In a nutshell…
I’m sure there is an element of that, but I’m wary of reducing it to this one thing.
In other words, even if all the corrupt people in the organisation are found and booted (or enough are booted that the rest start to toe the line), I doubt that 1) load shedding will immediately reduce, and 2) that frustrated people will stop calling for his head.
We live in a country where we fire the Rugby/Soccer coach if they lose two games…
Listening to De Ruyter reporting on the sabotage it dawned upon me, hold on a moment, why would anyone actively and on purpose sabotage anything in and around Eskom?
To what end?
Karpower, nuclear deal/s, the new funding Cyril got handed on renewables, Mantashe and his antics around coal, more “deals” in and around power stations being investigated with resultant reduction of the “profits” enjoyed by some … anything I left out?
Who could/would benefit if LS levels are increased as a direct result of sabotage with the potential of cascading grid failures, when done right?
Or maybe it is shortsighted stupid people not grasping the level of stupidness they are reaching, doing this.
Nah! I don’t buy this one at all.
Take the reporting of the reason why the railway from CT to Simonstown isn’t running. The excuse is because of ‘vandalism’.
There are a couple of concrete stanchions supporting the overhead power line that have broken close to the ground and have fallen onto the track. This looks to me like the sea air has got into the concrete and rusted the reinforcing bars causing it to collapse…
There might have been vandalism with all the copper wire lying all around (with no attempt to secure it)
But no, it’s called vandalism!
I’m not 100% clear on how a railway track in disuse due to alledged vandalism can be compared to Eskom sabotage?
It’s placing the blame on someone else as opposed to accepting responsibility for keeping the show on the road…
1 Like
I smiled … I just imagine them using diesel turbines to generate power for charging ones EV. 
Electric cars are worse for the environment than diesel in South Africa
Interesting thing about EVs is, if done right, could be used to smooth the grid’s demand for energy. Obviously overall energy demand would increase, but tariff structures and smart chargers could be used to charge them mainly when overall demand is low (2am - 5am maybe).
What I’d like to see is an implementation from a company like Victron to make the EV’s battery “live” on the DC side of things. It would be cool to be able to dump all excess PV (as it does when your batteries are empty) into the EV’s battery as well through the MPPTs. Might be tricky due to voltage differences, but it would be amazing if EVs can run on 48V systems… do they need much higher voltages for efficiencies?
I’m a little tired of everyone saying EVs are worse for the environment.
No, they are not. At worst they are about the same. They take about 70% more emissions to manufacture than ICE-vehicles. That number is from Volvo, who compared an XC40 with a C40, so you can probably trust the number if the manufacturer themselves aren’t sugarcoating it. Also, it is a larger vehicle, which means a larger battery, so such a high estimate is probably accurate.
But the EV pays its carbon cost back. How long? Well, ask Jason from EngineeringExplained (video below). He comes to the conclusion that even in West Virginia (88% coal), the EV wins… though a really big one may end up not paying it back (large Tesla P100D would take 17 years to do it).
West Virginia (88% coal) vs Eskom and EV vehicles … ?
The comparison was for using BMV EV and diesel vehicles in SA … did you read the article?
Manufacturers giving emissions “research” … just today we had a laugh about the VW fiasco a few years back on their emissions. You always mention marketing material … same applies to “research” car companies release.
Another more poignant point to consider, if we are comparing USA with SA, is the power failures in California a few years back … people could not drive their Tesla’s to work, no power.
In any event, EV’s are not going to be flooding SA’s roads in any event soon, still a lot of “research”, for and against, going to come out in the next decade or more. People’s pockets will dictate where it leads.
So, what I wonder is, how long will the batteries in these EVs last - and I think probably much longer than we expect.
Firstly, we don’t discharge the battery in one hour. If we have a range of 400km, it should unlikely be quicker than say 4 hours. But typical city driving might be over 10 hours (average speed of 40). So let’s just go with as quick as 0.25C.
That is fairly manageable for a lithium based battery, surely.
Secondly, if you get one of these “full on” EVs, with a 100kWh battery pack, you will not be recharging it in an hour either (well not at home). You’ll probably end up putting maybe 10kW into it. On average recharging it over 10 hours, say. That is a little tickle of 0.1C.
Thirdly, with a range of 400km (I believe this is an under estimate for these 100kWh packs anyways), your mileage (literally) may vary, but as per above, it might last you say two weeks. That is one cycle every two weeks or let’s round up a bit and say 30 cycles a year. Let’s make that 50 for prudence.
The battery wouldn’t even have done 1000 cycles before 20 years are up. That is still in the 80% SoH bit of the curve, surely, especially under these charge and discharge conditions? (Ignoring other reasons for failure) Now, while a range of 320km is less than your original 400km, it should be more than enough.
Last thing I’d also mention is the depth of discharge and state of charge on average. If you can stop these batteries from charging beyond 90% SoC, and you will likely also not discharge them to 0% SoC, you might be able to manage it on an average SoC of say 50%. Except on those rare long trips where you might take it up to 100% and down to whatever they allow (but a little above that, because people don’t fill up just as their tank run out). If you have an oversize pack, and therefore can live with 25 - 75 SoC operating range.
Anyways, a whole bunch of reasons as to why it would seem intuitive to me that these batteries will last a LONG time. Unless failing for some electrical reason, I won’t expect this use case to chemically kill the battery before you naturally replace the vehicle (based on my layman’s understanding of what kills batteries normally).
And for the above reasons, I really hope large batteries become cheaper, because all the above situations will improve if you get a “bigger” battery. Charging and discharging rates and well as cycle count would drop. And it will quell range anxiety at the same time.
Yes… and so what? So the argument is that we need to delay the move to EVs until Eskom shapes up?
West Virginia makes 1911 pounds of CO/2 per MWh, that’s 866g/kWh, a tad below our 1kg (granted), but I am pretty sure a small EV is still going to win that race, despite the gloom mongers at MB. And hopefully we don’t stay at 1kg/kWh.
I must at least support your argument partially though: At least I can sleep easy knowing that the Diesel wagon in my garage is at least, for the present, an acceptable polluter given the alternative.
But then on the more critical side, I am not sure the argument extends to all Diesels. The article did compare the i3 to a modern BMW Diesel… and those things are insanely “clean” compared to the cars of yesteryear (and you pay for it!). In other words, just because Diesel could be cleaner (for now) doesn’t mean that it is for all Diesels on the road.
In any case, yes I am tired of people making arguments against EVs, because few of them have done any research into the matter. Their buddy told them a thing, it fits what they dearly want to believe, and so the story goes. Ditto for arguments about how terrible Lithium mining is… (compared to what… Coal mining? Iron ore mining? Copper mining? Drilling for oil in the friggin’ ocean bed!? 
).
In the car… I don’t think it’s going to last 20 years. Like all things it is going to depend on external factors: How hard was it driven, how deeply was it cycled, and so forth. It seems that a 100 000km is easily doable on a battery pack (which for most people is about 5 years worth of driving, but in smaller city cars it will last more than a decade).
But back to the hypothetical P100D in West Virginia. Sure, it might never repay its own carbon cost, but the moment you remove that 70%-capacity-left battery and give it a second live elsewhere… boom, someone else just repaid the remaining debt. Which is why I maintain that this is not a massive step backwards as the naysayers proclaim. It is at worst sideways and maybe a little backwards (for now)…
This one is a big part of the equation.
Also, the EV case can only get better as the grid improves. Or more charging stations pop up which somehow use solar directly or wheeling. Or other things over time. The diesel engine gets progressively worse over time, first very slowly, service, service, then quickly.
And the i3 isn’t that great to start with. Lastly, does the diesel have the same performance in the same conditions? Last time I read up, diesels perform best on the longer road, not in town. Is that still true?
Probably not…
Driving a Diesel in town is okay. I’m not sure it is that good for the vehicle. The modern Diesels all use EGR, which means the soot ends up in a lot more places (in the intake, on the valves). Long distance it all heats up nicely and burns clean. In town, there’s going to be some carboning-up. Which may require maintenance. Though in my experience, the poor people with the direct injection VW/Audi petrol engines have WAY more trouble with that…
The modern petrol car is also cleaner than the modern Diesel. That is simply a fact. That is why so many manufacturers are moving away from Diesel in their passenger cars. Including Toyota.
If emissions are your concern… don’t drive a Diesel
No, don’t delay, get one now Plonk … me, the 23% import taxes, irks the shiite out of me, the cost of these vehicles a showstopper more than anything else. Enmass adoption of EV’s, “they” have to consider the jobs in and around the ICE industry, and solutions found in due course.
Am 100% sure it does most definitely not hold for all diesels.
I’m for EV’s and even more for town driving trucks/busses where distances are “fixed” as per battery banks the vehicle can take. Adjust the law if needed, if the bank weighs more than the engine and diesel, to make it happen.
And on a larger scale, Eskom as we know it today, WILL have an impact.
I go much further, it would be so cool if the kits to convert existing cars become run of the mill like one’s engine needs a major overhaul, you can opt to go EV, use the vehicle for longer as Co2 has been spent already in the manufacturing. Or you want to buy a 2nd hand car, already converted to an EV.
Here is what I have learned the last week. It turns out, if I win the lottery, that I may, MAY be able to get a diesel/electric.
It can be done by running the front wheels using 12 kW hub motors with dual controller mount and controllers. Few details more to figure out, like brakes and power steering, but it appears that there are ideas out there to drive a 2ton vehicle <100km in and around town at below 70km/h, using the same battery bank to further supplement house and charge from solar, as the motors are 48v.
Another titbit:
I used to drive on 100% recycled cooking oil. as-is on Suzi. Even had a 200l drum and pump at home to refill.
That was until everyone got on the bandwagon and the price went up as much as the price of diesel, and it became a shlep.
And yeah, there was a hint of something in the air so don’t start the car inside the garage if your stomach is a wee bit off.
Don’t focus on just new EV’s, we should also consider converting EOL ICE vehicles to EV’s.
Now THAT would be a booming business, keep jobs, and save a ton of Co2 in the process.
Recycling all the metal that is removed too, just like lead-acid batteries.
You and me both. A lot of my criticism is because I WANT an electric car. Driving an ICE in town… really not good for the engine. I put that engine through probably 150 to 200 heat cycles annually… to do 20km a shot?
The answer of course is to build those cars locally. Which is the intent of taxing the imports of course, to incentivise local manufacture and also buying locally made things. India does exactly the same: it is prohibitively expensive to import cars, but the government makes it extremely lucrative for manufacturers to manufacture there.
As an aside, did you notice that the new Corolla Cross is almost 20% cheaper than the C-HR, despite the fact that they are the same class of vehicle? The Corolla Cross is built locally.
I agree, it make anything last long, you need an owner that takes care of it. ICE cars could also be driven into the ground, or not maintained etc. But I think treating your 100kWh battery gently, like if possible limited discharge for acceleration to 1C (and not try to 0-100 in 2 seconds) then some risk would already be mitigated.
This would be amazing if it could just be popped into a solar system at home. Which is why we probably need to rethink system voltages across the board where these batteries could be used. Unless there’s an easy way around it?
I think this is true in general, but not for the “bakkies” or “bakkies based SUVs”. None of those engines (at least the major ones like Toyota, Ford, Nissan) has it - as far as I know…
The Hilux/Fortuner has had EGR for a decade now. You typically hear it ticking shortly after you shut down the engine. My RAV4 has it too, along with a thud sound as the throttle flap flops back open (it has a throttle flap for a more orderly shut-down… though Diesels don’t strictly need it).
People often blank off the EGR. But that raises your EGT (exhaust gas temperature), which could be bad in a turbo vehicle, and of course causes the formation of Nox (which makes acid rain).
And then of course, for the last decade or so the Diesels also have a DPF (or a D-CAT in Toyota parlance), the Diesel equivalent of a catalytic converter, and most people tend to gut those things the moment they give trouble, because they are unaffordably expensive to replace. And the old Diesels don’t even have them either (also no EGR, lower injection pressures, etc), so there is just no way an old Diesel is as clean as anything new
1 Like
I do wash my diesel frequently. So it can’t be that dirty 
(Sorry I had too de 
this thread, but it was just screaming at someone to do it)
The cleanest would be not to travel. Where is Scotty when you need him to beam you up??
1 Like
I have 12 x 100ah 2nd Life cells, apparently, they came out of a EV bank. The entire bank gets bought, disassembled to individual cell level, then sold with brackets (4 cells per bracket) and the OEM busbars.