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Electric cars?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • Already own one

    Votes: 10 5.0%
  • Yes - would definitely buy

    Votes: 43 21.5%
  • Yes - preferred over petrol car if price/power/convenience similar

    Votes: 80 40.0%
  • Maybe - preference for neither, only concerned with costs etc

    Votes: 38 19.0%
  • No - prefer petrol car even if electric car has same price, power and convenience

    Votes: 25 12.5%
  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.0%

  • Total voters
    200
Sorry, it doesn't happen "automatically", but as the result of subsidies , protectionism and a suppressed workforce.
 
Sorry, it doesn't happen "automatically", but as the result of subsidies , protectionism and a suppressed workforce.
No, those are things we use to force capital and labour into the areas that aren’t naturally good fits for us, or new industries that need a bit of a kick start.

You don’t need a subsidy to get capitalists to put money into areas they know are going to be winning industries for them.

if an Australian Car maker had a competitive advantage that meant it was going to easily earn a fair return on the invested capital you wouldn’t need a subsidy to attract a factory, it would just come here automatically.
 
No, that is how China does business. It subsidises its manufacturing in order to flood world markets with cheap goods and put the West out of the manufacturing game.

The world is ruled by politics not economics.
 
No, that is how China does business. It subsidises its manufacturing in order to flood world markets with cheap goods and put the West out of the manufacturing game.

The world is ruled by politics not economics.
And generally the world toes the line and marches to the drum beat.
 
Probably got a really big fat guy to drive them
Believe it or not, everything makes a difference with an EV, as soon as any extra load goes on the battery, the range takes a hit.
That's the down side of low energy density, switch on the wipers the range drops, put on the lights the range drops, put on the a/c the range drops a lot. Lol
 

That goes for all fuel types. An ICEV has a battery which is charged by an alternator, the A/C system has a compressor, extra people in the car increases the weight, the faster you travel the more wind resistance.
 
No, that is how China does business. It subsidises its manufacturing in order to flood world markets with cheap goods and put the West out of the manufacturing game.

The world is ruled by politics not economics.
If they want to subsidise their industries and essential pay for us to get discounts, let them. But we couldn’t even compete in car making with Japan and Korea, so either was we weren’t going to have a car industry.

No government is large enough to ignore economics without killing itself, that is why the Soviet Union failed.
 
It’s that the same with petrol cars?

To the extent that you can use any electric current in a petrol car without affecting its range, is only because it’s got a constant load on the engine from the alternator that is going to waste if you don’t use it.

Eg if you turn you wipers on in a petrol car you are using an electrical load that comes from the engine.

People say petrol cars are better because the heater uses waste heat, but that’s not good, that means heat is being wasted all the time. The fact you get to use some of it 10% of the time is not good.
 
I started following these two on their first road trip, they have travelled everywhere, first with a Model 3 and now the Y





 
Short term pain, long term gain.

That's the essential difference between Communists and Capitalists, the Communists look long, the Capitalists look short.

The only communists that have survived are the ones that became capitalist.

We have seen Tesla develop a car company from scratch pretty fast, if the Chinese really are subsidising their car industry, they will either sell us discounted cars forever, or if they stop the discounts new car companies will start in the west or the older ones will be revived.

As I said they can’t subsidise the whole economy with out bankrupting them selves eventually. In reality every time the subsidise one industry they are holding back another, and we can compete in the one they hold back.
 
I ask before what you think the West should be investing in.

Care to supply some suggestions?
 
I ask before what you think the West should be investing in.

Care to supply some suggestions?
@SirRumpole Not wishing to buy into this discussion, but what Australia does and does well is educate ship loads of overseas students at our universities so they can then return to their country of birth and become the bright lights of the future so as to screw the rest of the world in their chosen fields of expertise.
 
I ask before what you think the West should be investing in.

Care to supply some suggestions?
Everything we already invest in with the limited Labour and capital we have available, we are already doing it. Surely you don't need me to spoon feed you this one.

Basically the country will deploy all available capital in order of priority based on the return it generates and the need and it will skip the industries where its more effective to buy in the products. It doesn't require central command, all investors individually make choices about where they see opportunities and they deploy the capital and labour they can muster together accordingly.

As a quick example,

1. A nation needs food so if it have lots of available farmland it will deploy labour and capital (L&C) to develop that farmland, until it produces enough food for itself and what it can profitably export, it will also deploy L&C into processing that food eg turning wheat into weetbix, soy beans into tofu etc etc for itself and any export markets it can sell to profitably.

2. A nation needs housing and other buildings, so its going to deploy L&C into construction, and producing any construction materials that are either to heavy to import or materials it has a competitive advantage in, but will skip the products it can import cheaply. for example it may import nuts and bolts , but will invest in quarries and cement manufacturing etc

3. a nation needs clothes, so it will invest in clothing industry, but will skip parts of the industry that it can't compete in, for example it might invest in the design and distribution infrastructure and some limited manufacturing, but will also buy in products it can get cheaply.

4. the nation needs healthcare, it will invest in many parts of the healthcare industry, including educating doctors etc, but may by in some equipment.

it goes on and on and on, investing across the entire economy, but skipping the parts of the industries that we are not competitive in or are difficult to out source. and doing this will will use most of our labour and capital and maximise our productivity.
 
That goes for all fuel types. An ICEV has a battery which is charged by an alternator, the A/C system has a compressor, extra people in the car increases the weight, the faster you travel the more wind resistance.

Don't take offence, I wasn't knocking it, I was stating a fact, that people who are contemplating buying an EV should be aware of and take into consideration when choosing the right EV for them.

The difference with an EV and an ICE, is as I said, the energy density of the fuel source. The EV has to carry a very heavy fuel source compared to the EV to mitigate the disparity in energy density.
That's also a reason for some car manufacturers offer two battery chemistries.
It is no different to why companies offer petrol and diesel models and people should select according to their requirements.



.
 
Yeah, it’s just you said that every feature you use on an Ev drains the battery, I am just saying it’s the same for petrol cars.

Energy density is a bit of a red herring, I mean an EV easily carries enough energy for 99% of people’s daily consumption, and then you just charge when you get home, if you are charging daily, you don’t need to carry a weeks worth of energy.
 
Depends where you live and what you use it for, I find the EV great, but I'm sure there are others who live in more remote areas of W.A that might not be as happy.
With an ICE car, people can mitigate the issue by carrying spare fuel if required, eg towing a caravan/trailer etc.
I'm extremely reluctant to recommend buying an EV to all and sundry, at this point in time, but that's only me and I do live in W.A.
Charging infrastructure and EV charging speeds are always improving and infrastructure failure rates are decreasing.
I'm sure in the future charging wont be an issue, but queues and failures are common in country W.A and careful trip planning is required.
 
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Just a slight note:
if you are charging daily, you don’t need to carry a weeks worth of energy.
Actually you do literally carry it as in a ton of deadweight when your battery is at 5%
Every watt and kg counts and the heavy always there, weight of batteries remains an issue vs fossil fuels tanks which get lighter and lighter .

Not a terrible issue on cars but for planes a show stopper.
We all know how heavy are long range flights are at take off vs landing, good luck with battery planes
Full size EVs are heavy monsters rivalling the worst of the American utes.
2025 is not a good time to be driving in a Smart in Australia
 
Yeah of course, but you are talking about extreme examples there. The vast majority of people don’t travel more that 400km per day, and even most of those that do can easily incorporate a 10 min charge some where on that route to give them enough to get home. (They probably stop for petrol anyway)

Most people don’t live in WA, and most people that do (80%) of those people live in Perth. And only really drive around Perth

I guess the main reason I take issue with the argument is that energy density and charging times is one of the biggest reasons people say they would avoid EV, and it’s almost always coming from people that drive less than 100kms per day, that are just repeating stuff they heard without really thinking about how an EV would actually fit into their lives.
 
True, but a daily routine does not take into account road trip holidays in remote areas or towing for which an EV is not suitable.

So that involves either having more than one vehicle, not having the holidays you want, or hiring a vehicle which is expensive.
 
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