Best selling car 2023

[Richard_C]

Maybe you can't standardise things like connectors or charging rates but you can have a common way to pay. I can take my petrol car to any filling station in Europe, maybe the world, the hose nozzle fits the filler hole and I can pay with almost any credit or debit card or in all but a few unmanned out of hours ones, cash in local currency. I don't need a phone or signal.

If I were to travel in an EV and want to charge anywhere, how many payment apps would I need on my phone? Could I do it without a phone, and without overseas calling plans? How many organisations would need my bank details?

Sorting that might help, it's not a technical limitation it's a supplier imposed system.

 

[John Brown]

Maybe you can't standardise things like connectors or charging rates but you can have a common way to pay. I can take my petrol car to any filling station in Europe, maybe the world, the hose nozzle fits the filler hole and I can pay with almost any credit or debit card or in all but a few unmanned out of hours ones, cash in local currency. I don't need a phone or signal.

If I were to travel in an EV and want to charge anywhere, how many payment apps would I need on my phone? Could I do it without a phone, and without overseas calling plans? How many organisations would need my bank details?

Sorting that might help, it's not a technical limitation it's a supplier imposed system.

To be fair, the connectors are pretty much standardized, as far as I know. Can't speak for payments or apps.

 

[J-G]

My last iMac lasted well over 11 years. Is that really obsolescence ?

YES - I have (and have customers with) windows PCs in excess of 16 years old and they can still be used with current software - - - and can be upgraded as and when I decide.

 

[user 43593]

windows PCs in excess of 16 years old and they can still be used with current software

Is this true? Correct me if I am wrong but Windows 11 is not designed to run on 16 year old hardware... is it?
As for the obselecence of Apple computers, which you had answered in the affirmative, OS X was introduced in March 2001 which means that the current family of OS X based operating systems has been running for 273 months which equates to 22.75 years.

The OS X operating systems is based upon BSD UNIX which was developed by UC Berkeley and released in 1977. Lessee now... that makes the current Apple OS underpinnings about 46 years of age. AT&T, Bell Labs, General Electric and MIT developed UNIX from the mid 60s in the form of Multics, which went on to become PDP-7, PDP-11 and then UNIX in 1970, per Kernighan, Ritchie and Mcilroy.

UNIX may be considered to be venerable but it is an industrial strength operating system with a well defined multi-user environment that can keep unauthorised users out. These points may contribute to the rationale behind Apple choosing to use BSD UNIX as the foundation for OS X and all OS upgrades since the initial release of OS X.

 

[gregmcateer]

No axe to grind at all, but I'd heard that in China the do the battery swap thing already.

Don't know if that's true

 

[spanner48]

Take a look at some of the youtube videos of Tesla's factories.
They have transformed the manufacture of cars with massive presses producing the chassis as a single die cast component. This adds strength and massively reduces complexity and assembly costs.
The migration to electric vehicles is going to see a number of the world's leading car makers go out of business. It's because they are failing to adapt and are being overtaken by new manufacturers who have simply changed the rules.
Tesla are in a position to drive down market prices year on year as they scale up. Their competitors will have to match prices if they want to sell anything and with higher costs there will come a point when they simply can't make a profit any more.
Tesla are making some parts required for accident repair available at cost.

I'm a huge fan of change and innovation when it is for the better. I don't find the Tesla a great drivers car but Musk, BYD et al have ripped up the rule book and we all needed that to happen.

"massive presses producing the chassis as a single die cast component" ??? How aboout trying to learn the vocabulary, before displaying ignorance?

 

[Sideways]

"massive presses producing the chassis as a single die cast component" ??? How aboout trying to learn the vocabulary, before displaying ignorance?

Fine, but it's not my specialist subject, what am I missing ?

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• The Giga Press program is a series of aluminium die casting machines manufactured for Tesla, initially by Idra Group in Italy. Idra presses were the largest high-pressure die casting machines in production as of 2020, with a clamping force of 55,000 to 61,000 kilonewtons (5,600 to 6,200 tf).[2][3] Each machine weighs 410–430 tonnes (900,000–950,000 lb).

"
Idra themselves refer to it as both a press and a die casting machine
https://idragroup.com/en/gigapress

 

[Spectric]

There is a massive amount of savings to be had for Tesla as a diecast chassis is not a cheap option, the chinese will eventually produce one using injection moulding with plastic at a fraction of the cost which along with lower production cost will make for some stiff competition.

Maybe you can't standardise things like connectors or charging rates but you can have a common way to pay.

The only thing preventing standardisation is the will of OEM's to have conversations with other OEM's and agree on a common charging interface. The actual charge process is controlled by the EV.

The issue of payment is a good one, we are already seeing the impact of some companies having the mindset that everyone and the dog has a smartphone but in reality this is not the case and you cannot force people to become a smartphone slave so maybe the payment needs to be done via the actual EV which could act like pre payment meter. This way you top up the EV with money which can then transfer funds to the charging point so the driver does nothing and gets a digital receipt by email.

 

[Kev.k]

I'm retired and they don't suit me !

Im looking at buying a M3 x drive in the next month or so.

I admit I look at Taycans now n then. £60k for a 2020 “turbo“ with a 2 year warranty seems like crazy value.

The thought of anything going wrong with the battery puts me off.

They have to be dropping like a stone for a reason.

Most car dealers won’t accept EV’s as a part ex or buy one at trade.

Hypocrites have showrooms full of them don’t tell you that when they sell you one.

 

[Richard_C]

The issue of payment is a good one, we are already seeing the impact of some companies having the mindset that everyone and the dog has a smartphone but in reality this is not the case

Exactly, and you still get areas of poor signal and if outside UK, high charges. Pre loading the EV with 'money' is a very good idea.

A slight aside, our nearest station no longer has debit card parking payment, all ANPR, you must have their app or a whole series of text message exchanges with a non smart phone. My neighbour has no mobile so now drives 20+ miles to a distant station on another line where, for now, they still have card readers.

 

[DrPhill]

As for the cause of the Luton airport car park fire, the authorities remain suspiciously coy with the information concerning a Range Rover with additional combustotronic features. I guess that driver may face a premium increase too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67077996"It is thought the fire started with a diesel-powered vehicle "and then that fire has quickly and rapidly spread", said Andrew Hopkinson, Bedfordshire's chief fire officer."

 

[DrPhill]

I'm kind of with you, but the counter argument is that if you standardise, you freeze things as they are, so no further improvements can arise...

Yeah, AA and AAA batteries really stifled innovation. As did TCP/IP and html. So did the three-pin plug and the metric thread system. Imagine where we would be now without them.

 

[Cobbs]

Yeah, AA and AAA batteries really stifled innovation. As did TCP/IP and html. So did the three-pin plug and the metric thread system. Imagine where we would be now without them.

Not sure if you're being ironic there...
My point is that innovation needs a certain amount of room - imagine if the solid wood wheel had become standard. How do we know we've reached the pinnacle of design if we stop designing? Not saying we haven't, just that we shouldn't stop looking.

 

[DrPhill]

Not sure if you're being ironic there...
My point is that innovation needs a certain amount of room - imagine if the solid wood wheel had become standard. How do we know we've reached the pinnacle of design if we stop designing? Not saying we haven't, just that we shouldn't stop looking.

Standardisation of those items actually accelerated innovation. Not having to design a battery and holder for an electronics project meant you could concentrate on the fun bits. Standardised TCP/IP means that we can create web apps without needing to write a communications protocol - we can innovate in the app domain without getting bogged down in the protocol.

My point is that (mostly) standardisation aids innovation by solving a common problem, so that unique solutions can easily be built around them. Sometimes the market takes a wrong turn (eg betamax or windows) and that stifles innovation, but mostly the availability of standard components helps create new ideas.

 

[Spectric]

My point is that innovation needs a certain amount of room - imagine if the solid wood wheel had become standard. How do we know we've reached the pinnacle of design if we stop designing?

Some things can be designed that if done correctly will not require changes, charging interconnects are one example that could be standardised providing you have leeway on current capacity and have some surplus pins. How old is the 13 amp plug, it meets the requirements and has become a standard in the UK and although the solid wood wheel and solid tyre may have changed the wheel is still round because there are no other options, the secret is to get it right first time. The one thing that can really stiffle innovation and prevent something from reaching an optimum design is copyright, whilst that is in force then the OEM can just milk the market knowing it has no other competition and also not spend any money on improving the product, but that strategy can seriously backfire if any of the competition has a better version of the product and is waiting for the patent to expire to launch to market.

 

[Spectric]

My point is that (mostly) standardisation aids innovation by solving a common problem,

The 32mm spacing on an MFT with 20mm holes, then imagine if house bricks and blocks had no standard sizes or we did not have the Si system of units.

 

[J-G]

Yeah, AA and AAA batteries really stifled innovation. As did TCP/IP and html. So did the three-pin plug and the metric thread system. Imagine where we would be now without them.

The Metric Thread System came late to the party. It was originally developed by the Swiss and based upon Whitworth's 'Standard'.

It is still not 'Universal' though - the Left-Pondians deplore it and don't appreiciate the benefits of the Metric System in general. They don't even condone Metric paper sizes!!

 

[user 43593]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67077996"It is thought the fire started with a diesel-powered vehicle "and then that fire has quickly and rapidly spread", said Andrew Hopkinson, Bedfordshire's chief fire officer."

Yes, this adds nothing but mud to an already muddy lake. e.g. When many large incidents require investigation that cover gathering data and evidence and then a report is produced and published, the investigation will have taken many months to conduct and finally report on. Nothing said by Andrew Hopkinson is evidential quality commentary and it was said without the benefit of a comprehensive investigation. It cannot count towards the formal investigation and does not indicate that one has been conducted. These are just off the cuff comments from a person who either has not seen or understood the video of the fire emanating from under the Range Rover's front left side or who is wilfully obfuscating the true facts.

q.v. the comments below...

Andrew Hopkinson, chief fire officer for Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire at Luton Airport was thought to have started with a diesel vehicle.

The airport has a system for knowing the vehicle registration and the ownership details for every car parked. It must be trivial to check with DVLA on the details of the car from its registration plate.

“We don’t believe it was an electric vehicle,” he said.

Ten out of ten for having a strong belief that something may be a fact. It does not make it a fact and if this evidence was readily known, why has it not been made a fact to inform the public or to allay public fear of EVs?

“It’s believed to be diesel-powered, at this stage all subject to verification. And then that fire has quickly and rapidly spread.”

Once again, a belief that something is true does not make it so. These statements from Bedfordshire's most senior fire officer are a bad joke. I live within the ambit of the Bedfordshire Fire Service and I think this BS is not appropriate. Mr Hopkinson is paid a six figure salary and yet he speaks nonsense!

EDIT: spelling corrections

 

[Kev.k]

It was definitely a EV

ICE cars don’t spontaneously combust.

Especially diesel.

 

[user 43593]

Pre loading the EV with 'money' is a very good idea.

Not manufacturing EVs may be a much better idea. Pre-loading implies that actual money will not need to change hands. The transactions will all be done online. The removal of beer tokens from daily life will make many small transactions impossible. Car boot sales anyone? It is unlikely that someone selling a few unwanted items from their home will have a PDQ machine.

While it should be clear that civilisation ought not to collapse for want of a few physically available notes and coins, removing cash from the system of purchase and selling means that every transaction will be logged and subject to scrutiny. This is not me arguing for a tax avoidance charter but noting that the government already are seeking the untrammelled rights to examine every person's bank account. Will MPs permit their constituents to examine the bank accounts of MPs? Highly unlikely!

EDIT: spelling correction