Ford to cut 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years - a fifth of its workforce. From bad to worse…
EinaGroetnis
Eskom is gearing up to support the growth of the eMobility sector in South Africa
https://twitter.com/Eskom_SA/status/1629411194611150848?s=20
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The South African pricing and model line-up for the enhanced Toyota Corolla Cross are as follows:
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 Xi – R381,200
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XS – R414,300
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XS Hybrid – R442,800
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XR – R451,300
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 GR-Sport – R466,800
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 XR Hybrid – R480,200
- Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 HEV GR-Sport – R495,200
Spoke to a lady last night who won (in a competition she didn’t know she was entered into, which can apparently happen if you buy the right 4 items at Checkers and swipe your loyalty card on checkout) the 1.8 XR Hybrid. She has only good things to say about it.
66.2 million units Total
In 2022, global new car registrations reached 66.2 million units, as sales recovered in the last quarter of the year. 07 Feb 2023
10 Million EV sales in 2022
Global Electric Vehicle Sales Crossed 10 Million in 2022; Q4 Sales up 53% YoY. EV sales during 2022 were over 10.2 million units, a 65% YoY growth. 7 out of the top 10 EV models were from Chinese brands in Q4 2022. EV sales are expected to reach nearly 17 million units by the end of 2023.
Groetnis
For context:
During Q4 2022, battery EVs (BEV) accounted for almost 72% of all EV sales
Models:
ElektrieseGroetnis
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Model rank
In December 2022, the most registered rechargeable car was (again) the Tesla Model Y with more than 100,000 units (101,867 to be precise), followed by the BYD Song Plus (BEVs/PHEV duo counted together) and the Tesla Model 3.
The Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV happened to be the best of the rest, ahead of several BYD models and the Volkswagen ID.4.
Top 10 for the month:
- Tesla Model Y - 101,867
- BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 70,291
- Tesla Model 3 - 63,146
- Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 34,535
- BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 30,360
- BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) - 27,248
- Volkswagen ID.4 - 27,080
- BYD Dolphin - 26,172
- BYD Qin Plus (BEV+PHEV) - 23,149
- BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 20,100
** BEV and PHEV versions of the same models were counted together in the source.*
I’m beginning to toy with an idea here. If we sell the smaller petrol car (I will have to convince the wife), and finance the rest out of the home loan (which is typically at a better rate than car finance), the monthly opportunity cost (on the home loan) plus the saved fuel (assuming we can charge with solar most days) comes pretty close to the down-payment on the current petrol car.
Where it still falls apart is 1) financing a car from a home loan means you end up paying the car off over 10-20 years (depending on how far along you are in that scheme of things), and 2) devaluation and insurance on the newer model is going to cost more. Not cheaper yet… but getting dangerously close, I think.
Also, I have to go test drive one. Then decide if I am ready for round two of second-hand BMW ownership.
Or continue to wait for something else…
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Interestingly, when we bought a new car roughly 1.5 years ago, we got a marginally better rate on a vehicle loan than if we were to take the money out of our home loan. I think Investec realised that most people will do what you describe, and they’d rather give you “more” debt and let you keep the available cash in the home loan for a rainy day. It’s been very long since I worked on banking capital requirements. Would be interesting to see which option has the biggest capital impact.
I would prefer a BEV or even PHEV but I must say I was seriously impressed with the fuel efficiency and smooth drive from the new Toyota mild hybrids, did a small trip recently in the Rav4 mild hybrid and seeing the avg fuel consumption figure of a small hatchback on that size SUV was mighty impressive. (The trip did feature a mix of urban suburban roads)
But I am still going to wait for something with a plug…
Even if it only do 20km on a charge that will be enough to get me to work and I can charge again once I get here
That is also something to consider. For most people, the car is not at home when the sun is shining - so that solar energy needs to get cycled through batteries at a lifecycle cost of ~R1.30 per kWh…
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Rented an C-HR last year, and it was not actually that great. Was on par with the Opel Astra we rented later in the holiday. You get a small win in city driving, but otherwise mild hybrids are just extra weight, maintenance and cost.
This is a pity as they are NOT equal ;(
How did you come up with that figure?
That was around the cheapest I could find based on warranty lifecycle. R 40,000 for 10kWh. 3000 cycle warranty = 30,000 kWh lifecycle. R40,000 / 30,000kWh = R 1.33/kWh.
You do get batteries with 6000 cycle warranties but they are about double that price, so works out around the same.
Not inflation adjusted, so effectively about half that cost after 10 years, but also ignores capital cost, so still works out about the same.
Not exactly a like for like comparison.
Compare the fuel consumption of the normal Rav4 2.5VX to the 2.5VX HEV
Like you said the biggest difference is in city driving, if you spend more than 50% of your time in start/stop traffic I would say the mild hybrid will far exceed the normal ice variant.
My brother in law came to visit with a Rav4 last year (Albeit the previous generation) and that was the 2.0 GX model, and I remember him struggling to keep it at 10km/l then jumping into the new mild hybrid and seeing 17km/l I was quite impressed.
Don’t get me wrong I still wouldn’t buy one, because there is a lot of complexity in there, that you can avoid if you go full BEV, but to some people (especially those that spend 70% of their time in traffic) it could be a good value option. (Haven’t done the opportunity cost calculation yet)
Adjust formula for conversion losses (DC - AC), capacity deterioration (they typically say 60% capacity remaining at end of warranty, not original). Increase the cost quite a bit.
I did this for Pylontech a while back:
R20k for 3.5kWh battery. They give you 6000 cycles, 60% SoH at end, 80% DoD per cycle. But, over ten years you aren’t going to be able to cycle every day. Let’s say 80% of the time.
3.5 (Original Capacity) x 365 x 10 x 0.8 (number of cycles before warranty ends) x (1-0.6)/2 (average SoH of 80% over life) x 0.8 (this is DoD) x 0.9 (DC to AC losses) ~= 5887 kWh over life. Puts you closer to R3.4/kWh.
Think the batteries are R23/4k now. This ignores time value of money, and therefore assumes that electricity price increases will be the same as your discount rate.
This is obviously warranty life. Holding thumbs I get to use beyond that.
One reason I skipped that particular model and went with the Diesel. The Diesel does around 7.2l/100km, but in city closer to 8, which also isn’t brilliant (but beats a Hilux or Fortuner, which makes it worth it imho).
Yeah, that’s an important factor. For me, the car is basically always at home, but for the average guy charging at night, it’s going to be 3.63/kWh in Cape Town upper bracket rates.
At the moment our combined travel is 28km per day (the two cars added together). If we move to an EV, the EV will basically do all the driving. Let’s say 30km/day.
Even a poor EV does 100km on 20kWh (Tesla is as low as 15), so 5km per kWh. So I need 6kWh per day, or around R22. Just a little under half of what it costs in petrol. So the average person should count on halving their fuel spend… not eliminating it.
OK but then this is also assuming that at the end of warranty, the batteries are completely dead, which they hopefully wont be.
But I get this as a worst-case scenario.
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Good point. The Vestwoods batteries are supposedly 3000 cycles at 80% DoD to 80% capacity remaining. Sunsynk inverter is 95%+ efficient, which puts my batteries at ~R1.74/kWh.
That is always the hope, but I generally don’t base my budget on hope 
.