Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Something occurred to me the other day, all EV manufacturers seem to concentrate on range likely because it’s an easy enough goal to achieve and market but I think that’s wrong. I think that they should really work on charging speeds instead. If you think about it, something like my Mustang (or the Xterra for that matter) has shit range but it doesn’t really matter because it takes all of 5 minutes to refuel.
Also if charging times are brought down to say 10 mins it opens up more of a market. There are plenty of people who drive short enough distances but have nowhere to charge. I’m one such example (along with a good chunk of apartment dwellers in general). Aside from some longer family drives on weekends, I doubt I cover a 100 miles in a week even if we combine distance driven for both cars. Stuff just isn’t that far apart here and my work commute is either via mass transit or via internet.
 
The reason is the difference in what it takes to achieve each of those goals.

Better range: Install larger battery
Faster charging: Develop significant breakthrough in battery technology that allows higher charging throughput without damaging cells
 
Well what's stopping them? Other than laws of thermodynamics :p Though from what I understand the main hurdles are the ability to push enough current for one and heat management. The latter can probably be solved via better cooling, the former I'm not too sure about.
 
I think the other problem is, each charging station, especially the fast chargers is roughly the amperage of a single family American house with every outlet maxed out. That is a huge load on the current (eyyyyy) infrastructure.
 
True story, so I guess it all boils down to infra in the end, if we had a beefier infra we could in theory have faster charging.
 
True story, so I guess it all boils down to infra in the end, if we had a beefier infra we could in theory have faster charging.
Probably, but who is gonna use money to beef up the power grid when you can't even maintain the roads, bridges, etc, which are arguably more urgent?
 
For the most part (and I could be talking out my ass here) aren't power grids privately held by private utility companies? I know there are some public utilities out there, but most at this point are private, right? While roads are, on the most part, still state/public owned.

Also, roads and bridges are going to vary wildly from state to state and country to country. Missouri continues to impress me with their ability to keep most roads in good shape. Sometimes less so when in larger cities, but that's on them, not the state.

Edit: Oh and my local coal power plant is to be phased out over the next few years and replaced with wind turbines.
 
Utilities are a strange thing, they are partially private, but there is significant government management of them regarding things like rates. They often have to get permission from government entities to raise rates due to their public utility/monopoly status.

Just look at what is going on with PG&E right now; they didn't maintain their shit and caused fires in which people died and structures were lost. Their solution was to turn the power off on hot and windy days rather than fix their infrastructure. Now they are bankrupt due to the lawsuits and there is a push for the state to buy them out and make them a publicly owned entity.
 
I believe they also get a decent amount of public funds when needed, but it might also vary from municipality to municipality
 
Here it is state own (at least in my province), and a revenue generator (heyyyy) for the government.
 
Ford issued a weird fix for a coolant leak issue. Essentially a computer reprogramming to ease an internal coolant consumption.

 
At a guess it does one or two things: Decreases head temperature so the warping is lessened if the warping happens during high load or runs the fan more while shut down if it detects an overtemp if the warping occurs during shutdown heat soak.
 
Is it a leak, or consumption?

The fix I posted is for a consumption issue.
 
I imagine it's a leak or a bad rad cap - cars shouldn't just consume coolant.

That is why the prescribed fix is so confusing to me. It is a mechanical failure of some kind, how is reprogramming going to solve a mechanical issue?
 
I'm genuinely intrigued....

https://www.truecar.com/used-cars-for-sale/listing/3VWCD21Y24M302651/?referrer_id=autotempest


Not that I would buy a New Beetle unless it was a weird diesel manual type...


I'm not sure what it is but current VW is actually quite good. At least if you stick to the Golf. Having a MK7 GTI and MK7 alltrack, I genuinely like these cars. There's enough torque for in-town use and really good highway comfort as well as fuel efficiency. I guess I'm not looking for much in cars anymore as I've gotten older despite my longing for some sort of Porsche later on. After seeing a recent SavageGeese video on the Ford Explorer, and having driven a few GM and FCA vehicles in rental fleets, VW is the right amount of "good" for the price. All I've ever looked for in a car is to just do things and not make an art form of it. For my tastes, VW is it for the moment. Some have said German cars are boring and some will single out VW in perticular to which I disagree as Toyota and Honda have the German brands beat as far as "good dullness" is concerned as Japanese brands have a whole new level of "it just works" dullness that I think German brands have yet to achieve.


What is Ford doing these days anyways?



This post brought to you by an afternoon of beer. :|
 
Top