Pagoda SL Group
Off Topic => Other cars => Topic started by: mdsalemi on January 16, 2024, 13:46:39
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While I normally would have nothing to do with any news attached to the Fox name, this gem came in through a stock market feed:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/chicago-area-tesla-charging-stations-lined-with-dead-cars-in-freezing-cold-a-bunch-of-dead-robots-out-here
Having owned a plugin car in Michigan I can tell you that they don’t like the cold and they don’t like the heat. Both affect range significantly and the cold really affects battery charging and chemistry.
I’ll keep my hybrids. They don’t complain much.
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Here is another gem demonstrating that with lots of planning you can drive an electric car from the North Pole to South Pole.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/15/electric-car-north-to-south-pole-drive/
Prime time. :)
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FLMYHAIEZZD4NC2HIK43AOB5CA.jpg&w=1200)
Chris and Julie Ramsey at the South Pole with the modified Nissan Ariya SUV they drove across North and South America to Antarctica. (Chris Ramsey)
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Following our MBCA meeting at a MB dealership this past weekend, we met a manager there who shared with us that MB is admitting they launched too hard into the EV market. They are having a very hard time selling the pure EVs and are going to transition more into the Plug-in Hybrid solution. This is evident in the US by the MBCA new car rebate program giving $500 rebate on E-class gasoline cars and $4,500 rebate on EQS EVs.
Plug-in hybrids make sense to consumers because you have convenient gas fill-ups and an option to run on gas only, but they are a more complex solution than having only a battery driven electric motor. Keeping the gas engine keeps the starting system, ignition system, fuel system, exhaust system, etc., along with everything to make the two power trains work together. But, with pure EV, you have these extreme cold conditions that can prevent charging. There are restrictions to ownership. Owners should have seen the weather forecast and charged earlier.
I have nothing against EVs, I like the solution in general. I think there are plenty of use cases for them. My dad had a 2014 Tesla Model S that he, my brother, and I used to take a trip from Columbus, OH to Kansas City, MO to visit family. Over 650 miles each way. Yes, we had to stop a few times each way for 45 minute recharges, but we had a place to eat and/or shop at each Tesla charging station. And, there happened to be an open charger each time - no waiting is a big deal. He put 36,000 miles on that car in 6 years. Battery and charging tech will keep getting better. Infrastructure will keep getting better.
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Until it has gotten better, I will stay away from full electric cars. And it may not happen in my lifetime.
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Until it has gotten better, I will stay away from full electric cars. And it may not happen in my lifetime.
Right you are, MikeSimon! There really hasn't been a whole lot of significant battery technology changes in the last decades. Oh yes, they've refined Li-Ion batteries in terms of energy density, they've done some changes to the charging technology with controllers, but fundamental issues probably having to do with molecular physics provide a hard wall that's tough to breach. Batteries in cars don't like the cold and they don't like the heat. I don't know if its true for every electric car, but many must have battery heaters to keep the batteries warm in the winter, and they also must have a cooling system because they don't like the heat either. The Chicago situation is living proof of the former. For the latter, simply take your smart phone (which probably has some form of lithium battery inside) and place it in the sun on a summer days. Soon you'll get a warning about the heat.
When we had a PEH car, the one hard failure we had (which rendered the car inoperable) was a part called the "auxiliary battery heater". It's not rocket science to figure out what that part did on the car. Unfortunately for us at the time, Ford knew of defects in the design of that part, and ours failed before "Rev A" came out, and we waited over a month for delivery of the part.
Rodd also had it right about planning ahead. Yes, these folks should have had their cars in Chicago "topped off" prior to the cold snap. However, being in Chicago, I bet there are a number of these Tesla owners that are city dwellers that don't have a garage and thus no place to even install their own Level II charger. In my small suburban subdivision of about 30 homes, we now have six Teslas, a Rivian, a Jeep 4xe, a Mercedes EQE, and a Nissan Leaf. Each owner has a garage and each has a 50-60A, 240V Level II charger. They can charge overnight in a garage. One owner has 20 solar panels and she charges during the day when she's not buying power. City dwellers have little of that luxury. I remember my Mercedes test drive in a SmartElectric. They ran the test drive in Brooklyn, NY. The presentation included information on how great this little car would be in a place like NYC. However, looking at the densely populated neighborhood, I wondered how and where they would charge it? The Mercedes folks had an advance team install temporary Level II chargers on the sidewalk, blocked off street parking for this event, then they had the power running into a building. Yeah, not happening in Brooklyn today.
Meanwhile, hybrids seem to be an option with little issue. The technology (think Toyota Prius, whose fundamental tech has been licensed to others) is mature now. Each one of our three hybrids gets between 30-60 mpg, about 2-4x the efficiency of the equivalent ICE-only models.
Like MikeSimon, I will stay away from full electric, for now at least. Let the early adopters deal with the limitations.
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When they start using solid state batteries, I might then consider an EV. Who wouldn't consider a battery that is considerably smaller, has a range of over 1000km's and can be charged in about 15 minutes. Maybe in 15 years?
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Maybe I'll follow in my father's footsteps and buy my first EV when I'm 85 years old! (Check back with me in 28 years.)
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There is no need for compromise. You can have the best of both worlds in your garage! (See photo)
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So, the Pagoda is for extreme heat and cold conditions? ;D ;D
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There is no need for compromise. You can have the best of both worlds in your garage! (See photo)
You have the best of one world. The other one, I would argue about! ::)
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Exactly! Nothing stops a Pagoda (except by choice, I don’t take it out in the rain and it never snows in almost all of Australia).
MikeSimon, no need to argue, I agree with you 😀 It is like I having two Time Machines in my garage. Drive the past or the future, always a decision based on the weather and how many passengers I have 🤣