WARNING: Australians can often be a bit direct. If the occasional blue word curls your hair, I've written a summary below. Summary: If you believe a Tesla, photovoltaic, or any EV is 'green', you are in a cult. So this is what I wrote in the comments: Is it OK to buy an EV car because it is cheaper per mile to drive than gas? We have two, plug-in hybrids: BMW i3-REx and a Prius Prime. Both cars get ~4.5 miles per kWh. The electric rate is $0.10/kWh which gives $0.0222/mile. The BMW i3-REx gets 40 MPG burning $2.30/gal premium or about $0.0575/mile. The Prius Prime gets 54 MPG burning $1.90/gal regular or about $0.0352/mile. One of the great frauds has been to paint efficient car owners as being just 'green' or environmentalists. Some may be and they can make their own case. But for me, I'm the original cheap SOB. High MPG, low cost per mile, makes driving fun. I don't have to worry about having enough pocket change for the gas to get home. Having dealt with gas cards (NEVER AGAIN! (*)) and a Plymouth Fury station wagon, I have no interest in getting on that fiscal treadmill again. Bob Wilson * - When I was driving our Gen-1 Prius, I was using Shell gas and noticed they offered a discount when purchasing gas. I mislaid one bill and the late charge wiped out all savings. I paid the balance; sent the card fragments with the check and; a note to cancel the card.
Yay! A presentation that starts with a dictionary definition! That's always a sure-fire indicator of a poorly-thought-out argument. I've had a quick look at this YouTube clip - not all of it as I couldn't stomach it - and at some of his other clips. A couple of things. 1. He's a car broker. The bulk of his business seems to involve getting discounts on some Japanese and Korean new cars, all ICE because it's hard to get a new-car discount on a hybrid or an EV here. It's not in his interest for Tesla to do well. 2. He's an idiot. Watch some of his other YouTube clips. Volts will kill you. The new Tiguan is no good because he didn't like the old Tiguan. All German cars are rubbish. The man does not have a clue what he is talking about. In the clip you've linked to, Tesla "is forced to use environmentally-unfriendly ultra-lightweight products to save weight"? Really? Gosh, it's lucky ICE cars are made by beating lumps of lead into the shape of a car. Idiot. And 3. This has to come with some qualification. Australians swear a lot. But your average Australian isn't the sort of homophobic, misogynist, xenophobic pig that this man is. He's not being "a bit direct". He's being an arsehole. Affordable Mercedes (A and B class) are "gay", and you should go for something more "heterosexual", apparently. I've defended Jeremy Clarkson's Daihatsu Copen comments in the past because - for reasons I can go into later if necessary - they were actually relevant and not pejorative. Auto"expert"'s "gay" comments here are just pejorative. By "they are gay" he means "I don't like them". There are lots of prison-shower-rape "jokes". There are "jokes" about blowjobs from Hillary Clinton. "Jokes" about specific religions being "bullshit". "Jokes" about Germans being Nazis. He's not "direct". He is just rude. And he's not being "direct" because he's Australian. He's being a homophobic, misogynist, xenophobic arsehole because he's an idiot.
Considering Friday's release of the Model 3, he must be 'fit to be tied.' Actually, there is a huge industry of former hybrid skeptics then EV skeptics who are busy pounding away at their scripts and musing decrying the model 3. YEA!!!! Finally some Prius relief. <GRINS> Meanwhile, Hyundai must be thinking,"우리가 프리우스를 죽일 수 있기 전에 테슬라가 우릴 죽일거야." Bob Wilson
I'm sure he's furious. I was pleasantly surprised by how cheap the Model 3 is going to be. Hyundai's only real concern, I suspect, is whether improvements in battery technology might make their investment in fuel cells irrelevant. Hyundai are already going pretty well on both hybrids and EVs.
Both of our major parties are funded in large part by resource companies, and The Former Australian Who Is Now American controls much of our media. We don't need the Kochs.
Well this makes sense: http://www.carpoint.com.au/news/australians-buying-diesels-in-record-numbers-says-abs-108211?R=108211&Cr=14&surl=aHR0cDovL2VkaXRvcmlhbHN5c3RlbS5jYXJzYWxlcy5jb20uYXUvRGVza3RvcERlZmF1bHQuYXNweD9Ocz1wX0RhdGVBdmFpbGFibGVfRGF0ZVRpbWUlN0MxJk49Mjk4MSs0Mjk0OTY3MjgxKzQyOTQ5NjcyNzkmVGFiSUQ9MjIwODc4NiZRcGI9MSZzaWQ9MTU1M0NGNUY4QUNEJk5uZT0xNQ.. Diesel passenger car sales in Australia are up 57 per cent since 2012. “While the number of petrol powered vehicles increased (0.8 per cent) from 2016 to 2017 their share of the total fleet decreased again,” said Michaela Cook, ABS director of transport and tourism. “The proportion of vehicles fuelled by petrol has decreased from 88.1 per cent of the national fleet in 2012 to 75.7 per cent in 2017. Diesel vehicles remain a popular choice in 2017, with 313,551 (8.1 per cent) more diesel vehicles registered than in the previous year.” Vehicles powered by diesel account for 22.2 per cent of the national fleet in 2017, up from 15.9 per cent five years ago. Well this makes sense considering the rant. Bob Wilson
Does he have a rant about diesel too? It would make sense if he did, given his Japanese focus. In Britain, diesel accounts for a massive proportion of sales, and all the Japanese companies sell diesel versions of most of their models. Here, the German and Korean manufacturers sell diesel versions of most of their models, but the Japanese only sell diesel versions of their very big SUVs (Toyota Landcruiser / Nissan Patrol / Mitsubishi Pajero / Isuzu MUX, etc). You wouldn't see a diesel Civic or Camry or anything here (you would see a diesel Civic or Avensis in Britain), whereas you see plenty of diesel Golfs and Hyundai i30s and stuff here. Diesel works for me because of the mix of driving that I do, but it is actually quite a bad choice for a lot of Australians. It's well-suited to long journeys at constant highish speeds, but for short city journeys in stop-start traffic, hybrids are a much better idea. And most Australians almost always use their cars just for those short city journeys.
