Why Major Car Manufacturers are Slowing Production of Electric Vehicles

[james t kirk]

With any new technology it takes time to perfect it.
I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with a system that charges the battery while you drive as the wheels are turning.

The law of conservation of energy precludes the possibility of a perpetual motion machine. In a nutshell, the vehicle requires a certain amount of energy to keep it moving. If you wired up a system that charged the battery when you were moving through a set of alternators attached to the wheels, the alternators would exert a drag on the vehicle which you would need to overcome by drawing the same or more power from the battery in order to keep the car moving.

What you're thinking of can work. But only when braking. The so called regenerative braking what uses the drag from the alternators to slow you down.

 

[shack]

How are condos and apartments going to supply chargers? I read 1 report that putting in chargers in existing condos was about $35-40,000/charger. Who is going to flip the bill for that?

My condo has a power grid that was powerful enough to have about 150 chargers installed directly beside our parking spots, assuming we wanted to pay for one. So the logistics are not that difficult.

As far as the cost, whoever wrote what you read has no clue whatsoever what they are talking about. Each charger cost $5,000 to be fully installed and ready for use. The bonus was that the Gov't was offering 50% rebates and the installation company did all the paperwork. As such, it cost me $2,500 all in.

I don't have an EV and I don't plan on getting one until they iron out things like cold weather issues and massively increase the number of charging stations on the highways and charge much more rapidly. I did it as an investment that will, in theory, increase the value of my unit significantly. Probably at least 10-20X what I paid.

There are issues now, but there is no denying that EVs will be all that will be sold in the not too distant future.

 

[shack]

Get your nose outta my business.

Nobody is forcing you to put out your opinions for everyone to see and judge. You are the one making your business everybody's business if they so want.

You attacked me on a political issue in a totally unrelated and non-political thread and you were adamant that you were justified in doing so. But now you are in a huff when the shoe is on the other foot.

 

[shack]

Solar power is useless and not worth the investment.

Let's get rid of the sun. LOL

 

[Jubee]

- Poor build quality with panel gaps and what not.
- Heavy vehicles which take a toll on tires and associated costs.
- Very software heavy and a small bug could pretty much crash you.
- Poor range performance in cold conditions.
- No soul - there is something about an ICE vehicle's vibrations, sound and experience that cannot be topped by an EV which feels like an iPad on wheels. They try to sell the acceleration bit but that isn't the only part of the driving experience.
- Too expensive for anyone to buy. Insurance is also higher.
- Environmentally unfriendly - Those Lithium ion batteries are toxic.
- And the biggest problem of all - charging. There simply aren't enough charge stations and even when there are, charging is by orders of magnitude slower than filling up a gas tank. So that causes range anxiety.
- Elon Musk and his rightie circle jerk.

EVs are all by design, everything you complained about screams "people wanting to take other options to travel because of not wanting to wait for charging, less car ownership, range anxiety, cost of the "car" itself", all by design.

On the flip side, they could save Brampton if the AI and auto-pilot gets better and more people use it.

 

[Jubee]

Add to the fact in big cities like Toronto many older homes have no driveway, only street parking.
And a ton of condos and apartment buildings.
So, how is a person going to charge their car overnight when parked on the street?
How are condos and apartments going to supply chargers? I read 1 report that putting in chargers in existing condos was about $35-40,000/charger. Who is going to flip the bill for that?
Just not feasible for big city dwellers.

Not their problem, they'll just install them and up the condo fees. It's a rich man's world (even more so now).
They don't care.

 

[shack]

Bringing your issues with me in the politics forum to the lounge, amounts to trolling and is against TERB rules and frowned upon by the mods.

I made no political comment.

 

[lomotil]

Yes, and it's really starting to look like a massive government boondoggle.

I knew the EV market was in trouble when it was revealed 2 years ago that more than 20 percent of EV owners had abandoned ship on owning an EV and flipped back to ICE.

And now they can't give the damn things away.

Ford loses 36 grand on every single EV it sells. And the much touted F150 Lightening ? Nobody wants it. Piece of shit rushed to market. What the fuck was Ford thinking? Farley should be fired.

"Put simply, Ford wants to make money. The problem? Where electric cars are concerned, the company has perfected the art of losing money. In 2023, Ford racked up US$4.7-billion in related loses. That figure is set to rise to US$5.5-billion in 2024. By one estimate, Ford loses more than US$36,000 on every EV it sells; hardly chump change. Although it’s little consolation, Ford isn’t alone. General Motors has also racked up billions in EV-related losses. Tesla is admittedly an outlier although – spoiler alert – the company’s bottom line has historically been padded by government coffers (and other automakers)."

Link:

Opinion: Ford’s delay of Oakville production shows all that EV glitter isn’t gold

Ford is delaying the start of electric-vehicle production at its Oakville, Ont., plant until 2027. The move will mean extended layoffs

www.theglobeandmail.com

China is the world’s largest supplier of EV batteries and currently able to satisfy the global demand. Any factory in North America will not be able to compete with China without massive government subsides, tariffs and protections.
You are right, the Ontario government may be entering a boondoggle of a rabbit hole or even give birth to a white elephant.
Ford’s gas plant perhaps ?

 

[bazokajoe]

Not their problem, they'll just install them and up the condo fees. It's a rich man's world (even more so now).
They don't care.

I doubt that.

 

[barnacler]

This is a joke right? Please be a joke. The first law of thermodynamics prevents this from being possible.

Yes, it had to be a joke.

But clearly, all joking aside, automakers have it all wrong when it comes to aerodynamics.

A car's front should be as BIG and SQUARE as possible. This would have the effect of creating an enormous blast of air at the front of the car that is being PUSHED forward at great speed, in front of the car, where, duh! - obviously, the car's even more enormous FORWARD MOUNTED SAIL would effortlessly catch that wind to PULL him forward.

This would require enormous investment, via a public/private partnership, in gigantic CAR SAIL factories. But the spin offs would be tremendous.

This is so pathetically obvious, and so astonishing that no-one has thought of it before me, that I am rendered speechless , and I can hardly hold my ever-flowing wine glass to my lips!

 

[roddermac]

Let's get rid of the sun. LOL

The sun isn't the problem even though climate change pushers will tell you otherwise. The problem to harness it's energy is.

 

[Ponderling]

It was a while ago, but I recall seeing a report on the news of a plan that was being worked on to solve the charging problem. When the charge in your car battery is getting low you would head to a service center(similar to a Speedy or Midas) and the technicians simply remove your battery and put in a fully charged one. I don't know how payment would work.

Israel I believe does this now on highways between major centers.

 

[Jubee]

The marketing doesn't seem to be slowing down, so are they really slowing down production?

 

[Ponderling]

Well Ford in Oakville will be shut down for 2 years or something.
Going to EV production, with refit of the assembly lines.
But not restarting until 2027, they allege.

Yesterday I was in Oakville at a level crossing of the railway tracks.
And must have waited for 12 or more minutes for the train to clear the tracks.
A very long freight train of empty car transporters were hauled west out of the rail shunting yards south of the now idle Ford factory.

 

[GameBoy27]

Israel I believe does this now on highways between major centers.

Just because they have battery swapping service in Israel, doesn't mean it would work in Canada. Just look at the difference in the size of the countries and their climates.

 

[leshdrec]

The 2009-2021 era was very optimistic about tech, driven by tech companies successful in many domains (Google, Amazon with consumer retailing, Netflix with streaming entertainment, Uber as a cheap alternative to taxis, etc.). Silicon Valley was flush with cash from VCs/investors. Hence when Elon came on the scene talking about how EVs that could drive themselves were just around the corner, and that truckers were about to become obsolete, people were eager to dump money into it.

However we've seen over the years how Tesla fail to deliver on a cheap EV, fail to deliver fully autonomous self-driving cars, and fail to solve the most common EV adoption barriers (minus improving charging infrastructure, that's the only thing that they made good progress on).

It's no surprise consumers and automanufacturers are less eager to get into EVs now that reality has set in and realize that we're still many years away from solving most of the common EV issues.

 

[roddermac]

Just because they have battery swapping service in Israel, doesn't mean it would work in Canada. Just look at the difference in the size of the countries and their climates.

Yet some still believe removing roads for cyclists is a good idea here.

 

[rhuarc29]

Another problem is that the tech is changing so fast that anything you buy today will be outdated in a few years. Which means the resale value is absolute crap.
I would never buy an EV, at least not right now. If I were going to get an EV, I'd lease it.