Electric cars in SA

[Justloadit]

Whether the man in the street drives electric cars or not is not goining to change this fact. Further - it is not the species as a whole - it is 1st world driven obsolescent consumerism that is driving the demise of the 3rd world.

Unfortunately consumerism is a human behavior, you do not have to be a 1st world country to be part of the league.
If there was no consumerism, then 'you' would not have a business.

[adrianh]

Unfortunately consumerism is a human behavior, you do not have to be a 1st world country to be part of the league.
If there was no consumerism, then 'you' would not have a business.

Fair enough.

[Dave A]

The thing that worries me the most about large scale electric vehicle rollout in South Africa is the spare capacity on the electrical grid to power the resultant increase in demand.
As in there isn't any... And not nearly enough being done to ramp up supply in the medium term either.

[ians]

The thing that worries me the most about large scale electric vehicle rollout in South Africa is the spare capacity on the electrical grid to power the resultant increase in demand.
As in there isn't any... And not nearly enough being done to ramp up supply in the medium term either.

I dont beleive the problem is capacity ... people has realised that eeeishkom has too many sticky fingers ... at the rate backup systems are being installed ... the only fools who will be sitting with load shedding is eeeishkom themselves.

It seems they have realised it and now trying to get a piece of the pie because they cant get thier shyte together ... so the public are being punished by means of taxes and penalties and levies.

Everyday I get in my vehicle to go to work ... I notice how this country is falling apart little by little ... be it the little things like the sign post of the side of the road disappearing into the bush ... never mind the potholes ... the roads cracking up due to lack of maintenance ... the ele ctrical cable theft is so out of control the rail system has come to a grinding halt ... power outage even when there is no load shedding is also just getting a little ridiculous ... cusotmers are being told ther ear eno plans to upgrade the existing infrastructure (not part of the new plan) ... the filth ... but more importantly ... the lack of growth ... employment etc ... anyway I need to get to work.

[adrianh]

The thing that worries me the most about large scale electric vehicle rollout in South Africa is the spare capacity on the electrical grid to power the resultant increase in demand.
As in there isn't any... And not nearly enough being done to ramp up supply in the medium term either.

Electric cars are a 1st world urban dream driven by the need to shift pollution out of the wealthy cities. (We all know where this pollution will be shifted to)

I don't think that people even begin to think of the load that electric cars would put on an electricity grid. How many cars are on the road now - change them all to electricity - calculate their charging requirements - add that lot on to ANY grid.

Imagine each and every household adding 40Amp for 4-8hours every night to charge their cars. The entire thing is bizarre. The entire grid would have to be upgraded to allow people to charge their cars at home - now we need to consider charging stations - the grid would have to be upgraded to enable that to happen.

There are so many thing about electric cars that are really problematic.
1. When an electric car is in an accident it is considered to be a serious fire hazard - normal tow trucks can't just tow them and stash them in the lot with other cars. (They don't know whether the Lithium cells might be damaged)
2. If those batteries catch on fire the fire cannot be extinguished - water makes it worse (have you seen a Tesla on fire - the thing burns to a crisp)
3. It takes too long to charge the batteries (you don't just pull into a filling station and leave 15 minutes later - you stand in a queue and wait for each car to charge for hours.
4. ....and and and...

The issue here isn't Eskom - the issue is that the whole electric car thing is totally idiotic in 90% of the 3rd world let alone the rural 1st world - and of course it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to the military.

The problem with electric cars is that the industry is driven by a "Fandom" that glorify Elon Musk as the eternal saviour. For some reason the "Fandoms" (like the Apple "Fandom") refuse to look at the issues objectively.

[ians]

You seem to forget about China ... nuclear powers and whatever new technology is still coming .. technology is moving so fast we will still get to see thing that we never imagined could be possible.

This is what I love about being alive ... to think there was no TV when I was born ... I have gone from hand written quotes and invoice ... standing in ques at a bank to deposit cheques ... to operating my entire bussiness in the palm of my hand from anywhere in the world at speeds which we can imagine possible ... hopefully before I die I will get to see a holographic system out on my front lawn

I am interested to see what will happen next year once the batteries contract with Tesla and panasonic expires ... are super capacitors going to be the new battery or is there even better technology in the pipeline ... only time will tell.

[adrianh]

You seem to forget about China ... nuclear powers and whatever new technology is still coming

How so....

1. China is a VAST country with huge mountain ranges, massive poverty and an extensive rural population.
2. South Africa generates Nuclear power.

Neither of those facts make electric cars any more viable given the facts I mentioned before. Electrical grids would have to be massively expanded - to what end....(the expansion only serves to move pollution to another location)

Yes of course one can dream about future technologies (I love Star Trek) but....that does not mean that one should OVER-drive inappropriate technologies today in the hope that the technologies MIGHT improve drastically in the future.

[Derlyn]

Batteries aren't the problem. They are the solution.
They can be built as big as you like.

From what I remember from junior school ..... 2 dissimular metals in an electrolyte is a battery.

I remember while working on the Saldanha Sishen project, there was a problem when shunting the lead concentrate wagons. The shunters would shock.
After months and months of investigations it was found that they would only shock when the train had encountered rain during it's trip from Sishen to Saldanha.

The solution was to cover the lead concentrate wagons with a cover, keeping the rain water ( electrolyte ) out, which I believe, is still the practice today. That solved the problem.

A ship, whilst in harbour, poses a big threat to anyone standing on the quay and touching the ship. The water between the ship and quayside is an electrolyte.

Batteries can be built as big as you want them to be. There is enough sunlight to charge them using solar panels.

Elon Musk is not as big an idiot as some would make him out to be.

The way I see the future of electric cars panning out is that most cars will have a modular battery of the same proportions housed in a convenient spot in the vehicle where it can be removed and replaced quickly.

When you pull up at the "filling station" you will not have to wait for your battery to be charged. It is simply replaced with a fully charged one, much the same as your gas bottle that is exchanged for a full one. The filling station does not charge the batteries. It is a depot housing fully charged batteries. Charged batteries are delivered to the "filling station" much like the petrol that is delivered in bowsers.

Impossible ?

I don't think so.

Peace out ... Derek

[adrianh]

Elon Musk is not as big an idiot as some would make him out to be.

Yes he is. Clearly him and his crazed Fanboys never heard of a subway train.

Move Over, Keno! Elon Musk's Dumb Tesla Tunnel Now The Lamest Thing In Las Vegas

https://jalopnik.com/move-over-keno-elon-musks-dumb-tesla-tunnel-now-the-l-1846654974

[atienojones]

Electric cars have driven the huge change in the automobile industry. Most of the Kenyan people adopted electric cars for sale because it is safe and environment friendly also. It is more convenient to drive an electric car and very easy to charge. And also it is very easy to maintain.

[adrianh]

Electric cars have driven the huge change in the automobile industry. Most of the Kenyan people adopted electric cars for sale because it is safe and environment friendly also. It is more convenient to drive an electric car and very easy to charge. And also it is very easy to maintain.

Oh rubbish....

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/12/kenyas-challenges-to-shift-to-evs-the-solutions/

https://kenyanwallstreet.com/electric-vehicles-to-make-up-5-of-registered-vehicles-in-kenya-by-2025/

The electric vehicle industry in Kenya is still young with only 300 electric vehicles in the country as at 2019 according to Dr. Rebekah Shirley, Chief Research Officer at Power For All who recently spoke in an interview with CNBC Africa. Nonetheless, demand for electric cars is projected to grow as the vehicles become more affordable and charging stations become widely available.

https://africasustainabilitymatters.com/electric-cars-race-is-way-to-go-for-kenya/

About 98 percent of vehicles in Kenya currently run on fossil fuels – petrol and diesel. A mass shift to electric units would bode well for the country’s forex reserves with a possible drop in fuel bill.

[Dave A]

I am pretty sure that atienojones (who is not a resident of Nairobi and clearly ignorant of the reality of electric car adoption in Kenya) was hoping to come back and edit in a link on the phrase "electric cars for sale".