Nope: Citroen Ami quadricycle rebadge, ain’t no car that. 5.5kWh battery pack and a small electric motor, providing 8bhp, a 28mph top speed, and a range of up to 47 miles.
Groetnis
Toyota may have finally announced an electric vehicle strategy last year, but new reporting suggests that the automaker could be headed back to the drawing board. According to Reuters sources, an internal group at Toyota is tasked with working out plans to improve its current e-TNGA flexible EV platform or for developing a new EV architecture.
The e-TNGA platform is already in use in the all-electric bZ4X crossover SUV and is (for now) planned to underpin the upcoming 2023 Lexus RZ 450e.
As these changes remain under discussion, Toyota reportedly is also suspending development on certain other EV projects, including a compact electric cruiser (inspired by the FJ Cruiser) and the Toyota Crown hybrid sedan. The existing strategy called for 30 new all-electric vehicles to ship by 2030, as well as $17.6 billion in investments in battery technology and production.
However, according to the sources, Toyota is dealing with an EV manufacturing process that’s too slow and expensive compared to other manufacturers, like Tesla, that have been making electric cars for years. Reuters notes that Toyota co-developed an all-electric version of its popular RAV4 SUV with Tesla back in 2012 but cites sources saying its engineers considered the technology to be no threat.
Groetnis
With the EAF on this trend, EV’s in SA is not going to take off. If you do not have excess energy from your private PV system, fogettaboutit… I have a fairly large system and I do not really have much excess. Especially with no Peaker plants available, we in for a big downturn on time on Utility.
Groetnis
This is finally beginning to worry me too. For the longest time we had a lack of peak capability, but we still had enough energy. We’re getting to the point where energy security in itself may not be guaranteed. What I hate most about that is it makes the naysayers right… and that short of nonsense just won’t do! 
What this means, in the short term, is that Toyota is actually right. We should be buying more hybrids. If you are really concerned about being green, that’s what you should buy. I was thinking the other day, you know how an EV breaks even with a petrol car (19% well to wheel) even if you charge it from a Diesel generator? Well, an actual petrol car with regenerative braking (aka a hybrid) will do better than that…
This thread, the whole idea that is in my head, gives me no joy at all, depressing rather… The normal EAF curve of any power generator is down. For Nuclear and Hydro the decline is slower… PV and Wind and now battery storage are a bit different in this regard.
Fossil based generation start off at about 90% (maintenance and all that) and then decline based on how well they are maintained. Solar and Wind start much lower at an average of 28% but remain at that. Wind is slightly different. Add enough battery and the picture changes.
Research now shows that with 4 days of battery storage, weather are effectively countered for about 90-95%. These systems can be small and dotted all over, this has the added benefit of countering bad weather as well, further improving the EAF. This also negated massive Transmission and Distribution upgrades as these plants can be build close to and just tap into the grid.
Pipe dream yes, well locally. But EV’s. With them bans on any imports and manufacturing in the EU and elsewhere of any ICE, Hybrids are effectively dead anyhow. in Sa we rely heavily on exports to all those places banning ICE in 2030 and 2035. There are no moves locally yet on converting to EV manufacturing.
The opposite in fact, OEM’s and component OEM’s upstream and abandoning local anything, capital is fleeing…
Groetnis
I feel like I want to repeat part of a conversation I had with a family member here. I used the example of your fridge/freezer. You need power around 10 hours of the day for a good energy efficient fridge or freezer to keep things cold, so that food doesn’t spoil. Now that is actually less than 50% of the time (roughly what level 9 of load-shedding should look like), but the important “take home” of this thought experiment is that you will be relatively okay in terms of keeping your food from spoiling until this point.
Now of course there are other more important things, for example your municipality’s ability to pump enough water in just 10 hours, but to keep the argument simple, I thought I’d use a simple household appliance. There is a point, in this downward spiral, where load shedding turns from a mere annoyance (if it be fair to call it that) to something much worse. If we’re already accepting (and that appears to be the case) that long periods of stage 4 or 5 will just be the “new normal”…
that means any new problems that arise – and they will – puts you dangerously close to a (so far) unprecedented stage 8, which is dangerously close to “the food in my freezer is spoiling”.
You guys know me (and @mariusm , maybe I can do with some positive words from you), but man, I haven’t felt this negative in a while. The Western Cape taxi strike also didn’t help. On Tuesday I lost two hours of productive time driving people around because of that…
In the Eastern Cape we see the bigger issues (I won’t comment on each as it will take WAY to long;)).
No power means:
- No water
- No working sanitation (plus pumps need power to pump to sewage plants)
- So sewage spills and blockages = overflow in streets
- and, and, and
The lack of power has much wider knock on effects than just lights, etc.
I can solve the power but the others… maybe not so much.
PS: I live at the top of the hill, and have septic (yes… and think it is great). And I have water (my own storage)
On this one, I want to be so very wrong. My personal tiny benchmark … when @mariusm and @plonkster start getting negative … let’s just say I hope you find your way back Plonk.
It was never about being negative or right. My view is simple …
What is the worst that can happen?
Is it possible, is it becoming realistic?
Will it be slow and manageable, or hard and fast?
What are all the impacts like water, sewage, fuel, and buying stuff at the shops?
If I accepted that, then I start making it into a “positive”.
How do I cater for that what will go wrong, the parts I can cater for that is?
More insidious though … how can I protect what I have done to be able to “carry on”?
There is the next level after all that, but nothing yet is making me want to tread there.
On EVs, my mind was made up on that when this thread was started. It is not going to fly in SA soon, maybe in 50 years. Ukraine, well, that just altered a ton of things lately, on top of Covid.
Oh, come one. They probably vote for Biden! They are on board with the WEF plan and the believe all this climate hoey. Also, this will never work. It’s like 120km to my mailbox and I have to tow two locomotives to work, 200 miles far, uphill, in the snow both ways! So I will stick to my Diesel. Thanks.
My take on this is that it looks like the authorities are getting the measure of their extorsion tactics. Earlier this year there were regular murders of township commuters for daring to ride in anything other than these.
This is a story I suspect has way more behind it than we know.
The Blue Dot project was technically a success. At least as far as I understand. The idea was that by complying with certain rules, voluntary and all, rules that require certain standards and driving, probably also tax compliance, you get to be a “blue dot” taxi, an “approved by the city” taxi. This is a two way street. It makes the taxi industry part of the larger transport project (which also includes MyCiti, and ideally Metrorail if they can eventually swing it), but it also means the city gets to regulate it to some extent. From my armchair over here, or at least this somewhat upright office chair, it sounds like an excellent plan.
But it had to be funded. And it sounds as if the provincial government was counting on support from national government. Which then didn’t materialise. So basically, the project is dead because it cannot be funded.
Of course this was immediately understood to be an act of excluding the taxi industry from the larger transport plan, and naturally the industry was unhappy about that… and in expressing that unhappiness, the enemy (MyCiti and Golden Arrow) had to lose a few buses.
At least, that’s the cliff notes version, at least as much as I understand it. But I am sure there is more to it…
Nope, just money.
There I thought it is good for busses and trucks in cities to not run on diesel.
Damn, I’ve got it so wrong. 
Of course there is! This is a political issue and African politics is up there with all the rest. My point is a simple observation of commuters not being murdered for choosing not to travel in the taxi bus mafia service. (or so I understand it)
But maybe the mafia has got the control they want and the competition has been dealt with. So perhaps no reason to celebrate…
But the drop in numbers of these murders is a good thing whatever the reason.
I don’t quite get the story. It sounds a bit thick for a dutch coin, but just to be sure: You’re telling me people got killed for refusing to take a blue dot taxi? Ie there is some sort of Mafia behind it? Because that’s not how I understood it at all.
(The blue dot taxi project included only about 800 taxis. There are 14 000 Taxis on the WC roads).
It was an attempt by the Western Cape government to include the Taxi industry in the bigger plan. The trial run worked. It could not be funded. Occam’s razor and all.
Not specifically the blue dot campaign but the extorsion of the taxi industry generally. See what the Economist commented recently:
One source of vandalism is the so-called “taxi industry”, which runs the minibuses used by two-thirds of commuters. Earlier this year a taxi firm’s employee was jailed for torching a train and station; the prosecutor noted that “only the taxi industry benefits when trains are put out of service.” gi-toc says taxis are run by “mafia-like associations”. About half of South Africa’s assassinations are linked to the taxi business. Its cash-only model makes it a potential money-laundry.
Aaah ok, I get it! But that is part of my point. This was a two way street. Being allowed access to the greater transport plan (but then required to stick with the rules) was an excellent idea! It was technically a step away from the usual chaos, the bad driving, the non-tax-compliance. The fact that Santaco bought into it as hard as they (apparently?) did is a good thing. The outcome of this thing is a disaster… both ways. And no, that never justify the violence that goes with these strikes, of course not.
Where is them sarcasm buttons….
WASHINGTON/DETROIT, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLA.MI) on Friday said it will indefinitely halt operations at an assembly plant in Illinois in February, citing the rising costs of electric vehicle production.
The automaker, which employs about 1,350 workers at the Belvidere, Illinois, plant that builds the Jeep Cherokee SUV, said the action will result in indefinite layoffs and added it may not resume operations as it considers other options.
Halting the production of an ICE powered Jeep due to EV costs 
Groetnis
