AD #2972 – Autopilot Rated #1 In China; Fisker’s Business Model Inspired by Apple; U.S. Car Market Not Slowing Down
December 4th, 2020 at 11:57am
Listen to “AD #2972 – Autopilot Rated #1 In China; Fisker’s Business Model Inspired by Apple; U.S. Car Market Not Slowing Down” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 11:16
0:39 U.S. Car Market Is Not Slowing Down
1:24 Autopilot Rated #1 In China
2:17 Tesla Short Seller Changes Tune
3:32 Daimler Shares Fuel Cell Semi Details
5:13 Volvo Launches Electric Semi-Truck Sales
5:41 Renault & Faurecia Partner on Electronic Parts Repair
6:59 How & Why BMW Acquired Mini
8:23 Fisker’s Business Model Inspired by Apple
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
U.S. CAR MARKET IS NOT SLOWING DOWN
Some news reports say the U.S. car market is slowing down. But all you Autoline Daily viewers know that once you adjust for the daily selling rate, sales are actually going up. Here’s another data point that drives that home. People are buying new cars faster than the industry can make them. Data from Ward’s Intelligence shows that in October people were buying 48,000 new cars a day. Last month, that jumped to more than 51,000 a day, which led to a drop-in inventory. The days’ supply went from 59 days in October to 55 in November. Remember, the industry is running flat out right now and yet it can’t keep up. So don’t let anyone tell you the car market is slowing down.
TESLA AUTOPILOT RATED #1 IN CHINA
Consumer Reports says Cadillac’s Super Cruise is the best driver assistance system and that Tesla’s Autopilot is a distant second. But in China, an auto group called 42HOW, just ranked Tesla’s Autopilot, in a Model 3, as the best driver assistance system in the country. It beat out 10 other vehicles by a fairly wide margin, while a Cadillac CT6 with Super Cruise came in at number seven. BMW and NIO ranked number 2 and 3, respectively. The systems were graded on a number of different driving situations like handling traffic, lane changes, navigating curves, night time driving, automatic parking and how they performed in the rain. Autopilot scored the highest in all categories except automatic parking and driving in heavy traffic.
TESLA SHORT SELLER CHANGES TUNE
And in other Tesla news, one of its biggest skeptics is changing his tune a little. Jim Chanos, a guy who’s been shorting Tesla’s stock for years, reduced his bet against the EV maker. In an interview with Bloomberg, the hedge fund manager says he’s never spoken with or met Elon Musk but if he did he would tell him “job well done so far.” That’s quite the back handed compliment but a compliment nonetheless. He says Tesla isn’t being valued as an automaker rather it’s valued on Musk and he’s the reason people own the stock. As you know, Tesla’s stock surged recently and the company is now worth more than half a trillion dollars.
DAIMLER SHARES FUEL CELL SEMI DETAILS
The CEO of Mercedes Trucks & Buses, Martin Daum is doing a series of podcasts, called Transportation Matters and the latest one about fuel cell semis has some pretty interesting tidbits. The first is that Mercedes is aiming to have its upcoming fuel cell trucks run on liquid hydrogen. Vehicles like the Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity and Hyundai Nexo rely on storing hydrogen gas in high-pressure tanks. As a liquid, it takes up less space, so you can have more of it, which means more range. But it’s not without its drawbacks. Liquid hydrogen has to be stored at cryogenic temperatures, -252 Celsius or -423 Fahrenheit. That requires a special tank as well. And it’s highly flammable, so special precautions have to be taken with things like the electrical system and how close it is to really hot objects. Now let’s add in this next bit that was talked about. Daum says the average long-haul fuel-cell semi-truck would probably consume about 10 tons of hydrogen a year. That’s far less diesel fuel than a typical semi would use in a year, but the infrastructure for refilling with hydrogen gas is teeny tiny, where do you fill up with liquid hydrogen? And here’s the last thing. Even with its boldest predictions, Daum says by 2030 a fuel cell BEV truck will still be more expensive than a diesel truck. So, while fuel cells make a lot of sense for commercial vehicles, without incentives they’re still a long way off.
VOLVO LAUNCHES ELECTRIC SEMI-TRUCK SALES
Speaking of electric trucks, Daimler’s new partner in fuel cell trucks, Volvo just launched sales of its battery powered VNR Class 8 semi. It’s available in 3 configurations, which all come with a 264-kWh battery pack that provides up to 150 miles of range. While Volvo is kicking off sales to commercial fleets, actual production of the trucks doesn’t start until early next year.
RENAULT & FAURECIA PARTNER ON ELECTRONIC PARTS REPAIR
With so much technology in vehicles repair costs are shooting through the roof, but Renault is helping out with that. It partnered up with supplier Faurecia’s electronics division to offer repair for in-vehicle infotainment systems, engine ECUs, dashboards, screens and electronic control units. Renault repair centers will send the part to Faurecia, who then diagnoses, repairs and performs a final check before sending it back, which can take 3 to 5 days. And it sounds as if it’s not just limited to Renault vehicles. Over 1,000 products from 23 vehicle brands are on the list of electronics that can be repaired. Here’s one last wrinkle to this story. As part of its merging with FCA, PSA had to sell off a significant portion of its stake in Faurecia. We wonder if that’s why Renault is now able to partner up with the supplier?
HOW & WHY BMW ACQUIRED MINI
This Bernd Pischetsrieder, the guy who just got tapped to become the next chairman of Daimler, is turning out to be an even more interesting fellow than we thought. Yesterday we told you how he stole Rolls-Royce right out from under Ferdinand Piech’s nose. That led to a viewer comment from Kevin A that Pischetsrieder is related to Sir Alec Issigonis, the designer and engineer responsible for the Morris Minor and the Mini. Turns out Pischetsrieder is a first cousin once removed. Then viewer Kit Gerhart wondered, “Is that why BMW saved Mini… ?” Pischetsrieder was the chairman of BMW from 1993 until 1999. A year after he took that position, in 1994 BMW purchased the Rover Group, which included the Mini and Land Rover brands. It’s said he made that purchase, in part, to get his hands on the Mini brand because of the family connection. So, not only do you know why Volkswagen has Bentley and BMW Rolls-Royce, but also why BMW has the Mini brand. Oh, and one more thing. GM Veteran had this to say of Pischetsrieder, “It’s also fascinating that he will now have presided over each of the top three German auto companies. Can’t think of anyone else who has done that.” We can’t either. Can you?
FISKER TAKES INSPIRATION FROM APPLE
Henrik Fisker was our guest on Autoline After Hours yesterday. That show is jam packed with a lot of great information. Henrik is coming to the market this time with a completely different business plan than anyone else is using. He’s going to outsource almost everything instead of making it in-house. And his inspiration came from Apple. Take a look.
“Well look, let’s start by looking at a great example that’s out there that was my inspiration: Apple and Foxconn. You know Apple don’t make their own phones, and I don’t think they’ve done too shabby. And I don’t think anybody questions their ability. So that was really the inspiration for this and that’s where we’re really turning the channel-view of the industry upside down. But it goes deeper than that. It’s really about getting into volume, getting into cost effectiveness and efficiency. So, for example, with Magna, you know I think they’ve built over three and a half million vehicles. They are absolute experts. They know how to make a high-quality car in the fewest hours, and that’s an experience they’ve built over decades. And I honestly don’t think there’s any startup that can quickly whip up that experience over a couple of years. And so you’ve seen some of the other startups that are producing electric vehicles, one here in America and another in China, they’ve both been very open about how difficult it was to get the production up and running. And as I said before that’s not something that we want to go out and brag about, how great we are making the car. I don’t think we need to make the car to create IP, to create value, or to be differentiated. If we have a high-quality car that’s important for me and that’s important for our customer.”
When Henrik talks about turning the channel view of the industry upside down, he’s talking about turning the supply chain upside down. And when he refers to certain EV companies in America and China running into manufacturing problems, he’s referring of course to Tesla and NIO. Henrik sure had a lot of interesting things to talk about and you can watch that entire interview on our website or our YouTube channel.
And that’s all we’ve got. Thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
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Comments (55)
December 4th, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Really enjoy you insights into the movers and shakers of the auto industry – especially those like Sir Alec and his second cousin “once remived”.
These bio sketches are at least as interesting as the daily news stories. I am sure I am not the only viewer who has noticed that the auto news can be a little thin in this pandemic year.
Keep up the good work.
December 4th, 2020 at 12:54 pm
That sb “removed” – before someone rude wants to complain
December 4th, 2020 at 1:05 pm
@1 – agreed!, and after a while – sales up, sales down … sales sort of not really down.. yea yea yea what ever.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:15 pm
2 I am sure that you considered your teachers ‘rude’ every single time (and I bet there were thousands of times) they tried to correct your grammar, syntax and math and make you a literate human being. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…
But this is the new norm, in the age of social promotion, ‘new math’ (1+1 is not 2, but whatever makes you happy) and participation trophies.
Satisfied, you little jerk, or do you want me to try to match you in TRUE rudeness?
December 4th, 2020 at 1:25 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsS0eppfbnI
When your… Genesis G80 or whatever is 67 years old, will it look this good? (or will even exist at all?)
December 4th, 2020 at 1:33 pm
@4 – Completely uncalled. Shameful. Just shameful.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:37 pm
Fuel cell semi’s? I really find it difficult to see how making this technology work could be better,safer or cheaper than electric. Highly flammable tanks that need to be under 423 degrees F. Just sounds like way to many obstacles are in the way to continue to pursue this technology for vehicles. May very well become a great way to power generators or some other stationary power source but just seems to be the wrong application for a vehicle.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:44 pm
4 Its also the day and age of people being bold enough to type any old thing they feel safely behind their screen, when we all know that same person would hold their tongue in person. Sometimes a good old punch in the mouth is well deserved and teaches people manners where others have failed.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:51 pm
@8 – God gave us two ears and one mouth. Wise people use them in the same proportion (I.e., listen more than talk). When it comes to typing a comment on-line, two eyes and one brain need to control ten fingers. Some people do it better than others.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:53 pm
@8 – My comment #9 is just expanding on your thought… not criticizing it.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:53 pm
It would be nice if the forum was about the industry and products rather than trading insults.
December 4th, 2020 at 1:57 pm
Until there is an infinite amount of free electricity to dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen, I don’t see fuel cell vehicles making much sense. There are four main sources for the commercial production of hydrogen, natural gas, oil, coal, and electrolysis. They account for 48%, 30%, 18% and 4% of the world’s hydrogen production respectively. Fossil fuels are the dominant source of industrial hydrogen. How does it make any sense at all to use hydrogen fuel cells to power vehicles, even if you didn’t have to deal with 10,000 psi tanks, or -423 F thermos bottles?
December 4th, 2020 at 1:59 pm
6,8,9,10 Exactly
December 4th, 2020 at 2:41 pm
12 Completely agree. Hydrogen doesn’t make any more sense than converting over to EVs if your electrical plant is a coal plant. This mad pursuit of developing a gas alternative needs to make sense and not just start with a alternate source.
Like so many other problems the solution often makes the problem worse. When we contaminated enough water supplies that people turned to water bottles which is packaged in a plastic bottle (petroleum product) and now turns out to be some of the biggest contributors to water pollution.
So lets develop vehicles that use hydrogen that we can make using electrolysis from our electricity that is produced from burning coal. Just add a few more steps in there and it has to be more efficient.
December 4th, 2020 at 2:59 pm
Sometime necessity is the mother … so I can appreciate that Fisker really has few options other than outsourcing to Magna. But it would be similar to seeing iPhones made in the same plant as Android or other phones. The hardware would soon look alike and perform alike. Sort of like the sameness of the MicroSoft/Windows PC world. Still, good luck to his endeavors but it does remind me of Trevor Milton’s partnership with GM when GM was to provide all the drivetrain hardware.
As for pure hydrogen, there are so many inefficiencies, it only makes sense if the waste heat can be used for space or other purposes. Now convert the hydrogen in liquid ammonia, it has ~3x more hydrogen density and much easier storage. Every USA Co-Op sells liquid ammonia which solves most of the distribution problem. But the cost per mile even with liquid ammonia remains a problem.
December 4th, 2020 at 3:04 pm
@12, 14: I may look at this wrongly, but to me it seems like the hydrogen is the substitute of the battery. A fuel cell powered vehicle is driven by electric motors, and the electric power is delivered by the fuel cell, isn’t it?
To me it seems like a battery consisting of solids is much safer than a tank filled with hydrogen. Does that make sense, or am I misunderstanding this?
December 4th, 2020 at 3:05 pm
About battery semitrailer trucks, Google reports on commercial drivers:
“You are allowed a period of 14 consecutive hours in which to drive up to 11 hours after being off duty for 10 or more consecutive hours. The 14-consecutive-hour driving window begins when you start any kind of work.”
In a 24 hour day, up to 14 hours would be available to charge the batteries. Those battery miles cost nearly half of diesel and even cheaper than current hydrogen technology. Perhaps a future “Mr. Fusion” from a movie would change the economics (grins).
December 4th, 2020 at 3:11 pm
@17: good point. And then those dynamics would change dramatically if and when driverless trucks become a reality.
December 4th, 2020 at 3:34 pm
16 That makes sense, if the hydrogen comes from electrolyzing water. From what I can find, a battery electric car would be more efficient than fuel cell. A cleantechnica article and others say battery electric cars are about 60% efficient from power grid to the wheels. From what I can find, fuel cells themselves have efficiency of about 60%, and you still have the motor, control electronics, etc.
17 We’d need properly located big chargers for battery electric over-the-road trucks, but when/if they exist, that would work for trucks that use a single driver. For autonomous, or some fleet trucks that run more hours a day with driver changes, the equation would change, unless you have quickly swappable batteries.
December 4th, 2020 at 3:45 pm
16 Yeah, a battery seems a lot safer to me, even though they occasionally catch fire. Compressed hydrogen is normally stored at very high pressure, like 10,000 psi. That sounds kind of hazardous, even for something that doesn’t burn.
15 The usual feed stock for ammonia is natural gas or other hydrocarbons, but ammonia would be much easier to deal with, liquifying at much lower pressure.
December 4th, 2020 at 4:01 pm
A key factor when discussing long-haul EV trucks is the significant weight of the battery that would be needed to power a large, heavy truck for several hundred miles. This weight will reduce the maximum freight payload of such a truck, cutting potential revenue for the hauler. Fuel cells do not have this issue (although they have many others for sure!).
December 4th, 2020 at 4:06 pm
@21: I see, yes, the fuel cells must have a weight advantage. Good point.
December 4th, 2020 at 4:18 pm
We are actually moving towards an economy with massive, nearly free amounts of electricity, and that’s based on current costs.
The challenge is with time and place.
Factoid: US electricity production using coal has fallen off a cliff. In little more than 10 years, from about 23 quadrillion British thermal units (a lot) to 11 (still a lot, but since 2019 less than renewables). And the decline was particularly impressive recently, perfectly in line with the outgoing administration’s stated goals.
December 4th, 2020 at 6:04 pm
23 A lot of coal plants are being converted to natural gas, and more renewable capacity is being built. Indiana is still 57% coal.
December 4th, 2020 at 6:10 pm
OK who ever is moderating this forum when someone is name calling like a child “ little jerk” that’s when you are supposed to step in.
December 5th, 2020 at 4:33 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2XyLgv-UQY
Jay Leno knows his auto history. I knew about the Tatra brand but not all the details of this pioneering V8 which could get 20 MPG when most of its peers back then were getting 9-10.
When Tuckers sell for $1-1.5 mill and don’t have even a fraction of the engineering genius this design has, it looks like a huge bargain to collectors.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:25 am
When I was in Czechoslovakia for a couple weeks in 1992, many of the bigger cars I saw were Tatras, though they weren’t as exotic as the car in Jay’s video. Most of the cars were Skodas of various models. Tatra wasn’t in the car business for too long after I was there, but used air cooled engines clear to the end, or nearly so.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:50 am
27 I was in Prague only for a day, a very long day between flights of a free trip with frequent miles, spent most of my time downtown walking but did not pay attention to any cars, there were far more interesting sights and people. I may have seen a Tatra or two in museums over the years. This one was very aero in the rear, but not in the front so much.
At some time during that day I walked up to the Castle which has several large buildings and a cathedral, I rested on a bench and fell asleep, fortunately woke up in time to catch my connecting flight. Not sure when that was, some time in the 90s probably.
This place is full of Skodas, lots of them small taxis, which I try to avoid, since their back seat is extremely uncomfortable (its back is just a board).
December 5th, 2020 at 11:30 am
My parents visited then Czechoslovakia in the early 90s too, and caused quite a stir wherever they went with their Citroen XM. Seems people actually would wait to watch it rise on its hydropneumatic suspension.
I visited with friends a little later and dragged them to the storied Vinarna at the opera with its holdover gatekeepers aka waiters (I had no idea, a story onto itself) – my friends actually would have preferred the then first McDonald’s in Prague. (Incidentally, we had a feast.)
I also vividly recall a fragile, little old lady leaning on her stick in front of the place and looking in with utter bafflement. Floor-to-ceiling windows, light pouring out, and kids sharing a drink just to be there.
The long-standing engineering heritage is an important part of the country, and German suppliers as well as your usual suspects have built one factory after another.
December 5th, 2020 at 1:50 pm
29 Czechoslovkia was for many decades part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before it became an independent nation (I believe in 1925) and Skoda was a big-ass weapons (and general) manufacturer for that empire long before they dabbled with cars. Their cannons were well known and sought after even in WW II. Maybe one reason Hitler gobbled up the rest of the young nation after he first annexed the Sudetenland where ethnic Germans lived. Not sure about Tatra’s past, if any, before they made cars.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:03 pm
Tatra is a mountain range between Poland and Czekhoslovakia, and it seems it has some excellent water from which some of the best beers in the world are made. There is also a beer brand in Poland, forget its name, which is made from that water and I had it back in 2007 when I was invited for a week at the U of Warsaw.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:21 pm
29 I was there in the summer of 1992, just a few months before Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia. I was there for a model airplane world championship, and rented a car at Frankfort airport. The event was in Hradec Kralove, ~50 miles east of Prague. Knowing where I was going, the rental car company gave me a Ford Escort, rather than a VW Golf. They said Golfs were a hot item for theft in the old eastern bloc countries, and that the Ford was safer in that regard.
30 Wikipedia says Tatra made horse drawn vehicles starting in ~1850, and got into cars later. They still exist, as a small maker of trucks.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:24 pm
Pilsner beer got its name from Pilsen, a city a little west of Prague.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:29 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Works
“…The noble Waldstein family founded the company in 1859 in Plzeň, and Emil Škoda bought it in 1869. It soon established itself as Austria-Hungary’s leading arms manufacturer producing heavy guns for the navy, mountain guns or mortars along with the Škoda M1909 machine gun as one of its noted products. Besides producing arms for the Austro-Hungarian Army, Škoda has ever since also manufactured locomotives, aircraft, ships, machine tools, steam turbines and equipment for power utilities.”
Much bigger than even I thought earlier. No wonder it was very widely known all across Europe in the late 19th and up to the 1930s.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:31 pm
Czechoslovakia was formed shortly after WW II. Like Yugoslavia, it was a country that should never have existed. At least Czechoslovakia split up peacefully, unlike Yugoslavia.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:49 pm
35 WW i not ii. in 1918, in fact. I remembered 1925 but it did not make much sense to me still.
The Czechs and the SLovaks are both Slavic nationalities. THeir languages should not be much different.
In fact I just did a test with Google translate. The phrase “The Czech and Slovak languages are similar” is
Český a slovenský jazyk sú si podobné. In Slovak, and
Český a slovenský jazyk jsou podobné. In Czech.
They seem much more similar to each other than to other languages in their own family of Slavic Languages. In Polish the above would be
Języki czeski i słowacki są podobne.
In Serb and croatian,Чешки и словачки језик су слични. and Češki i slovački jezik slični su.
December 5th, 2020 at 3:01 pm
Yes, WW I.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:35 pm
It should be an interesting F1 race tomorrow, with a new guy, George Russell driving the best car, with Hamilton out with covid.
December 6th, 2020 at 1:24 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1aHJWOToXY
$ 5 mill US for an 80-year old used Merc? Scarcity helps, of course.
December 6th, 2020 at 8:47 am
39 It’s a nice car, but so slow, compared to the competition from Indianapolis.
https://fastestlaps.com/models/duesenberg-ssj-speedster-sport
December 6th, 2020 at 11:12 am
@38 Russell in the M/B and Fittipaldi (Jr.) in the Haas.
December 6th, 2020 at 2:35 pm
Interesting race. Unbelievable disarray in the M-B pit. Maybe they are slacking off, since they have the championships won.
December 6th, 2020 at 3:39 pm
42, Yeah, that was one of the messiest races ever (I thought I was watching NASCAR for a minute
). Glad to see Perez get the win (that was almost worth the craziness that ensued today).
December 6th, 2020 at 4:03 pm
43 I, too was glad to see Perez win. It’s crazy that he might be out of F1 next year. There is too much “daddy’s rich” in F1, but Stroll has done ok recently.
December 6th, 2020 at 4:06 pm
It will be interesting to see how Vettel does next year.
December 7th, 2020 at 4:01 am
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34875659/aptera-ev-solar-no-charging-revealed/
I bet the Elio guy is thinking “why didn’t I come up with this (unsafe at any speed 3-wheeler) first?”
December 7th, 2020 at 4:09 am
46 In other, far more serious news:
Toyota is coming out with its BEV, and, perhaps wisely, it is an SUV.
Ford is delaying the Bronco until Summer 2021. You can bet that the Tesla haters here, who always criticize the dominant BEV maker for every one of its delays (such as semi delay recently) will not utter one iota of protest, despite the fact that Tesla is a pioneering company sailing in uncharted waters, while FOrd is resurrecting some loser from the 70s.
But I am sure you will hear much more in today’s show.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:13 am
46 Some of the numbers actually add up, if it will really go a mile per 100 watt-hours, as they claim. That’s about 1/3 the energy/mile of a normal EV. If they can put 15 square feet of panels on it, at 20 watts/square foot, the 4 kWh in a day would be possible, on a sunny day in the summer. As far as putting a 100 kWh battery in it, no way, at least with today’s batteries. Also, it would not be crashworthy at all. The reason for 3 wheels it to avoid meeting safety standards.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:42 am
46 26-45k for a 3 wheel car seems a bit much. Get rid of the solar panels and drop the price 10K and they might have something.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:48 am
46 I know, that’s why I said ‘unsafe at any speed’ as I did for the other 3 wheeler Elio back then. Maybe their numbers can add up in the Sahara in the summer, and if they watch out for camels, the safety issue becomes less important there. As for 1/3 the energy/mile of a ‘normal’ BEV, what fraction is it of the best available BEVs (I’m sure these are all Tesla models), 1/2 or higher?
In other news, 150 Caddy dealers accepted the buyout (I believe it was $500k each so they don’t have to invest in selling and servicing BEVs). Not the way to sell more Caddy BEVs, but maybe this is what GM wants, if it keeps losing $ per unit sold.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:55 am
49 The cost of the solar panel would be less than $500. The solar panel is what makes the vehicle sort of make sense, if it will actually go 1 mile per 100 watt-hours.
https://www.solarpanelstore.com/products/mission-solar-panel-385w-mse385sr9s85?variant=20980687241305¤cy=USD&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=CjwKCAiAwrf-BRA9EiwAUWwKXrlGOFnrpzWqtq2kbMPldphK57yAxAJ3R1zLgyMfhkrh49-yv4NczxoCj3IQAvD_BwE
December 7th, 2020 at 9:04 am
50 The most efficient Model 3 is rated 136/123-MPGe (260 watt-hour/mile).
https://www.myev.com/research/comparisons/evs-with-the-best-mpge-ratings-for-2019
December 7th, 2020 at 9:46 am
Kit Since you have been involved in RC’s for a long time don’t most people involved in that hobby consider the Gas powered RCs on the higher end and the electrics always seem to be the cheaper versions? Maybe that’s changed in recent years but I just remember seeing the Electric RC cars as a child were cheap compared to getting into the gas RC stuff.
Even as an adult the electric weed wacker is almost always cheaper than a gas version. So I think many people have grown up with these examples time and time again of Electric being the cheaper version. So when it comes to cars I think many folks expect them to be cheaper than the Gas counterpart.. Just wondered about your thoughts as I don’t really follow the RC crowd closely to know how that’s changed.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:21 am
53 The entire RC hobby has changed tremendously over the years. At one time, model building was as much a part of the hobby as flying. It is still a big part of it to a few people, like those who compete with scale models, which are judged both for appearance/accuracy to scale, and for flying. Most non-competition RC flying is now with highly prefabricated airplanes.
Currently, most RC flying is electric, because it’s easy, and you don’t have to wipe oil off of the airplane. Generally speaking, operating cost of electric airplanes is probably higher than for similar size ICE airplanes. The way the batteries are abused, they only seem to last 2-3 years, and cost about $20 each for a ~40 inch wingspan electric airplane. For me, fuel cost is less than battery cost for a similar size airplane.
Electric flying became competitive with glow and gas engines with the arrival of lithium batteries and brushless motors. You can buy “ready to fly” electric airplanes that fly decently, and don’t cost much. Also, there is a wide variety of motors and speed controls for all sizes of airplanes.
As far as “high end” vs “low end,” most non-serious “fly for fun” airplanes are electric, but the airplanes competing at the highest level in RC aerobatics are also electric. I fly both electric, and glow engines with methanol-based fuel. Gasoline engines are used for some bigger airplanes, bigger than I fly.
December 7th, 2020 at 12:18 pm
That Aptera looks promising, if all their claims come true. I rarely go over the “solar charged” daily mileage, so other than parking outside and on the roof of the parking deck at work, it would be very convenient for a spare, commuter car. In another article, they boasted the convenience of wireless &/or plug-less magnetic charging and for those who do still need to occasionally sip some home electricity, they say the charging rate for standard 110v should be adequate (no electrician’s install cost and no large draw on the grid from 220 or 440v).
Aptera: “Most electric vehicles require massive current to get good charge rates, but a standard 110-volt outlet, where you’d charge your cellphone, charges the Aptera at 13 miles per hour. So our touchless interface does not need to be a system that conducts a lot of electricity, which can be dangerous and produce a lot of heat if designed incorrectly. We can charge with things like the detachable magnet cords you see for phones and laptops nowadays. This opens up a whole new world of ways that we can drive over or on to charging devices that the driver never has to touch when they get out of their Aptera. They just park and walk away and it all just works.”