IdonthaveaScooby

Why would he even want to keep that monstrosity going anyway

other as a showpiece ( earner ) for his blog

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Eye of the beholder, as your girlfriend tells me

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Tesla Giga Germany have built 33 model Y last week. These are production test cars.

It has now applied to build a further 2000 prior to full approval.

Once this Giga factory comes online Tesla will surpass 1 million cars per year production. They just missed it with mid 900,000 vehicles for 2021.

IdonthaveaScooby

Only slightly better looking than the leaf.

And bland to drive

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Thought I'd just let you all know. I've just spent 5 days at university (more like college tbh) training on EVs.


Five days learning on how to pull out a orange plug!

I'm not joking, a plug! I have a certificate to prove it!


Tax payer paid it BTW


So if anyone wants the plug pulled out on their EV/hybrid, I'll happily do it for you.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I assume these road tolls will only apply to electric cars as ICE vehicles are still paying road and fuel tax.

https://news.sky.com/story/toll-road...urges-12572599

Lozgti2

Cheers lol

jaygsi

iTrader: (46)

Yea my mates leaf has been stuck on his drive way for over a year now, it has a fault which will cost more than the car is worth, so rotting on his drive while he has gone back to petrol lol

IdonthaveaScooby

Wow

stockcar

got to be good for the environment, right...........

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Well, since done my Level 4 EV training. Which was another 5 days of guff mostly recapping on stuff covered on level 3. Of which 80% of the entire lot is health and safety. Not really anything in depth on actually working on EVs.

Some interesting highlights though, the interesting one is thermal runaway; If it happens with lithium-ion, usually caused by battery cells rupturing and reacting with air; There is practically nothing you can do to stop it as one combusting cell ruptures another and so forth. Correct action includes totally immersing the vehicle in a container of water to prevent re-ignition. Can't really do that with a double decker bus, can we?

This of course means salvage yards with crash damaged EVs with battery units still installed may have to keep them all immersed in water 'just in case' as there are cases where damaged vehicles have self-ignited whilst in a recovery/storage yard. Once immersed, everything becomes water damaged and not much of the vehicle can be salvaged and re-used.

The EV course has clearly written by people who have spent the majority of their lives in acedemics; For example part of my qualification requires online submission of an Essay with illustrations, photos etc. Last time I did one of them was 21years ago! They assumed everyone would have Microsoft Word at home. So were foxed when confronted with that fact that some mechanics don't own or use Word, some don't even use computers beyond diagnostics, internet and doing tax returns! I'll see how they handle mine written in Openoffice

The other thing that came to light on the "opening ceremony" I was duped into attending on the last day of the course is that the IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) is heavily lobbying politicians to restrict vehicle repair to only be performed by those with officially recognised qualifications, with the typical "top-up" accreditation done every 5 years or so...paid for by either the employer or employer (if self employed). Much like Gas and Electrics.

On the face that is a good thing because, honestly you don't really want some random bloke called Keith prodding about with vehicles with no real idea of the consequences of their incompetence. But what this also does is create a very lucrative revenue stream to those who just sit at desks all day thinking up what more legislative and regulatory protocols they can implement to validate their job role...at the cost of every motorist and the actual people that actually maintain and repair vehicles.

The biggest risk is that vehicle repair may only be a viable trade to those belonging to large companies and franchises as the little fish, independents and self employed can't afford the ever increasing overheads (which is spiralling upwards). Meanwhile those that sit at desks and have never touched a spanner retain a healthy income that's above the wages of the average mechanic that's actually responsible for the vehicles they work on and despite this, incompetence will still prevail.

I've seen this with Gas-safe (or Corgi before them), NICEIC, NAPIT, BESA, NHBC, FENSA etc. They all exist to improve standards, but in doing so capitalise on it whilst then doing little to actively eradicate the rogue traders.

Lozgti2

Flipping heck !!

silver-sub

And another one

JackClark

I've worked in many motorsport series over the years, the only one I needed training for was Formula E, the training boiled down to keep the **** away when the red light is on

Lozgti2

Lol

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Oooh, the EU politicians are being swayed by more lobbying (surprise surprise).

At least its a bit more sensible this time: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/2...ustion-engines

JackClark

Hope they can get the price down

BMWhere?

Quite a sensible compromise really. Banning ICE outright could potentially ban future green combustion technologies which is not the reason for the ban. You can burn hydrogen for example and the only emission is water. Banning the internal combustion of hydrocarbons is what we want, rather than an outright ban on ICE.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've been saying all along. Combustion doesn't need to come from a fossil fuel. It could also be zero emission (or less than that of a human).

BMW have been into hydrogen since the late 70's and have running ICE cars on liquid hydrogen as development prototypes on and off since the mid 1990's (first main one was a 728HL IIRC, before they started doing v12 hydrogen prototypes).

Considering this tech negates the need for HV batteries and fuel cells as found in other hydrogen vehicle it's something worth pursuing as we are already good at mass producing combustion engines and we're still a way off on perfecting mass production on fuel cells.

Not to forget hillbilly stuff like wood gas. Not that emissions friendly, but it is renewable and trees are carbon capture even if it's a 20year cycle to recover whats burnt in 2months LOL

IdonthaveaScooby

Whats the advice for evacuating a hurricane area , when the powers allready out ?

BMWhere?

Normally, you would evacuate before the hurricane hits and the power is still working!

JdmSti2006

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/one-dead-s...075712580.html
how much cO2 went to an atmosphere?
gas is way more Eco

BMWhere?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66310280

According to BBC the likely cause was an electric vehicle! Now the second ship to have caught fire transporting BEVs.

IdonthaveaScooby

Presumably these batteries / cars are not being charged whilst in transit

how do they catch alight ?


dont inspire confidence

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

A fault. Simple as that. Bit like a nuclear reactor; They don't need to be in use or on charge to blow up although this is more likely as that when components at most stressed and handling lots of heat and current.

If it was damaged upon/before loading or rough seas then that's a probable cause. Or the vehicles were damaged/salvage/write offs being exported. I've seen lots of salvage yards and exporters move cars with using fork lifts or a crane with bars slung underneath the car.

Forklifts or any method lifting a car not on its jacking points will cause damage. Usually squashed sills and dented/kinked exhaust etc. But with a vehicle with a battery bolted underneath, like Teslas. Then doing so is going to dent the battery pack, and squash whatever is inside in that area.

With Tesla batteries as an example there are thousands of small cells about the size of AA alkaline. It only needs one faulty/damaged cell to react with air to start the chain where it burns and ruptured adjacent cells. This could take hours before this chain failure event finally erupts into flames externally.

Really vehicles being transported in large quantities or that have damage should have their batteries removed and put in separate storage. But that's only my opinion: Recently there's a viral dash cam video of car transporter in the UK spilling a load of Teslas everywhere when it suffered a tyre blowout. Luckily nothing caught fire on the scene, but I bet some of those damaged cars (or damaged during recovery) had damaged battery units that couldn't be re-used. Probably sat in a tank of water in a battery disposal yard or the cars are at Copart yard parked well away from anything else.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Does anyone get people with EVs trying to race you? Not Teslas, but like MGs and Merc EQs and VW IDs. Recently on a pootle in the Jag and had an ID3 toy with me.

Come on!! Its a 40yr old car with 280bhp (on a good day), 1700kg and a 3 speed gearbox geared for 60mph in 1st (120 in 2nd) Most 2.0 diesel autos will rinse it off the mark! Just what is the EV driver trying to prove?

Of course it'll beat me off the lights, most cars can...that is until I reach second gear, it seems that many EVs are limited to 100mph....which is roughly the speed where the Jag and its stupidly tall gearing eventually comes to life. Bye bye!

Probably reported to plod now via dash cam footage

One day I'll do a Tremec TKX conversion and swap the Dana 2.88:1 diff to a GKN 3.5:1 unit (been in my shed for 10yrs). And then maybe, just maybe I could match a EV off the lights...whilst fishtailing, spinning and probably hitting a lamppost. Meanwhile the non-car nut that drives a EV has no idea of what I've just said but still wonders why he keeps wearing out his tyres.

JdmSti2006

Yes few electrics showed me what they are capable of but its on straight line but it can not handle well with weight attached to it.
Doubt i will buy electric due to catching fire with easy by them.
Even smaller battery from electric scooter could explode throwing windows out at home.
I remember well Terminator movie when Arnold thorwed his nuclear cell out of car window making huge explosion seconds later. Its almost real now.
Yes smaller aa like units ,looks like all battery industry is in the 80s yet.

JackClark

I race anything away from the lights, because it's funny and not all that fast anyway being a puny Smart EQ. Not worth flooring it past 30 and it only does 80'ish top end but within those limits it's a whole lot quicker than my previous Brabus version. As for fires, by volume Petrol powered cars are far more likely to catch fire, but that doesn't make good clickbait.

IdonthaveaScooby

At standstill ?? ( no crash )


it looks like you'll need be computer / electronics technician to service car in future

maybe can change brake pads yourself lol

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I have to do a safety check on the Jag every off outing. They caught fire when new (Global recall due to cold start injectors sticking open).

Then it's making sure the rear diff doesn't catch fire (due to rear brakes binding)
No Fuel leaks thanks to Ethanol - done most hoses, I think, but some tank breathers and swirl pot hoses may have been missed...it's a maze back there.
And of course Oil getting onto something hot. Everything leaks oil. Even the aircon leaks fluorescent-dyed oil...looks very Max-power if I shine a UV lamp underneath in the dark.

Then the leaks self-fix. Only to leak at some random point in a 6 to 18 month window. Then stop when I've purchased a gasket and ready to replace it, so I do some other task instead. Then it'll leak again when I misplace said gasket, or leak from somewhere else requiring a different gasket.

Stops it rusting though

Indicators now intermittently pretend to be a BMW. And the alternator randomly spikes to 17volts...notified to me when the pioneer radio amp (tgat used to live in my scoob) cuts out due to overvolting so I have to drop the revs and switch all the loads as so not to boil the battery and fry my engine ECU.

Of which I'm on my 4th ECU. Only lost one due to alternator. The 3rd was repaired twice but despite this it injects more fuel on one bank and less on the other. Repairer says this is impossible, I agree as the drive circuits for both banks use the same trigger/processing. But that's what it does. Another ECU works fine.

That's the foibles of a 40yr old car built on sketchy tech and tight budget. Imagine doing this in 40yr a time with a EV! Erm, no ta. At least I can ditch the electronics and dump on a set of webers, use a newer alternator and swap all the cork gaskets for RTV silicone. What you going to do with a obsolete EV?....repack the battery with some new Duracells?