Electric vehicles and alternate fuel sources

Chinese company Xpeng expect to have an electric car on the Australian market within two years with a 2,000 K range using a nickel manganese cobalt battery, don't say you weren't warned

This will be an exercise in the incompetence of government to reap the benefits for Australia.

Australia holds the 3rd or 4th largest Manganese deposits in the world.

Australia holds the second largest Cobalt deposits in the world.

Australia holds the second largest Nickel deposits in the world.

The vast majority of this hardly touched stuff goes directly to China. Idiots say "Look at the income this is producing for us" then they go out and buy an electric car with all our minerals in it for a price that exceeds the ore export number - they have to make a profit.  I am not blaming the Chinese as they have wiped the floor with the world in business, it is us I blame for companies stripping our nation of production and processing capability with the sole aim of profit. All the big ones are owned by international giants so we finish up with no production and little income. 

We are just a bloody big hole in the ground, living in a fool's paradise.

Not me or my kids but maybe my grandkids will suddenly see the mines run out or technology marching on so they do not need our minerals. We lost capability to replace primary production with home grown secondary production years ago.

The obvious possibility is one day China will say "This is crazy paying these mineral squatters for this stuff. We are not going to be reliant on their whims or world market prices. It would only take a few Divisions of troops to make Australia a province of China."

AND a 20-minute charge time, just time to get a coffee, macca's will have a charger in every parking space.

One announcement out China and Trump and Dutt'o are yesterdays men, Chinese timing 1O1.

I might add that I am not sure the other side on the ball either.

Nickle mine at Kalgoorlie has been put in mothballs as Indonesians are selling it cheaper. Not sure if lithium is doing too well either.

They all say the same ...costs are too high,too much govt interference ,too much uncertainty with greens taking every development to court with cases lasting years..

Louie

The excitement over Maccas having chargers for a "quick" 20 minute charge does not stand scrutiny if the everybody-will-own-one comes to pass. Time to have a coffee is actually a negative to 99% of people wanting to fill their car and get on with their lives.

If the bulk of the fleet is replaced, even these super fast charge times are at least double petrol/diesel/hydrogen fill times meaning millions of hours are lost every year. To get the same balance of drive-in refill capability that servos have now we have to double the outlets meaning hundreds of thousands of charge points. The infrastructure for all this is so vast I can not get my mind around it. Servos are all corporate run. Once we start on these vast electric projects governments get involved and we know how that goes.

Electric or whatever system will come but the car technology will run ahead of the underlying support system for many years to come. This lack of support, and I mean genuine unfettered support not work-around the inconvenience support, will hold the sales back. One thing to generate the electricity, to have it available in those relatively vast quantities on every street corner is another. Charge at home systems are far from cheap and will deter sales as they are a compulsory add-on to the price of a car. This of course will diminish as time goes on and people will be using plugs that were put in 5 cars back. Can the street wiring handle every home with a charger, I don't know?

It will work, it will happen, and it will be a good thing  but the zealots are so far ahead of the game and at this stage not taking the masses with them without coercion. All the general public cares about in an electric car is price and convenience they are not willing to put up with imperfect for the "greater good". All the other stuff about styling, handling, power and comfort applies to any vehicle.

We are growing a tree from a seed, it is doing well but still just a sapling. We must have patience as it grows taller and each year we will be able to have more and more people at the barbie under its shade.

mammoth wrote:

Nickle mine at Kalgoorlie has been put in mothballs as Indonesians are selling it cheaper. Not sure if lithium is doing too well either.

Lithium was only ever a stop gap product, it will overtaken by other materials, battery technology is evolving away from lithium very quickly, so probably time to sell the shares.

Back in the 70's Nickel Cadmium was the ducks guts for aircraft batteries the way they held full power until dead unlike lead acid or dry which slowly wound down until unusable. Then they became the mass market choice for serious applications. Then we all saw only a few yeas ago when everyone had to change the batteries in their drills to lithium. Now as Louie says what next?

This appeared on my social media today

Link should work

www.facebook.com/share/r/18F8zyBGRp/?mib...9drbnH&s=yWDuG2&fs=e


Paul

Just watching a Chinese electric truck axle factory .....place is huge ........Id say they got a big head start on the yanks ,and will destroy them price wise..........interesting to see how trumps tariffs pan out ......he s big on simplistic slogans ,very poor on the detail.