What's new in the EV market for this year

[T1 Terry]

You would hope that the builder has done some serious modification to the Transit suspension. Last one of them I drove was like driving a 3 storey block of flats. They still sound sh#t though. Bring back the big bangers.

You reckon they need a sound track that is tied to the motor speed .... a top fueller would be my choice

T1 Terry

Wouldn't be the same without the blue fire coming out the exhausts.

All things are possible might put the overtaking driver off though
I'm guessing you already know, but that blue flame is not excess fuel burning, it is the heat energy leaving the exhaust splitting the water in the air into hydrogen and oxygen, then burning it. That is why they are so spectacular on a very humid night, still remember watching a side by side pass at Calder Park during the summer nationals with the blue flames crossing along the centre of the track, creating a dramatic VW in blue flame ...... I also remember watching a twin rotary powered mini pulling tractor at https://www.quambatook.com.au/tractor-pull and it burning down the bunting flags that criss-crossed the track ..... there were two blue flames coming out of that, maybe a bit of fuel doctoring The Quamby Quacker did a spectacular show as well with the flames coming out of all 24 pipes on the V12 merlin engine, a pipe for each exhaust valve, supposedly running alcohol ... but .... might have been where the https://www.google.com/search?q=rotary+ ... VNHBw,st:0 got the idea. It was the bloke that owned it before this guy bought it. It was red then and ran in every weight class the mini tractors could run. The evening events were the unlimited class so they could run as much weight on the wheels as they wanted, the whole inside part of the rear wheels, plus a few outside the tyre line, was hanging off the thing, nothing could compete with it

T1 Terry

[supersparky]

Just read a bit more about that mega honker Ford Van that was doing crazy lap times around Bathurst.
How many laps do you reckon it could do before a recharge was req'd.
Something else to ponder, if you pulled the diesel out of your motorhome and stuck in a, say 200kw elec motor, and used the same battery that the Transit used, how long would it last before needing a recharge?
Next thought bubble, why don't electric cars have a purpose built solar panel shaped to the roof, so the can charge up when the sun is shining?

[Busman]

Dave, there are now 3 technologies for paint on solar so expect the whole car to be painted with same soon,

[supersparky]

I'm a bit behind the times then, Bill. Is there a link to that new technology anyway?

[T1 Terry]

Just read a bit more about that mega honker Ford Van that was doing crazy lap times around Bathurst.
How many laps do you reckon it could do before a recharge was req'd.
Something else to ponder, if you pulled the diesel out of your motorhome and stuck in a, say 200kw elec motor, and used the same battery that the Transit used, how long would it last before needing a recharge?
Next thought bubble, why don't electric cars have a purpose built solar panel shaped to the roof, so the can charge up when the sun is shining?

The last part first, there are cars already on the market with built in solar recharging capacity, but the area available is the issue. If you drove to work, parked in the sun for the day, then drove home again, you could travel for free most days and bring some home for V2L use, where you power part of the house load from the car battery.

The write off salvage MG4 I just bought to do an EV conversion for the Kombi has the V2L as standard equipment and a 64kwh battery under the floor.

Something else to ponder, if you pulled the diesel out of your motorhome and stuck in a, say 200kw elec motor, and used the same battery that the Transit used, how long would it last before needing a recharge?

A lot of factors to consider,
1) how hard are the cells working to deliver that 200kW to the motor and how long would it be required to deliver that output?
2) How many down hill runs or regenerative braking requirements will there be in the total run time?
3) Will there be any solar charging as well, over 3kW of solar will fit on the motorhome roof if I designed it to maximise the solar capacity ......

Lets say a worst case scenario, crossing the "Nullarbor" not just the plains but the part from Ceduna to Norsman, raining and a head wind, you'd be crazy to still be driving, but, the 1491kW battery I'm guessing is meant to read 1491kwh storage capacity. The 200kW electric motor would only use that output on take off and when the next gear was engaged .... just like the ICE engine, you won't drive in a gear that require the foot to the floor to maintain the required revs to be in the peak torque curve ... you would drive to the "amp meter" and find that fine balance between forward speed and minimum current draw ... so, let's say that balance is 50% of the motors capacity, 100kW, the torque is still at the max it was when the motor first spun, the rpm is irrelevant, as long as it is within the max rpm the battery voltage can spin the motor. Unlike an ICE engine, the engine rpm is not related to the energy required to spin it that fast, more the opposite really, spin it faster and the peak torque is no longer required to maintain that speed.
Back to the 100kW max power, 1491kwh / 100kW = 14.91hrs .... but I doubt anyone would maintain the power load for that long, either 100km/h limit would get you, or the sheer boredom of driving slower than that would take its toll and you'd have to pull over for a break, the 6.9ltr diesel engine in the motorhome now produces around 129kW I think and it can not maintain full throttle for long without creeping up to the 120 km/h and then the over rev limit beeper goes off if you didn't realise before then ... like it was getting more stressful to drive at that speed with the navigator/speed governor in the passenger seat giving you an earful for driving so fast ... and eventually you would see the wisdom in parking up in your home on wheels and waiting for the conditions to improve. You could make it from Ceduna to Norsman, but why would you?
The real question is, why would you install a battery with more than 400km range, you can park up and recharge to 400kwh battery in 27 days from the roof top solar (3kw x 5 peak sun hrs/day) but more likely you would stop at an EV charging spot for how ever long it takes the charge rate you selected, (faster is more expensive) or the capacity of the charger you are using, have a rest and something to eat, you have your house with you after all, then decide if you will travel one or find somewhere to spend the night.

At a constant 100kW engine load, it would take a week for the 3kW of solar to recover the energy used in 1 hrs driving if it was against a headwind and flat going, maybe 3 hrs driving in more favourable conditions, those long low gear decent hill generate a lot of energy in a short time ....

T1 Terry

[Busman]

Seems the European car makers have abandoned their stated objectives to be only making electic vehicles after "year so and so" Both Merc and Audi have already jumped ship and Volvo seems lining up to do the same ?

[T1 Terry]

Seems the European car makers have abandoned their stated objectives to be only making electic vehicles after "year so and so" Both Merc and Audi have already jumped ship and Volvo seems lining up to do the same ?

I doubt Volvo will move away from EV's, they are owned by the biggest EV manufacturer in the world.
If you have ever been for a ride in a new top of the line Mercedes EV, you would not consider down grading to an ICE powered one, so maybe they are looking at catering to the lower end of the market with some form of plug in hybrid ... that is the only way they could meet the emissions standards/ fuel efficiency standards and deliver performance better than an early model Fiat 500
The lack of performance to meet the last lot of emission standards was the reason for the last lot of emissions cheating software, no manufacturer will be silly enough to try that sort of evasion again and they would not meet the fuel efficiency standards if they did .... That is why all the major manufacturers are going EV in some form or another, they can't meet the fuel efficiency and emission standards that will be adopted by 2025 ....

T1 Terry

EDIT:
Toyota was the biggest manufacturer resisting the change to full EV, relying on their hybrid range and went down the hydrogen fuel cell path rather than battery, but it was still an EV. Now they have finally jumped on the band wagon https://www.toyota.com.au/bz4x-ev?gad_s ... lsrc=aw.ds

[T1 Terry]

Saw this on another forum, thought I'd share it here

Tesla to ditch EV production

Tesla to ditch EV production.jpg

Well actually there is no smoke from e fuel, the only thing out the exhaust is oxygen. Plans to build factoryin Australia in 2024 are advanced, Porsche has tipped in $100M to kick it along, So the above pic is mostly correct, apart from the smoke.

The smoke is only produced by over fueling the diesel engine, the black smoke is half burnt fuel where there was not enough oxygen available to completely burn the fuel.
Not sure where you got the "oxygen only emitted from the exhaust idea Bill, these people don't agree .... and in that article, the https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 07867/full claim e fuels will help eliminate an impoverished under class who can't afford and electric vehicle ..... seriously, like they could afford e fuel to power it
https://www.petro-online.com/news/synth ... 20released.
I would have thought you’d be more in the camp of the electrolyser enthusiasts using stored renewable energy to do the first part of the e fuel manufacture and just burning that direct, that only emits water at the tail pipe … or steam if the exhaust is short enough ….
You do realise your diesel engine would have to be modified to use spark ignition, none of the proposed e fuels are compression ignition type fuels because there is no sudden density change in the combustion chamber when the fuel is injected causing the heat to rise to ignition point ….
There are (or were) mobs doing the diesel engine modifications to run on methane (natural gas) Omnitek develops diesel-to-natural gas engine conversion kits for Mercedes OM904/OM906 - Green Car Congress

T1 Terry

[Busman]

Well actually there is no smoke from e fuel, the only thing out the exhaust is oxygen. Plans to build factoryin Australia in 2024 are advanced, Porsche has tipped in $100M to kick it along, So the above pic is mostly correct, apart from the smoke.

[T1 Terry]

The writing on the wall is starting to become a painful reality for those who thought the end of the internal combustion engine would never happen or was a very long way off ....
https://thedriven.io/2024/03/15/strande ... ev-demand/

Add to that
https://thedriven.io/2024/03/13/electri ... ery-costs/

The end of the world is approaching faster than you think (well, if your world revolves around the internal combustion engine ruling the roads .....)

T1 Terry