Best selling car 2023

[user 43593]

I don't see an external combustion car in my future. I have not seen any information with reliable source material but supposedly, the insurance industry is not going to pay for the 35 milion squid conflagration at Luton airport. In fact there is never much excuse for the car insurance industry to bump premiums and I am expecting an additional EV supplement penalty addition at renewal. As for Ferries, car parks, QEII tunnel and mass transportation systems (Eurotunnel anyone?) Norway may be pointing the way with its EV ban on certain ferries.

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. Around that time, a Tesla showroom decided to burn 14 Tesla vehicles to the ground complete with the showroom in southern France. The Chinese EV manufactures have a huge number of unsold vehicles because of spontaneous combustion and they made the cars in high numbers to avail of government subsidies. Whether western car makers are using or will use Chinese components from Burn You Down cars or not, remains to be seen.

 

[Tortoise]

In many ways making an electric car should involve less components and sub assemblies, no gearbox / clutch, no exhaust system, no ICE along with all the ancillaries and it just boils down to an electric motor. The issue is still the power source, the way this is currently done is not ideal and what is needed are easily exchanged battery packs rather than wrapping a car round the batteries, puting the motors in the wheel hubs would simplify the transmission and make space for using battery packs but at the expense of unsprung mass. I can see the biggest challenge to all motor manufacturers in the west is going to be the asian producers, they will do to cars what they have done to machinery and so much more because a huge problem in the west is simply the high cost of labour and whilst we have been devaluing engineers the east have been doing the exact opposite and now have world class design teams.

I believe the exchange battery pack is already in development as ..... somewhere I've seen the film on TV. Refuel simply by driving over an appropriate fitting in the refuelling station, and it's all done automatically underneath the car in just less than a minute.

 

[worn thumbs]

I have a feeling that while work is being done in that respect,it may have limited value.Would you fancy being in the vicinity of so much radiated power if you had a pacemaker?

 

[John Brown]

I have a feeling that while work is being done in that respect,it may have limited value.Would you fancy being in the vicinity of so much radiated power if you had a pacemaker?

??
Battery swap, not wireless charging...

 

[Doug B]

Another Internet myth. A bit of googling will prove that EVs are much less likely to catch fire than conventional cars.

from what I’ve read this is true but it doesn’t help when your insurance company tells you that the reason for the huge renewal premium hike is down to EVs both with the expense from sourcing parts & the greater costs involved when they do set on fire, I kid you not.

 

[John Brown]

I believe the exchange battery pack is already in development as ..... somewhere I've seen the film on TV. Refuel simply by driving over an appropriate fitting in the refuelling station, and it's all done automatically underneath the car in just less than a minute.

Personally, I can't see this happening. I have often heard people suggest it, as though it's an obvious solution that's somehow been overlooked by the car manufacturers, but I think there would be too many downsides. Who's going to check the batteries for safety/state of health/damage etc.? All cars having the same form factor battery pack would stifle innovation. Currently, the charger is part of the car, as I understand it. The so called chargers are really just power supplies with a bit of intelligence, but the current and voltage profiles are handled by the vehicle.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I can't see its ever happening because it should have been standardised at the outset - which of course would have needed a lot of cooperation between all manfacturers before the event.

 

[worn thumbs]

??
Battery swap, not wireless charging...

As has been posted,it would require standardisation.A positive step perhaps as we might nudge the legislators in that direction.They did it with mobile phone charging and it would be nice if they could come up with a set of standards for not just cars but perhaps battery tools too.We could see a common connection and securing pattern for tools or cars at specified voltage levels so that batteries and chargers were interchangeable between brands we wouldn't be throwing away incompatible bodies,batteries or chargers in the volumes that we currently do.

 

[Richard_C]

I often wonder why electric cars look like cars. The 3 box shape - engine, people, stuff - evolved for big heavy ic engines, a few manufacturers swapped the stuff and engine ends. Surely if you have a rectangle with a wheel at each corner, the distributed battery and engine bits in a layer, you can use the space above in far more imaginative ways

 

[Spectric]

Come on there is little to no chance of any standardisation with batteries or charging systems because all the OEMs will believe their system is better, it was a miracle that we managed to standardise the 13 amp plug otherwise maybe each county would have there own version. The problem with a single battery pack would be the huge space required so by using several packs spread around the vehicle they can be put in various places that avoid the passenger compartment. This also means that when a battery pack fails and needs to be replaced then it becomes a major task and expense.

 

[John Brown]

As has been posted,it would require standardisation.A positive step perhaps as we might nudge the legislators in that direction.They did it with mobile phone charging and it would be nice if they could come up with a set of standards for not just cars but perhaps battery tools too.We could see a common connection and securing pattern for tools or cars at specified voltage levels so that batteries and chargers were interchangeable between brands we wouldn't be throwing away incompatible bodies,batteries or chargers in the volumes that we currently do.

Maybe you missed the thrust of my reply. Changing battery packs, however feasible or otherwise, would not be a hazard for pacemaker users.

 

[Spectric]

I would assume that it is electromagnetic fields that can cause issues with a pacemaker, I have heard that you need to keep a distance from induction hobs so anything producing a magnetic field needs to be treated carefully. The charging aspect is going to be ok whether it is Ac or Dc but what about the motors in an EV ?

 

[worn thumbs]

Maybe you missed the thrust of my reply. Changing battery packs, however feasible or otherwise, would not be a hazard for pacemaker users.

No,I didn't miss that point.Nor did I miss the point that it was EU legislators that forced the adoption of common standards for mobile phone chargers and thus led us to sockets with USB connections.If they can act in one sphere I see no reason why they can't act in another.While they are thinking about standards,they could do worse than kick the makers of inkjet printers in the same direction and devise a common set of cartridges and driver software.Now I am in the realms of fantasy,its nice there.

 

[Cobbs]

No,I didn't miss that point.Nor did I miss the point that it was EU legislators that forced the adoption of common standards for mobile phone chargers and thus led us to sockets with USB connections.If they can act in one sphere I see no reason why they can't act in another.While they are thinking about standards,they could do worse than kick the makers of inkjet printers in the same direction and devise a common set of cartridges and driver software.Now I am in the realms of fantasy,its nice there.

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...

 

[John Brown]

No,I didn't miss that point.Nor did I miss the point that it was EU legislators that forced the adoption of common standards for mobile phone chargers and thus led us to sockets with USB connections.If they can act in one sphere I see no reason why they can't act in another.While they are thinking about standards,they could do worse than kick the makers of inkjet printers in the same direction and devise a common set of cartridges and driver software.Now I am in the realms of fantasy,its nice there.

Of course now post-Brexit we'll have to have imperial chargers for batteries, a dozen cubits of your finest electricity, my good man, and check the windscreen washer levels while you're at it!

 

[selectortone]

The problem with a single battery pack would be the huge space required so by using several packs spread around the vehicle they can be put in various places that avoid the passenger compartment.

Most EVs, at least the ones designed from the ground up, like Teslas, do have a single battery pack. It forms the floor and has the added benefit of lowering the centre of gravity. Apparently it is almost impossible to roll a Tesla. It's only retrofitted existing designs, like the Mini EV that have batteries distributed around the chassis.

 

[Kev.k]

The whole everyone must have an EV really annoys me.

It can never work which means only the rich will have cars if ICE is banned.

Im looking to buy a car atm and EV’s are ridiculously cheap compared to ICE. They just don’t work for most. People.

Tesla build quality is really bad and the id3 I was given as a courtesy car is by far the worst car I’ve ever drove.

I don’t hate all EV’s. They have a place but not for everyone.

They suit retired people more than anyone imo.

 

[user 43593]

"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much"​

 

[RogerS]

Tesla = the Apple of car manufacturers.

Good luck to all those with one who want to get it repaired anywhere other than a Tesla garage, good luck finding parts on the open market, good luck getting parts at a good price and good luck if musk decides to throw a wobbly and presses a button that makes your car for some weird stuff

Tesla & Apple are the masters of planned obsolescence

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

 

[RogerS]

The whole everyone must have an EV really annoys me.

It can never work which means only the rich will have cars if ICE is banned.

Im looking to buy a car atm and EV’s are ridiculously cheap compared to ICE. They just don’t work for most. People.

Tesla build quality is really bad and the id3 I was given as a courtesy car is by far the worst car I’ve ever drove.

I don’t hate all EV’s. They have a place but not for everyone.

They suit retired people more than anyone imo.

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