so this is an interesting couple of facts , many now comparing Tesla vs VW,FORD,GM ETC with APPLE vs NOKIA ETC . Can this new company with no car making experience take on big oil and old motor ? I’m biased as I was lucky enough to be able to buy a Tesla Model S three years ago I brought it to Curborough twice and had great fun in the base model performance wise . Others of the club liked it as well . FACT Diesel for cars is now dead sales have collapsed , Ford is to stop making salmon cars and focus on SUV’S and Crossovers. V.A.G ,Daimler and others are putting a lot into hybrids and BEV but seems to be more for compliance rather than serious product development. Pikes Peak record now held by a battery car . Apart from range (currently , but the majority of most peoples journeys are short ) and sound performance is going to be dominated by electric only and hybrid vehicles in the very near future . Petrol head thoughts
I’m enjoying fossil fuels, whilst they’re still around. It’ll be interesting to watch how the battery technology will progress, isn’t lithium in short supply? What about these organic/ bacteria batteries?
Who's going to fix them in 10 + years time. If its the dealers, its going to be financially painful. Can't see the 'modern' youngsters with a scope and a DVM, comms diagnostic machine etc if the computer doesn't tell them what's wrong the car is effectively irreparable. Guess and swap out a part at a time? No, we will lease them, so 'ownership' is going to be a thing of the past. 50K car at 10 year life's a hundred quid a week? I am an old luddite, I know, but its very satisfying to know whatever breaks on my 1990 CITI I can fix it easily myself with my own basic kit. Future's electric for sure. If it were my design its roof would be a solar panel, so it charges when its parked and it would have a donkey high efficiency petrol/gas genset that ran when needed parked up/driving as a self contained battery top up system. And regen braking for sure. Jon
Hopefully cars will still have steering suspension and brakes so we will still have things to tinker with. I dabble in rc heli flying/crashing, there is plenty of tuning to be done to motors and speed controllers (don’t panic, speed control as in “more speed vicar?” not “You’re nicked son”) so I’m sure people will be getting the soldering iron out to go faster. My only concern is that I keep my lipo batteries in an ammo box so the house doesn’t get burned down, I’m going need a big ol’ ammo box to park the mk2 in when it goes milk float.
Hybrids just seem complex without being one thing or another, battery power, untill can give a decent range and fully charge in 5 minutes, just isnt there, Only petrol power for me, thank god im old and have had my motoring fun, while it was fun..