Wake Up Call for Green Energy

mudfarmer · January 16, 2024, 04:59:35 PM

The problem there is that you can't buy a new anything that you don't need a computer to diagnose, if we used to make EVs they would have been a lot simpler, you don't need all the fancy stuff we just put it in, just like we didn't need it for ICE either!! Look at an old electric forklift, that's an "EV" and it is so darn simple...

SwampDonkey · January 16, 2024, 05:16:04 PM

Depending on what your still driving. Bernstein in ND drives old stuff that was built well. Can fix out in a hay field if need be. He has an old M37 that is a skidder for firewood or going to town truck. :D He has about 5 working motorbikes he's rebuilt, or fixed and all 30 plus years old. Spare motors for most he can swap out. Been fixing an old VW bus now for awhile, needs body work and I think he already rebuilt the engine. It was second hand when he bought it and used it years ago. Decided to dig it out of the weeds a couple years ago to fix up. :D

beenthere · January 16, 2024, 08:08:20 PM

With our cold weather, lot of videos posted about the problems faced by the EV drivers.
But one of them
EV drivers struggle to keep batteries charged amid winter freeze - YouTube

SwampDonkey · February 14, 2024, 05:44:18 PM

The PEI electric school buses aren't getting any rave reviews.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-school-buses-electric-breakdown-education-1.7114185

Old Greenhorn · February 14, 2024, 07:56:44 PM

Well golly I am shocked!

Yeah, nobody saw that coming. Well yeah, nobody was watching either. Our district jumped on the political bandwagon and ordered a bunch of them. They recently cut the order by a bunch, getting nervous. We have the second largest school district, geographically, and that's a lot of ground to cover. Many of us felt this was not a good bandwagon to jump on...yet. Just ask NYC how their electric garbage truck fleet is working out.

21incher · February 14, 2024, 09:49:09 PM

A fellow about a mile from me bought an EV fall of 22 by Feb of 23 he traded it for an ice vehicle. Just keep the batteries warm while sitting ate a lot of electricity and snow with cold weather plus using heat and defrost cut the range by 75%. Apparently snow kills the braking regen. They are no good if you're in a cold climate. He just kept it long enough to claim the rebate.

mudfarmer · February 15, 2024, 07:36:07 AM

Neighbor stopped by the landing the other day, said there is a guy cutting up the road and hauling logs about 35miles with new F150 lightning. It's cold out (1*F right now), sounds like it is working ok.

21incher · February 15, 2024, 10:11:30 AM

His was a Hyundai and had about a 250 mile range when warm. Could barely make it to work and back 40 miles away in snow. There aren't any charging stations out this way either. When I bought my Ranger about 20 months ago the dealer had 2 f150 lightnings sitting out front for demos. I asked the sales man about getting one because the price wasn't bad and most of our trips are short on sunny days. Really sharp looking. He told me I will let you test drive one but won't sell you one at this point. The batteries were having serious problems at the time and he wanted me to talk to the service guy trained on them before even thinking about one. Plus my house needed a entrance power upgrade for the charging requirements. So glad I got the Ranger after seeing the insurance rates for EVs. I think Ford looses big bucks on everyone they sell now. My next truck will be a hybrid.

Gary_C · February 23, 2024, 05:01:51 AM

From SwampDonkey.

"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

Also there is this old quote.

"History is a set of lies agreed upon." Napoleon Bonaparte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7uf-5h44aY

SwampDonkey · March 14, 2024, 05:46:58 AM

EV's brick and become abandonware

sharp edge · March 14, 2024, 09:04:18 PM

There nothing perfect on earth, you have to do the % thing. Just don't believe the Hollywood people.... they are professional liars.

se

rusticretreater · March 14, 2024, 10:24:25 PM

Fisker Electric Automobiles to file for bankruptcy. Tesla stock worst performing in the the S&P 500 having dropped 34.6% on the year. With 2023 in the rearview mirror, analyst consensus now has 2024 Tesla earnings below 2023's level, signaling another year of negative growth for this growth stock.

Ianab · March 15, 2024, 01:29:51 AM

Quote from: rusticretreater on March 14, 2024, 10:24:25 PMTesla stock worst performing in the the S&P 500 having dropped 34.6% on the year.

I suspect Tesla was overvalued, over hyped and over promised. Full Self Driving was supposed to be available a couple of years back, but it turns out that it's harder then Elon thought. Real world roads are a lot more unpredictable than a computer simulation or a test track.

Despite that, about 25% of the cars sold last year (Worldwide) were Electric. We now have multiple new Chinese based car brands pushing out electric vehicles. I'm not convinced about their build quality, and they probably don't like snow or -20 ^deg , but we don't get those conditions.

WhitePineJunky · March 15, 2024, 06:57:42 AM

Quote from: sharp edge on March 14, 2024, 09:04:18 PMThere nothing perfect on earth, you have to do the % thing. Just don't believe the Hollywood people.... they are professional liars.

se

I think they think they're telling the truth but their popularity is used as a vehicle to push narratives, living in a bubble like they would no doubt flawed reality

Stephen1 · March 15, 2024, 08:10:15 AM

My son who has a computer science degree, likes to say, "Siri can barely make a phone call for me, and you expect her to drive a car".

rusticretreater · March 27, 2024, 07:42:57 PM

Yet another stark reminder how the greenies are going to ruin us all. The Fighting Jays Solar Farm in Texas got hit by a hail storm and lost hundreds if not thousands of solar panels. They look like bulletproof auto windows hit by machine gun fire.

Obama's administration threw a billion dollars down a hole trying to subsidize solar panels in the US(https://www.solarinsure.com/the-complete-list-of-solar-bankruptcies-and-business-closures). The companies built fancy headquarters and later went bankrupt with the execs running off with millions of dollars.

So where do the panels come from now? China. SMDH.

SwampDonkey · July 19, 2024, 04:05:40 AM

Ford abandoning EV truck plans in Oakville, Ontario plant, low demand., making gas Ford 150 trucks instead. Many automakers are slashing prices on EV's and cutting volumes.

NO EV's, gas powered Heavy duty 150's instead.

SwampDonkey · July 19, 2024, 04:15:26 AM

Battery fire risk, Stellantis informs owners of hybrid minivans that they should park them outdoors.

Risk of minivan fires

SwampDonkey · July 19, 2024, 04:20:01 AM

Nearly half of EV owners want to go back to gas engines.

Back to gas engines.

SwampDonkey · July 19, 2024, 04:24:20 AM

Many Australians have abandoned the idea of owning EV's: high premiums, banned charging stations in car parks, lack of trained repair EV technicians.

No EV's for us.

gspren · July 19, 2024, 10:35:03 AM

Rushing technology, companys trying to recoup investment money before all the bugs are worked out.

Magicman · July 19, 2024, 12:15:03 PM

Or before the Government subsidy runs out.

GRANITEstateMP · July 20, 2024, 08:45:03 AM

Back a long while ago (I was younger, had hair, and wasn't fat) I was in tech school in the Toyota T-Ten program. I think I finished school a year or too before the first Prius rolled out. We had a bunch of battery and tire problems on those first gen cars. Batterys didn't like the cold New England winters. Tires (14") needed to be XL because of the added weights of the extra battery/cell's. We were told that Toyota was going to sell the cars at X price point and would be losing money on every car for the next X number of years because they had so much wrapped up in R&D and such.

I'm pretty sure the second gen Prius came out 2 or 3 years later and was leaps and bounds ahead of the gen 1 version. The 14in XL tires that were hard to find were gone, upgraded to a standard 15in any load rating. Batterys were improved (not perfected).

Another, maybe 3 years later, the car didn't see a ton of changes, but the Hybrid system did. At some point Toyota sold the rights/designs or whatever of the older gen hybrid tech to GM to start using.

My much rambling point...the technology and product wasn't perfect when first introduced, but serviceable. The other big thing was this was HYBRID technology, you got the best of BOTH worlds. It wasn't the most fuel efficient ICE car because of the extra weight it carried around, but you got GREAT mileage. It wasn't a true EV, but, you didn't need to plug it in and there was no battery "range". I never understood the huge push to full EV, why not keep perfecting the Hybrid technology and get the most from two systems working together?

Ok, off my soap box now! I've since changed careers a couple times. I got rid of my last Prius (A 7yr old 2011 bought 3rd hand with 130k on it when I got it) when my daily commute went from 35min each way to 3min each way. Now I'm back to a 25-35min commute each way to work. There is Zero chance of me looking at a full blown EV to replace the poor decision Subaru I bought to commute with. I want another Hybrid, be it a Prius or Camry or whatever.