ELECTRIFIED OR STUPEFIED?
AN UN-NAMED ELECTRIC CAR BLAZES AWAY
I was taken in the Zoo transporter yesterday to have my safety harness adjusted, because I have changed shape as I age. I was intrigued to overhear two auto-engineers discussing the launch of a new model electric car being made by a leading Japanese manufacturer.
This car is about the size of a Toyota Corolla, suitable for a family of anorexics with no luggage, (the batteries take up a lot of room) living in a small city and not going on long journeys or towing anything. It will cost about $55,000. (A petrol Corolla is about $44,000.) The battery is believed to last about 10 years in ideal conditions. Less in severe heat, and also if you excessively fast charge it! The Warranty is fraught with tricky definitions of “failure”. A replacement battery is listed at about A$10,000, but my engineer friends thought it was a lot more than that.
Either way you can buy a lot of petrol and go a lot further with such money, not to mention the time spent charging the thing at yet-to-be-built charging points. When the car reaches, say, 8 years in age, it is not really economic to replace the batteries, thus the machine is pretty much scrap.
It seems to this Chimp that this technology is well suited to golf carts, not to real cars.
Maybe Elon Musk had the right idea when he fired his electric car into space!
This type of car is being eulogised by Bill Shorten, who seems to intend to make it mandatory to buy such lemons if he gets elected PM…..And you wonder why I want to stay in the Zoo? …..I just keep praying that the lights stay on!
Gibber! Gibber!
Chugley
The Petrol-Head Chimp
4 thoughts on “ELECTRIFIED OR STUPEFIED?”
Dear Chugley; you have bought into the “electric car” debate, one which has caused much comment. This is a Labor “brainwave”, which seems to have a familiar ring to it. Thought up on the run, scribbled down on a ‘coaster’ similar to the Rudd NBN announcement. “Every home in the country with optic fibre connection”. Well we know how that is turning out. And I remember another Labor scheme; house insulation. And we know how that turned out. Then there was the ‘schools improvement scheme’. Money wasted all over the place. Now we are going to hand out billions to resurrect the car industry. It seems the one we had was wrecked by Union demands on wages. And I cannot envisage our workers ever building cars for the sort of money that will make them ‘world competitive’. We may have to import workers from Asia who seem to work for little money. Don’t think the Unions will like that either. What will the Government need to introduce, to compensate for the billions that they collect in fuel taxes. Or will we go back to dirt roads? I don’t consider Mr Shorten a fool, but his idea reminds me of a verse in Proverbs: ” The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice (Proverbs 12:15). Or as Joseph Joubert says, “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” Lets hope and pray that this is kicked around before it becomes another Labor debacle.
I just shudder to think where this brainwave might lead? The Whole Zoo might be threatened! Gibber! Gibber! Chugley
It would’ve made more sense for Mr Shorten to have extolled the virtues of hybrid (petrol/electric) cars rather than going the whole hog with fully electric vehicles. The more I ponder the problems that accompany having electric vehicles in this vast land of Oz, the more I’m determined not to support such a short-sighted, impractical election policy.
I think you are one of the sensible ones Paul! It will not make any difference to the climate, the whole thing is a hoax! Gibber! Gibber! Chugley
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