EV general discussion

b0rn2sk8 said:
China produces less emissions per head than the U.K. which is about half of America.

China isn’t the problem here….
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Exactly, Taylor Swift creates over a thousand times more emissions than the average person so we should start with putting a ban on her ;)

"It's me. Hi. I'm the problem it's me...."

Also, when it comes to hybrid power I think Sir Clive was ahead of his time with the C5. Imagine that with a lithium battery instead of a cruddy lead acid job and a bit less 1980's. Maybe some form of protection from the elements. The ultimate urban vehicle that still no one would buy.
 
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lordrobs said:
I think Sir Clive was ahead of his time with the C5. Imagine that with a lithium battery instead of a cruddy lead acid job and a bit less 1980's. Maybe some form of protection from the elements. The ultimate urban vehicle that still no one would buy.
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google Aptera.

And if we didnt have a child i would absolutely be trying to persuade the boss that we should get one as our 2nd car once it comes out.

www.youtube.com

You're Wrong About Aptera

Use code AGINGWHEELS50 to get 50% OFF First Box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://bit.ly/3GIHzuy!Patreon: https://www...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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bigmike20vt said:
it really is different. in the UK today for instance around 75% of our energy was either renewable (about 55%) or nuclear.
I don't know about the us but in the UK EVs are massively better and the break even point on the carbon debt is around £12k miles, .(from memory)

as the grid gets cleaner and batteries ditch rare materials the gap will only get bigger.

of course a bike is better still but........

btw I am talking about European cars as well which tend to be smaller than the US ones (though admittedly our cars have grown hugely in the last decade as well but not the 5l monster engines that the US have.
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In New Zealand renewable energy is at 90% of all generation and is forecast to increase to 95% in 10 years. So there the EV absolutely puts out less emissions than petrol even when you consider energy generation. Can't comment on emissions created during the EV's production but given New Zealand and Australia don't really build cars anymore, that is someone else's problem to worry about, we just buy the EV and drive it, don't care about the mining in Africa or coal power plants in Asia/Europe
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Far too wide!
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i cant remember which EV it is, but there is one which has 2 modes, and you can extend or retract the wheels depending on if you want stability and top speed, or agility and low speed in built up areas.

edit.... actually blimey you are not wrong about the Aptera width! At the front it is the same width as my ipace. i guess that explains why it is so amazingly stable.
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Far too wide!
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Yeah, it's a shame they didn't go bobsleigh style for a two up configuration.

I guess if I was going to go for something along the lines of that I'd want a clear advantage in the urban rat race and the only way I can see to do that would be in something that would be allowed in bike lanes.

bigmike20vt said:
i cant remember which EV it is, but there is one which has 2 modes, and you can extend or retract the wheels depending on if you want stability and top speed, or agility and low speed in built up areas.

edit.... actually blimey you are not wrong! its the same width as my ipace. i guess that explains why it is so amazingly stable.
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CT-1 EV. My inner child would be too tempted to enable ski mode, Knight Rider style, in the narrow setting :o
 
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In other news..

My S3XY Knob and buttons turned up yesterday (had to pay VAT which delayed it by a day!)..
GXtlycf.jpg

(stock image)

Installation 6/10
- Surprisingly little information, I had to find videos and read between the lines to install it.. 4/10.. I did find an installation guide on their website, but it only shows a rear installation and I decided to follow other peoples guides on installing it in the front since the rear installation leaves the commander loose and on show..
- Ease of install with the right information - 7/10
- What all the videos don't say is that the middle and lower A Panel trim pieces you have to remove in the RHD models have these small plastic edge clips that don't all come away with the trim.. queue me losing 2 as they fall in into the void underneath!.. I'm going to guess people are happy to just slap the trim back on without all the clips properly holding it in..
- Those little white edge clips are not easy to get hold of, they aren't part numbered on the parts catalog but Tesla apparently will sell you some for nearly £7 each! I think I've found some clones (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134788324440) so have ordered 40!
- The actual 'knob' part is a breeze to fit, just one USB-C and clip it in.. they provide stickers to fine tune any minor height differences in trim.
- The colour match isn't perfect on my late 2023 Model Y but close enough.

Setup - 9/10
- A breeze, just launch the app and click on the controller and it will find it within seconds.. Same for the knob..
- both had firmware updates pending which took 2 mins.. although I had to close/re-open the app because the app did not recognise the knob had rebooted post firmware so was stuck looking for it.
- Adding 2 buttons (one on each rear door behind the windows switch) was super easy..


Functionality - 7/10
- Oddly even though the primary interface of the knob is the 4 buttons, you get less choices to configure them then the regular s3xy buttons.. you'd think they would have all the same actions, in fact more for the knob due to the button and rotary interface.
- You can set each 'action' so you either press a side button, then use the wheel to select between enabled/disabled etc, or you can say 'auto action' which means just pressing the button will toggle the action which is nice..
- Oddly the display shows you what each button is for, but if you take drive mode as an example, I have it so pressing a side button toggles between 'chill' and 'standard'.. however when on the main display showing the 4 icons for each button the icon on that button does not show the state of the drive mode, it would be good if it had some subtext or colour or something to denote the state (e.g. blue icon for chill, red for standard etc)..
- There are far too many actions that are not synchronised with the main Tesla UI.. so turning on heated seats for example does not show on the main UI. this is a Tesla interface issue and actually shows (IMO) a very poor architecture decision (I have a lot of experience in this kind of thing!).. However, some do (such as wipers)..
- I like system wide functions like 'Thank you' which flashes your hazards three times for rewarding considerate drivers.. Or using the rear passenger door handle to allow the charge port to be unlocked.. I've yet to try the auto-pilot re-engagement but have a 300 mile trip to do tomorrow so will get some miles on it.
- The s3xy buttons (I ordered 2 with the knob) are good, as I said I mounted one on each rear door arm rest behind the window switch and have it so a single click toggles the heated seat on that side, double press turns the rear fan/vent on/off and a long press will put the fan speed on Max, so passengers in the back don't need to ask someone to do that for them.
- Overall though, the number of functions/actions I need are fairly limited.. I have the 'thankyou' , 'autopilot toggle', 'acceleration mode', 'mirror fold' with 'wipers' as the main knob function and then just simple stuff for the passenger 'glovebox', 'voice control', etc.. things that are a faff through the main UI..


Overall 6.5 - 7.0 / 10.

I'll see if I can send some suggestions based on my initial experience, I found the guy who did the UI have this in his Bio, but honestly I would not be that proud of such a blind interface, it's a bit style over functionality IMO, it needs to have the least transactions with status information conveyed at a glance.. minor but it needs that polish.

It is another nod that Tesla is like Apple.. they only make a few items and decide on how you interact/use it which can be frustrating, but the aftermarket accessories market is huge and you get a lot of cool things!
 
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We're rapidly barreling towards a very distorted market.

The 'natural' market for EV's, given the current state of the technology (and the limitations it entails), is mostly saturated.

But the UK goverment is determined to continue with its plans to financially punish carmakers for producing ICE vehicles in an ever increasing manner until they are no longer allowed to produce them.

The time to buy a decent ICE car is now.

2nd hand they will soon start trending to be more expensive as the new supply dries up and what's left becomes more expensive.

My next car may be an EV but only because I already have a relatively new LEZ compliant diesel and because I have a drive to charge on at home.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
China produces less emissions per head than the U.K. which is about half of America.

China isn’t the problem here….
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Isn't that a slightly skewed statistic as a significant %age of the Chinese population live in what is effectively poverty in remote villages and so don't actually contribute to the countries carbon footprint. If the whole country had the same living standards as Western Europe or the US their total emissions would be much higher.
 
i would say if it were done fairly and we had the crap we buy from china added onto our footprint they would still be lower per head than us. imo shifting all our production to china and then blaming them for their pollution making all our stuff seems a bit off.
yes they absolutely need to clean their energy production up... but they are doing it at an impressive rate.
but everyone has a huge part to play and I say that knowing I am part of the problem. I eat way too much meat and am going abroad on holiday later this year. I guess we all contribute where we are prepared to and are stubborn when it directly affects us individually.

As a nation we used to be doing really well with cleaning up our energy generation but this last year or so seem to have stalled somewhat.
 
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knobs an asthetic piece of design (hue controls could learn something) - the dropping of the plastic widgets during knob install sounded worrying - thinking of the classic VW advert there.


carbon cost - yes per capita isn't the good measure
for Chinese products exported to the US, the carbon emissions embodied in one
unit of economic value amount to 0.92 kg/$ (RMB:USD = 6.8:1), but for US products
exported to China, the carbon emissions embodied in one unit of economic value amount to
0.53 kg/$
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?
carbon border tax is also on the horizon - a double whammy on the rules of origin.
 
Alibaba99 said:
Isn't that a slightly skewed statistic as a significant %age of the Chinese population live in what is effectively poverty in remote villages and so don't actually contribute to the countries carbon footprint. If the whole country had the same living standards as Western Europe or the US their total emissions would be much higher.
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50 years ago, sure in 2024, not really no. The overwhelming majorly of the population live in the east of China clustered around the big cities these days.
 
bigmike20vt said:
but everyone has a huge part to play and I say that knowing I am part of the problem. I eat way too much meat and am going abroad on holiday later this year. I guess we all contribute where we are prepared to and are stubborn when it directly affects us individually.
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Does that mean I can use an environmental spin to not have to go on a flight with a toddler in May... Because I'm clutching at straws at the moment :D

As for too much meat... Sorry, don't understand that concept.

I tend to cycle locally instead of jumping in the car. I used to cycle into the city as well but that was mainly because I was too tight to pay for parking. Still, every little helps!
 
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lordrobs said:
As for too much meat... Sorry, don't understand that concept.
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He has been gaslit that we are polluting the world by farming cattle, when the main source of climate impact when they cite cattle/meat is demolishing rain forest to make way to farm cattle. In the UK that land is already gone, so the impact is far less.

(maybe mostly right or mostly wrong).
 
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gas lit? no and I have no intention of going full vegan, but it's pretty simple. eating a cow is a really inefficient way to get our calories.

(I could live without beef, but sausages and bacon? nope!)

sooner or later (later probably) it will be forced on us anyway either by pricing it so high it's out of reach or by government intervention.
 
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