Off topic, EV vehicle opinions…

[KITROBASKIN]

This seems to be the EV thread:

Excited and hopeful

Mahle combines two innovative concepts to field the "perfect motor"

One of the world's largest tier-one auto parts suppliers claims it's created the "perfect motor." The compact Mahle motor uses no rare earth magnets, transmits power without contact or wear, and can run at high power indefinitely without overheating.

newatlas.com

 

[Ampster]

Excited and hopeful

I would be excited to know more. That does look like a teaser headline or clickbait to get investors. At this point Tesla and a few others probably have more data from real world experience. I suppose if the goal was no reliance on rare earth elements then this might be a break through. I have heard some people call Lithium and Cobalt rare earth elements.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I might get drawn and quartered for this, but I've given up on a PHEV or BEV for my next vehicle. For something fun, I'll spend more and pay to play. For the boring disposable commuter, it's all about the numbers, and the numbers don't make sense yet. Very easy to find an ICE vehicle for half the cost of a comparable electric. I was even ignoring the cost of electricity, and the numbers would look even worse if I included that.

I really think the public will switch en-mass, once that financial tipping point is hit.

 

[ksmithaz1]

This is interesting. Tesla just released some info last spring on a new hybrid PM design, that is smaller and lighter weight with fewer hard to source materials. All that being said, pretty much all electric motors are already stunningly reliable, and weigh less than an ICE. We are just tweaking at this point. I like the idea of a supplemented permanent magnet. The problem with an induction magnet is the heat when you ramp it up. I think the idea of running coolant inside the motor is not ideal. Now we have o-rings and seals, and, ... Passive cooling to a thermal jacket will be more reliable even if it costs some weight, just pass coolant thru an exterior plate.

 

[Vigo]

If the fluid being used as coolant happens to be the same fluid that is lubricating the rest of the transaxle that the motor is mounted inside, then no new external leak opportunities would really be created. But if it isn't, then new cross-contamination possibilities would probably be created. Transmissions burning up because of coolant getting into the trans fluid through a cracked liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger is a pretty well known possibility in cars already.

 

[ksmithaz1]

I might get drawn and quartered for this, but I've given up on a PHEV or BEV for my next vehicle. For something fun, I'll spend more and pay to play. For the boring disposable commuter, it's all about the numbers, and the numbers don't make sense yet. Very easy to find an ICE vehicle for half the cost of a comparable electric. I was even ignoring the cost of electricity, and the numbers would look even worse if I included that.

I really think the public will switch en-mass, once that financial tipping point is hit.

I adore my EV's but they are not for everybody. I would go with a hybrid for the economy. The demand is there for electric without the government stepping in creating a bubble. The auto companies have been moving slowly because they are still learning the pitfalls. We should let the demand grow organically, and allow time for the infrastructure and manufacturing to grow into maturity. If you do not have a single family home with access to a 240v charging point or if you don't live in an apartment or condo that has built in L2 charging facilities that don't cost an arm and a leg, then you probably shouldn't be thinking about an EV. If you travel by car for long distances, if you want to tow a 5th wheel, ... Not good for EV's. If you can plug in cheaply, and generally have a defined daily commute and an occasional road trip it is worth considering.

I will say my EV wants 'maintenance' again. I'm debating, all they do is kick the tires and charge me $100. This is a pretty big consideration when you start comparing costs. EV's eat tires at a faster rate than ICE. They are heavier and have a lot of torque.

 

[DIYrich]

I might get drawn and quartered for this, but I've given up on a PHEV or BEV for my next vehicle. For something fun, I'll spend more and pay to play. For the boring disposable commuter, it's all about the numbers, and the numbers don't make sense yet. Very easy to find an ICE vehicle for half the cost of a comparable electric. I was even ignoring the cost of electricity, and the numbers would look even worse if I included that.

I really think the public will switch en-mass, once that financial tipping point is hit.

I would like to get an Aptera when it goes into production (if ever). Claims recharging with solar up to 40 miles a day.$30,000 depending.

 

[pollenface]

I will say my EV wants 'maintenance' again. I'm debating, all they do is kick the tires and charge me $100. This is a pretty big consideration when you start comparing costs. EV's eat tires at a faster rate than ICE. They are heavier and have a lot of torque.

how many miles are you getting out of your tires? there are specific EV tires which are made for EV vehicles to deal with the weight, torque, pressure, etc

 

[Lt.Dan]

I got 30k miles out of my front tires on my Model 3 and I changed them a little prematurely because I was going on a road trip. Still got plenty of tread on the rears.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I would like to get an Aptera when it goes into production (if ever). Claims recharging with solar up to 40 miles a day.$30,000 depending.

$30k is still ~2x what a much more usable ICE vehicle costs. The 40 mile recharge would nearly handle my daily commute, which is attractive.

I don't usually think the people who "drive a big truck for muh safety!" have a point, but I have to admit that unless the Aptera is far more skookum than it looks, I'd never drive one around here. Getting smeared by some idiot tailgating you while texting at 70mph is a very real thing.

If anyone knows of an electric AWD wagon/suv in the $15k range with under 100k miles on it, I'd do that. An ICE vehicle matching those specs is relatively easy to find.

There is a Tesla in my area with 30k miles for $17.5k. The reason for the pricing is because of "minor body damage", as the seller puts it. Laughable, once you look at the photos.

 

[G00SE]

But that's why most people ride the subway there. It's fantastic, I love that subway and it works great.

If you have the space, then off-grid systems powering EVs is fantastic.

you think urban subways are fantastic but open carry at gas stations when filling up your race car out of fear?

 

[G00SE]

I’m looking hard at the 2018 and newer Leaf + vehicles.
I’ve seen some locally below $20k now which makes it a more reasonable option. The leaf + should grant me close to 200 miles of range if charged to full. The non plus would give me overhead now, but worry about future degradation becoming limiting.

I will always have an ICE in the stable. At 3-5 miles per KWH and being off grid and having to drive for work during daylight hours, I simply don’t have the funds to build a bank large enough to store excess daytime production at that volume to refill the EV overnight. I also have farm equipment, track car, food trailer, and a camper to tow. I live at 6500ft and the town we most often drive to is 1300ft. It ain’t easy dragging 15k up at 7% grade for miles.

What I can do however, is utilize an EV on my daily work commute of 81 miles round trip. I feel comfortable that I can swing enough array and battery to at least get me thru a day, or even over the weekend when it’s not driven to charge during the day.
I like the chademo options of V2L as well. I think the IONIQ5 will offer this natively, but is more than twice the cost.

My lone hang up is ground clearance. I have to trailer our track car no matter what to the property as it’s simply too low to make the 3 mile dirt road.
This also impacts how we purchase other vehicles.

Outside of the Rivian and Tesla trucks which are in no form economical purchases, I don’t see any options yet.
Surely they will be coming…at an exuberant price that I’m not willing to pay.

What I did find out was that Nissan made a “rally” type variant of a leaf called “releaf” as it was meant to help during natural disaster. They did a 2.5” lift and all terrain tires as well as a skid plate to protect any impact to the battery tray.

So I’m still window shopping leafs, as well as prius (for their backup generator hack capability). All electric would be ideal because my most common fuel expense is my daily commute.

 

[G00SE]

If this vehicle ever becomes produced (outside of their half dozen prototypes) I’d really be interested.
It’s classified as a UTV. It’s lightweight like a RZR would be. Has a leaf size battery. Factory 35” tires, enclosed cab with HVAC and a price of 35k

Otherwise, a leaf motor in a rzr or simply a Lifepo4 converted golf cart would be a fun toy for around the farm

Similarly with the electric dirtbikes such as the Surron. I’d love a couple of those. But at 5500 each, I can just keep buying Honda XR100s 900 bucks at a time and have a fleet.

 

[Lt.Dan]

If this vehicle ever becomes produced (outside of their half dozen prototypes) I’d really be interested.
It’s classified as a UTV. It’s lightweight like a RZR would be. Has a leaf size battery. Factory 35” tires, enclosed cab with HVAC and a price of 35k

Otherwise, a leaf motor in a rzr or simply a Lifepo4 converted golf cart would be a fun toy for around the farm

Similarly with the electric dirtbikes such as the Surron. I’d love a couple of those. But at 5500 each, I can just keep buying Honda XR100s 900 bucks at a time and have a fleet.

I would kill to have an electric side by side with the capabilities of my turbo RZR. Cost of it would be astronomical though

 

[G00SE]

I would kill to have an electric side by side with the capabilities of my turbo RZR. Cost of it would be astronomical though

Shockingly, the electric motor of the leaf itself seems very feasible to go into a rzr chassis. It’s everything else that’s an issue.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Shockingly, the electric motor of the leaf itself seems very feasible to go into a rzr chassis. It’s everything else that’s an issue.

If the motor in my RZR mysteriously grenades, then I will definitely be doing some research....

 

[OffGridForGood]

My lone hang up is ground clearance.

check out the Volvo

 

[Mirlen]

I love my '17 Model S 75D, the acceleration is addictive and it hauls around the family comfortably. Fit/finish on Tesla is meh, but the charging network is what sold us, it made it practical. But right now I have an error indicating the main pyro fuse needs to be serviced. They used a fuse with lithium batteries with a finite lifespan. Not disclosed in the manual or in the service recommendations, just an error that is popping up on TONS of cars now. So I thought OK, must be something they'll do under the battery warranty or a 'problem' they'd fix since it's a safety issue, nope. $1500 to replace a fuse. On some models they ingeniously placed this fuse on the TOP of the battery pack with no top access cover....so they have to drop the entire battery pack to get to it. (Later models placed it in an accessible area w/o dropping the battery. I canceled that service appointment. I'll let it go until it yells at me or NHTSA steps in and tells Tesla to fix it...like what happened with the eMMC under spec'd memory used in MCU1 which I complained about to the service center that it was failing and they insisted they couldn't do anything....so I spent $2000 out of pocket to upgrade to MCU2 to resolve the issue...then Tesla later said "Oh, our bad, we'll credit you if you had your MCU1 -> MCU1 replaced...but nope not if you were proactive and upgraded, nada for YOU."

Yup, love/hate relationship....oh and it seemed every time I took my car in for something they would either leave tools in it or damage the car. Steering wheel replaced due to cut after service, wiring not connected properly, service mode left on, dent from inside the door to OUTSIDE the door when servicing my window regulator (!?!?)....

 

[Will Prowse]

you think urban subways are fantastic but open carry at gas stations when filling up your race car out of fear?

I open carry 24/7, and will do so everywhere. Subway or not. Who said I like subways? I walk my property with a rifle and go to the range next to my house every couple days. I will never not have a gun. I'm American and value my freedom.

 

[Hedges]

Off topic, EV vehicle opinions…

Curious to learn what repairs were performed on older model 3. Never had any issues on my older model 3. Or my new model 3. My older and newer model s had a massive list of problems from day one. Avoid them model s like the plague.

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