Not only has the bubble popped, but everyone knows it’s popped.
After ten years, Apple abandons the fantasy of EV’s
Apple is believed to have spent “billions” since 2014, trying to develop an EV in the semi secretive “Project Titan”. They reportedly had 2,000 employees working on it, but this week, they dropped it like a hot rock, and, by golly, investors were relieved.
It came as a big surprise. Two years ago Apple was so serious it hired some veterans from Lamborghini. In January Apple was hiring drivers for its autonomous testing fleet. A few weeks ago the project was live but being downgraded to a less autonomous machine and delayed until 2028. But this week, employees are being laid off, and Apple is moving many of the workforce to AI.
Most commentators saw this as a cost cutting exercise due to competition from China, but some are seeing this as a bigger sign:
“It does not get much more shocking than this,” said Roger Lanctot, automotive analyst at TechInsights. “If you have more money than God and you decide not to pursue a particular concept it is a massive rejection of this value proposition.”
—Reinhardt Krause, Investors Business Daily
Now everyman and his dog is getting out
This news is not just about the failure of the autonomous driverless vehicle. It comes on top of the news that practically everyone in the auto industry is stepping away slowly. Mercedes Benz is pulling back on EV ambitions. They were aiming to get to the heavenly 100% electric zone by 2030, but now they’re bringing in a new combustion model in 2027. They say Europe won’t be ready by 2030 to go fully electric, and they are concerned about the lower than expected demand for EVs.
Aston Martin is also delaying their electric car program and explain it’s just because people don’t want them:
Aston Martin boss Lawrence Stroll has confirmed the reason for the delay was simply a lack of consumer demand for the latest EV model at this stage. — Express. UK
Tesla, the EV giant, still survives but the deceleration is breathtaking:
Even Tesla, the pioneer of the EV revolution in the US, has warned its rate of expansion will be “notably lower” this year. Domestic EV sales growth will decelerate to 11 per cent next year from an estimated 47 per cent growth rate this year, according to a forecast by UBS.
It’s rare in life to watch a bubble unravel so fast around us
In the middle of 2023 American car sales yards started to fill with EV’s that weren’t selling. Then the repair costs started accumulating and EV’s were becoming hard to insure, the second hand sales value fell. Then came the spectacular Luton Airport fire where 1,200 cars were cremated and an airport terminal collapsed. By late October the quarterly reports and the terrible earnings were piling up. VW orders were down 50%, Ford was losing $38,000 on every car. In early November one of the largest rental car companies in the world announced they were selling a third of their EV fleet because EV’s cost more to repair and customers didn’t want to rent them anyway. And that was before Americans found out that EV’s can’t be charged if the temperature gets below zero, and cars were stuck for days in a cold snap in Chicago.
The bubble was inflated with Big Government money. Despite all these failures and the obvious news that EV’s are not yet, and may never be, cheap and convenient, many governments still want to force people to buy them in the hope of slowing the storms in 2100.
Image by ThankYouFantasyPictures
Alfa Romeo is still committed to going fully EV.
Get woke, go broke.
https://www.topspeed.com/alfa-romeo-revive-4c-sports-car-as-an-ev/
“Alfa Romeo has promised to finalize its plan to become a fully electric car company by 2027.”
300
Don’t buy shares. Alfa Romeo has been owned by various groups including Fiat Chrysler. It seems they were keen to make an EV and planned to go all electric by 2027. Sales however have been falling so the future of the company is unsure.
https://getjerry.com/insights/who-owns-alfa-romeo-and-whats-going-on-with-brand
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Yes. My old memory tells me that Alfa Romeo has experience at going broke.
But I wouldn’t give up all hope on EVs. Just stop wasting money on them until somebody else solves the problems. The only problems I see are the cost and the mass of the batteries. The fire hazard might be manageable.
I once read that supercapacitors had potential to replace batteries, with technology already in use on a small scale. Do they still exhibit this potential?
93
EVs would certainly be more affordable without the high-cost lithium batteries and the anti-ICE monomania. Such unsophisticated vehicles would be competitive at the low end of the market, which explains why producers don’t want them in the marketplace.
30
Would they solve the charging and range problems which are the major defect of battery cars?
10
The story there was yes and yes. The limiting factor was cost. And it already demonstrated a huge improvement on the old tech.
However if Chad is right below and Tesla owns it, it would seem that if it was going anywhere it would already be visible.
30
Tesla bought the best “ super/ultra capacitor” teck company and have tried toincorperate it into their batteries….. it is not working.!
Capacitor systems have very low power to weight ratio.
130
Supercaps are available for battery equivalents however they are quite expensive. Main benefit is they are great at fast discharge and recharge and have a long service life although the limits are not yet known due to the ‘new tech’ implementation with not enough reference installations.
Siemens use hybrid diesel systems for rubber tyred gantry (RTG) cranes in port container handling yards where energy storage is charged while lowering a container and then reused for other crane movements. The cyclic nature of this technology can provide up to 50% fuel saving in lieu of non hybrid system with payback between 4 to 7 years over a 15 year lifecycle.
30
Thanks for that, Kid. When I read it the technology was fairly new and appeared to include Graphene. Which led to me to wonder to what extent the technology might be able to emulate the marvel of the silicon chip in production costs.
10
I’ve just ordered a 4WD battery which is similar. Instead of an expensive and heavy lead/acid AGM I’ll have a small (25AHr) Li FePO4 battery with 6 Maxwell capacitors. The caps have a 1 to 2 minute recharge time.
00
US$80/BoE is driving development of alternative fuels. EVs and hybrids being just another alternative. To drill the Permian needs US$80 to make a profit and replace acreage.
in the end hydrogen derivatives will be able to made at sub US$80/BoE. That will spell the end of drilling and even emissions of CO2. Not because its good for the environment or was mandated by any government. It’s simply cheaper.
For those working on such what is their reward?
On one side they are threatened by mindless green idiots and university grant seekers. On the other death from extremely violent oil based sovereigns.
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..maybe,.. but that is still just a dream of undeveloped technology !
Together with the storage and distriburion systems required !
Factor in all those development and construction costs !
Better batteries (much better !) and nuclear SMR power are the best option.
71
This Geoff is not to be confused with me, Geoff Sherrington.
I do not waste words on speculative drivel like zero CO2 emissions from the cars of a future world. Geoff S
Geoff S
60
Alternative fuels are more expensive and hydrogen is very expensive and not an option for mass use. Shell has closed down its network of hydrogen filling stations in California as it has realised it is a dead end.
40
➡️ ICE: Spend a dollar on petrol in, get 20c worth of driving motion out.
➡️ EV: Spend a dollar on electricity in, get 67c of driving motion out + 22c of energy recovered from regenerative breaking.
19
But Simon, is that the only consideration?
You know better.
Auto
30
Alfa is going to Alfa, and continue I guess to make nice looking unreliable cars
71
AF’s legacy is in racing and sports cars. People who buy sports cars have little interest in EVs. Talk about a lost company.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E is also an abomination.
70
Quite right – the Mustang is the most famous muscle car in the World even without the famous Bullitt car chase. The battery one is a dowdy drab car only saved from being the worst one by an awful 80s[?] version I saw last year as a car show that I could not believe was actually a Mustang.
30
Another issue is, how are people going to charge their EVs in the woke countries like Australia who are fanatically committed to destroying their energy supply?
There are barely enough power stations left now, with more scheduled for destruction. And it wouldn’t be woke to admit EVs are actually powered by coal or gas (or nuclear in sensible countries).
620
Yesterday arvo looked like a good day for W&S. All the coal fired that I looked at seemed to have only one generator operating.
21
So how long before we cancel their nut zero madness and start to teach the wonderful change for Humans since we started to use fossil fuels?
All the data is available yet we OECD idiots choose to ignore it and want to build more TOXIC W & S and wreck our environments.
When will we wake up?
480
I am going to play “Devil’s Advocate” here. We are entering a “dark night” of EV’s. . .
But in another 5-10 years, all the effort put into battery technology may change the picture entirely,
The entire EV craze started with re-purposing laptop battery technologies to automotive use, with Tesla’s first Roadster. Better (more capacity safer, and cheaper) batteries may bring it back again; at least as a niche market.
616
Ultimately, individuals and the marketplace should decide what they want.
Some will want ICE cars, others EVs, some both.
The choice shouldn’t be imposed on us.
Freedom of choice.
570
It would be that freedom of choice that brought us today’s headline. Some of the negatiive drivers are not hard to overcome, some are.
100
My understanding is that the only rationale behind EVs is that they are supposedly better for the environment. Well, IMO, they are worse for the natural environment because of the quarrying and rare earth materials used in the batteries and motors, they are also worse because of the excessive amounts of copper needed to provide an infrastructure. They are also a total disaster for the economical environment as currently evidenced by EV costs and associated energy prices, which will only increase.
In an honest market these abominations would have been aborted at conception.
440
Sorry, Steve, but you just don’t understand. This is the plan: First, use “emissions” to cancel ICE cars. Then, and only then, use quarrying and rare earth mining to cancel EVs. Then move on to the next thing to cancel. These people have one and only one objective – to cancel everything that has ever worked or could ever work to improve people’s lives.
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There is real potential for battery development which could make EVs more acceptable. A Queensland company (Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd) is making progress with graphene/aluminium battery technology. They have prototyped small coin type batteries successfully and are working on large batteries for mining industry vehicles.
The potential for EV batteries looks good. Comparison with lithium batteries indicates half the weight, longer range, fast charging (around 5 to 10 minutes) and no fires or explosions. Of course no existing charger or electrical reticulation system could transfer that much energy in that time so there are many issues to resolve but availability in 5 to 10 years is not unrealistic.
Forcing the issue like our current clowns are doing is not tne way to deal with this. I’ve heard the expression “jumping out of an aeroplane and then starting to invent a parachute”.
163
…That is a classic “investor bait” press release !
A quick google will throw up a dozen similar claims for new breakthrough battery technology.
Dont hold your breath !
90
yeah, but,
although the battery technology will improve, EVs will still require charging infrastructure and energy production competing with other needs.
one thing I will predict – whatever happens, auto insurance rates will not decline.
170
BTW BO Bowen hasn’t got the EV message and will provide an entire fleet of BMW EVs to transport delegates this weekend.
The cost is about 130 K $ to 150 K $ each and last night’s Bolt report isn’t available yet, but should be on You tube soon.
370
Chrissy Bowen, the simpleton who is Australia’s anti-energy Minister, who doesn’t even know the units of battery storage capacity, or very much else either.
He is one of Australia’s most destructive-ever politicians. And he has plenty of competition.
720
Great comment. Add to that the Left/labor/greens want us shut down. Why else would they be destroying our energy sector and at the same time pushing for electric cars?
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“The Left/labor/greens want us shut down. Why else would they be destroying our energy sector and at the same time pushing for electric cars?”
Nailed it Dave.
210
Cheer up, -one of those ageing coal units will fail shortly and NSW in particular will be on rolling 4hr Bowen-Outs. Just wait and see how many days people will cope with that before a new unit is commissioned at Mt Piper.
10
ICE vehicles and hydrocarbon energy are mature, developed industries. They are highly competitive among themselves and not easily open to new invaders. “Renewables” on the other hand, are undeveloped. There are opportunities for divisions of existing corporations and new ones that are also able to tap into government-financed academic research that can be used in product development. While the “leftists” are on board with this, whoever they are, they’re not the motivation for EVs or other competition for hydrocarbon power. Leftists don’t engineer and install arrays of wind turbines or solar panels and they don’t build and operate EV factories. That’s done by capitalist enterprises in league with government agencies that have financed favorable academic research. Available funds are invariably the target of industry and commerce. Just as in national defense, government uses public funds to make billionaires of capitalists supplying products that the ordinary don’t need. Nuclear power plants presently function well in their role, as do their gas and coal-fired counterparts. ICE vehicles have improved dramatically through the years and are well-suited for their place in a developed infrastructure. Every form of technology can be improved by incremental change but scrapping a highly-developed system for an unproven one can only be laid at the feet of financial entities seeking huge and previously unavailable profits.
00
My money is on Chrissy Bowen.
All those Chinese made solar panels, wind turbines and batteries to power our electrical grid – which have to be replaced every 15 years or so.
Does that look like betrayal to you?
220
It was a retired politician, but BO is up there in the betrayal stakes.
170
Andrew Robb is a candidate but surely too long ago; the Landbridge acquisition of Darwin port is yet to be overturned though blessedly Mister Robb was taken off their payroll in deference to the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme introduced this day five years ago.
70
BOB doesn’t have the intelligence to consciously betray anything or anyone.
60
Simpleton? He”s right on track!
Have you forgotten that their primary objective is the destruction of capitalism?
230
Chrissy Bowen has competition for the least qualified Minister for Energy
https://notrickszone.com/
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Some of the scariest battery incidents have been with bikes.
This is probably because they are prone to rough treatment and then the storage problem.
They are more often stored closer to the owners, inside dwellings like units.
320
Try Planes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1xaYKP1qUc&ab_channel=SouthChinaMorningPost
50
And produced in third world factories.
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Just like iPhones.
00
Meanwhile BMW’s CEO thinks that EVs could be bad for the car market and cautions against banning ICE cars.
This message is from 4 months ago.
It sounds like he wants a 2 bob each way bet to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecShDNg-6lQ
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We ran out of Communists who wanted one.
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Typo- 2nd last paragraph. Should be “ charged” , not changed.
80
Jeremy CLarkson bloody years ago: “they make no sense.”
95% of the population didn’t even need to be told that but it was pushed this far on a vibe. Pleasing to know that reality is still a brick wall but many will refuse to believe it exists.
340
Seriously, in the last 12 months I have come to the conclusion that If you are really cynical you would see that the EV rollout is just a scam to get you to buy a wind turbine backup battery when the grid blacks out.
Possibly also that the range and duration of EVs is all priced into the Net Zero scheme – and it’s no coincidence the policy focus is on micro or more commonly referred to as “fifteen minute cities”.
But, no , EV’s are really good because they have great acceleration. How many times have you heard that? Even yesterday, Tesla announced their new roadster and it goes from 0-100km/hr in 1 second, supposedly.
130
Do that often enough and you’ll be replacing your tires every 2-3 months.
Seriously, apart from the hoons and showoffs what idiot would rate that as a buying point?
All you need is enough acceleration to get yourself out of trouble if needed. Too much acceleration is dangerous for the inexperienced.
310
… but 2.8g is too little for the experienced dragstrip racer.
30
Tesla announced their new roadster and it goes from 0-100km/hr in 1 second, supposedly.
Only if you get the version with rocket boost.
Many years ago, the motor racing industry banned the Chapparel 2J because it used fans to create the downdraft. That would be a requirement to get acceleration of 3g through tyres. But the Tesla has a rocket option. I guess that it helps if a sister company develops rockets for space.
10
Meanwhile, the bubble in BOB’s head continues to expand exponentially. Any day now, post Brinkly, it, too, will pop but no need to worry it’s just full of hot air and will dissipate very quickly. He’ll probably be put out pasture in the land of the long white clod!
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Porsche’s electric rival to Tesla has lost up to $100,000 in value
In just four years, the Taycan Turbo high-performance, German EV has rapidly depreciated.
Note that Porche had “Turbo” models of its EV when turbochargers are only fitted to ICEs!
Where Porche EV buyers that dumb?
The current average proce for a 1975 Porche Turbo ICE is US$263,448
A new Porsche EV “Turbo” or a 1975 ICE Turbo – I know which one I would have.
https://www.classic.com/m/porsche/911/g-body/930/turbo-30/year-1975
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Porsche, in my humble opinion, have made a grave error getting involved with EV’s. You are correct re the Taycan…a quick whip around the Australian Porsche stock of second-hand ones is interesting. They have plenty for sale that are 18-24 months old. They are just about to release the EV Macan, which will eventually replace their best selling model…the ICE Macan. Porsche make great sports cars and very nice SUV’s. They should stick to what they do best and let the rest of the lemmings chase the EV market over a cliff. As for the older 911 Turbos’…I’d love one.
50
I am happy to see Reality re-asserting itself.
The politicians and the various subsidy-addicted snouts in the trough (I may be repeating myself) will be the last to figure it out. And the media won’t report it, but they are mostly just irritants these days anyway.
Here in Canada, we haven’t yet had an EV fire on a car ferry or a long bridge, but it’s just a matter of time. My fire fighting buddies all say their EV fire training does not make them confident it could be handled.
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Less fire prone batteries are already here but there is simply not enough raw mineral to go round if we all want an EV and even if there was, Au would need to build a number of coal or nuclear generators in each State to charge batteries for those wealthy enough to own an EVs.
It bothers me that so many folk are sucked-in to this daft idea.
10
Blame Mr Bean!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13055169/Electric-cars-Mr-Bean-Rowan-Atkinson-sales.html
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Another good bit of EV bashing from the Outsiders team at Sky News last Sunday.
BO Bowen gets a few rib ticklers as well, but I don’t think he’d understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6yHyXbU3qQ&t=12s
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Vale Ferrari?
However, Ferrari has pressured the Italian government to lobby the European Union to seek an exemption from the ban on ICE vehicles for performance cars running on synthetic fuels produced using renewable energy.
Also supported by Germany at the request of Porsche, the exemption was voted by the EU in March. While e-fuels are expected to be expensive, the loophole will allow supercar makers to still sell models with internal combustion engines in the European Union.
https://insideevs.com/news/667928/ferrari-not-going-all-in-on-evs-make-ice-cars-beyond-2035/
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Jo. Just a point on accuracy. The Luton airport fire was in a car park not a terminal building. HTHs.
50
And it was not caused by an EV !
13
It was caused by a hybrid Range Rover battery .
20
Just wait till an EV battery starts a fire in the car park beneath a block of flats…
A 2023 report for the UK government by consulting engineers Arup called for a major upgrade of car park fire regulations due to the risk of EV battery fires. Here it is on the government’s own website:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1168956/covered-car-parks-fire-safety-guidance-for-electric-vehicles.pdf
10
Recently the CEO of Toyota gave the opinion that 30% of the car market will be EV’s . This would depend on the battery conundrum getting solved and adequate power supplies . Without nuclear power (or the unicorn “fusion”) it doesn’t make sense at all . Eventually the reserves of oil will become depleted and this will change the financial and practical equations regarding transport . We need to plan for a probable future now rather than later as we are profligate energy users and will need to have something in place before it becomes a crisis. The current renewables fantasy doesn’t have a hope of being that solution . Pouring resources into non solutions has become the “Sunk Cost” fallacy and we need to face reality .
50
Jo, typo in the second last paragraph- should be charged not changed.
10
Let’s do a burnout in my EV crematorium! Yeah, nah.
40
Another reason they want you to have EVs is that it makes you reliant on a “smart” electrical grid.
This means they can control how much charge you pull from the grid or if indeed you are allowed to charge your EV at all.
Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, there is no practical inexpensive way to store or transport electricity so whereas you have some control about how you store fuel for your ICE car, in practice you have no control for your EV.
And ultimately the people making these decisions don’t want non-Elites to be empowered with personal transport anyway. They want us all to live in 15 minute cities or as they call them in Victoriastan, 20 Minute Neighbourhood.
https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/guides-and-resources/strategies-and-initiatives/20-minute-neighbourhoods
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/15-minute-city-stickiness/
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The recent news item which surprised people was the line of unchargeable electric cars at the charging station. The very idea that a very cold flat battery was unchargeable was big news and has been underplayed, but people saw it.
60% of people live in the top third of the planet. And many in Canada hook their engine blocks up to the grid at night to stop them seizing. In the world’s coldest city in Russia, they never turn the engines off. But the idea that electric batteries have to be kept warm is a disaster for PR. They get so cold that there is not enough power to warm them. Perhaps charging stations and batteries need to be designed to warm first, then charge? Usually the battery does this alone, but if it is too flat and too cold, the warming does not happen and so the car cannot be charged.
Fires, people accept. It won’t happen to us.
But unchargeable cars when you really need them is scary.
There is just too much bad news about EVs. And too many fires, even house fires caused by self immolating lithium battery appliances.
At the same time, everyone knows reliable Toyota hybrids which use almost no petrol and never stop. And weigh very little and cost very little.
From an environmentalists point of view the Toyota solution is the right one. Especially as most of the world is not going electric any time soon. For a hundred reasons but charging stations, cost, weight, risk and even freezing to death in your car to conserve energy are big.
I think in the next ten years you will see the death of the all electric car.
230
Dear Apple and other electric car investors. P = IV
20
Before the VolksWagen
In 1888, the German Andreas Flocken designed the Flocken Elektrowagen, regarded by some as the first “real” electric car.
On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine.” The patent – number 37435 – may be regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile
So both EVs and ICEs left the starter’s gate at around the same time.
The number of cars in the world is estimated to be around 1.47 billion vehicles. How many of these are EVs?
90
And how many trucks are EVs?
In Australia under the current Safeguard Mechanism, all trucking and aircraft and shipping companies are going to pay 5% compound increases per year on their Carbon Dioxide output. THey are all listed as the “Biggest Polluters” as if CO2 is actually pollution.
And who is actually going to pay that? Everyone who ships anything. And that’s the whole of Australia.
I find it hard to believe that this is not front page. 35% CO2 tax on all trucks, tractors, machines, ships, planes, trains by 2030.
And how many of those have any possibility of converting to electric? Zero.
It’s the greatest cash theft in Australian history. And will it spur a change to electric trucks, tractors, .. Of course not. But a lot of players will get very rich
and the cost of shipping anything anywhere, any time will go up 35%. In industries like agriculture, mining, manufacturing,..
The Greed of the Greens and Canberra knows no limit. And will this cool the planet? Of course not. Lie after lie after lie.
Literally highway robbery. By Canberra. And the press says nothing.
210
We have an electric truck, they used it for hauling cement, until it burnt to the ground.
80
The first is unusual. The second is a remarkable coincidence, as if it was inevitable. I wonder whether it is the fate of all electric vehicles.
20
https://bigrigs.com.au/2023/12/18/why-electric-truck-caught-fire-on-the-west-gate-freeway/
https://www.truckandbus.net.au/janus-fire-causes-traffic-chaos-in-melbourne/
20
Mortarfying
60
The suicidal demise of Australia was best articulated by Gad Saad in this under two min video.
Just replace his use of the word “West” with Australia.
https://youtu.be/aYolXVwRWZ4
50
And as far as I know there are no electric combine harvesters which harvest crops like wheat and barley. They are all diesel.
During the harvest period, they are working 12 to 14 hours a day. They get refueled in the field.
Imagine an electric combine. After a couple of hours work it has to drive to the nearest charger where it takes how many hours to charge.
The idea that we are transitioning away from fossil fuels is just silly.
150
and the rest.
The big gear only knocks off if a storm brews up in the afternoon, or the humidity is high and the moisture content of the grain gets too high in the wee small hours.
In most cases, that’s 16+ hours a day. Those things are too expensive to not work them every possible minute.
40
Bubbles burst quite often. Fads come and go.
BEVs in the present form are a fad. Tesla entered at the wrong end of the market. Henry Ford made a versatile vehicle that could actually carry more than it weighed. Teslas are behemoths with the passengers making up 15% of the mass at most. Teslas are a fad car and fads do not last very long.
I see the development path for BEVs will be upsizing from scooters. Get most of the technology sorted at this level to develop the market before spending really big on infrastructure with an uncertain future.
120
Add real estate, the pandemic lie, the vaxx lie, the Ukraine lies, the AI lie, the renewables lies…….
All those bubbles burst so quickly too and their believers hung out to dry.
111
So EVs are supposed to be charged using TOXIC, UNRELIABLE W & S according to BO Bowen?
But in Texas wind turbine blades have a life of about 10 years and acres of this used TOXIC rubbish is cut up and stacked up in paddocks across the state.
And some recent turbine blades have had to be replaced after two years, according to this independent film maker. What a sick joke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_ugf1j0wk
130
The production of solar panels and windmill blades must have required major concessions to environmental laws as neither would pass. There is no safe disposal option for either.
100
And how many trucks are EVs?
In Australia under the current Safeguard Mechanism, all trucking and aircraft and shipping companies are going to pay 5% compound increases per year on their Carbon Dioxide output. They are all listed as the “Biggest Polluters” as if CO2 is actually pollution.
And who is actually going to pay that? Everyone who ships anything. And that’s the whole of Australia.
I find it hard to believe that this is not front page. 35% CO2 tax on all trucks, tractors, machines, ships, planes, trains by 2030.
And how many of those have any possibility of converting to electric? Zero.
It’s the greatest cash theft in Australian history. And will it spur a change to electric trucks, tractors, .. Of course not. But a lot of players will get very rich and the cost of shipping anything anywhere, any time will go up 35%. In industries like agriculture, mining, manufacturing,..
The Greed of the Greens and Canberra knows no limit. And will this cool the planet? Of course not. Lie after lie after lie.
Literally highway robbery. By Canberra. No one voted for this giant additional carbon tax or any carbon tax. No one took this to the election as a policy. And most people don’t know it is happening, which is the whole idea.
And the press says nothing.
100
In passing it is news that Australian’s biggest plastics manufacturer QUENOS is going to close all plants.
“Almost 1650 manufacturing and construction businesses have plunged into insolvency in just six months, with thousands of jobs under threat as companies move offshore and shut operations in response to rising power prices, supply chain pressures, labour shortages and high inflation.”
and from the government’s list of Biggest Polluters liable to the Safeguard Mechanism?
Qenos Botany Manufacturing NSW QENOS PTY LTD 62054196771
EVs are fake, toys for the rich..
But the massive “Safeguard Mechanism” attack on all Australian manufacturers, shippers, trucking companies is very real. Who is running this country? President Xi? And Quenos is China owned. They are taking their bat and ball and going home. Don’t they appreciate that we are saving them from Boiling Oceans?
90
Whilst better batteries would be nice, I’d put research money into synthetic (not bio) fuels. Synthetic petrol or diesel from water and CO2 solves the imaginary CO2 problem for the loons worrying about this and is possibly a good use for concentrating solar in an application where solar’s unavailability at night is not an issue apart from the less than optimum use of the plant.
70
But, please sir, we’re even running out of CO2!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13139995/carbon-dioxide-shortage-soft-drinks-supermarkets.html
Cheers
Dve B
90
Apologies, and thanks to CO2 lover for the link at:
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/03/friday-46/#comment-2739964
Cheers
Dave B
50
And here’s the ABC report :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/supermarket-shelves-empty-soda-water-soft-drinks-co2-shortage/103532172
Cheers
Dave B
10
The advantage of synthetic liquid hydrocarbons is that the use machinery, fuel distribution network and associated infrastructure is already in place.
40
The Chinese EV market has collapsed and businesses are going bankrupt, so they do the capitalist thing and move offshore.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/business/chinese-electric-vehicle-maker-byd-confirms-plans-to-manufacture-in-mexico/
50
Mexico will be America’s manufacturing hub for much more than just EVs.
50
This comes from the link:
This is where car makers should be focusing. The lean end of the market so they provide something of value rather than a fadish driveway ornament.
I do not see the move to Mexico manufacturing as demise of the Chinese market; rather sourcing lower cost labour.
41
Exports should remain buoyant but the local market is in turmoil, potential buyers are watching prices fall and are keeping their hands in their pockets.
https://electrek.co/2023/04/01/ice-car-values-plummet-in-china-and-it-is-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/
10
Lets look at the sales trend: https://www.ev-volumes.com/
219
Are those sales at the factory gate or the dealers’ showroom?
I can understand why Chinese want EVs but even there there will be a big shake out this year.
80
You know the Chinese factories register the cars then park them in a paddock somewhere.
80
It is a good point Simon. The rate of increase has gone down. Given the total vehicle sales and the fact that the aim is to replace ICE asap, that curve is going the wrong way.
63
With over 20 million registered vehicles on the road in Australia, that total number, Simon of 14 million EV’s for the world is very small.
50
And I’ll wager that 14 million is heavily exaggerated. I wouldn’t be surprised if they included electric scooters and golf carts in their estimates.
30
I think the Luton Airport fire was the tipping point and it matters nought how the fire started. Perception is everything and the fire is perceived to have been much worse than it would have been without EVs. How else would an unknown blog Geoff Buys Cars go viral?
Every day since there has been an avalanche of bad press.
50
..maybe because some people love to believe a topical theory ?
But they conveniently ignor the similar car park fire in Liverpoolseveral years earlier when there were few if any, EVs on the roads !
01
I’m not ignoring it, I don’t know about it.
P E R C E P T I O N S!
How many car carriers burnt and sunk before EVs?
10
It was not an unusual event ..!
https://www.ukpandi.com/news-and-resources/articles/2021/car-carrier-fires-and-the-associated-risks-with-electric-vehicle-transportation/
…. But that has little relavence to carpark fires.?
https://news.sky.com/story/video-of-devastating-liverpool-arena-car-park-inferno-released-11193296
00
I see Apple has bailed from EV manufacture, they figure there’s easier money to be made elsewhere, not long ago Dyson was looking seriously at building EVs, got a team of engineers together , but pulled the pin, not worth the trouble.
30
Maybe they should follow Gates and become philanthropists, he rakes in far more than he gives away.
10
Even with billions of dollars, Apple probably realised they can’t compete with the likes of Tesla and BYD in the manufacturing space. It’s not easy. Focussing on AI could mean they want to play a more significant role in car software, rather than the car itself. Given the lacklustre software in BYD, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple non-exclusively partnered with them to produce a UI/AI from the ground up. On a related note there was a bit of noise around when Telsa ditched radar, lidar sensors etc in favour of having just cameras in their vehicles for ‘autonomous driving’. **if** or **when** Tesla is able to successfully develop that, then every Tesla car that has those cameras installed (which I think is most of them), can become fully autonomous vehicles. The company Waymo already has autonomous driving but rely on custom built vehicles (Jaguar ipace, I think) with multiple lidar, radar sensors etc. which may have problems scaling up or just be expensive in general. Comparatively, if Tesla is able to develop their AI Full Self Driving product that relies purely on vision/cameras, every owner of a Tesla could potentially have their car operate as a ‘robotaxi’ and produce revenue for the owner when they’re not using it. If you think about it, you really only use your car to get to work, shops then have it sit in a car park for hours on end.
…..or it could be EVs are actually on the nose.
10
Let’s not concatenate autonomous and electric. EVs are as you say. Autonomous means that we can drink and drive.
00
Small correction: It wasn’t the airport terminal at Luton which collapsed, but the multi storey carpark.
00
Conservatives have been reading about the disadvantages of EVs for years. Others have not, and they are buying lots of EVs
In the US, BEV sales in 2023 were up about +50% versus 2022
In January 2024 global EV sales were even stronger
Rho Motion crunched the numbers and came up with a record breaking sales pace of 660,000 electric vehicles sold globally in January. That was 12 months ago, back in January 2023.
This year’s January EV (BEV plus PHEV) sales blew past that mark by 69% )January 2024 versus JANUARY 2023) for a total of more than 1 million. Last year had a 31% increase versus 2022.
But January 2024 was also down26% from December 2023. A seasonal decline is normal during N.H. cold weather, but far less than 26%
The so called “phase change” is likely to happen someday, but there are very little sales data available today to support the claim that a phase change has already happened.
The so called phase change is a prediction rather than a fact
Many households can’t afford an EV and they are not useful for most people in apartments, so EV sales growth should hit a wall someday.
The list of disadvantages keeps growing and known disadvantages consistent are found out to be worse than we thought. But leftists do not read that in their media.
https://honestclimatescience.blogspot.com/
10
The phase change is a mental shift Richard, not a sales figure. It leads the sales figures. The bubble has popped and everyone knows it has popped — meaning the companies and investors that sell EV’s and lead the curve are dropping and delaying projects and talking about keeping ICE cars going for longer. Both the German government and the US government have changed their tune in the last two months about their 2030 targets.
Sales might be growing but look at the derivative, the rate of change. The bubble that was going to take over the world is only in the early part of the uptake curve, it’s meant to be accelerating not decelerating.
Telsa got 47% growth but it’s shifting to 11%, the next step could be minus 11%. All the forward purchases/new factories/fund raising that banked on another 50% increase are waaay off.
60
But yes, true, calling it a phase change as it unfolds is a prediction.
In any case — regarding the sales figures — I hear many sales counted in 2023 were back order deliveries to people who had been waiting due to slow supply lines. So, in effect, those sales figures are very much a lagging indicator.
30
Another one –
“Fisker warns it’s running out of cash and may not make it through 2024
The EV company said it would lay off 15 percent of employees in a bid to reduce costs.”
https://www.theverge.com/
30
One of the EV car fire problems is when they are being shipped around the world. A few ships have already gone down as a result of fire when transporting brand new EVs. Spontaneous fires from lithium batteries can be more of a problem than ignition while in use. While the fire cannot be extinguished, its spread can sometimes be prevented. Unattended, you lose the ship, the bus depot, the multistory carpark, the house.
00