[Rap]

FIAT. Fix it all Tesla

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[ds968]

They both leak lots of Money.

Well, not really .. If you look at Teslas key financial markers , their balance sheet in particular , theres essentially have no cash or cash flow, or material positive shareholder equity, and investors are worried the company may not even be able to pay the interest on the massive amount of debt they amassed for much longer... Fiat on the other hand, is not doing that badly .. there was talk they may even buy Peugeot but who the hell would want that joke of a car company ?! Fiat need to stick to their Chrysler and Maserati business and their partnership with Ferrari which is a gold mine for them. But Tesla has nowhere to go and nothing to survive on..

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[ds968]

No accident triggering this , just parked there quietly ( in Shanghai ) , when .....


https://youtu.be/ltpJnEvStbM


BTW, lengthier duration videos can be pulled up now from various media sources, Ill see if I can post one of those instead of this very brief one - you see the smoke suddenly and then gradually more of it starting to come from under the car, and then boom !


Imagine if the driver and / or passenger were in the car at the time !


Maybe statistics indicate that in accidents there are more gas cars catching fire than electric cars, but not many gas cars spontaneously combust without anything hitting them !

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[ds968]

What we have here is the new infrastructure enhancement to support the E-vehicle industy. Mobile charging .

THIS IS A DIESEL VAN, USING A GAS / PETROL GENERATOR , TO CHARGE AN ELCTRIC CAR ..... the future is bright , I gotta wear shades ..

   

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[Rap]

Road Side assistance from AAA.

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[968Syncro]

The holy grail of recharging is still "wireless power".    Even Tesla himself dreamed of transmitting power through the air.   We should start a company with the vision of creating drones that fly above the freeway zapping power to an EV (if they have prepurchased a subscription of course).  Dan, you certainly have access to capital, can you get us ..... let's say about $500M to get started?  Remember it doesn't matter if we ever produce anything, a few patents, a lab that looks impressive, and a set of power point slides is all we ever have to create.

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[ds968]

The holy grail of recharging is still "wireless power".    Even Tesla himself dreamed of transmitting power through the air.   We should start a company with the vision of creating drones that fly above the freeway zapping power to an EV (if they have prepurchased a subscription of course).  Dan, you certainly have access to capital, can you get us ..... let's say about $500M to get started?  Remember it doesn't matter if we ever produce anything, a few patents, a lab that looks impressive, and a set of power point slides is all we ever have to create.

Too funny, but in today’s world drumming up capital for gimmicky things is not impossible, so I propose we get an appointment on Shark Tank and see if we can get this idea off the ground

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[ds968]

Had to laugh at this story :

 

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/26/frem...car-chase/

 

 

That's why I also laugh at the published ranges for electric cars .   300 miles !   Yeah, sure , if you NEVER accelerate, and drive all those miles at no more than 30 MPH in the city or more than a constant 65 MPH on the highway .   But if you want to have fun and test that instant torque from 0-60 more than a couple of times a day, or, try to take the car to the mountains where you have to drive it at a significant incline for a little while, and heaven forbid you try to pass a truck while going uphill, you'll see how quickly that 300 miles turns into a 50 mile capacity..  :lol:           

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[Rap]

You never read about how the cold impacts battery life.

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[MCL968]

You never read about how the cold impacts battery life.

Very true! One of these car companies will eventually come up with a coal-fired battery warmer to address that problem.

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[ds968]

For all the tree huggers out there : 63 % of all electricity is generated by coal burning / fossil fuel plants . So when you think about all the charging stations needed for electric cars , ask yourselves where and how that electricity will be produced and at what environmental cost ?! BTW , a Tesla actually pollutes more per mile than a 3 or 5 series BMW if you take into consideration the emissions of the plant making the batteries and the plants producing the electricity to charge the batteries. And then how will those toxic batteries be disposed at the end of their life ? Maybe just bury them in a landfill or better yet throw them in the ocean, eh . Hypocritical. Not downplaying the need for action on the environment, but this is not the solution. Not yet, anyways...

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[Kim]

Dan - do you also take into account the energy needed to build the engine in the BMW and the facility needed to refine the oil for gasoline?  The oil for the BMW's gas engine has to come from somewhere too. Over a lifetime, how much difference is there in disposing of batteries versus disposing of used engine/transmission/gear oil? Over a 200.000 km lifespan, with an oil change every 10,000 km, the oil is changed 20 times.  At 6 litres per change that is 120 litres of oil that needs to go somewhere. And for many car nuts that is extremely conservative. What about disposing of mufflers and spark plugs and coil packs and all the other stuff?  

 

My opinion is that we need to get past this stuff. When more of us old guys with big HP engines finally need to give up the ghost and more forward into the current century with its current problems then electric cars will become less expensive, more user-friendly and less difficult to charge.  All the solar panels, all the water-driven turbines and all windmills in the world, as few as there may be now, can't make a BMW go 1 km down the road.

 

I don't have an EV. I live 100 km from work and I can't find an affordable one with enough range.  Not now but maybe soon. So, for now, I'm part of the problem.  Later, I hope to be more on the side of the solution.

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[ds968]

Kim, I think that aspect was factored into the comparison study ( I’ll have to search for the article , tne data was posted on the Maserati forum in response to the recent announcement that the brand is going full electric syartimg in 2021 , which is nothing short of sacrilege for big V8 gas powered aficionados ) . But I still maintain that EVs are not even close to offering a solution, currently they cause as much damage as fuel cars. Maybe with time , as in 20 years or more , the technology will overcome that .

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[Rap]

Can you imagine an EV state truck with a snow plow and salting hours on end? I guess we would have to wait for the roads to be cleared or made safe each time these trucks needed to be charged. How come very few articles or people ever weigh in on just how much change ev will bring to our climate problems when China and India still pollute at the levels they do. Is this reverse racism? Is is the US held to a standard that no one else is?
Kim old guys get to have opinions too!

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[ds968]

K

How come very few articles or people ever weigh in on just how much change ev will bring to our climate problems when China and India still pollute at the levels they do. Is this reverse racism? Is is the US held to a standard that no one else is?Kim old guys get to have opinions too!

Completely agree , and I hate to have a defeatist attitude since Im not of a nature who gives up easily, but sadly , the impact the US would make on the environment, whether short term or long term , by going full bore with every single vehicle on the road being an EV, and an all solar powered nation of homes, businesses , etc, would be negligible and entirely offset by the massive destruction caused by gross polluters like China and India, among other countries which will never change or even reduce , then the continuing deforestation of the Amazon region, ocean dumping by practically every other country in Asia or Africa , so on and so forth. And I keep hearing : well, you have to start somewhere and set an example . So we should invest trillions upon trillions ( which could be otherwise allocated and spent to resolve much more immediate problems ) on a false hope that at some point in the future wed make any difference ? Thats very naive , wide-eyed idealistic thinking. Yes, I have a cynical view on this issue but its a realistic one .

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[rxter]

Business opportunity for 2050, which I am happy to pass this along as I'll be long dead..

 

1. Refining crude oil into gasoline.

2. Building and/or operating places where you can drive a gasoline powered car.

 

For those of you that live in or near areas that have horse trails and stables, you'll doubtless have seen people sitting on these crude beasts.  Some folks just love 19th century technology.  From that love was born a small but expensive past-time - riding horses. 

 

My prediction is that by 2050 driving your beloved 968, or anything else that is not autonomous and electric, will be illegal in all large urban areas of the US.  Hell, China has already set a target of 60% electric by 2035.  When you are at 60% its all over, and when China farts, the auto industry sniffs.

 

Our gas powered, driven by humans cars would look as odd on the road in 2050 as a horse does today.  Smoke 'em if you got 'em boys...

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[Kim]

You know, 30 years ago it was not possible to have your music collection in your pocket.

Your grandfather could not do his banking in bed.

We went to bed when it was dark because there was no electricity.  TV was not invented.

 

But somebody had an idea and made it work.  I am sure that there were many problems, but those people hired others to solve them.  They just pushed forward.  They were the small minority of thinkers.

 

It is said that Steve Jobs wanted to iPod to be smaller.  His experts said it was not possible, there was no more room. Jobs asked for the device and then put it in a glass of water.  Bubbles came out.  Jobs said those bubbles are space.  The iPod was made smaller.

 

I agree that a snow plow can't run all day on a charge. But someday it perhaps will.  Someday all cars will run on electricity and be able to be charged as and where needed.  Some people may still drive gasoline powered cars.  Some people still drive horses.  But not the majority.

 

It is my opinion that all the "studies" are being done by the problem identifiers, principally by persons with vested interests in failure. We need to give the problem "solvers" a chance. We are doomed otherwise.

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[968Syncro]

There is one really easy solution.  Nuclear energy paired with EVs: easy, no problem, endless power.   Sure we need to take some tough political steps to deal with the nuclear waste, but newer technologies are helping with that.   Yucca mountain didn't erode or leak yet, it's still there.   Right now our society is feeling pretty rich, there is plenty of oil and gas, and we have good willingness, hope, and tolerance to deal with renewables.  But once hydrocarbons diminish (get too expensive), and renewables won't do the job or stay so cumbersome, or the "excrement hits the fan" because of unmanageable economic or societal problems, we will see nuclear power stations pop up all over the country.  There are now small cost effective nuclear power systems -- each county or city can simply decide how many they need and install them.  The only thing needed is to just change people's mindset about nuclear energy.

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[ds968]

The elders sayeth thou shall rot in hell, with all this devil talk about electricity ..

We are not amused !!

   

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[Rap]

The market should determine this change. Big govt and politicians exist merely to fundraise and run for re-election. As long as some young poorly educated congresswoman doesn’t tell me we have 12 years to get this accomplished or the end of the world will occur I’m fine. Change occurs but I’d rather let the market dictate this change. Consumers will buy ev when the price is reasonable, no subsidies, charging is widely available and it makes sense.

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