Shanghai’s execution isn’t necessarily much better than Berlin’s - but they have more consistency.
Tesla factory in Berlin without power following arson attack on power substation.
Elon isn’t having a very good month 
It’s a tragedy.
I expect to see more anti Tesla/EV attacks as the world realises what is happening the passenger vehicle market.
Jaguar have announced they will stop making ICE vehicles in a couple of months. But their EV plans are in chaos and I expect it is the end of the line for Jags.
Likewise GM and Ford in the US have come unstuck with their attempts at EVs. And Toyota are determined that anything with pistons is better than anything electric. Apple cave up after 10 years trying to make an EV.
We are witnessing total disruption of the motor industry and expect to see some spectacular closures and bankruptcies in the next 5 years.
Essentially Tesla is responsible for upsetting the cosy ICE apple cart - is is it car?
I’m still not convinced about EVs yet. My main worry was whether the initial trend of buying EVs are from a small set of ‘early adopters’ and convincing the rest will be more difficult (unless forced by law).
I note that BYD has moved in the opposite direction, expanding from BEVs to hybrids to address a larger market.
2 Likes
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating!”
So many people who have never driven an EV know so much about them. Anyone who has driven one will tell you the advantages right away.
We are in the infancy of electric vehicles. In another 10 years the advances in battery packs combined with the increased scale of of production will see EVs prices substantially lower than ICE vehicles, if anyone is still making them, and with similar range…
I think many know that they are expensive and fast depreciating and so waiting out until the technology matures and becomes more affordable. If they end up cheaper and better, then for sure they will be adopted. Cars are expensive and people are naturally going to be risk-averse and want to avoid being the guinea pigs.
If China isn’t blocked from exporting cheap cars, then this would also help to drive adoption and decrease prices. Most people don’t care about the underlying technology. They just want a cheap and reliable way to get from A to B.
That’s a bit unfair to Toyota - the Prius came on to the market nearly 25 years ago - and it has an electric motor which comes into play where it counts most- in towns and cities.
Many people in the UK and other countries living in more remote locations prefer hybrids to EVs because of the lack of charging infrastructure.
Toyota is also investing heavily in solid state battery research and suggested range is claimed at over 900 miles.
See also articles:
Interesting is the chairman’s claim that “no matter how much progress BEVs make,” these cars would still eventually account for only 30% of global market share at most.
I’ve never really understood the point of hybrids. Whichever way you look at it they’re not efficient EVs or good ICEs but the mediocre average of the two. On the highway you’re dealing with a small engine carrying a family and 00s kg of electric motor and batteries. And then in EV mode the range is short and you’re lugging a 300 kg lump of engine.
I’m sure on balance the economy figures work at well, but with so many points of failure and the depreciating battery to take into account, you might as well take the leap towards an EV or stick with petrol.
1 Like
The Prius engine is between 80 and 100Kg and not the 300Kg you have assumed.
The battery is 80Kg.
(Tesla battery around 800Kg).
Your post makes less sense if you don’t use exaggerated figures in favour of the Tesla.
And, why do people like you feel you (Tesla owner) need such a big heavy car?
I assume your family aren’t correspondingly big and heavy and if they are, there are better ways of saving the environment than buying a bigger car to carry them.
They are cheaper than BEV and can be electric for the majority of short trips made in the car. Yet for long trips they have no range issues and don’t need a large battery and the weight and cost/commodity impacts that come with it.
If Tom’s numbers above are correct and you are talking about 80kg battery vs 800kg. Then you can get 10x the number of hybrid cars with the same critical battery materials.
Well not quite a Tesla owner yet (I collect it tomorrow) but I do agree that the battery weight is excessive and that should definitely come down with iterative advances in technology. My RWD model already has the smallest capacity LFP battery with less rare earth metals and BYD’s blade technology i.e. its not hundreds of cylindrical cells bound together.
Hybrids like the Prius work best in markets where there is a very low speed limit and the cars a rather lightweight.
Also, as emission-standards get tougher, the petrol-side of the equation becomes more and more difficult to maintain.
The original Prius (and the 2nd-gen, IIRC) had very cheap batteries (that were rather easy to replace).
It was a nice concept.
The world has moved on.
Toyota hasn’t.
1 Like
Kassensturz did a study that showed hybrids had no financial benefit over ICE.
While writing a bit off topic, Elon is trying to bump up advertising revenue on twitter and has this context thing where selected people can comment on tweets.
This context on an advert might not help
" Drop shipping scheme.
You can buy the exact product on AliExpress for much cheaper. aliexpress.us/item/325680517…"
It got 2.5 million views.
The charging infrastructure and even electricity generation has to step up too if EVs are to become as widely adopted as hoped.
2 Likes
The charging network in built up areas and along the highways is already good enough for me to take the jump. I don’t have a home charger so I will be reliant on public chargers. As for electricity generation, I don’t think that organic growth in EV sales will pose any sort of problem. We already pay a fair bit per kw/h which funds increased capacity and generation. If anything more EVs should drive down the cost of public chargers.
We plan to cover the two buildings of our Stockwerkeigentümergemeinschaft with solar panels completely in 2025.
Some 85 panels or so for 35kWp, IIRC.
I would assume a lot of people will do that, too in the next years.
If you go to the office maybe two or three days a week, you can charge up during the day the rest of the week.
There will likely be electricity pricing according the available energy in the grid to get people to use more energy during the day.
1 Like
We have 24 x 400W panels, so a 9.6kWhp - but this is very rarely reached. And hardly ever from the end of October to end of March. We usually exceed 9,000kWh per year.
EKZ (Elek Kanton Zurich) price difference between peak and off peak is minimal 32.77Rp/kWh or 31.15.
https://www.ekz.ch/de/privatkunden/strom/tarife/stromtarife.html
The prices have increased substantially this year and gap between hi and lo decreased. But for 2024 they now pay back 19.25Rp/kWh and 18.25 which is a substantial improvement…
So I took delivery yesterday evening, the last slot of the day as I went straight from work. I immediately noticed a series of panel gap issues, mainly on the sides of the car and misaligned doors. The interior of the car was fine and there were no issues with the electrics, speakers or any rattling.
The place was absolutely buzzing with 4 other people collecting their cars and only one stressed out employee dealing with us all. The cars weren’t even properly charged, mine was at 40% and I was told that I would receive a 150 km supercharger credit for that. The reason being that they’ve been overwhelmed with orders and haven’t had a chance to properly prep them.
Anyway I told them that I would not be taking delivery unless the panel gap issues were resolved. They tried to fob me off by saying it was all within spec, but when I wouldn’t budge I was told that they would make a note and a rectification service call could be arranged to fix all the issues (scheduled for next Friday).
So yes, not a happy delivery experience and shockingly bad QC from the Berlin factory and Tesla Switzerland. There is a CHF 910 delivery and inspection charge which I assumed meant that someone in Bassersdorf would check it prior to customer handover.
1 Like