…
By Jo Nova
It’s hard to keep up with the great EV unravelling
The best news for the EV industry this month is that Ford is only losing $50,000 a car now on its electric vehicles. That’s so much better than the $132,000 it was losing last quarter. But the true economic carnage is deep and widespread. The one sure bet in the world of electric vehicles was Tesla where sales rose two percent in the last quarter but their profits plummeted 45%. The fire-sale shifted cars but it burned the bottom line. Similarly Mercedes Benz profits were down 21%, mostly thanks to EVs. And Ford’s were down 35% (not surprisingly).
We knew things were bad when the new invention has a small market share but already half of the owners wanted to go back to the old style.
There is trouble even in China where shares in Evergrande New Energy Vehicle are down almost 40% so far this year. Apparently some creditors are coming after Evergrande seeking bankruptcy proceedings for two of its EV arms.
Nearly every major manufacturer is delaying new models or rewriting their targets. Ford is delaying several models, and is redesigning a plant in Canada that was going to make EVs to one that will build pick-up trucks with fossil fuel engines. Bentley and Aston Martin have pushed back the launch of their first EVs. Jaguar have said they will drop two of their planned EV models and keep making their gasoline SUV for longer. Volkswagen diverted $60 billion back into developing ICE cars. Suddenly, they’ve all discovered that Hybrid cars are quite interesting.
Porsche kept their target and dumped it at the same time. They are still (theoretically) aiming to get 80% of its vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. But they added the clause “if the customers support us”. Anything less than 80% will be the customers fault. Porsche off the hook, eh…
Someone is going to write a book about how the top industrial heavyweights of the West virtually all fell for the fantasy that we could toss out a century of engineering and ding, invent new type of car on command. Discovery in aisle nine!
The EV bubble deflates in real time
Heads should roll over the electric car fiasco
By Matthew Lynn, The Telegraph
Over the last few days, it has become clear that the EV industry is on the brink of collapse. Hundreds of billions of euros, dollars and pounds have been pumped into this industry by political leaders and the subsidy junkies that surround them – and it is surely time they were held to account for the vast quantities of taxpayer cash that has been wasted.
And it’s not just car makers. It’s bad news for the supply line:
It is even worse for component manufacturers. Shares in Germany’s Varta are down by 70pc over the last month amid reports that the company may have to be rescued from bankruptcy after making heavy losses on batteries for hybrid sports cars. This week, the Belgium chemicals group Umicore announced a €1.6bn (£1.4bn) hit, as manufacturers warned of waning EV demand, and it postponed plans for a battery recycling plant.
As Matthew Lynn says: consumers are increasingly nervous over what may become obsolete technology. That’s got to be the marketing kiss-of-death.
Western governments threw billions of dollars to inflate this bubble
Politicians tried to play God in the car market: In France Macron tossed €700m at a plan to dominate battery production in partnership with Germany. The Germans burned €1bn too. But the EU bragged that it spent €80bn on things to do with EVs, and the US had launched cargo-ships of cash with the Inflation Reduction Act.
In the end, in the biggest transition of them all, from horse to car, Ford didn’t need a government subsidy to invent a Model T. And customers didn’t need to be forced to buy it either.
I’m really concerned. Imagine WOKE governments making really big cock-ups like this.
Someone give me the email address for the great moron that identifies as our energy minister. I’d love to be the one that tells him the wonderful news! 😂😂😂😂😂.
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Carbon dioxide is essential for life!
491
And more means more life, more Green, more trees, more flowers, more food. All living things are made from Carbon Dioxide. We cannot eat rocks. Everything we eat is made from Carbon Dioxide and only Carbon Dioxide and water. Without Carbon Dioxide, Earth is a barren, frozen wasteland of rocks and ice. Not even molds, fungi, bacteria, viruses, all carbon dioxide life forms like carrots and blue whales. More Carbon Dioxide, please.
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Only a non scientist could describe carbon dioxide as a toxic pollutant. And since the last ice age ended just 10,000 years ago, who wants to go back?
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Do we even want to go back to the Little Ice Age?
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“Everything we eat is made from Carbon Dioxide and only Carbon Dioxide and water. ”
That is not correct you have forgotten oxygen which all living things need including those we eat
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The Electric Vehicle Problem that’s set to become a Ticking Time in Australia – Crisis
Influx of old electric vehicle batteries will pose a significant challenge for Australia
Australia’s battery recycling industry is in ‘crisis’ and unprepared for an influx of electric vehicles once they reach the end of their lives, a federal inquiry has been told.
Automotive and recycling industry representatives issued the warning on Thursday at the Transition to Electric Vehicles inquiry in Sydney, which also heard calls for a ‘battery passport’ for electric cars, similar to efforts in Europe.
The federal government may have limited time to act on the recommendations, however, with one recycling organisation saying the issue could become a significant challenge within six years.
The parliamentary inquiry is probing many parts of the transport transition, including electric cars’ impact on the electricity grid, opportunities to save fuel, demand for chargers, and battery manufacturing and recycling.
Recycling facilities were already struggling with too few collection points and a lack of guidance and standards about battery recycling, Australian Council of Recycling chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou told the inquiry.
‘The recycling and the waste sectors … are in a crisis relating to incorrectly disposed-of batteries that cause fires in all types of facilities,’ she said.
‘We don’t have a sufficient collection system, we don’t have a sufficient extended producer responsibility system for batteries.’
The nation needs clear rules on battery labelling, transport and disposal, including a ban on dumping them in landfill, before local facilities could break down and process electric vehicle batteries, Ms Toumbourou said.
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Just a Quick Reminder re E Bike Battery, for example, Fire plus just one, Battery Storage Fire from Yesterday’s Thread
Juanita Broaddrick@atensnut
Holy Fvck !! E BIKE battery.
Plus
Lithium Battery Fire Sparks Traffic Mayhem Across California Desert
220
how soon before that happens on a plane?
10
G’day OO,
I guess those battery recyclers would be discovering that their costs of doing business, including electricity charges, are heading them for bankruptcy. And I suspect the market for second hand ones isn’t all that strong anyway.
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That is true for most recycling. How ironic that introducing more polar bear friendly generation on your grid makes recycling – especially paper and plastic – uneconomic with higher electricity costs.
10
Simples … because it’s easily available on the website for the Australian parliament house, https://www.aph.gov.au .
The email address you want is Chris.Bowen.MP@aph.gov.au .
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As he advertises on his web site https://www.chrisbowen.net/contact/ from where the following is copied:
Electorate Office:
Address: Shops 3 & 4, 398 Hamilton Road FAIRFIELD WEST NSW
Post: PO Box W210, Fairfield West, NSW, 2165
P (02) 9604 0710
F (02) 9609 3873
E chris.bowen.mp@aph.gov.au (Electorate Correspondence and Invitations)
If your correspondence is related to Climate Change and Energy issues, please visit http://www.dcceew.gov.au for more information, or refer to the below details.
Parliament House:
MG 60, Parliament House
PO Box 6022, Parliament House, CANBERRA ACT 2600
P (02) 6277 7120
E Minister.Bowen@DCCEEW.gov.au (Ministerial Enquiries)
E Invitations.Bowen@DCCEEW.gov.au (Minister Invitations)
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Thank you all you lovely people.
I’ve had an auto response from his office confirming receipt of the good news!
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Good idea. Just sent. And received an auto reply..
_________
We want more Carbon Dioxide.
All living things are made from Carbon Dioxide. We cannot eat rocks.
More CO2 means more life, more Green, more trees, more flowers, more food.
Everything we eat is made from Carbon Dioxide and only Carbon Dioxide and water.
Without Carbon Dioxide, Earth is a barren, frozen wasteland of rocks and ice.
Not even molds, fungi, bacteria, viruses, all carbon dioxide life forms like carrots and blue whales.
More Carbon Dioxide, please.
Taxing Carbon Dioxide is unbelievable.
Regards
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And perhaps advise Minister Bowen that he emits “toxic” CO2 every time he exhales.
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They really know how to pick losers… every time.
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Graham – Nobody ever pays for the Green loony cock-ups/disasters. It is time to start making them accountable.
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Sorry to have to keep saying this, but it is not a cock-up, anymore than the response to the Covid scam was a cock-up; and they are not looney because they know exactly what they are doing and why. It is a plan and the perv minnow puppet, national level politicians, pushing it are well rewarded by their globalist sponsors.
They are a bit like EVs themselves. With EVs, the environmental damage is up front and at the end of their useful life, only the bit in the middle is relatively clean. The would-be politicians get grants and well remunerated non-jobs up front, their time in office is clean for the record, and they retire to more well paid sinecures. Some like Miliband, get two bites of that cherry.
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The failure of the electric car market cannot happen fast enough.
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Just wait until the second hand values plummet to. Net zero instead of CO2
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Losing companies will be looking to the woke, incompetent Governments such as Australia’s to harvest subsidies or to make EV sales compulsory or make them relatively cheaper by taxing ICE vehicles out of existence.
In a free market, the only real buyers of EVs are rich woke Leftist virtue signalers and poseurs who can afford them and all those have already made their purchases. (Or senior public serpents and politicians who get taxpayer funded cars.)
Another problem with EVs is that in countries such as Australia which is shutting down its power stations, where is the electricity to charge them going to come from? There’s a good reason why data centres, those other large electrical energy consumers, don’t run on wind, solar and unicorn f@rts. They sign supply contracts for nuclear, hydro or coal and gas supplies with fake “carbon offsets”**.
However, if the Government doesn’t make EV sales compulsory as per my first paragraph, the next big subsidy harvesting scheme will be “green” hydrogen, both to produce it and for cars that use it. I know that in Australia millions or billions of taxpayer dollars have already been lost on hydrogen schemes* but when did that stop the Australian Government throwing more good taxpayer money after bad?
Alternatively, instead of hydrogen they may go for another dangerous and toxic fuel such as ammonia, also being promoted by engineering illiterates and with plenty of scope for subsidy harvesting.
As always, follow the money trail! “Green” is all about harvesting taxpayer dollars (and destroying Western Civilisation), not the environment.
* https://joannenova.com.au/2024/04/renewable-energy-is-too-expensive-to-make-green-hydrogen-twiggy-goes-to-arizona-instead/
** https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe
** https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/here-are-23-times-carbon-offsets-were-found-to-be-dodgy-2/
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David,
Consortium of Toyota, Nissan and Suzuki are working on a “bio-engine” that will more than likely spell the end of both EVs and the hydrogen wet dream.
I suspect this is why Toyota has spurned EVs and only recently put their toe in the water to test the temperature but remained true to hybrids.
https://www.ecoticias.com/en/bioengine-hydrogen-japanese-brands/4512/
On one other point Volvo (who is now owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, a Chinese automotive giant, who acquired it from Ford Motor Company) which was once the “safest” brand in the world. It has recently been beset with EXTREMELY DANGEROUS EV AND HYBRID BATTERY FIRES with people being trapped inside and not able to escape without outside assistance. So much for safety when they can’t even provide a mechanical means to exit in an emergency?
Personally, I’m very reluctant to even take an Uber ride in an EV or hybrid let alone buy one???
Cheers,
310
Popeye,
You’re not supposed to spread mis / dis information to the the unwitting general public.
You must get a license to for that!
150
Farmers?
There won’t be any in Schwab’s bug future.
60
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/telegraph-cartoons-july-2024/
20
Face It: EVs are EVil
The technology behind the production of EVs, which I regard as EVil, is in my estimation at least 10 years away from perfectibility.
Meanwhile, EVs comprise a technical hazard, a convenience disaster, an energy cannibal, a financial liability, and a moral ignominy.
As the Western Standard reports, in Canada, “Big money — something like $52 billion in tax-payer dollars have been allocated to over 13 projects in the form of investment tax credits, production subsidies, and other supporting mechanisms, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.”
Enacting an authoritarian policy, the federal government is pilfering tax revenues to fund the production and sale of EVs, subsidizing companies that have no accountability and buyers who have no practical sense.
What this means is that people who have no love for EVs but prefer to drive internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are subsidizing, through their government-funneled taxes, those who have opted for EVs. Once again, we observe the travesty of bureaucratic heavy-handedness and government overreach.
Just as bad or worse, according to research specialist at Suncor Energy Joseph Fournier, “There is no energy transition in Canada.”
In a 2022 report titled “The $2 trillion transition,” the Royal Bank of Canada stated that power generation must increase by 50% over the next decade, if rolling blackouts are to be avoided.
The same is certainly true in the U.S. and other Western nations. Relying on a radically insufficient infrastructure and the crippling inadequacy of the electrical grid is reckless in the extreme.
To begin with, “Grid infrastructure is not cheap,” warns Rupert Darwall in Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex.
Complicating the issue, a decarbonized energy generator, bringing “wind and solar intermittency, unpredictability and variability” in its train, renders the power supply not only unaffordable and insufficient, but wholly unreliable, “reversing the logic of the Industrial Revolution.”
50
Eric Peters has a blog (ericpetersautos dot com). He is one of the few reviewers of autos that isn’t enamored of EVs. He says they are like other digital devices (digital readers, for instances).
They have regular “improvements” that no one needs or wants to pay for, but being current is a must. Please upgrade from: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
Most auto reviewers stress seconds from 0 to 60mph and infotainment systems and neglect resale value – something people care about. They think upping your charge from 20% to 80% in 30 minutes is a big deal rather than a problem.
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Yes John, I have always found it interesting, and amusing, that almost all journalistic reviewers of new EVs, usually in the first paragraph, wax lyrical about the car going from zero to 100kph in some ridiculously small number of seconds, as if that is selling point when the car is for use in a city.
70
John,
Tesla have a system that you have to pay to have “features” unlocked . Considering that Tesla is bleeding money , and values are cratering , is not Elons smartest idea. How long before the software has to be “licensed” and you will have to pay an annual fee or it refuses to work ? The software for autonomous driving is already a fiasco….
60
There is money to be made here. Short selling.
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“hold your nose” trades – sad that failures still make money
80
Interesting that the CEO of woke auto maker Ford, is also on the board of directors of woke motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson.
It’s just a coincidence, I’m sure.
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I made a prediction to myself 4 years ago that EV’s would fail, and fail spectacularly, in 5 years. Well, it looks like I may have been correct, but you did not have to be Einstein to see this disaster coming. What was amazing, was how nearly all the car manufacturers fell into line and made announcements of ” going all EV by 2030 ” etc, etc. The cost of this total disaster must be eye watering.
I can see some large companies going to the wall over this green fiasco. As usual, the politicians and associated hangers on will walk away insisting they had nothing to do with the failures….” market fluctuations “..
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The CEO of Toyota has long held the opinion that EV’s are not the way to go. Their hybrids have done well in certain markets. I also note that once again Toyota’s gross profits are in the billions.
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What’s probably not collapsing is the original intent.
Which is to take the freedom of personal transportation away from common people.
So that movement is more easily monitored and controlled.
IMHTFH opinion.
None of the stuff was ever intended to ‘work’.
The intent is to transform the structure of society.
In particular, the elimination of nation states.
At this point, I get a bit annoyed we talk like this is about ‘Science’, or ‘Public Health’, or creating better infrastructure.
Just look at the current Olympics.
Somebody, or something, seems to be looking to create conflict and division in a surreptitious and subtle, and to some in the audience, not so subtle manner.
400
Absolutely Honk.
That’s one of the reasons they are pushing for the free range prisons known as “15 Minute Cities”, rebranded in Australia as “20 Minute Neighbourhoods”.
And with EVs, digital currencies and universal tracing and tracking via mobile phones the Government can decide where (and if) you go, and when. And unlike liquid fuels, electricity can’t be easily or cheaply stored, hence the Left’s war against hydrocarbons.
190
During the corinavirus lockdown, we were restricted to our local council area. Fortunately, that gave us a 50 km radius neighbourhood, but we felt for others. We need all those others to resist Stockholm Syndrome and vote for personal freedoms next time.
20
‘No sex cardboard beds, woke food, no meat, swimming in sewage.’
130
No airconditioning in a Parisian summer! The locals flee en mass in summer. The Chinese team are even accused of bringing airconditioning into the eco village. But as the country which outputs 40% of the world’s CO2, what would you expect. They don’t believe a word of it. Woke is for Western idiots.
120
please explain what does IMHTFH mean?
20
Car buyers beware the great EV dump! It’s coming at light speed! The funny thing is they can’t make them bulletproof due to the weight of the armour.
250
Once people realise that you’ve got to pay thousands to recycle your dead battery at end of life, they’ll get dumped in the bush and torched.
ICE cars are highly recyclable, apart from trim components. There’s no economical recycling strategy for EV batteries due to their heterogeneous nature. So the waste will just pile up.
270
Don’t worry … your tax will end up paying for it!
230
Well, if you watch the idiot box you will be inundated with EV car ads. So, the advertising agencies must be making a fortune. They’re all very slick ads which must cost extra. Toyota in particular have gone big time. Makes you wonder , are we the taxpayers footing the bill for all this advertising?
140
Nah. EVs are being dumped on Australians because elsewhere in the world they’ve been offered to the public and the public has rejected them. Given that Australian voters are dumb enough to elect a Labor government they are probably also dumb enough to buy EVs.
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Most definitely, but not this dumb person. The car manufacturers are not making money from BPV’s (EV’s), I doubt the dealers are. So probably the only people making money from them are the advertising agencies and finance companies. Maybe some fleet managers. But,it’s interesting there is an upcoming Car show ( Melbourne, I think ) which is highlighting EV’s and hybrids. There is still so much hype around them.
30
I know people who own EVs and they are still in the fan club . They still think they are ahead of the game . I have tried to explain why not , but i’m just a “denier” .When the excreta hits the turbine they will realise that I was right , but will probably blame me ….
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My daughter’s father-in-law, at one Christmas dinner about three years ago, got deeply upset with me when I explained to him, in no uncertain terms, why I would be buying a new ICE, instead of an EV. I am quite looking forward to Christmas this year!
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Toxic EVs were always an obvious toxic disaster just like unreliable toxic W & S energy that destroys environments all around the world.
And these toxic disasters only last a very short time and the entire toxic mess has to be buried in landfill forever.
BTW there’s been very big hostile demos on our east coast against offshore Wind and Sky News at least are doing their best to support the public.
They are also telling the truth about the turbine blade mess on the beaches in the USA and Scotland just a few years after they were built.
AI will quickly hog the majority of the BASE-LOAD energy use and we must definitely STOP unreliable,toxic W & S ASAP in the OECD countries.
Our security depends on stopping these toxic disasters now.
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Australian motoring writer/critic John Cardogan recently made an interesting comment about EVs.
He said that the government wants use all to move to EVs by 2030. He said that according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are about 18.4 million light vehicles (i.e. cars and other small vehicles) in Australia. Industry figures show about 1 million new light vehicles are purchased each year. On that basis it would take 18.4 years to switch to EVs, if we assume that the EVs will be available. If the EV industry can only supply 250,000 cars each year it will take 73.6 (i.e. 18.4 x 4) years. Simple maths says that’s until half-way through year 2097.
Climate change minister Chris Bowen is having a wet … sorry, electric … dream!
260
The Harris loony is hell bent on destroying the USA and she believes in the EV disasters and toxic W & S and anything else that will quickly destroy the USA economy and ecourage a Communist takeover.
Let’s hope the voters aren’t stupid enough to fall for her deceptive siren’s song and wake up and vote for Trump in November.
200
Oops. You’re expecting the dimmest electorate on the planet to call out Harris’s deceptive & ignorant ranting about CC??
130
We get stuck with DEI candidates because Dems (and many Republicans) who vote, tend to vote for the person’s public image, ignoring policies and implications of those policies. There’s also the supposedly free stuff, get the rich people to pay for it, aspect. It was sure a fire formula until 2016.
Despite creating a public image that Trump was AH, and Hillary wasn’t actually a Stalin, the people after 8 years of BO decided that sound policy was more important, saving the country from the abyss.
In the past, such lazy, ignorant, potential voters usually found it too inconvenient to vote in person. That is why the Democrats invented means to do the voting for them. Then they discovered such typical Dem voters were a minority, so they found ways to multiply their voting power.
Now they are returning to that old formula, using Harris the Appointee, to get it back into the margin of fraud. Lets hope they are wrong again.
20
The E.V. bubble deflates in real time,
For an industry not yet in its prime,
As I.C.E. profits and sales,
Are tipping the scales,
And shifting a failed paradigm.
220
Free enterprise, free markets, capitalism that created the wealth of developed nations and in more recent times adopted in Russia and China to boost economic growth.
Government picking winners and losers, motor vehicle market interference to push EV with all the buyer deterrent factors involved, what could possibly go wrong?
150
Now even the USA treasury secretary claims you can save the environment by first destroying it and then we must waste trillions of $ every year to make sure we succeed.
Are these loonies completely barking mad? But I’m sure China, Russia, Nth Korea and Iran etc will be very pleased with her treasonous ideas.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/28/janet-yellen-calls-for-78000000000000-to-tackle-climate-change/
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I’m buying shares in the big popcorn corporations.
111
Incidentally, there is already an “environmentally friendly” fuel available as a substitute for gasoline.
That’s ethanol.
Little Johnny Howard established ethanol production in Australia with a substantial taxpayer subsidy and protection from competition, but like all things “green” and woke, that too is a disaster.
And according to all calculations I have seen, you can have ethanol or food, but not both. (We know the Left wants to downsize the non-Elite population by whatever means possible, however.)
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/a-disgrace-of-the-old-school-20030816-gdh99d.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/ethanol-when-a-mans-poison-turns-to-millions-20051001-ge0z05.html
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/howard-meets-honan-you-be-the-judge-whether-he-lied-about-it-20030812-gdh8tm.html
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Add Volvo to the list of car companies reconsidering their position on EVs
https://www.drive.com.au/news/volvo-rethink-hybrid-cooling-ev-demand/?utm_campaign=syndication&utm_source=smh.com.au&utm_content=article_3&utm_medium=partner
80
Here’s part of Vance’s “drill baby drill” speech and he tells us that Harris hates the police, wants to legalise more drug use, promote squatting etc across the USA.
Let’s hope the voters are starting to wake up to this Communist loony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lml80IgJcBY
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Vance is not a communist
017
GA, you know very well that Neville was referring to Harris.
180
Does she like community owned property?
04
Only for what is currently other people’s property.
20
‘No sex cardboard beds, woke food, no meat, swimming in sewage.’
70
I responded on the Tuesday thread.
50
EVs…..
Railroads have long ago determined that the most efficient form of locomotion was the electric motor powering the wheels….
But those motors are powered by diesel engines running at optimum power output and fuel efficiency.
Where (and when) will we see the hybrid personal vehicle (long haul big rigs or utes first?) with a modest battery and a much size reduced turbo-diesel engine?
50
Why is there a presumption that anyone can buy an electric car and plug into the domestic supply? They didn’t pay for it.
If you decided to build a factory in your house for massive processing and just presumed to use the domestic electric supply or say sewage system or council garbage for waste, there would be an uproar. The systems are not designed for this.
And why should people without electric cars be asked to subsidize all expenses? None of the usual road use taxes people have to pay. And the cheek to ask people not to use their domestic appliances so electric car owners can have privileged access on demand? Or to build extra power generation or upgrade power lines or build masses more?
What about, go get your own electricity supply! And stop blowing up mine.
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There should be a massive surcharge on electric cars to fund the provision of the necessary infrastructure. But that would make them unaffordable. So?
110
If you are saving the planet, why are you asking me to pay the cost of your private indulgence?
100
I have the same argument with bikes and cyclists. If you want dedicated bike lanes and general upgraded safety for cyclists then pay a rego for your bike. Should be the same for EV’s, pay extra tax/ rego for increased road damage and pay for charging.
100
I understand what you are saying, but it’s not the cyclists who are doing this.
As an avid cyclist with a cycling group for 26 years as well as a motorist, I have had battles to stop really stupid bike lanes.
One was on Melbourne’s Beachfront and some of it is still there. No benefit to cyclists whatsoever! It remains very dangerous.
This is a battle by Woke town planners against motorists. I have ridden around Amsterdam and everyone coexists happily. Flat, small, few distance commuters there is no conflict.
But in a city of 5 million people, it is insanity what authorities are doing in the name of cyclists. We also have 600km of fabulous bike paths which are not on public roads.
Cycling should be cheap, enjoyable and cars are at zero risk from bicycles. And safe for school children where appropriate.
But Melbourne is being shut down by activists and opportunists and mad, mad Town Planners in Councils.
The main boulevard bridge, Princes Bridge, now has only one lane each way and huge bicycle lanes, far too big.
Which lead onto Swanston Street which is now impassable to cars and very difficult for bicycles and pedestrians because of the idea that bicycles are people and should move at people speed and wait for every tram. It’s all nuts.
Bicycling should be very cheap and easy and as much as possible, risk free. And while taxing them would be very attractive to town planners and governments, it is not a solution to anything. These groups are the problems, not bicyclists.
The battles at Council Level are endless. There are activists who want to ban cars and force everyone onto bicycles day and night, every day, even for shopping and commuting. In Melbourne’s weather? To these people children, prams, the disabled, pregnant mothers, mothers minding multiple children, old people should not exist. If you cannot ride up the Galibier, you have no right to live.
It’s part of the insanity where public servants use their unelected positions to enforce their views on society. Our local council has also banned nuclear missiles. So there.
80
>Our local council has also banned nuclear missiles
You’re very lucky that your local, “public servants use their unelected positions to enforce their views on society”, in this way.
Our council hasn’t taken this prudent decision. I can’t sleep properly, I hear noises in the night, every morning I wake up and peek through the curtains to check if there are any nuclear missiles parked out the front. Whenever I’m out riding I keep a look out for anything which could be the trapdoors of a hidden underground nuclear ICBM silo.
Our council does have a state of emergency though so that’s comforting and reassuring.
Apparently the oceans are going to rise, flood over the Great Dividing Range, and enter our lounge and bedrooms.
Either that or it’s going to get so hot we’ll spontaneously combust.
I have asked them what preparations they recommend we make and how we will be notified when the moment comes and TSHTF.
No-one seems to know, but we’ve had this state of emergency for years now so I’m sure they’re onto it and they’ll have a plan soon.
20
Exactly. With 20 minutes flight time and nuclear missiles, you could wake up dead.
00
This Will Put Ford Out Of Business! (video)
20
Think this is bad! Wait until the entire AGW energy fiasco falls over. I would say the status of EV’s is very similar to that of ‘renewables’. The bigger problem here is, politicians will keep driving the disaster deeper and deeper, to save face and an election, until nobody with half a brain in the investment world will lend them money any more. Hope those agreements based on public subsidies and guarantees don’t have long-dated contracts.
50
I always liked the idea of steam cars because as a child I was impressed with my Mamod Steam Engine and Meccano set. It had fair torque for a tiny cylinder. Ted Pritchard built a V-twin steam engine and fitted it in an old Ford Falcon back in the ’60s. Theoretically, you could build them to run on kerosene, petrol, diesel, old vegetable oil mixed with 10% methanol etc. If keen, you could add a third cylinder of wider bore to scavenge some extra power from the exhaust steam. The high torque of a steam engine is well suited to moving a 20t road-train but could also be adapted to drive a generator for a hybrid EV.
This seems to me to be a sensible direction as we already have the technology and existing vehicles could be retro-fitted.
If Australia was a clever country:
we’d build ceramic engines with a half century life span;
we’d grow Canola by the thousands of acres and establish an entirely home-grown motor industry again;
Any backyard mechanic could work on a steam engine.
The present EV fiasco looked like a scam from the outset and I’m pleased to see it unravelling but we do need to find a replacement for the ICE car before oil becomes prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable due to economic turmoil or war.
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Let’s build it.
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The two Ford Falcon Pritchard steam powered cars were sold to Ford USA and they exported them both from Australia never to be heard of since.
Earlier Olds Engineering of Maryborough Queensland converted cars to steam power, and they also built steam engines for sugar cane railways, and some boats, and the last I heard about them they were rebuilding a Dobel 1925 steam car and former Holmes A Court collection vehicle originally owned by US multimillionaire Howard Hughes.
The Olds Family are related to Oldsmobile USA and REO trucks being R.E.Olds.
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Ford would not want their ICE market disrupted so I guess they purchased the cars to bury them. Gene van Grecken invented an orbital steam engined car in the early 70s in Sydney. I heard that Shell made him an offer which he refused. The Gvang was made in a workshop at Newport(Syd) but it burned down. Grecken seems to have vanished but plenty of folk had spins in his car. Very quiet, powerful and fast.
The principal of steam expansion is simple and flashing water to steam can be done with:
1) kerosene,
2) diesel
3) petrol
4) ethanol from sugar cane,
5) Canola oil or a mixture of any of the above. I used to burn old vegetable oil with ~5% methanol in my 1HZ Landcruiser.
7) A puk of spent reactor fuel for big rigs but that would require a high tech steam chamber with high regulation and cost.
Even if fuel cost $1.90/lit (like diesel) it would benefit our balance of payments and disconnect us from the international oil cartels. We might have to build some serious water pipe-lines from the tropics to inland NSW to grow more Canola. We are so blessed with natural resources but not so much with common sense any more. Look at all the pollies falling for the EV game.
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In the UK hybrids are due to be banned shortly after the proper cars so that is not a long term solution and if the manufacturers drop them what about replacement batteries, if they are affordable? In the UK as our more socialist government than the last one is already gearing up to start stealing peoples money, it might turn out to be a blessing that Labour will suffer the pain of battery cars and Net Zero unravelling and we can move forward with a conservative – you know, Far Right – government in the future.
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They use a simple assessment method:
Does it work? Yes – Ban it. No – subsidise it or make it compulsory.
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UK is now well placed to be the crash test dummy.
The current account has not tanked as spectacularly as I expected but now with a broad band of no-hopers setting thee agenda it will bear watching.
Hopefully Trump will get elected and have his manifesto in place while the UK goes into financial oblivion and the lights go out this winter. Australia may have a couple of different economic models to compare. With luck a Dutton government will choose the right direction. Will not be coal but gas to replace ageing coal and gradual uptake of nuclear. The Chinese pebble reactor looks promising but may be too far out to get serious consideration in Australia for the first reactor.
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Canadian battery plant shelved:
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/07/30/news/federal-and-provincial-funds-safe-after-umicore-suspends-battery-plant
The federal and provincial governments have confirmed that they did not disburse any funds to Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Canada Inc. before the company decided to suspend construction of its $2.7-billion battery components plant in Loyalist Township.
Umicore cited “the significant worsening of the EV market context and the impacts this has on the entire supply chain,” as its reason for halting the project.
The construction, which began in 2023, was expected to create 600 jobs and had received nearly $1 billion in promised funding: up to $551.3 million from the federal government and $424.6 million from the provincial government.
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