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Cont: Electric Vehicles II

The Don said:
An intentional over-read, even one that small, would provide a useful incremental boost to range and efficiency figures as well as using up the warranty.
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On my car it's thought to be an under-read though. And I doubt if the number of warranty claims avoided would be worth the effort, when there was surely a chance of discovery.
 
I think, though I might be wrong, that the automotive aftermarket is strong enough in the US to have bypassed some of the warranty issues that may occur, in that there is some certification of fitness for some things. So, for example, if you use an oil filter and oil that are stated to meet or exceed OEM specs, they can't blow your warranty for using them. And if you put non-OEM brake shoes on your car, they can't bag your transmission warranty, etc.

Now I might be wrong on this. I'll have to check one of these days with my son who is actually an auto mechanic who does this sort of stuff. But he's always busy, and a bit hard to get hold of sometimes.
 
The Don said:
T'would be nice. I'm not an expert but I understand that speed of changing is governed by the vehicle's electrical "architecture" which I'm not sure could be changed by simply changing the battery pack. OTOH more range is a definite possibility
ty.
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The built in chargers and the battery management system are usually encapsulated into components that are replaceable. They might need to be replaced if the new battery pack differs from the original. And some software or settings in the car would need to be tweaked. Doable, but not as easy as popping new batteries into a boom box.
 
I don't honestly know. It will be interesting to see what comes on the market in a few years. My car is entirely adequate for my needs and I love driving it, but if in a few years someone said, you can have 500 miles of range and a 15 minute 10% to 80% charging time for £2,000, who knows what I'd be tempted to do!
 
bruto said:
I think, though I might be wrong, that the automotive aftermarket is strong enough in the US to have bypassed some of the warranty issues that may occur, in that there is some certification of fitness for some things. So, for example, if you use an oil filter and oil that are stated to meet or exceed OEM specs, they can't blow your warranty for using them. And if you put non-OEM brake shoes on your car, they can't bag your transmission warranty, etc.
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In the U.S., these things are covered by the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. The manufacturer cannot require you use parts supplied by them, or service provided by them, unless such parts or service are provided free of charge. And like you say, they cannot deny warranty coverage unless the non-factory part or service can be shown to have been the proximate cause of a claim. And other protections as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act
 
Trebuchet said:
I just watched a video on the Slate truck. It looks like an old IH Scout.
But they kind of lost me at the 4x5 foot bed. My trebuchet is 72 inches long....
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There are very few people in Australia that even use the bed on most 4wds here anyway, as most people buy a Hilux or similar, with the crewcab body the bed is only 1.5m/5ft long anyway, only the singlecabs (2 seater tradies utes only for the most part) get the 2.4m/8ft bed... you simply cant put a full sized tub on a crewcab chassis...
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Anything bigger than that, we use a trailer...

(US style ones are very rare here indeed, too big, too thirsty and too expensive to buy, with a 'less than stellar' reliability record- to put it politely... as well as a poor reputation for finish/quality)

For the very few large US 'trucks' here like the Ram 1500 (only available for a few years, poor seller) or the F150 (no longer sold)- it isnt uncommon for a 3 year old one to be on its third or fourth owner lol and they were only sold as the crewcab here with the same shortbed back- anything longer and you cant park it most places...

Add in the whole 4.5t on a car licence here (which means that for a car licenced owner ie the majority of people) those huge US 'trucks' are either sold as 'car licenced' but can't legally carry any weight at all in comparison to the lighter Hilux/Ranger/BT50's (in fact considerably LESS- that big heavy body is counted as part of the vehicles gross weight LOL), or require any purchaser to spend several thousand dollars to get a 'truck' licence (LR or MR required) which also comes with other restrictions when driving it... (0.02 BAL limit for example- no alcohol for you...)- plus it means that EVERY person driving it needs that truck licence.... no 'driving down to get a loaf of bread' for you unless you have it....

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https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/payload-limits-ram-1500-towing-capacity-114369/

People soon soured on them- despite their 4.5t towing capacity ('eats utes for breakfast' ads on TV lol) owners quickly found out that they couldn't in fact handle heavier loads than the usual Aussie utes... coupled with their high price (you could buy two Hiluxes for the price of a single Ram) and poor fuel economy made them a poor choice indeed- hence why so many have multiple owners in only a few years...
30 sec 'eats utes for breakfast' ad

They should have eaten less utes and gone on a diet PMSL
 
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I live in rural United States where trucks are everything. The bigger, the more powerful, the better. It's almost a drug for the farmers and ranchers. An F150 or Dodge 1500 are entry level. Real men drive F350s and 3500s with diesel engines. Short beds are for wimps.
 
Trebuchet said:
I just watched a video on the Slate truck. It looks like an old IH Scout.
But they kind of lost me at the 4x5 foot bed. My trebuchet is 72 inches long....
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There's another truck in development that looks interesting, though not quite on the market yet, called the "Telo." A tour of the internet comes up with a few looks at it including one with Jay Leno in a prototype. The basic truck is quite small, about the size of a Mini, but because it's a short-front-end design with the wheelbase very near the corners, it's pretty roomy. The 5-person cab opens at the back to extend the bed forward, supposedly allowing full containment of an 8 x 10 sheet of material. Anyway, it looks like a nice idea.

Mind you, the idea of an old IH Scout is kind of nice. I used to have one of those, and though its capacity was small, it sure was a tough old thing. But it was made in the days of cheap gas. You could plow three feet of snow and pull stumps and whatnot, but with its ten gallon gas tank, you young electric whippersnappers are rank amateurs in the game of range anxiety.
 
bruto said:
There's another truck in development that looks interesting, though not quite on the market yet, called the "Telo." A tour of the internet comes up with a few looks at it including one with Jay Leno in a prototype. The basic truck is quite small, about the size of a Mini, but because it's a short-front-end design with the wheelbase very near the corners, it's pretty roomy. The 5-person cab opens at the back to extend the bed forward, supposedly allowing full containment of an 8 x 10 sheet of material. Anyway, it looks like a nice idea.

Mind you, the idea of an old IH Scout is kind of nice. I used to have one of those, and though its capacity was small, it sure was a tough old thing. But it was made in the days of cheap gas. You could plow three feet of snow and pull stumps and whatnot, but with its ten gallon gas tank, you young electric whippersnappers are rank amateurs in the game of range anxiety.
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I like what I've seen of the Telo. But it's not really a truck. I can't see it selling very well in the States. But who knows about elsewhere.
 
acbytesla said:
I live in rural United States where trucks are everything. The bigger, the more powerful, the better. It's almost a drug for the farmers and ranchers. An F150 or Dodge 1500 are entry level. Real men drive F350s and 3500s with diesel engines. Short beds are for wimps.
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Utes are the best selling vehicles in Australia as well, but we don't have the 'small parts compensation' thing going on here LOL

Coupled with high fuel prices (diesel is usually about $2.00 a litre here) it makes them totally impractical for a 'daily driver'...

The Ram 1500 sold here was a claimed 12l/100km from the manufacturer, but in practice they actually use more than my 8 tonne truck!!!! 15l/100km in city cycle was normal for a 'light footed' driver, towing upwards of 20l/100km...

In comparison, my mums diesel VW Amarok when they did the 'big lap' around Australia touring when they retired, was averaging a tiny 9L/100km- towing a caravan.... less than half the running costs of that Ram1500 (and that was actual consumption- they kept every fuel docket which listed the amount of fuel and cost on it)

With Australia having equally large distances in it to the US, having a large 'truck' very quickly empties your wallet unless your name is Bill Gates- a 200km round trip to Bunnings in a Ram would cost me probably about FIFTY bucks in the Ram, the Amarok uses about 7.5l/100km when not towing would be about $30- and the Atto would be- um zero LOL even the Corolla is about $15-$20 for petrol and the Hilux would be about $30 in diesel...

Fifty bloody bucks to go the same distance...
:yikes:
So why would anyone want to spend THAT much on fuel????
(plus you can't actually drive a F350 on a car licence here, thats a LR truck licence- there's another grand or so to get that...)

I suspect thats why in a tiny very rural town of 1500 people, we already have so many EVs- with fuel prices being what they are, the ability to drive long distances for next to nothing is a BIG deal sweetener- I know that is one of the main selling points for me lol
 
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I appreciate self-reliance brings a nice warm feeling but at those prices... presumably Bunnings can also deliver.
 
Dabop said:
Utes are the best selling vehicles in Australia as well, but we don't have the 'small parts compensation' thing going on here LOL

Coupled with high fuel prices (diesel is usually about $2.00 a litre here) it makes them totally impractical for a 'daily driver'...

The Ram 1500 sold here was a claimed 12l/100km from the manufacturer, but in practice they actually use more than my 8 tonne truck!!!! 15l/100km in city cycle was normal for a 'light footed' driver, towing upwards of 20l/100km...

In comparison, my mums diesel VW Amarok when they did the 'big lap' around Australia touring when they retired, was averaging a tiny 9L/100km- towing a caravan.... less than half the running costs of that Ram1500 (and that was actual consumption- they kept every fuel docket which listed the amount of fuel and cost on it)

With Australia having equally large distances in it to the US, having a large 'truck' very quickly empties your wallet unless your name is Bill Gates- a 200km round trip to Bunnings in a Ram would cost me probably about FIFTY bucks in the Ram, the Amarok uses about 7.5l/100km when not towing would be about $30- and the Atto would be- um zero LOL even the Corolla is about $15-$20 for petrol and the Hilux would be about $30 in diesel...

Fifty bloody bucks to go the same distance...
:yikes:
So why would anyone want to spend THAT much on fuel????
(plus you can't actually drive a F350 on a car licence here, thats a LR truck licence- there's another grand or so to get that...)

I suspect thats why in a tiny very rural town of 1500 people, we already have so many EVs- with fuel prices being what they are, the ability to drive long distances for next to nothing is a BIG deal sweetener- I know that is one of the main selling points for me lol
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It's really hard for me to respond since we use the imperial system. Diesel is usually more expensive than regular gasoline here, but often it's not. And the diesel vehicles are usually much more fuel efficient. They tow a bigger load as well.
 
acbytesla said:
It's really hard for me to respond since we use the imperial system. Diesel is usually more expensive than regular gasoline here, but often it's not. And the diesel vehicles are usually much more fuel efficient. They tow a bigger load as well.
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LOL- like most of the world, we dont use that hogshead per furlong stuff....
;-)

Diesel is usually about the same price as premium petrol here...
 
acbytesla said:
It's really hard for me to respond since we use the imperial system. Diesel is usually more expensive than regular gasoline here, but often it's not. And the diesel vehicles are usually much more fuel efficient. They tow a bigger load as well.
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Well, a liter is only a little more than a quart, so if you multiply the liter price by four and round down you're pretty close. 4 liters is 1.05 something gallons.

Here diesel tends to be more expensive because of taxation, though the fuel itself is cheaper. Unfortunately, in order to enforce the tax code, off-road diesel and #2 heating oil, which is essentially the same thing without some additives, are dyed red, so if your tank is spot checked, red is trouble. More an issue with trucks than with cars. I never had anyone check the tank on my diesel cars when I had them. Back in the day, before that changed, a lot of people ran their Mercedes diesels on heating oil with few if any problems; maybe a little more soot and a little less ability to start in the cold, but back then the cold starting was a problem with legit fuel too. In the past 20 or so years, diesel formulations seem to be much better for winter starting.

Nowadays heating oil isn't much cheaper than motor fuel anyway, and there's little need for a diesel unless you need the towing grunt.
 
bruto said:
Well, a liter is only a little more than a quart, so if you multiply the liter price by four and round down you're pretty close. 4 liters is 1.05 something gallons.

Here diesel tends to be more expensive because of taxation, though the fuel itself is cheaper. Unfortunately, in order to enforce the tax code, off-road diesel and #2 heating oil, which is essentially the same thing without some additives, are dyed red, so if your tank is spot checked, red is trouble. More an issue with trucks than with cars. I never had anyone check the tank on my diesel cars when I had them. Back in the day, before that changed, a lot of people ran their Mercedes diesels on heating oil with few if any problems; maybe a little more soot and a little less ability to start in the cold, but back then the cold starting was a problem with legit fuel too. In the past 20 or so years, diesel formulations seem to be much better for winter starting.

Nowadays heating oil isn't much cheaper than motor fuel anyway, and there's little need for a diesel unless you need the towing grunt.
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It's kind of the same here. Diesel is cheaper to produce than gasoline, but takes more of a barrel of crude oil. It contains a higher energy content than gasoline. There is also non'vehicle red-dye diesel. I have often wondered how much red-dye diesel makes it into highway vehicles thus breaking the law.

The truck stop where I usually fill up, diesel is presently 20 cents cheaper than regular unleaded. A few months ago it was about 80 cents more expensive. There seems to be no ryhme or reason that I can tell for this. (I'm sure there is an explanation. I just don't know what it is.)
 
one reason is federally and at most state levels diesel gets taxed more
 
dirtywick said:
one reason is federally and at most state levels diesel gets taxed more
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I understand why they do it. That is hardly a secret. Road maintenance is paid for by gas taxes.

I just wonder how often those with access to red dye diesel sneak it into their trucks. Seriously, how would the authorities know? Seems to me that unless you snake some kind of dipstick into the tank they wouldn't. What am I missing?
 
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