Fixing Americas car industry

SpaceNut · 2022-12-18 16:13:36

I have seen that before and did lose one due to not being able to work for a long time in the 80's but in time I did make it out of the hole by subcontracting temporary to get income back.

Most of the repose go to auction and they try to get the difference of what is owed after that sale. The garage I have nearby does go to these and sometimes they do get a really good deal and other times as always you get bidded up.

The car has been quite finicky as its also got a neutral switch issue and the garage is thinking that a wiring harness issue might be in the mix. Still need to look to see if fuses are all good that might power for the o2 sensors circuit.

SpaceNut · 2023-01-08 17:24:21

The price of fuel has been bouncing within a few cents a gallon and seems to be settling at $3.35 today.

SpaceNut · 2023-01-14 16:01:18

This post will make it into a couple of topics.
nanoFlowcell QUANTiNO ‘twentyfive’ EV Runs Without Batteries

Developed in the U.K. by nanoFlowcell, it uses bi-ION technology.

Well not in the ordinary sense as they are using a flow battery.

Instead of battery packs, the Quantino uses a convergence of positively-charged electrolytes and negatively-charged anolyte. Once introduced into an ion-selective membrane, it produces electricity. “Our water-treatment system turns saltwater, brackish water or wastewater into carrier liquids for our specially nano-structured molecules – the actual bi-ION® charge carriers,” says its website. The solutions are each stored in 125-liter tanks, that’s 33 gallons to us Yanks.
The two liquid solutions are, according to NanoFlowcell, without toxic substances. They’re also non-flammable, and “eco-compatible.” With the continuing reports of EV fires, that is quite a marketable feature. Beyond that, there are all of those unmentionable issues with extracting Lithium necessary for the increasingly massive Li-ION battery needs.
“The cost of manufacturing the bi-ION® electrolyte liquid on an industrial scale is estimated at substantially less than ten Euro-cents per liter. Industrial production costs for nanoFlowcell® would be around 600 Euro ($650). The company guarantees a life span for nanoFlowcell of a minimum of 50,000 operating hours, which equals to around 1.8 million kilometers (well over one million miles) in an electric car.

https://www.nanoflowcell.com/research-d … twentyfive

The twentyfive is a 2+2 fastback with motors at each wheel. Power comes in at 320 hp, with a zero-to-62 time in under three seconds. And the range? It’s 1,242 miles. So you know there’s no typo, that’s 1,242 miles range. Now that we have your attention, let’s briefly look at the bi-ION technology.

Starting with The Mystery of the Quant 48 EV That Runs On Salt Water

SpaceNut · 2023-01-20 21:49:45

Seems performance and charging plus more are in the mix of why so many with their expensive to repair Tesla vehicles. Some have ripped out the electrical and have converted them to Deisel and gasoline vehicles to get what they wanted or have done a DYI project on How I'm Building an EV for Less Than $10,000

SpaceNut · 2023-01-29 18:21:55

Editorial: California electric car sales are zooming. Too bad they're mostly Teslas I would say that this is not a surprise but its not the norm as the remaining part of the nation is not so delited in them. Crews put out ‘spontaneous’ Tesla battery fire on California freeway with 6,000 gallons of water
796e85e93da0779142d11d569e50acc5

I would say its totalled but will the insurance pay is the question?

SpaceNut · 2023-02-19 20:30:45

I think that I finally cleared the Subaru's nuisance o2 sensor code for the downstream location as it took plugging in the computer display waveform unit to show what was happening. Have picked up a new sensor and did the install and the normal drive is no longer setting it off. The wires have been stressed such that it was causing intermittent operation.

On the note of the Prius, I was able to get it to start before that could snap to recharge the traction battery without and grinding or knocking but the car needs to 12v battery to have a charge put onto it as I think it can be saved. Sure, would be nice to have that fuel savings. again, with its use.

Biden EV charging network rules outlined, even Tesla must comply

Ok so what is this?

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Biden administration on Wednesday laid out a set of requirements for charging hardware-and charging network behavior-that any company looking at claiming federal funds in the buildout of the $7.5 billion national EV charging network will need to submit to. Even Tesla.
The final requirements add to the administration's "Build America, Buy America" approach, and they're requirements that any of the federally approved, state-designated processes granting companies any of the $5 billion designated as National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding will need to comply with.
NEVI is effectively the policy name of the national EV charging network that will eventually include 500,000 chargers, both along highways and within communities. The network is a key piece of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes EV charging within its $650 billion investment through 2026 that includes traditional infrastructure as well such as roads, bridges, and mass transit. Of that, the law includes $7.5 billion in EV charging, $10 billion for various clean transportation projects, and more than $7 billion for EV batteries, critical minerals, and associated materials.

Meaning general use not proprietary in ability to be used.

kbd512 · 2023-02-20 02:57:02

RealClearMarkets - The Year of Electric Vehicle Inevitability? by Mark Mills

It’s the time of year for annual retrospectives. On the energy front, the electric vehicle (EV) was at the top of obsessions for 2022. Claims of an “inevitable” and “accelerating” proliferation of “zero emissions” EVs emboldened policymakers around the world to enact legislation to outright ban cars with internal combustion engines. California, the state with the most cars in America, passed a law banning conventional car sales by 2035, bringing to 12 the number of states with such a ban. The year also saw the European Union make “legislative headway” for a similar EU-wide ban. All told, nearly 60 countries have announced similar bans. All this because of excitement over the emergence of useful EVs. Maybe 2022 should be called the Year of The Ban.
To calibrate, 2022 will end with some 15 million EVs in use. This total excludes the “plug-in” hybrid that still uses the to-be-banned engine. That puts EVs at about 1% of all light-duty vehicles on the roads of the world and America, which means of course that 99% still use internal combustion engines. However, with EVs at 5% of new U.S. car sales, advocates of an “accelerating energy transition” point to California where that share hit 18% in 2022. Enthusiasts claim that technological inevitability, consumer excitement, plus subsidies, will soon lead to a world with 300 to 500 million EVs. If that were to happen, EVs would account for 20% to 30% of all cars, which would reduce global oil use by less than 10% and would have an even smaller reduction in global CO2 emissions, the latter the animating purpose of car bans. Still the subsidies and planned bans cannot be ignored.
Thus, as a foil for exploring the state-of-the-EV, we’ve chosen a recent Wall Street Journal column, “Should You Buy An EV Now?” by Dan Neil, that paper’s resident, and deliciously talented automotive columnist. As it happens, he chose to test drive an EV for nearly half of all his weekly columns in 2022, telling his readers that he knows “electric cars are going to take over the world” not because he’s promoting them but because he’s “merely a vessel conveying what automotive chief executives are telling me.”
Below, we score Mr. Neil answers (shown in italics) to the baker’s dozen questions (also in italics) he selected as typifying feedback from readers and “EV doubters.” In his answers to those 13 questions Mr. Neil makes 30 specific claims, of which, spoiler alert, we score only 14 as correct or at least reasonably accurate.

According to Mark Mills, America would need approximately 5,000,000 fast chargers, not 500,000, in order for fast chargers to make a transition to electric vehicles practical by providing recharging infrastructure that was approximately equal to gasoline. If 100% of our passenger vehicles were EVs, that would save a whopping 10% of total global oil consumption.

About 1/3rd of all Americans have access to a garage to recharge their car overnight. That means without fast chargers, they're not transitioning to anything except walking.

As far as investment into minerals / metals mining, it's simply not there. There is nowhere near enough mining for EVs to accomplish anything except making cars and metals more expensive. I've seen no responses here disputing that point, so the point must stand on its own merits.

This is a classic case of pie-in-the-sky dreamers trying to get other people, mostly those who can least afford it, to pay for their ever-growing wish list of green tech futurism ideas, long before they're ready for prime time.

Humanity would've benefited immensely from simply having reliable heat and electric power without burning anything, but the fetishization of electronic gadgets that are forever at the mercy of the quality of their construction and software reliability are what we received instead. It's always the simplest of things that have the most profound impact. The fixation on turning every aspect of life into an arcade game is probably holding us back more than anything else. This generation would rather have cars that look like video games than affordable new vehicles that almost anyone with a job can afford to purchase.

Someone could've invented a simple geared window crank that would raise or lower with window with one 360-degree hand movement, but instead we received computerized switches and door handles. Why, exactly? Well, people who like video games think pressing buttons and then "having things happens" is way more cool. Beyond that, engineers who really couldn't add much in the way of basic functionality needed a way to justify their employment, and designing all the unnecessary ancillary electronics into modern cars is one way to do that. Push button ignition? Starships don't have keys. Maybe so, but there aren't many thieves who have the skills to steal one, either. Now they can start and drive your car to their location, leaving you wherever you last parked it. Alternatively, it can plow your vehicle into a parked car on the side of the road, at highway speeds, because you foolishly thought a computer program was a replacement for paying attention to where you're going. Isn't technology great?

I write software for a living and I've had a personal computer since I was 3 or 4 years old, and somehow even I can recognize how technology isn't solving any problems here, merely creating new ones without good solutions. In time, I'm sure the new problems will have good solutions. Unfortunately, today is not that day. Maybe the fascination with electronics is gone for me because I've actually built some of my own electronics, troubleshooted them when they quit working, and have some inkling of how complex they are. Sometimes more complex systems can be more reliable in the operational environment where they will see the most use, but whenever sensor input is involved, this is not generally the case.

Computers and software are great from the standpoint that they will always do what they've been programmed to do, with little to no deviation, right up until they quit working. After that happens, the customer becomes fully aware of just how complex and expensive they are, and they're generally not very happy about it.

SpaceNut · 2023-02-25 17:38:41

This is the dream to be free of gas but not everyone will manage to evolve to make use of it with its stated abilities.
This sun-powered car can drive for hundreds of miles on free solar energy — and it’s only going to cost $32,000

tahanson43206 · 2023-02-25 18:40:43

For SpaceNut re #283

Thanks for the update on this ambitious concept. The cost of ownership would (presumably) include:
1) Insurance
2) Plates
3) Garage space with a charger
4) Battery replacement if the owner does not trade
5) Some minimal maintenance, including tires if the vehicle is used even modestly

(th)

kbd512 · 2023-02-25 23:37:46

SpaceNut,

A solar powered car that has enough surface area to recharge a battery in a reasonable amount of time:

Edit (an electric Lotus vehicle using this concept):
lotus-mobile-2.jpg?w=470

Last edited by kbd512 (2023-02-25 23:41:03)

kbd512 · 2023-02-25 23:49:54

Does anyone else see what the problem is with this all-electric computerized vehicle nonsense?

main-qimg-c9eff0ca9cd8dc4aa6207b497965e0f4

That is not a car, it's computer game that's been super-sized to create a toy for adults.

If this is how we're going to make cars in the future, but with more computerized nonsense included, then we're going to run out of Copper.

Maybe someone can recycle it, but in practice it's not recycled because it costs too much to remove all of that electronic crap. It simply degrades the quality of the recycled steel with Copper contamination.

How Will Copper Contamination Constrain Future Global Steel Recycling?

Copper in steel causes metallurgical problems, but is pervasive in end-of-life scrap and cannot currently be removed commercially once in the melt. Contamination can be managed to an extent by globally trading scrap for use in tolerant applications and dilution with primary iron sources.

tahanson43206 · 2023-02-26 12:17:49

This post includes a link to a video about torquing the head gaskets in a Suburu.

It was posted by SpaceNut in Housekeeping...

SpaceNut wrote:

Just now got error with cellphone edit post for a link on Subaru head gasket video
https://youtu.be/o7p_fWXqoSE

(th)

SpaceNut · 2023-02-26 17:40:43

It's, been a bit since I gave a price check for gasoline at the pump in my area and its down to $3.25 a gallon.

The Prius is a blade battery design in a large case, so this company has used that concept in Here’s How BYD’s Blade Battery Is Superior To Tesla’s Lithium-Ion Packs

In terms of the KBD512 post the image show that we are using too much energy to move a super heavy vehicle which requires a very large array.

As far as the recycling of vehicles the time and storage of parts is why most yards have gone the easy route to just crush and dump even if it is at a lower value but then again what you get for turning in your junk has also gotten sub $500 for them to take them.

kbd512 · 2023-02-27 12:18:24

SpaceNut,

Is the quantity and variety of gadgetry that you see in Post #286, absolutely necessary to have a good quality working vehicle?

It's a rat's nest of nonsense that has no reason to exist, except to keep engineers employed on make-work projects. A car needs head lights, tail lights, an interior / dome light, and a light for the instrument cluster. All the other nonsense was put there for reasons not related to providing necessary functionality. This will go away in the future, or it will make vehicles impractically expensive.

If the vehicle ran off of compressed air, then we would have a few large steel tanks to recover, a sheet steel chassis, Aluminum radiator, and Aluminum wheels, plus some rubber tires. A vehicle should be designed in such a way that removal of all its plastic or rubber components and wiring is a fast and painless process, leaving behind nothing but large chunks of metal suitable for removal and repurposing, or shredding into a pile of scrap sheet metal for recycling.

SpaceNut · 2023-02-27 20:47:24

Well in the north you need windshield wipers front and rear, back window defrosting, lights need side markers and turn indicators due to the shape and mounting of the others, head lights have a high beam, Vehicle wheel speed sensor is for ABS breaking but with good training on stopping on ice you would not need them, power locks since we have done away with key entry on all doors or hatches, Night time under the hood light was very useful to see the engine, fog lights since we have days where we cannot hardly see past our face, backup lights ect...

kbd512 · 2023-02-28 09:26:46

SpaceNut,

A modern car is a very complex machine and I understand that, but needlessly making it even more complex is NOT how you improve reliability or longevity. So far as I'm concerned, people who have the money can make their car as complex and therefore expensive as their wallet allows for. There should be at least one option out there which eschews byzantine complexity for simple mechanical and electrical systems that still get the job done, just as they did before any of this computerized fanciness was invented, at minimum cost and with minimum fuss.

A modern car is running 250X more lines of code than was required to launch the Space Shuttle into space. Maybe I'm the only one, but that seems excessive for the task of driving the kids to school (on planet Earth, about a mile from where we live, not the International Space Station). Maybe there's no possible way to live without that these days, but somehow we made do without it for many decades. I never felt deprived of anything. How does an intercontinental jet airliner like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner manage to "get by" with a mere 10 million lines of code run in its computers?

Calliban · 2023-02-28 09:40:22

kbd512 wrote:

SpaceNut,
A modern car is a very complex machine and I understand that, but needlessly making it even more complex is NOT how you improve reliability or longevity. So far as I'm concerned, people who have the money can make their car as complex and therefore expensive as their wallet allows for. There should be at least one option out there which eschews byzantine complexity for simple mechanical and electrical systems that still get the job done, just as they did before any of this computerized fanciness was invented, at minimum cost and with minimum fuss.
A modern car is running 250X more lines of code than was required to launch the Space Shuttle into space. Maybe I'm the only one, but that seems excessive for the task of driving the kids to school (on planet Earth, about a mile from where we live, not the International Space Station). Maybe there's no possible way to live without that these days, but somehow we made do without it for many decades. I never felt deprived of anything. How does an intercontinental jet airliner like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner manage to "get by" with a mere 10 million lines of code run in its computers?

Agreed. We know that the complexity of modern cars is unnecessary, because older cars worked and still work without it. I for one would like a car that I can maintain myself. We shouldn't have to go back to the dealer when something breaks.

tahanson43206 · 2023-02-28 11:34:06

For Calliban re #292 and theme of maintainable cars ...

I'd like to offer my support for this vision. It can most certainly be achieved in the existing Capitalist system. All that's needed is a market of sufficient size to justify the massive investment that is needed. My guess is there is a small market for vehicles we humans can maintain ourselves, and it is populated by individuals who can barely scrape two nickels together (or whatever the modern equivalent may be).

What there clearly ** is ** a market for are magic carpets that operate splendidly, and which are supported by a massive army of well managed folks who are readily available to provide that support at an affordable price, for those who can afford such cars in the first place.

I see some socialist rants in this forum from time to time ... calls for Soviet style minimal cars.

There may be a market. All you (or any entrepreneur) have to do is to find it, develop it, convince it you can be trusted, and then deliver thousands of units to recover your investment plus ongoing costs.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2023-03-04 20:57:04

Seems that it is going to need to change as This solar-powered RV invented by college kids can travel up to 450 miles without charging: ‘You are free to go wherever you want’

https://solarteameindhoven.nl/

That power and freedom to innovate have led Solar Team Eindhoven to create a vehicle that generates solar power via panels on its roof and uses the energy to drive and power the functions of the house. Stella Vita would allow its user to shower, charge electronics, and more, making you “completely self-sustaining and independent,” says the website. “Hereby, you are free to go wherever you want, without harming the environment.”

tahanson43206 · 2023-03-04 21:30:13

For SpaceNut .... thanks for Post #294, with a report on a sensible idea I've not heard before.... There's a ** lot ** of roof on an RV, so it makes sense to use it for solar panels. I'm assuming the panels feed storage devices, and that the 450 miles might include collecting sunlight during the drive, but I haven't read the article yet.

(th)

kbd512 · 2023-03-05 15:37:10

tahanson43206,

The average American makes $30,000 to $40,000 per year. You seem to think you or I or Calliban, people who work in IT and engineering fields, who make or have made well over $100,000 per year, are somehow normative. I assure you that we are not normative.

These gadget-laden toys now cost more than the average yearly salary of the average American. You know, all those people who drive to work every day to make their $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Stay up there on your high horse and look down your nose at them if you must, but you don't eat food from the supermarket or flush your toilet without them. This is another way of saying that their ability to drive to work and provide materials and services for you, is necessary for you to live as you do.

You can load up your car with every electronic gadget imaginable, if that's what you really want. When it breaks down, if you can afford it, then you can get it repaired by that "massive army of well managed folks". For those who prefer to work on their own cars, or simply have no choice because they can't afford to pay the salaries of everyone in that army, we need an alternative. Something less computationally complex than the Space Shuttle is a good starting point.

The cars I'm talking about were made in the US of A, between the 1920s and 1970s, by people who were definitely not socialists. Those cars worked quite well. The fact that so many still exist, while most the cars made from the 1990s onwards have already been scrapped, says quite a lot about how maintainable and durable they were. There was nothing Soviet-esque about them.

Assuming there is something "less desirable" about the cars of the 1970s, any running car is still better than no car at all. Nobody is telling you that you can't have every gadget you want, so long as you're paying for it. The sad fact is that most of your neighbors can't pay for it. I'm sure they wouldn't mind having it, they just can't pay for it. That's the problem with cars running more code than a Space Shuttle. The secondary problems of how bad it is for the environment to keep making non-durable and non-recyclable things is a related issue, because it makes energy more expensive over time as the energy resources are depleted. No electric car was made using energy input from photovoltaics or wind turbines and batteries.

SpaceNut · 2023-03-05 18:39:53

The image from the business website I can see that it only collects some of the power while driving but it will need to stop to pull out the extra solar arrays to benefit to the max which means an hour on either side of high noon to collect the max unless you can align it properly near the end of day for the last couple of hours as well.

62d397ae-9839-4d31-b316-ad68321e04cd_stella-vita-zonnepanelen.jpg?auto=compress,format

The pull-out array is great if the parking area you stop in can allow for that greater distance to the sides of the vehicle.
The popup top makes it give plenty of head room for the stop, sort of reminds me of the Volkswagen of old.

There does not seem to be any specs or motor information to allow for any check for performance.

kbd512 · 2023-03-06 18:43:42

I would happily take any 1970s era Rolls Royce, put a reliable GM LS or Chrysler Hemi or Jeep / AMC Straight Six engine in it, and call it a day. I would not feel deprived of anything at all. It has heat, air conditioning, seat belts, and one of the nicest interiors that money can buy, built with old-world British craftsmanship. On that note, any 1980s Mercdes-Benz with the OM60X diesel was also a fantastic car, even if it had that "minimalist" design that some people think is too "Soviet-like" to be desirable to our refined American sensibilities. Party like a Russian. End of discussion.

The fact of the matter is that those vehicles didn't break down very often, they were easy to repair if they did, and no computerized tools were required to work on them. Anyone with a basic understanding of engines and mechanical devices could repair them. Americans, communist Chinese or Russians, Middle Easterners from various countries, and people anywhere else who had the money purchased them in great numbers, and many of them still serve their owners to this day. If you wanted to "modernize" one, then you could plug an iPad into the cigarette lighter. The touchscreen gadget is the most prominent feature that separates a 1970s Rolls Royce or 1980s Mercdes-Benz diesel from a Tesla in terms of human-machine interface options.

None of the other features affect practical driving capabilities. If you were on a race track, then the Tesla would win the acceleration argument every time. When last I checked, the public roads are not a substitute for a race track.

SpaceNut · 2023-03-06 21:21:42

I had a 70's Plymouth duster with the slant 6 cylinder which was damaged near impossible to kill. I even had an AMC pacer, and many more over the decades of American and foreign cars too as well as engine types. Big block, small block, fuel injected, throttle body and other such flavors of fuel delivery. Gages are the way to go as it gives real time values easily read and interpreted unlike a silly light with words like check engine... Why is it missing?

SpaceNut · 2023-03-09 18:39:21

This EV battery can travel over 750 miles on a single charge: ‘Fundamentally reinvent the battery’

Well if the materials used are less for the same level of kwh then this is a good way to start.

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#276 2022-12-18 16:13:36

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#277 2023-01-08 17:24:21

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#278 2023-01-14 16:01:18

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#279 2023-01-20 21:49:45

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#280 2023-01-29 18:21:55

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#281 2023-02-19 20:30:45

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#282 2023-02-20 02:57:02

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#283 2023-02-25 17:38:41

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#284 2023-02-25 18:40:43

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#285 2023-02-25 23:37:46

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#286 2023-02-25 23:49:54

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#287 2023-02-26 12:17:49

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#288 2023-02-26 17:40:43

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#289 2023-02-27 12:18:24

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#290 2023-02-27 20:47:24

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#291 2023-02-28 09:26:46

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#292 2023-02-28 09:40:22

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#293 2023-02-28 11:34:06

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#294 2023-03-04 20:57:04

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#295 2023-03-04 21:30:13

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#296 2023-03-05 15:37:10

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#297 2023-03-05 18:39:53

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#298 2023-03-06 18:43:42

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#299 2023-03-06 21:21:42

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

#300 2023-03-09 18:39:21

Re: Fixing Americas car industry

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