Electric cars

ElefantEd

The "what if I ran out of charge on a smart motorway?" criticism surely applies just as much to any ICE vehicle - the clutch could fail, the exhaust could fall off, or anyone could have a burst tyre (EV or ICE).


It's not like EVs stop suddenly; apart from the warngins, they generally go into some kind of energy saving mode so you have a few miles to find a safe place to stop. They don't just switch off and park themselves in the outside lane.

Martyn1981

California’s Clean Truck Rule: First Of Its Kind & Long Overdue

California officials are gearing up to launch a momentous new rule to tackle one of the largest sources of pollution in the state: medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks. After years of deliberation and public input, the rule is the first of its kind and long overdue.

Traditional, diesel-burning medium- and heavy-duty trucks – which range from F-250s to 18-wheelers – are big sources of smog-forming pollutants, carcinogenic particulates, and climate forcing greenhouse gases. I’m sure everyone has experienced either holding their breath or coughing in disgust when a truck rolled by spewing black fumes. It goes without saying, but those fumes are horrible for our health and the environment. While California’s electricity sector keeps getting cleaner, pollution from cars and trucks has been heading in the wrong direction.

To add insult to injury, asthma and other severe respiratory diseases air pollution causes are especially harmful to the most vulnerable among us, including children and seniors, as well as communities of color and low-income communities that are often located near commercial trucking hubs. California already has some of the most effective clean car rules — isn’t it time we had the same for trucks?

If the Advanced Clean Truck Rule is adopted by the California Air Resources Board, medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturers would be required to sell zero-emission trucks as an increasing percentage of their annual California sales from 2024 to 2030. The rule would also require fleet owners with +100 trucks to report information about their operation. The data will inform future policies to ensure fleets purchase and use zero-emission trucks.

AdrianC

Martyn1981 wrote: »

California’s Clean Truck Rule: First Of Its Kind & Long Overdue

Minor problem with that...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49746701

Martyn1981

AdrianC wrote: »

Minor problem with that...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49746701

I'd have to go Googling to check, but I seem to recall that Cali/22 US states are challenging the decision to remove this 50yr old waiver. there is even some evidence/argument that Trump's powers extend to the issuing of waivers but not to their withdrawl.

AdrianC

Dyson have dropped their electric car project, since it's "not commercially viable". They tried to sell the project, but nobody was interested.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50004184

Meanwhile, Tesla's Q3 production snuck out a week ago.

https://ir.tesla.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tesla-q3-2019-vehicle-production-deliveries

Both S/X and 3 production are up from Q2 - S/X by 12%, 3 by 10% (6,140 cars/wk).
S/X deliveries are down a snidge, 3 deliveries are up 2.5%.
Total deliveries are another record, but less than 7% up from Q4 2018 - surprising given the ramp-up of 3 production/deliveries, until you realise that both S/X production and deliveries are around 70% down from Q4 2018.

Model 3 fell out of the UK top-ten sellers in September, too.

buglawton

The tech BBC programme Click had a good EV edition at the weekend. Catch up on the BBC iPlayer. Included a visit to the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Martyn1981

Been watching lots of news snippets in the electric car blogs suggesting Tesla has been sandbagging on their TMY dates, probably to avoid all the daft FUD they got about the TM3 rollout.

This article looks into it a bit, but seems to conclude no evidence either way (yet) but original deadline (Fall 2020) is solid.

Tesla Model Y: “Limited Production” ≠ Customer Deliveries

worried_jim

buglawton wrote: »

The tech BBC programme Click had a good EV edition at the weekend. Catch up on the BBC iPlayer. Included a visit to the Frankfurt Motor Show.

I was screaming at the tv- crash helmets to drive to 62mph in a straight line. They must get danger money just for getting out of bed.

Martyn1981

Not sure that'll buff out!

Leading car in World Solar Challenge bursts into flames

Wrong kind of sunshine perhaps?

AdrianC

Guess this was a bad idea for a performance enhancer...