Here’s one good reason to make the change: Threads populate better in here than Xeets.
Given that batteries are circa 50% of the cost of an EV, in theory this will lead to a 20% drop in the overall price of buying one.
According to some: How dare you violate Elon’s right to free speech!
Why the steep decrease in battery cost? Is it technological, greatly increased production or something else?
I am exercising my right not to listen to his bullshit.
It seems to be mostly down to a reduction in the cost of the cathode material. Everyone is trying to find cheaper, less bloodstained materials for this part of the battery, and I guess there has been some success in this area which is driving down cost projections.
Xitter has filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for reporting - correctly - that ads for companies like Disney and NBC were appearing on the platform next to pro-Nazi content.
Good luck with that.
But if you think that was dumb, here comes Ken Paxton:
It’s due to the lower cost of the raw materials, but that is being driven largely by the consumer factor: just a precipitous drop in global demand for EVs. Everyone in China already has one.
China is the only place making “everyman” EVs. They’re also building charging infrastructure. Everywhere else they are selling only high-end EVs that you can’t plug in anywhere except at home.
To wit, I was riding in an Uber the other day, and it was a Chevy Bolt EUV. That’s one of the cheaper EVs available in the US, and it’s still +/- $40k depending on your options. Anyway, I asked the driver about how charging works and he was still ranting and raving by the time we reached my destination.
Basically:
- if you find an open charging spot in the app, it’s probably going to be occupied by the time you get there
- or it’s not working
- or its pushing out juice like an old man with a zeppelin-sized prostate (my analogy, not his)
He said it can take him 2-3 hours to go from 10% to 80%.
Clearly, an EV is not suited to being driven for Uber. A regular hopper-shopper driver isn’t going to have to worry about 3 hour charging stops when they’re doing 15 miles a day (which is about average, apparently).
However, $40k is a lot of money to spend on a car that you use to drive the kids to school. And, if you do decide to go to, say, Dallas, that 4-5 hour drive just turned into a 7-8 hour drive, which is unacceptable.
Demand is going to be in the doldrums until the US starts spitting out $25k EVs and building a charging infrastructure that works at full volume as close to 100% of the time as is humanly possible. Seriously, there’s no reason why a small transformer with a plug on it should be down more than 5% of the time.
China uses half the world’s lithium and was basically producing EVs at a loss just to get them in the hands of the everyman. That trend has peaked. Perhaps demand will perk up in the US as material prices come down, but they simply aren’t pushed by the government at the same level.
1 Like
Speaking of charging stations, a Finnish company who knows about DC power has redesigned the charging system layout.
The big trick here, to me, is that by centralizing the power management, as a charging vehicle reduces its draw as it nears full charge, that unused “bandwidth” is released to be available to other charging vehicles.
Earlier this year I took a Hyundai Ioniq taxi and the driver was raving about how great it is to operate and his fuel expense savings are incredible. Dude was very pleased to make the switch.
1 Like
I took a Tesla Model 3 Uber from the airport recently and the guy loved it because he “had a full tank” every morning. He may have been a part-time Uber driver but it paid off for him.
I will never unsee this
Like SNL having Ady Bryant play Ted Cruz. It is both perfect casting of an excellent performer, and a lava-hot burn to such faux hard men.
Or Will Farrell playing Janet Reno… Eh? Oh…
1 Like
Rode my bike to a business meeting this morning. Worked out well.
2 Likes
In case you were wondering how far down the rabbit hole Elon has gone…
It’s all. All the way down the rabbit hole.
Here’s the extended clip of Musk’s “GFY” moment.
Clearly he is having a mental health episode. This is so self-destructive it’s mind boggling. Not only does it justify anyone abandoning the platform, it probably torpedoed any chance he had in his stupid lawsuit against Media Matters.
I hope the people at NASA are paying attention. Twitter has been a zombie ever since he took it over, Tesla can survive (and may well thrive) if they kick him out, but SpaceX remains a large part of our space program and StarLink is vital to Ukraine’s resistance efforts against Russia.
The constant looking at the audience for affirmation with dead silence in return is absolutely amazing.
3 Likes
Clearly he is delivering what he thinks are applause lines, because they probably were back at fan boi HQ, so he pauses waiting for the eruption from the audience but gets crickets. So he says it again, and gets a smattering of nervous laughter.
1 Like
Yeah, and even the laughter is pretty quiet.
Like “holy shit, he’s blowing it in real time.”
Also, that jacket looks absolutely fucking idiotic on him. He looks like a 17 year old girl transitioning from riot grrl to Banana Republic fan.
1 Like