Just have a think, ICE cars EVs and power generation

eMobility (EV's, etc)
404

Late interruption!

Maybe there is life in the ICE yet. What is really being phased out in Europe is cars that burn fossil fuels. That’s not the same as doing away with the ICE. It’s the fossil fuels they don’t want.

Now look at where some big companies are spending R&D money.

The 2023 indy car series, including the Indy 500 will be run on 2nd generation biofuel. Shell have developed the fuel. Honda and Chevy will modify their engines to run on this fuel.

Honda, Merc, Renault and Ferrari are busy in F1 with very complex but also very efficient hybrid motors. Audi are joining in 2026. That’s the year of a big rule change. They simplify the hybrid motors some, but also F1 goes to green fuel that year. They don’t have a single fuel supplier like Indycar does, but the Saudi company Aramco is developing a suitable fuel.

Is this just a proof of concept, or will they switch to standardised fuel? Either way F1 is going to biofuel and Audi are spending a stupid amount of money to develop a hybrid motor that will run on that fuel. The other manufacturers apart from Honda are signed up. Honda have transferred some IP to the Red Bull team, but have “registered interest” for 2026 and so could still be there and will get data from Aramco.

Ok. These are not road cars, but some big names are spending large amounts of money on biofuel burning ICEs. (Indycar don’t run hybrids. They have small ICEs with twin turbos).

This makes sense. EVs are great for around town. You don’t want to drive from Jhb to CT in one.

So maybe we’re heading for a mixed solution. EVs for some applications, biofuel burners for others. The latter make sense for long distances or countries that have… Unsophisticated infrastructure.

Merc, Renault, Audi are not going to do a whole load of R&D that will never make it onto road cars. It would be easier to just walk away. Already they have learned a lot about making batteries, recovering energy from braking, and using recovered energy to keep the turbos spun up so that they always deliver. Their F1 hybrids are running at 50% efficiency, maybe better. And they have to last multiple races now.

I don’t think the ICE is done yet. They’re just going to burn some other fuel.

1 Like
405

bess projects
bess projects1920×1108 123 KB

406

This article also came by in the last week. That Ora Cat doesn’t look half bad, it will depend on the price tag. The EV6 is an excellent vehicle, but will probably be priced close to a million. And the Bz4x may finally arrive in Q3… maybe… but I don’t expect it to be cheap.

So basically, the GWM is what I’m keeping an eye on. Looks like a mini Porsche Cayenne. Will probably come in around 600k, which is about 150k less than the Mini Cooper SE, and with better range too.

Edit: Ora Cat has a LiFePO4 pack. Longer cycle life…

407

https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/industry/toyota-plans-to-manufacture-electric-vehicles-in-sa/?bid=120_12105_9496197

Government’s timeline?

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel published a Green Paper in May 2021 on the advancement of new energy vehicles in South Africa.

The stated aim was to finalise the strategy within 90 days to allow the policy proposals to be submitted to cabinet for consideration by October 2021.

That target was missed and the government has still not finalised its policy, as of today.

Say one thing, do another CancER…

EVGroetnis

408

NAAMSA predicts:

TABLE-D NAAMSA
TABLE-D NAAMSA776×151 50.7 KB

WonderGroetnis

1 Like
409

Sales of battery electric vehicles breached the 500 units per year mark in South Africa for the first time ever. Last year, 502 BEVs were sold in South Africa, up from 218 in 2021. There has been a slow but steady increase in BEV sales in the country, punctuated by a sharp decline in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: naamsa and Lightstone Auto

With only 1024 BEVs sold since 2018, it’s clear to see that sales of BEVs have been slow in South Africa compared to similar auto markets around the world

VinnigeGroetnis

1 Like
410

I think the Eskom crisis definitely has something to do with it. I don’t think that’s the number 1 reason though. The number 1 reason is cost.

You can do a simple thought experiment. Imagine you could get a cheap EV with a 200km range for around 100k ZAR. People buy motorbikes for more than this, Caravans, Jetskis. It would be a no brainer just because of the fuel savings, and nobody would care about Eskom because everybody would just keep the petro-buggy, because at that cost I can just keep both vehicles.

I do not for one second imagine that it is doable at that price tag, it is merely a thought experiment to prove that if the car was cheap enough, Eskom and load shedding would be less of a talking point and people would just charge whenever the power is on… like they do with their mobile phones.

The high cost of course inhibits adoption, and the lack of adoption inhibits introduction of more options. No manufacturer wants to import a hundred EVs, and then struggle to sell them.

Then on the other hand, Volvo brought in 25 EVs last year and sold them all in 24 hours. But they were around a million each.

Toyota will allegedly bring the Bz4X in this year, 3rd quarter. I’m not holding my breath. Even if it happens, and even though I am a huge Toyota fan, that car is not getting good reviews and it will not be exceptionally affordable.

Toyota is however testing the RAV4 PHEV (aka the Prime) to see if there is interest. That is a car I would be interested in…

The one I am watching is the GWM Ora Cat. That’s going to be cheaper than anything currently on the market, and the uptake on that will tell us how the market really feels about BEVs.

411

The top 7 OEM’s all had declines, except you guessed who?

Tesla Fourth in Global Car Unit Sales in 2022 and Second in Q4 2022

January 28, 2023 by Brian Wang

Focus 2 move reports on overall car sales in 2022 with Toyota Corolla maintaining its top unit sales for the full year. Focus2move ranks the Tesla Model Y fourth for the full year. The Tesla Model Y had the most sales for a single model by revenue in 2022. If the Toyota Corolla, Rav 4 and Ford 150 had relatively equal sales in each quarter then the Tesla Model Y with 257000 sales in Q4 and an annualized 1028,000 likely had the second most unit sales in Q4.

  1. Toyota Corolla 1.12 million units sold (-2.2%).
  2. Toyota RAV4 869,955 unit sales (-13.8%), the best selling SUV in the World
  3. Ford F-Series 786,757 sales (-8.8%)
  4. Tesla Model Y with 758,605 cumulative sales in 2022 (+88.3%)
  5. Toyota Camry 675,272 sales (-3.0%)
  6. Honda CR-V 600,679 sales (-18.1%)
  7. Tesla Model 3 595,747 (+4.3%).
  8. Chevrolet Silverado 591,758 sales (+1.8%)
  9. Toyota Hillux 564,208 (+2.5%)
  10. Hyundai Tucson 563,972 (+1.0%)

Groetnis

412

It is an old picture I’m told, but I just had to …

image
image676×713 45.6 KB

I wonder if one would one day be able to tow an EV behind an ICE … or if it must be on the back of a tow truck, like automatic gearbox ICE vehicles? Less complications if one could just hook a tow strap and pull it. Can make some money with Suzi see.

413

Oh yes. Check out YouTube. The car being towed can even charge the battery with regen. The car will then go further on the regen-ed charge than it was towed.

1 Like
414

So, the people who throw up their hands waiting for the “recovery” vehicle to take their EV to a recharge point, could just as well have had the EV pulled behind a tow truck… bugger, that is so cool.

1 Like
415

Yes, but take a look at the fuel consumption of the towing vehicle…

416

Wonder if the cost of more fuel, towtruck, in any case, spending more on fuel due to the recovery vs the costs of flatbed/rollback that I’ve seen most EV loaded on top of in Youtube vids, is not maybe cheaper.

More so if it is pulled just far enough to get the EV charged enough, methinks, to at least get to a charging station on its own power.

And one does not have to wait either, many “vultures” next to the roads to do this “quickly”.

In any case, at least there is an alternative to waiting for a flatbed. One can go and fetch the wife oneself, or she can come and fetch us. :wink:

417

Uber… :joy:

I can just imagine that. Hey come on bud, I pay extra. It is the same distance! Just give me a tow…

418

IMG-20230202-WA0002
IMG-20230202-WA0002610×960 117 KB

What a bright future we got💡

Groetnis

419

DraadloosGroetnis?

420

Ok …

https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2023/SJ0004

In January 2023, four Wyoming state senators and two representatives introduced Senate Joint Resolution No. SJ004 to ban the sale of EVs in Wyoming by 2035. The proposed legislation stressed that “Wyoming’s vast stretches of highway, coupled with a lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, make the widespread use of electric vehicles impracticable for the state.” The proposed legislation also noted that “the batteries used in electric vehicles contain critical minerals whose domestic supply is limited and at risk of disruption.”

421

I believe they are doing it as a publicity stunt of sorts, basically doing the reverse of what everyone else is doing: Trying to ban ICE.

422
423

It’s still going to be around 600k new… which means I’ll wait for a good second hand one. But it’s a start, and after seeing what GWM has done with the P-series and the Haval SUVs, I do think it’s going to be better than your average Chana. Haval is outselling Ford now in SUVs (though, that may not be too surprising).