I actually want to argue the other way. If we can recycle a car 100%, in a relatively energy efficient way, why should a car not last 5 years, or 1 year?
There is an implicit assumption here, but it is one that is quite correct in present terms.
There is also the other side of that coin: We should not assume that building a car that can last 30-40 years will have the same footprint as the one that lasts 15-20 years. It will have a bigger footprint, almost guaranteed.
As with all things humans build, there will also come a time where installing a new battery pack into your old Diesel bakkie wonât be much less intensive than just buying a whole new car.
There is a break-even point in the costs, and I am not convinced it is at the 40 years point. I think it is much closer to the 20-year point. In other words, the overall footprint is probably minimised if you design cars to last 20 years, but out the long term emissions from an internal combustion engine, and instead focus on more effective recycling.
And again, while I like the idea of converting ICE to EV, the reality is that the price of a conversion vs a mass produced EV will soon be too close.
Think about it. Convert a 24-year old Diesel bakkie to EV at 200k, or buy a new EV with a warranty at 350k? It hasnât happened yet, but it mightâŚ
I donât think this is that far off (even in SA!) Scrapyards are gone. All the manufacturers are compelled to use recyclable materials so cars can be recycled. However like all recycling, there needs to be an incentive
This is a hectic challenge I reckon: Thereâs the history of the early German Energiewende program where there were incentives for home owners to install PV panels on their roofs. The power from these was sent independently back to the utility and they were going to deploy it as required.
However such is RE that the power was overwhelming (all at the same time) so they abandoned this and encouraged home owners to utilise this power themselves. One of the many lessons in this RE endeavourâŚ
PS: The upshot of this was that utilities needed to be able to control the inverters. What happened then I know not.
That is the beauty of behind the meter systems with battery. In the Tesla case you subscribe to the VPP service. Tesla is a VPP and controls and throttles the power if/when needed, no issue of to much Solar all at the same time.
A distributed Virtua &, Despachable power station that can ramp up/down in milliseconds.
On the one hand, you have "letâs mine more, build more cars, mine some more, build some more new cars.
Vs recycling the vehicles 100%. All parts are replaceable, âoff the shelfâ vs having to go to the manufacturers only. And that ending up in rubbish dumps, lets mine some more.
And spend the âR200kâ and repurpose the vehicle.
The âfootprintâ will be enormously reduced overall.
AND actual job creation.
AND actual innovation from all levels of society.
I donât like buying a new car because I am forced to.
Get creative. Get innovative. Recycle/extend the dinges out of existing vehicles on the road today.
Repair instead of replace.
Repairs vs replacing/upgrading cause âthat is how the economyâ works.
Let the man on the street drive it ⌠not big business who drives at profits at all costs.
Recycling technically is a kind of repurposing, right? Into more things than just another vehicle
The thing, with our current cars, is that when you buy a new one, you usually get rid of an old one. That goes to another person who does the same, and so on down the line, until somewhere at the end⌠one car goes to the scrapyard. Perhaps not always, but quite often, that is how it works.
Steel is also 100% recyclable. So our present cars⌠essentially become new products, be it food tins or another car. Same is true for Aluminium and copper.
And again, just to be clear, I am not against conversion kits. I just do not see, with the present way things are going, that this is going to be a big market. Especially if I can finance a new car with a loan, something which is unlikely to be available for retrofits.
For the hybrid truck I posted above, makes perfect sense. New or as a conversion. See them truck owners (business or individual) makes money so spending on em, especially in North Muricaa is the way. Cars, not so much.
Given the state of AI, how long before robotaxis is a thing. Then getting that is 4x cheaper (according to fin models for transport as a service) than operating ICE, who knows, time will tell. Sometime the switch will be sudden, and ICE will be niche, and worthless, no demand.
Ov hr by us, who knows, no driver so a bloodless hijacking. Just send it to an address with nobody inside. Ghost cellphones and accounts (see simswaps in SA) drive it onto lowbed after destroying the gps module or 12v battery, who knows?
Iâm doing my private EV presence research (again) on the number of EV cars I can see. This time Iâm in London.
The car that I see everywhere here is the Prius.
Did the later models move on to Li-Ion batteries? (Originally they were LMH I believe)
Not much interest in the most successful hybrid everâŚ
The Prius was first announced in 1997 in Japan and arrived in the States later in 2000. By 2022, a total of five million units were sold, making the Prius the best-sold hybrid in the world
The Prius kicked off the hybrid car so long ago. You might be intrested to know that it started the use of a Atkinson cycle engine which most hybrid and some other ICE cars now use (improved efficiency).
That same engine from the Prius is used in the Corolla Croos hybrid that they build in Durban
I understand that the Prius was a status symbol which set you apart from the rest. Iâm sure this was the reason it became so popular. (What is referred to as âpositional goodsâ)
P.S. The EV that has replaced the Prius in this dept. is a Tesla (any model?)
Because the Prius doesnât need a charging station. Itâs a hybrid, not a full EV.
I still wonder about EVs, because they need charging stations, and that infrastructure isnât going to be cheap.
Is there a standard yet for EV charging cables?
I note the article that @TheTerribleTriplet posted here. That puzzles me too, because not so long ago CEOs of Japanese auto companies were saying that companies that were going all electric were backing the wrong horse.
Meanwhile F1 and IndyCar still manage to attract auto manufacturers who are willing to do all the R&D for high performance hybrid motors and then build them and race them. Indy have just GM and Honda. F1 have Honda (different motor from Indy), Ferrari, Renault, Merc, with the Red Bull team building their own engines. Ford are going into partnership with Red Bull, and Audi are building a motor for the new 2026 rules (still hybrid, no recovery from the turbo, more recovery from brakes). Toyota, Renault and Porsche are all racing hybrids in endurance events, and the hybrids have ruled those races the last few years.
So why are these companies sinking big R&D bucks into hybrids? Thereâs already a full EV series for them to run in, and some cover both bases.
Yeah, that is a worldwide problem ⌠and then we have Eskom and ANC here on top of electrical infrastructure that, worldwide, was never designed for mass EV charging.
