By Jo Nova
Watch the whole segment on SteynOnline or ADH TV in Australia, and more coming soon.
Watch at SteynOnline or ADH TV in Australia
A wonderful chance to discuss some of the heavier aspects of EV cars, more dangerous car parks and car accidents, the fun of fires on cargo ships, novel ways to douse a smoking car, and the delusional need for more metal than anyone can dig up on Earth. Heavier cars means more wear and tear, more road noise, more latex in the air, and more costs to rebuild our car parks and bridges.
With extra information in these posts
- Does 500kg matter? Heavy EV cars may break bridges and car parks
- It’s just a ship full of luxury cars on fire, and no one can put out the lithium batteries
- Net Zero by 2050? We need about 10,000 years of current Lithium production to get there first
The man is a warrior — hear about his battle with OfCom which is headed to the High Court. He’s walking on hot coals for us, so help him if you can.
I’ve always wondered -Don’t electric motors product some ozone when they run? (Not much, but a “waste product from electrical discharges.)
20
EV motors are brushless, no sparking no ozone.
40
There was a terrible accident yesterday, a couple killed when a BMW hit a Honda Civic. The BMW went through a red light at high speed. The tin can which is the Honda Civic was destroyed. Heavier, bigger cars win. Now that’s all electric cars with 600kg batteries.
The problem is that despite being a small car, even a new small Polestar is 2.1 tonnes, in the order of a 4WD. And the big Mercedes Benz EQS is an amazing 3 tonne! In an accident, the heavy electric car will win. Low centre of gravity helps. Which is really great for the owners, better than insurance to be so fast and big and invulnerable. Or thieves. In fact far too heavy to be lifted by the usual service people for a tyre change, even if they have a spare which is unlikely. And often even the smallest collision means a write off.
Increasing the weight of even half the cars by a huge half a ton will mean the total energy and momentum in any accident just went up dramatically. And the braking distance will be vastly reduced too, up to twice the distance as the tyres are the same. So while cars were getting smaller, lighter and more energy efficient especially hybrids, the fully electric cars are a major cost to everyone else. And the Greens who demanded punitive taxes on huge 4WDs are applauding increasing the weight of all cars by half a tonne.
So for those who can afford it, they have bought insurance because unless they run into a truck, their stopping distance is someone else’s problem.
The sheer selfishness of a government subsidized 3 ton car and the cost to everyone else is only part of the attraction of electric cars for the rich. They often do not pay the Luxury car taxes and a dozen other taxes. And everyone else has to pay for charging stations where petrol stations are vanishing. Because everyone is better off? No. They’re not.
280
It was only a few years ago when the French were taxed into driving diesels. Then the government suddenly decided diesels were not Green after all and everyone was fined for driving diesels.
What is certain is that no one is thinking this electric car business through as bureaucrats give themselves total power over everyone else’s lives and act on whim.
In Canberra, Washington and Brussels, Chicken Little is alive and works for the government but the sky is falling. And they believe every word of it.
300
I will be embarking on a Cruise Ship with Mark Steyn in early July.
It should be fun.
https://www.marksteyncruise.com/
60
I look forward to reports on it in due course. Have a great time.
30
“Heavier cars means more wear and tear, more road noise, more latex in the air, and more costs to rebuild our car parks and bridges.”
And less money to pay for the road repairs because the road repairs are paid for from taxes on ICE vehicles.
I see the evidence of heavier vehicles causing road damage when I frequently drive between Seymour and Shepparton. Most of the road damage is in the left hand lane where most of the traffic drives, including trucks.
90
Would be fun to see how long an EV lasts on the roads around here !
Is it possible to cause another pothole in the bottom of a pothole ? 😉
40
Heavier vehicles are MUCH harsher on road surfaces as well as vehicle tyres and suspension components.
High current flow through the battery pack during acceleration and dynamic braking, rapidly heats the batteries.The propensity for “self-immolation” of Lithium-Ion batteries is well known, or, SHOULD be.
But, apparently “government mandates” have the power to suspend the laws of Chemistry and Physics. (No wonder pollie-muppets and Pubic Serpents are so well paid).
130
Weight is important, but even a 4 tonne EV wouldn’t be anywhere near a truck for road damage.
On the simple weight per wheel count, a tri-axle semitrailer with a 30 tonne load will have 5 axles carrying that load with 4 wheels per axle. That’s a tonne and a half on each tyre. Our 4-wheeled EV would be up to 6 tonnes to match that.
But the bigger cause of damage by trucks is the scrubbing of those non-steering axles as they go round bends. Look at the distance between axles of a trailer. That all has to scrape over the road surface every time it changes direction — and with 1.5 tonnes on top of each tyre it’s no wonder our roads are shot. The EV doesn’t have the scrubbing problem at all.
Interestingly, tri-axle semis are pretty uncommon in the USA and if we want to worry about road damage here, we should make them rare here too.
IMO, the best way to prevent EVs damaging Australian roads would be to leave their purchase to a free market: no subsidies, no tax concessions, etc. Not much damage if nobody buys one.
101
Exactly. This is all about public servants deciding what’s good for everyone else. Like administrators at University with their DEI regulations. Our council staff who hate cars and think people should go shopping or to hospital on bicycles and can hop over the endless concrete obstacles they bolt to the road. We live at the whim of know it all busybodies in positions of power, especially politicians.
The idea that it is the job of councils to pronounce on social issues or for governments to applaud transvestites or to force people to use diesel or electric cars because of the environment.
We are in an age where the know it alls are in power and they know nothing. And they think that sending the CO2 overseas will solve the alleged problem. Along with all the jobs and food, because when you work for an organization which can just demand more cash, who needs to worry about a job? Or food or exports or competence.
130
Too right they know nothing!
10
Just a suggestion Jo. After nearly 40 years of providing technical information to Australian farmers still stuck in the Imperial system, can I suggest you never mix your units of measurement. It very often leads to disastrous outcomes. So, in this case just talk metric units. Don’t worry about the audience, if they’re really interested they’ll do the conversions themselves.
22
Were she to use only imperial units I’m sure you have the arithmetical wherewithal to do those same conversions the other way.
20
Having lived in a world of everything from nanometers to light years, from inches to mm, lbs to kg it hardly matters on a science blog. And if you travel, it is something you have to deal with. Technically Britain is metric but everything is miles per hour. In the US many industries have been metric for years, but any structures, pipes or machines are in inches. Like all the infrastructure.
For the UK “In 1896, Parliament passed the Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act, legalising metric units for all purposes but not making them compulsory.”
On the windy border in Northern Ireland, the speed limit changes endlessly from km/hr to mph. What the British call ‘metrication’ is well underway, but even the French ask for un livre du beurre, a pound of butter. (une livre = 500 grammes )
60
Even as late as WWII everything involving the Royal Navy and the RAF was inches, feet, yards, nautical miles, and MPH. Lbs and tonnes too. Gal not liters. The one exception was radar. Wave length was always measured in cm, and power in kilowatts.
20
EVs shouldn’t be allowed in any covered car park anyway.
Their propensity for inextinguishable self-combustion makes them highly dangerous.
50
Replacing the internal combustion engine with the external combustion engine.
70
How long does a set of tyres last on a midsize EV, not long I’d wager and are they different and therefore more expensive that regular tyres, I guess you’ll find out when you buy an EV.
30
Most of the damage to roads, built for cars, is caused by trucks, a family member who drives trucks says damage is accelerated by airbag suspension and super single tyres, with air bags, you get a smoother ride in the truck but the wheels and axles are hammering up and down , flogging the road surface.
31
More pollution from EVs:
LONDON (Reuters) – “Tyre-makers are under pressure to almost literally reinvent the wheel as regulators turn their scrutiny to tyre pollution that is set to surge with the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and threatens to undermine those cars’ green credentials.”
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/other/tyre-makers-under-pressure-as-too-much-rubber-hits-the-road/ar-AA1bifeU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d47e348d7628458ebf39a457bd8b8d17&ei=128
20
It’s not quite a perfect storm,” said Gunnlaugur “G” Erlendsson, CEO of UK-based startup Enso, which has developed more durable tyres specifically for EVs and rents out tyres that it takes back to recycle at the end of life. “But it’s close.”
20
Mark used to sub for Rush Limbaugh quite often. He was the best stand in, in my opinion, and I think Rush’s favorite. After Rush passed, Mark kind of dissapeared from the scene in America. I always enjoyed listening to him on the radio while at work. Funny but bang on to the issues that mattered.
30
Well done, Jo! Elon Musk’s Tesla has appealed to many because of its sheer innovation. But innovation by itself is not an indicator of practicality or superiority of function. We test drove one recently, and although we were impressed with its smoothness, power and comfort, we were unimpressed with the heaviness of the unit, the distraction of the enormous computer screen to the left of the wheel, and to the practical limitations of feasible travel distances. And this is not even considering any future power restrictions in relation to re charging.
40
Imperial/Metric length conversion-
The only EXACT conversion is- 1 inch = 25.4 mm. (or, 10 inches = 254 mm).
Everything else is derived therefrom.
Blame Napoleon.
10
Manufacturers of patented cars are afraid of out-of-patent generic cars. Generic cars could be much cheaper than patented cars (like patented vs. generic drugs). Patents last 20 years, so now we should be able to buy copies of early 2000s cars. The social contract with patents was that the inventor gets 20 years of monopoly protection, but then a society gets the invention for free, as a public domain. To dishonestly break this social constructs governments have constantly been introducing new regulations, new norms that precluded usage of cheap, generic, out-of-patent copies of old cars. The regulations pretended to be about environment, or about security. But the goal was to prevent cheap, generic cars. So producers supported such norms. As of now further increasing norms for ICE engines couldn’t realistically be done any longer, so scammers introduced the idea of ban on ICE engines, and move to electric cars. Not many models of electric cars from 20 years ago to copy as generics. And 20 years from now dangerous lithium batteries would likely be banned in parking spaces, so current EV cars won’t be copied in the future.
10
Jo is smart and hot!
(Nothing about the topic?) CTS
[But Jo approves. Thanks Bob! — J]
10
Only because of global warming.
00