tankplanker

One of the key reasons traditional manufacturers were reluctant to build EVs is because of the batteries needed and their lack of ability to make these themselves. A battery on a brand new EV can be half or more of the total cost to build the car, who wants to pay somebody else, who is going to expect to make a profit on the batteries they sell, half the cost of the build to a competitor or third party for any true mass market car? You cannot start to compete on price or volume till you make your own batteries and cut out that profit of the third party.

When it became clear that the Traditional Manufacturers could no longer avoid ramping up EV production as Tesla and latter China/Korea were stealing their future market they have shit the bed, begging for subsidies to build their own battery factories and recruiting staff with experience. Its going to take a few years before these factories come on line, but till then you will see them pushing things like PHEVs and halo EVs like the F150 that they do not plan in selling in large volumes in favor of ICE that they make the engine.

There is also an element of the speed of development of EVs, they were clearly caught out how fast the market moved with efficiency and thus range. As an example, the early VW group EVs were awful, at least a generation behind the best from Korea or Tesla. The latest ID7 and A6 etrons show that VW have acknowledged their mistake, the saloons made on that platform (the SUVs on the same platform just cannot compete due to worse drag and weight) seem to be aiming around 4 miles per kwh, which is extremely impressive for such large saloons.

Improving efficiency is the key to reducing battery sizes, which reduces weight, which further improves efficiency, but most importantly reduces the cost of EVs. We need to move away from 100kwh+ batteries, they are a crutch for inefficient, bricks of SUVs that are far too large and heavy. Manufacturers just up the battery size to counter their poor design decisions, which leads to disappointment when you realize you struggling to get 2 miles per kwh from your 2.5 ton EV9 and its only doing low 200s out of a 100kwh battery.

I have a few that will be very close as I decided a bit over a decade ago to limit myself to one rewatch a year of each to stop myself sucking all the joy out of them:

• Alien - my favorite survival horror

• Aliens - my favorite Nam movie

• Jaws - my favorite version of Moby Dick, although I really like Godzilla Minus One take on Jaws

• Jurassic Park - best big stompy monster film for me

• Lord of the Rings - this is always over Christmas. Its not faithful enough for me to the books but it still manages to be an outstanding Trilogy.

• Emperors New Groove - favorite body swap film

Most days it's two 18g of espresso, one 25g made into a pour over. I go through about 2kg a month (about 4.5lbs) with dialling in and some shots for other people.

I spend anywhere from £60 per kilo down to about £30, depending on where and from whom I am buying. My local roasters (Outpost.coffee) tend to be more expensive than some of the other big names in the UK.

Depending on what's available, I either get a single bag for espresso and a bag for pour over or a bunch of different bags, anything up to 8 typically.

What you are describing, for it to be of actual benefit, is at its minimum a perpetual motion device, as that's what a zero loss system would be. Only people working on that also sell snake oil.

Anything less than 100% is a loss, which is going to be larger the heavier the car is due to friction (aero, drive train, and rolling) and extra energy to accelerate, that's basic physics.

Very large batteries, 100kwh or over, solve what should be a medium term problem, they are an expensive dead end as they are often around half the cost of the car's production cost and add . What I really don't like is stupidly large bricks of cars that struggle to even do 3 miles per kwh and then use a massive battery to get around their comically small range, which further lowers their efficency.

Yeah, hmm, at some point you have to stop, thats where the momentum or at least some of it is returned to the battety. The return from regen is less than the energy spent to accelerate and overcome friction, in the first place, so you get significant losses of around 20% or more, so not really...

No, hire car, not a taxi. You really don't need to book months in advance to get one, unless you live somewhere with unusually high demand for them. Most places you van get same day.

PHEV emissions are only lower if you use the battery, majority of phev owners don't even charge regularly. With the majority of miles on the ice ruins any gains on emissions. Emissions are only one part of the impact to the environment, brand new cars even evs have a higher initial impact that reusing an old car, especially one no-one will want in a few years.

Car weight is also a factor due to brake and tyre wear, and guess what, a phev is carrying around all the components of an ice and all the components of an small ev, way heavier than the old car, even ignoring that modern cars weigh more anyway...

It's just such an unlikely set of requirements the number of people that actually meet it is pathetically small.

All of these have to be true for your example to make any sense: Commute distance less than the battery range, typically just under 30 miles

Able and prepared to charge every night as that commute has just drained the tiny battery, another poster has already pointed out that the majority of PHEV owners don't actually charge

Cannot plan any long trips greater than 400 miles

Lives with no reliable hire car service

Lives more than 400 miles from a public ev charger

Somehow can do more miles a year to save money over buying an older, cheaper car that's about £15k cheaper to buy

It's just comes across as a bad faith argument, sorry.

I am not confident that we will see as widespread competition as we have this season, as the PU is completely changing and the aero is being tweaked. I am to worried we will see one team to develop the PU with a massive advantage again, but I hope not.

March 25 is a little late if the concept for 26 is in a fundamental direction he thinks is crap, its like not impossible but they would be unlikely to hit the first race with a class leading car. I guess Aston could save up budget, wind tunnel time, and super computer runs until he starts then try and run faster than everyone else. One things for sure, going to be exciting to see the order in 26 as this is now going to be a major shake up.

You are very lucky with that water, saves so much effort and not a small amount of cash to sort it out otherwise.

Best of luck for your search for that god shot off coffee!

That's such a strawman as it js such an edge case.

You have to include the additional purchasing and running costs of a more modern PHEV against an older diesel or an older small EV, this will be $10ks.

Booking ahead for hire cars for local pickup is rarely needed unless you have unusual requirements or live in a tourism black spot.

PHEV only made sense during the short period of time when EVs doing 300 miles or more looked to be very expensive but battery costs came down and now there are a significant list of evs than can beat 300 and a not insignificant list that can hit 400. They have become irrelevant.

How long is a piece of string? So many variables with that you'd have to do your own numbers for your own situation and if you really can't charge a long range ev for your trip.

However, most people who say they do big trips (more than 400 round trip) do so a handful of times a year where there is zero ability to recharge the car. That's where I'd be looking at a hire car, and it's going to be cheaper to do so.

A long-range EV works for me. About a third of my annual miles are towing on long trips (1000 mile round trips) with it, and it's fine with planning.

Completely get why some people don't want to do that, and for that, a suitable diesel is far better for them as its 10ks cheaper to buy in the first place.

PHEV makes fuck all sense for that sort of trip as it runs out of battery 30 miles or so into a 1000 mile trip. You paid for to buy it than a diesel, you get worse economy than a like to like diesel, just not good.

For what exactly? Hire cars exist.