J_D 2.0
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2020
- Messages
- 2,929
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- Location
- Ipswich
- Members Ride
- 2009 VE SSV M6 on LPG and 2022 Kawasaki Z650L
I wouldn’t mind making my SV6 an EV when the time comes. Ive seen the proposal for EV packages from GM, which looks interesting.You and I and many on this forum live pretty sheltered lives. If you went and interviewed random people on the street I think you'd be surprised how many have paid 4 digits for repairs on their vehicles. It's only a days labour to get your there. The guy you mention sounds like a bit of a high end exception
A mates oil pump died on his VFSS, did a little damage and the engine came out. $2900. Another just had a radiator die and they recommended to do all hoses and the pump, the whole shebang $1200. Your DSG, CVT or auto breaks and is repairable, lucky to come under $3000. Clutch? $2000 easy. Engine blows? Don't even want to know. Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it don't happen
Tesla is very much like Apple in they don't want you messing with something that relies on a complex, critical software ecosystem. I get that, liability is a bitch and reputation is important. I used to build my own drones so I could do as I pleased, now I have a DJI and I can't mod a thing on it but it's a pretty amazing device. I used to root and ROM my smartphone but now it's just not worth it or necessary. Google doesn't want me messing with their platform, if I do I lose a bunch a features because they can no longer assure the security of the device. I get that, my work is no different, if an end user messes with something I can't QA or guarantee it. With ICE vehicles it's the same aside they have no control besides voiding warranty
GM have already started showcasing their enthusiast lines, where this will be quite the opposite. They will even be making EV kits for their ICE ranges and word on the street is there will be raspberry pi integration. Mobs like Kelly and ACI already make enthusiast controllers and BMS. It will breed a new era of modders and enthusiasts. I'd love to convert the SS once she's done with this new build a decade or more from now. There's tonnes of vids on YouTube of folk who build their own, using insanely powerful Lynch motors and the like. Naturally nannystralia ADR and regulations will be our brick wall. It's pretty cost prohibitive as well
It will be a very different world order, we still have lots of ICE fun ahead of us though
I do think that EVs are really fiddling at the edges though. Governments around the world are all banging on about EVs and forcing ICE vehicles out of the market by 2030-2035 etc but they are only doing this because it’s the pollution source that is highly visible. The background stuff that is a much bigger problem doesn’t really get a look in.
The low hanging fruit below could make a far greater contribution to reducing carbon emissions than EVs and most of it doesn’t require a whole paradigm shift, just a different way of doing things where the consequences down the line are actually thought of instead of the usual “**** it, it’s someone else’s problem”.
1) Stationary electricity generation (coal and gas replaced with renewables and storage)
2) Banning planned obsolescence (where’s the mandates to stop companies forcing people to upgrade things every few years)
3) Reducing the eating of meat (yes it is a major contributor to global warming like the hippies say!)
4) Reversing globalisation (the carbon emissions to make something in China and ship it half way around the world exceeds what would be emitted if more things were produced locally again)
5) Designing products to make the parts that wear out (and only the part that wears out) easily replaceable instead of having to replace a whole subassembly or junk the item altogether.
6) Not chopping down trees at a greater rate than they are growing (the Amazon Rainforest will cease to be a rainforest soon because so much of it is being chopped down it’s reducing the rainfall required to support the remaining forest).