting work on these new fangled electrical vehicle things. I will be up all night writing proposals due Friday.

It would be good if we could somehow put the world's remaining oil out of action *without* burning it though.

Australia is only good at crowdsourced regulation and incompetence so setting it on fire is all we’ve got.

I had to explain to a Czech economist, that I need for one of my projects. She said there’s no time to do a good job doing a full productivity assessment on the EV policy I have to write by (checks RFP) Tuesday. I said that’s right, no one is even doing half arsed any more.

I will get to pitch my cheap Chinese EVs for home care workers plan. And if no one is reading too carefully my compulsory reeducation camps for Toyota kluger drivers plan.

how much oil does australia get from the middle east?

Almost none of it. But the situation is a bit weird.

Australia exports over 150% of its crude oil demand in crude and natural gas liquids but imports 95% of its demand for refined oil products because there’s stuff all refining. Refining happens in Asia.

The problem is once you export it it’s not yours anymore more. It’s just out there in the global market. So Australia been sending the pine minter to Asian countries threatening to cut off their fossil gas supply to stop them from cutting Goff our liquid fuel supply.

yeah the thing with america is you hear about being a net oil exporter but it doesnt help anyone besides the oil companies its all just dumped into the open market americans arent protected from say oil price shocks caused by its government waging the stupidest wars they can come up with

pine minter is a great way to say prime minister, gonna steal that xp

good thread

Too Big to Fail
Ok there's a lot of incorrect information going around on this, so I want to be clear that the problem with the Big 3 and EV's isn't that the Big 3 didn't want to make EV's. The problem, as with so many things, is Trump. I'm gonna do a little thread on this because people don't seem to be aware. 1/x

https://bsky.app/profile/toobigtofail.bsky.social/post/3mksgj3xnj22t

First, the facts. Every single US auto manufacturer publicly went all-in on EVs. In 2021 (notably, a week after Biden was inaugurated), General Motors announced that it would stop making internal combustion engines entirely by 2035. They invested billions of dollars in their Ultium EV platform. 2/x

Stellantis (Chrysler/ Jeep/ Dodge/ Ram) announced that it would go EV-only in Europe by 2030, and when the last-gen Charger and Challenger were killed in 2023, their replacements were supposed to be EV-only. They were forced to kill that initiave last year. 3/x

Ford was first to market among the Big 3 with serious, competitive Evs, coming out swinging with the "Mustang" EV and the F-150 EV, leveraging all of their consumer good will on EVs. They've lost tens of billions of dollars in investments in this. It is not due to a lack of trying. 4/x

Why have the Big 3 failed so utterly in their planned phase out of internal combustion engines? Well, it's two things, really. One is consumer sentiment - I'll get to that in a minute - and the other is government policy. The death of the $7,500 EV tax credit absolutely murdered the EV market. 5/x

But also, Trump policies specifically have discouraged EV adoption in ways that the Big 3 do not want. He's eased emissions regulations and cut down on CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to discourage companies from transitioning away from internal combustion. 6/x

You remember last year when 500 South Korean battery production experts were kidnapped from a Hyundai plant in Georgia and mass-deported? This single act completely destroyed the willingness of foreign EV experts to work in the US to advance American battery and motor manufacturing. 7/x

Trump is surrounded by petroleum lobbyists - not automotive lobbyists - and he has decided to declare all-out war on electric vehicles. The Big 3 collectively spent well over $100 billion on EV development that they're now having to write down because of Trump. You think they wanted to do that? 8/x

The other problem is consumer demand. This is a more complex issue than it seems at first. The average annual miles driven per passenger car in China is about 6,000. In the EU it's about 6,500. In the US, it's about 13,500. The US is big, and people drive much longer distances than elsewhere. 9/x

Among Americans hesitant to buy an EV, 47% cite their number one concern as a lack of range. This is less of an issue in the EU where it's less common for people to drive 300+ miles at a stretch. This range anxiety is compounded by a lack of charging infrastructure compared to other countries. 10/x

The lack of charging infrastructure is, you guessed it, a policy decision made by Donald Trump. Other countries are WAY ahead of the US in terms of charging availability and charging standardization. It's common in the US to go to a charging station only to find none of the chargers operable. 11/x

etc

It's common in the US to go to a charging station only to find none of the chargers operable.

I'm going to argue this point - at least here in the southwest.

good for you.

I mean argue against that claim. Over the last couple of years the charging infrastructure here has dramatically improved.

some figures may show that US drivers cover more distance in single journeys

the figures given in that c/p dont tho