Right to Repair

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Am fortunate I have had for daily transport a 1990 Renault 5 1.4l for 18 years and can do most repairs crawling about doing welding repairs is getting a bit of a pain at nearly 80.

There are no computers on it thank goodness computers when everything is ok are amazing but what a pain if not.

Just a change from ordinary vehicles on the 12th and 13th of February at Elvington Airfield there is a show of Record breaking motorcycles, cars, drag racing machines I understand Guy Martin who will be pilot of Alex McFazdine Gem turbine two wheel streamliner is going.

Steam jet bike and fastest lady UK bike rider are their plus some of the machines from my racing era.

.

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

Posted by Chris Crew on 07/02/2022 22:22:03:

……..the fault…….turned out to be a dead short across an LED in a rear light cluster which can't be replaced……and the cluster has to be completely replaced. Also, they said the car's software needs updating. The price for the cluster and the software is £286 plus fitting, plus the time it took to find the fault, plus VAT so I guess it will finally be around £500/600

That is simply immoral for just a shorted 'bulb'. Utterly ridiculous – if it was me I would write a strong (but polite) letter to Volvo, copied to your garage.

Next time, perhaps a scrap yard or an online second hand car parts company to buy a replacement cluster and swap it yourself?

 

The LED light cluster in our bedroom ceiling fan stopped working and looking at the board, a couple of the ICs that drove the LEDs had literally burned out. The company wanted £45 + postage for a new cluster. Err, "Negative, Ghost Rider" – I unsoldered the mains socket from the LED board and made up a lead to feed the mains output to a standard bulb holder and fitted a small LED bulb. This sits 'loose' but perfectly safely within the frosted glass lamp cover and works perfectly. Cost? zero, except a bit of heat shrink sleeving I had 'in stock', and about 30mins of my time, which is free anyway. (Not suggesting this cure for your car !!).

 

Edited By John Doe 2 on 08/02/2022 09:40:04

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

John D. I couldn't agree more with your sentiments but unfortunately I do not have the skills or equipment to have diagnosed the fault in the first place. As I said earlier I could not even find two of the fuse boxes on this vehicle, not that it would have done me any good in the event if I had found them, so I had to bite the bullet and send the car to the service agent. As an aside, I found out yesterday that modern cars don't even have a dipstick. I might be the 'dipstick' for not knowing this, but the oil warning indication came up on the wife's car so I told her to buy some oil from Halfords while she was out shopping, and of course it had to be 'digital' oil at £18 a litre. When I investigated via YouTube I found the car had a digital dipstick and you read the oil level on the dash display. It showed the oil level at maximum and when she started the engine again the warning had disappeared, so eighteen-quid wasted. You live and learn but sadly I appear to be learning very slowly and expensively these days.

Edited By Chris Crew on 08/02/2022 11:37:28

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Chris Crew on 08/02/2022 11:36:09:

John D. I couldn't agree more with your sentiments but unfortunately I do not have the skills or equipment to have diagnosed the fault in the first place. …

Nothing new here. I was about 12 when I heard this 19th Century joke. Man calls a plumber to fix a leaking tap. Plumber arrives, turns off the stop-cock, removes the tap top and replaces the leather washer. Job done, plumber presents the bill: new washer one farthing, labour 10 guineas. Customer explodes, but plumber explains the 10 guineas covers the cost of knowing what's wrong and how to fix it.

Not sure the assumption changing filament light bulb is easier than fixing a LED either: In the past I've had awful fun and games with faulty wiring looms, earth faults, and damaged bulb holders. If it's not a simple blown bulb, we is in the poo. And even a simple failed bulb can be a PITA. When one blew in the instrument panel of my Citroen BX it proved unbelievably difficult to get at!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 08/02/2022 12:02:48

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

I understand what is being said about classic and older cars and why they hold an attraction for some people but, once you have had a modern car for all the additional expense, I would not like to return to the old days. I had a 'Moggy Thou' once in my younger days and I can't remember it being all that reliable or even comfortable, the heater was pathetic and the seats hurt my back. I have had about every model of car, from 1959 onward, that usually appear on display at a traction engine rally and have done just about every type of repair on them from re-ringing, crankshaft regrinds and gearbox rebuilds, you name it and I still have all the tools as proof.

Just like in life, it is very easy to go up in the world but very hard to come back down. It's the same with a newer car with a reasonable spec. Would I really want to do without remote locking, electric windows, air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering, digital radio, voice operated sat-nav and the plethora of improvements and conveniences that have appeared over the years? I my case I think not. I am far too old now to be freezing cold or uncomfortable when driving or to be crawling about at the weekend covered in oil setting tappets and points or changing a head gasket as in my younger days. For me those days are over and the only dread I have now is being forced into an electric car!

Edited By Chris Crew on 08/02/2022 12:40:17

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

Doing the math on Tax, Insurance, Maintenance, MOT, Tyres and Fuel divided by the miles (not many these days) – simply using a Taxi is starting to look very attractive!

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

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[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Gary Wooding on 31/01/2022 11:51:43:

…

I ordered a Volvo 245 estate direct from the factory in Gothenburg … It turned out to be the worst car I ever owned.

…

My dad and brother-in-law owned Volvo 245s and had no such problems. At the time Volvo were considered unusually reliable compared with most UK cars.

I wonder why Gary was so unlucky – several unrelated faults and all four shock absorbers failed, which is unusual?

Perhaps a mix of bad luck and poor process discipline. Maybe several iffy batch made parts from different suppliers came together on a rushed production run, where both assembly and inspection were slapdash. Hurrying to meet a stupid production target with everyone demob happy on the last shift before a holiday might do it.

Anyone have experience of 1980's car production going wrong?

Dave

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I quite agree that modern cars are much better than those of say 50 years ago, but having said that I do find that there things that are just not necessary, things that are plain stupid, whilst things that could & should be done are not. Take my present car, Toyota Avensis Estate new in 2013. We have electric front windows, and manual rear windows. Why? Also, the front passenger window can be locked, or rather disconnected, from the drivers side. Now ok, maybe a good safety feature, but it doesn't apply to the rear non-electric windows. Daft or what? There is a light that comes on when the door opens, but the ignition key is in darkness. Might I suggest that lighting the ignition key might be of more use than lighting the access. And so on, and so on. In fact, there are functions on this car that I have never explored unless I have accidently activated them, eg there is something, I forget what now, that can be done to the so-called electronic handbrake switch but which results in either a red or an amber light on the dashboard console. That caused me no end of worry until I found it in the inch thick manual. In short, modern cars are too clever for their own good.

Unfortunately, we are going to be somewhat stuck in a few years time. The car is 8 years old and was bought specifically because a) it was petrol; b) it was an estate & c) it was capable of towing our caravan. It has performed admirably over the last 8 years returning good tyre life, very little gone wrong, and achieving an overall mpg of 38. Which compares very favourably with the two previous diesel cars which only managed 42 & 45mpg respectively. Unfortunately, we bought this caravan, new, four years ago, ie just before all the present restrictions were mooted. So now we have a new(ish) caravan and an old(ish) car, And as far as I can see, the only car that Toyota now do which may be capable of towing my caravan is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. (I haven't as yet looked elsewhere.) But frankly, the future for us, as caravaners is beginning to look somewhat bleak. And I suspect that caravan manufacturers and caravan site owners will also be somewhat worried about their future.

In terms of repair work, over the years, well over 50 I might add, I have done a lot of my own servicing and repair work. But then, cars of yesterday were indeed much simpler although I do believe the rot set in with our Montego which developed a rather nasty fault in which it would start misfiring for no obvious reason, the ecu was temporarily changed, plugs checked, distributor checked and nothing found. Ultimately, an AA patrolman said "Well, all there is is …", and he reeled off all the usual suspects, but included one which I knew nothing about – the crankshaft TDC sensor. And that was it, broken wiring to something which had never been seen on earlier vehicles.

Yes, I do think private motoring is likely to be restricted in the future, but it is likely that I won't be here to see it. Not so my children and grandchildren, including my daughter with a broken back and her adapted car.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

[Pete WhiteParticipant @petewhite15172]

Similar story here, two many old cars and far too many miles in landrovers. I am now about to upgrade to the replacement for my Yetti, after 10 very happy years of ownership.

Only real problem was when it went into limp mode 100 miles from home, I thought it was the turbo, but my tame man put the laptop to it and said new ht lead required, result. Apparently the system cuts fuel off if a lead fails.

I dragged our holidays about for years, but we have now moved on to cottages, advantages all round and we got too old for Landrovers and they got too old for us.

Only changing for something that works the gears for us, shows me when I am going to run into something when reversing cos I can't do an owl impression these days, lets ME see the satnav as well, warms our bottoms, knocks the cruise off when I am going to run into something infront, won't roll backward on hills, tells me if the tyres need blowing up, the list is endless. Oh and nearly forgot, buttons to adjust the seat and mirrors when we change driver. She doesnt bother to change the mirrors? Boss can't drive unless she is so high and can see the front bumper and so far forward so that she can use her upper body? to help steer, I can't get in the car for lack of headroom when she has been in. What I have never understood is that there was no seat adjustment in the landrover and we managed ok?

I am staying with the new technology and my old co pilot

Edited By Pete White on 08/02/2022 14:46:08

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Take care accessing the rear port on your horse for diagnostic purposes – generally best carried out from behind the side of a wall unless you wish to go sailing.

pgk

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Bmw wanted £4000 for a new headlight for my 5 series. Ok it’s the fancy led job which is very good when it’s working and by far the best headlights I have ever had on a car. But £4000. Thank god I was able to get a used one. Mind you that cost £450. Manufacturers just rob you senseless these days.

[Kiwi BlokeParticipant @kiwibloke62605]

Well, it's a good job modern cars are (probably) more reliable than they used to be. In the 'good old days', I could buy official workshop manuals, and do all mechanical and electrical servicing and repairs, even if it meant having to make special tools occasionally. That stopped nearly 20 years ago. Since then, exponentially increasing complexity and the inclusion of ever more bullshit features (seemingly more to do with 'connectivity' than the real world task of getting from place to place), has made DIY work effectively impossible, except for the simplest jobs. It's now almost essential to be able to read and decipher diagnostic codes output by the vehicle, because no human knows what's going on when things don't work correctly.

OK, bite the bullet and get the dealer to do the work. Two problems: spares are ridiculously expensive and the grease monkeys are incompetent. Plan B: buy new and swap out at the end of the warranty. The incompetence problem remains. I have made three warranty claims in the last decade (not bad going, perhaps), and on each occasion the dealer fouled up. Plan C: lease the thing – it's then someone else's problem (apart from the inconvenience, aggravation and out-of-pocket expenses when the gremlins get to work). But that's very expensive.

Gone are the days of being able to keep a fairly elderly vehicle on the road for peanuts. When 'professionally'-done repairs may cost as much as the vehicle is worth, it's game over, isn't it? Perhaps that's when Plan D – theft – is instituted.

I dread the time when we have to source a replacement vehicle.

[Ex contributorParticipant @mgnbuk]

the only dread I have now is being forced into an electric car!

Why "dread" ?

Apart from the initial cost, they are just a car with a different powertrain. I test drove an MG 5 EV last weekend & the most suprising thing about was how "normal" it felt to drive for the most part. Main difference was the adjustable regenerative braking, but other than having to get used to that I didn't feel it would take much getting used to at all. Range has improved over intial offerings, with the "small" battery version of the "5" being rated at over 200 miles – more in town.

My brother has been running a Nissan Leaf for 5 years now & it has proven to be a reliable, cheap to run car that he likes very much. At 6 years old (he bought it as an ex-demonstrator) the battery still shows 98% of it's original capacity. That he also runs a large Volvo diesel estate to tow his caravan touches on the point Peter Shaw mentions – currently electric cars struggle with towing. But that is changing too – the Caravan & Camping Club magazine had a towing test for a Skoda all electric car in the latest issue. Admittedly less towing capacity (1 tonne ) than an equivalent ICE car of similar size & the range drops (160 miles as tested) when towing, but a sign that EVs are evolving to meet user's requirements. I read (briefly) that Audi had recently done a towing test in conjunction with caravan maker Buerstner where the caravan had been fitted with additional batteries to assist powering the car via an umbilical lead & covered 250 miles on a charge through the Alps.

Whether mere mortals aan afford such technology is another matter, but ICE cars are getting more expensive & EVs are getting more capable and cheaper. The MG 5 EV I test drove costs about the same as a Skoda Octavia estate with a 1 litre petrol engine & DSG gearbox – and that is after the recent change to less favorable terms for the Government EV grant, No so long ago that the EV would have been 30% (or more) more expensive than a comparable ICE version.

I wonder if "right to repair" will be embraced by car makers ? When the CVT gearbox in the Avensis I had started making "bearing" noises at around 80K miles, Toyota were happy to inform me that there were no spare parts available & the only option was a new gearbox (no exchange option ) @ £4500 + fitting. I elected to move it on & put the money towards it's replacement – which was not a Toyota.

Nigel B.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

When I stated that my dread was being forced into an electric car it was purely from a practical point of view. I like to think that I have a respect for the environment, I am not a climate change denier, my wife and I are almost obsessive re-cyclers, I have the solar panels installed and even though we each have a diesel car (hers is a mild hybrid) every journey of any distance is taken on public transport, either by train or continued by local bus at the destination. In other words we try to do 'our bit'. As we are located in a village in the middle of rural Lincolnshire, with a very poor bus service, and the station on one line is 7 miles distant with free parking and on another line 15 miles away with parking available on my step-daughter's drive, and a free bus pass ride into town, the cars are only used to access either a station or for the weekly shopping. Mine hardly moves from one week to the next.

Notwithstanding the above, I look at it this way. If I need to buy a tank of fuel (not very often in my case) it takes me all of 5 minutes at a self-service station and I am good for another 500 miles (I think). How long would it take if I were to be using the car regularly or on daily business to recharge, that is assuming I could find a suitable charging point? An hour, or is it more or less than that to get a full 'tank' before I would be mobile again? I have no idea but hopefully someone will be adding to my education. I know of only two public charging points in one town 10 miles away and two more on a supermarket car park 7 miles in the other direction, although I do know those who do not live in shared or upper floor accommodation may have a domestic point fitted. The other week I observed a person with an electric car pull up at one of the charging points at the supermarket whilst waiting for my wife to finish the shopping (sounds sexist, I know, before anyone takes a shot, but she likes to shop alone). The man dutifully went to the boot of his car, took out the charging lead and connected the vehicle to the charging point. He then took out his mobile phone and, because I assume TESCO doesn't give away electricity for free, made the necessary call or used an app to pay for the fuel and switch on the current. This must have taken between 5 and 10 minutes. He then went to the shop but returned in less than 15 minutes disconnected the car, coiled the cable and stored in the boot. How much 'fuel' he acquired in this time I have no idea. But I thought then, do I really want all this hassle? No, not for me.

On a wider point, and again I am looking to be educated if I am wrong, I look at it like this; when I think of all the millions of vehicles in motion at any one time in this country alone, there must be countless megawatts of power being released from the liquid fuel they use. I have no idea how many megawatts but I am guessing it is a lot. If all those vehicles were to be converted to electric instantaneously, let alone by 2030 and some years beyond, does or will this country have the generating capacity in wind, solar or nuclear to replace all those megawatts of energy current being provided by liquid fuel. I can only guess that will not and that conversion to alternative sources of power within so short a time frame is just a government fantasy, I think they call it 'greenwash'. I am only glad (?) that I will not be living long enough to see the demise of the diesel of petrol car and that I will never be forced into an electric vehicle despite the costs HMG keep loading on to those motorists such as myself.

Edited By Chris Crew on 09/02/2022 09:32:18

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

The next generation of electric cars will have quick change battery packs that you just pull into the service station and they yank out the flat battery and drop in a charged one about as quick as filling up a petrol tank, maybe quicker. They are already doing it on long haul electric trucks in Australia, with the battery change stations at the drivers' fatigue break stops. And motorcycle manufacturers are already working on a standard changeable battery pack across all makes and models. Car manufacturers are not far behind doing the same.

But yes, will need a lot of windmills and solar panels to power it. But we are already well on the way with solar in Australia, to the point that power prices are forecast to go down in the very near future and coal power stations are closing down ahead of schedule.

But of course we have the almost limitless space and sunshine for massive solar "farms". And suburban rooftop solar is so ubiquitous it is threatening grid stability with an oversupply of power at times. If only you guys could capture rain power instead of solar!!

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Chris Crew
Much of your concerns above depend on the electric car, it's battery size and power usage and your domestic circumstances in conjunction with your driving distance.

Life is undoubtedly more difficult for those without off-street parking and ground floors i.e those living above shops or in blocks of flats or old-fashioned terrace cottages – although that could be sorted with infrastructure changes such as streetside charging points and more points in public car-parks and most importantly the new legislation demanding new builds have such arrangements built in – even if the chargers themselves aren't yet installed

An efficient smaller electric car will consume between 250-400 Wh/mile depending on time of year, distance being travelled and need or heaters at the beginning of journeys i.e short journeys are a lot less efficient in winter until the car has warmed itself and it's battery packs up to optimal.

Domestic charge points typically deliver 7.4 KW/h as do most of the slow on-street or basic carpark systems. Plugging a car into your own point at home requires no fancy interaction with phone apps etc and an overnight charge of say 8hrs will shove 60 KWH into a suitable car, say average 180mile range. 12 hr charging obviously more.

It’s also possible to charge just from a 13apm power point but then you are down to reduced current depending on cable lengths/size etc 2.5-3 KW/h or 8-10miles range per hour.

Fast chargers such as those now appearing in supermarket car-parks will deliver anything from 50KW/h to 300KW/h (although no cars can take more than 250 KW draw at the moment and current draw depends on state of battery charge reducing as the pack fills up and some balancing happens)

How each network manages it's chargers does differ. The Tesla supercharger system is the simplest – just drive up and plug in a Tesla and the system reads whose car it is and debits monthly. Some of the networks use RFID cards, some will accept credit cards and many have membership systems and indeed use phone apps.

Since charging from home is the cheapest – particularly for those with cheap night tariffs, then folk generally keep the car topped up at home to a battery saving level circa 80% unless a long trip is planned when they'll fill it to 100% and then only charge as necessary on the trip and combine that with toilet or food breaks.

You can expect most decent range cars to have 2-300 mile ranges but for folk living in towns with short commutes or shopping trips there are cars with less range and hence cheaper to buy. And of course there is the option of a plug-in hybrid with ranges towards 30 miles. Once you have hybrids then you're generally into more maintenance and service costs.

Tesla lead the way with efficiency and simplicity of charging and almost zero maintenance needs but they aren't cheap cars – a standard range model 3 starts at £42K with little need to add any 'extras' and will give 200 miles range even in winter and practical 250 in summer on a motorway. However, Tesla are starting to shoot themselves in their proverbial feet with their minimalist design and simplified construction approach – the next generation Model Y will be built with a single rear chassis casting and a structural battery pack making repair after collision hugely more expensive and hence insurance rates will skyrocket – not helped by the supercar acceleration figures of some electric vehicles.

pgk

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Chris Crew on 09/02/2022 09:31:37:

When I stated that my dread was being forced into an electric car it was purely from a practical point of view. I like to think that I have a respect for the environment, … the cars are only used to access either a station or for the weekly shopping. Mine hardly moves from one week to the next.

Notwithstanding the above, I look at it this way. If I need to buy a tank of fuel (not very often in my case) it takes me all of 5 minutes at a self-service station and I am good for another 500 miles (I think). How long would it take if I were to be using the car regularly or on daily business to recharge, that is assuming I could find a suitable charging point? … But I thought then, do I really want all this hassle? No, not for me.

On a wider point,… I think of all the millions of vehicles in motion at any one time in this country alone, there must be countless megawatts of power being released from the liquid fuel they use. I have no idea how many megawatts but I am guessing it is a lot. If all those vehicles were to be converted to electric instantaneously, let alone by 2030 and some years beyond, does or will this country have the generating capacity in wind, solar or nuclear to replace all those megawatts of energy current being provided by liquid fuel. I can only guess that will not and that conversion to alternative sources of power within so short a time frame is just a government fantasy,

… I am only glad (?) that I will not be living long enough to see the demise of the diesel of petrol car and that I will never be forced into an electric vehicle despite the costs HMG keep loading on to those motorists such as myself.

…

Like me and millions of others Chris is a low-mileage user: shopping trips and short commutes etc. Electric cars are ideal for us because we can recharge them at home! No need go anywhere special or queue. Fears about topping up a supermarket are groundless because we would rarely do it. It's easy for us to 'respect the environment'. Switching to an electric car is no problem for anyone doing less than 100 miles per day.

Agreed mid-journey charging will inconvenience long distance drivers, but they're a different problem. They will have to queue and wait while their vehicle recharges, but at least forecourts won't be cluttered by motorists like me and Chris.

Does the country have enough renewable energy to replace oil? Not yet, and maybe never. Worse, carrying on burning oil isn't the answer. I hope no-one on the forum is daft enough to think fossil fuels will last forever! Whilst a false sense of security is possible because energy prices have been stable for about 30 years, the future is grim. We depend on fossil fuels for food, water, manufactures, transport and energy. Unfortunately humanity is at or near peak oil and demand is still rising sharply. From now on expect to see scary price rises, shortages, economic shocks such as high inflation, disrupted services and riots.

Wikipedia says the UK's total energy consumption in 2019 was 1651TWh (equivalent to 148M tonnes of oil). Of this 335TWh was delivered by electricity. This document gives road petroleum usage as 28.9M tonnes, which is about 20% of UK energy use equivalent to 324TWh.

So the UK electrical system is just about big enough to power all UK vehicles provided everything else is turned off! The problem isn't quite as bad as that because Internal Combustion engines are inefficient compared with electric, for example they burning fuel stopped in queues and when rolling downhill, and only get peak efficiency when cruising at about 55mph.

The difficult future rather than the cosy past is why it's necessary to move urgently to renewable energy as much possible, and imperfect though renewables are. The tide is turning, some effects are already visible, and our grandchildren see nothing but problems ahead. My guess is 20 to 30 years before it gets really rough, which isn't long when major changes like new nuclear power stations are needed. Too much time has been wasted already. The change isn't about tree-huggers inconveniencing motorists, it's about ensuring a comfortable future.

How best to convince people to change is a major problem in itself. At the moment, the best thing individuals can do is burn fossil fuels: the short-term results are almost all beneficial. Unfortunately, in this case, the long-term result of individuals doing their best is catastrophic to the whole group. Some way of rewarding good behaviour whilst punishing bad is needed.

Dave

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Just as a matter of interest, I looked at Hydrogen charging stations recently. UK has only 3 or 4 available to the public with only another couple planned. But look at Germany, and the map is almost littered with the things. There is the matter of whether the colourless gas is Brown, Blue or Green but that's an issue to be resolved. What is does show is that all those concerns about impracticality of Hydrogen storage etc can be overcome.

pgk

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

These guys are going one step further and have robots doing the EV battery swaps in a matter of minutes. **LINK**

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Just to digress slightly, all cars, those that are ice and EV will continue to need tyres, today I visited my local tyre supplier, have been a customer of theirs since the 60’s and was served then by the present owners grandad, makes me feel really old, we had an interesting conversation on how prices have skyrocketed and the reasons. The tyre supplier purchases the majority of his stock from the Far East, no surprise there, and ships 1,000 tyres at a time in containers, the cost of a container pre Covid was £1,300, last month the invoice for one container was £17,000 for the hire, no signs that costs will be going down. Running any type of vehicle is going to get more expensive be it ice or EV. Cost of four tyres came out at £350.00. Dave W

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Where are the plans for all the new power stations that will be needed?

The grid will also need to have multiple times present capacity.

How many battery-packs will a fuel station have to store to keep up with demand?

Martin.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by Hopper on 09/02/2022 12:53:41:

These guys are going one step further and have robots doing the EV battery swaps in a matter of minutes. **LINK**

Tesla started out with the idea of battery swaps and indeed built a station in California to do just that. The original design cars were developed for the process but the whole thing was abandoned due to logistics of stockpiling and recharging the packs and the arguments over degradation and ownership of them.
It would be more practical for lorry fleet operations between, say, courier hubs.
It does all come down to infrastructure and compatibility – which also risks reducing innovation.
One of the nicest ideas for lorries was the concept of a smaller battery for local running and then overhead power on trunk routes – until you have hundreds of such trucks all trying to use the same line at once.

pgk

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