One Finite Planet

One Finite Planet

Electric Vehicles and Electrification: Another perspective.

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Living with an Atto 3 EV in 2023: An Australian Experience and FAQ.

This page began as a ‘Should you buy an EV or not?’ written from experience, but as it is impossible to cover every possible perspective, the example is an Atto 3 in Australia, so the more similar the vehicle being considered is to the Atto 3, and the more similar the country to Australia the more of this content that will be of interest.

For comparison with other vehicles, I have a separate page soon to be published comparing the Atto 3 to both other EVs as well as traditional internal combustion or hybrid vehicles.

Read More »

2023 may not the year to buy an EV, but it’s definitely too late to buy a new ICEV!

While there are still valid reasons to hesitate before buying an EV in 2023, it’s definitely late to buy a new ICE vehicle and a better time to instead plan a combustion engine exit.

Considering the trend from where EVs were 5 years ago to today, and then projecting EV sales growth over the next 5 years, and it seems almost certain almost all ICEVs of today are an obsolescence risk.

While this does not mean everyone should rush out and buy an EV, it is an opportunity to prepare for an aspect of the future that may catch some unawares.

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BYD. Who?

Depending on how you count, BYD is either the biggest, or 2nd biggest, EV brand in the world. But that is only the start as BYD ranks not only compared to Tesla and other EV brands, but in total of ALL vehicle sales.

In August 2023 BYD overtook Ford to secure 4th spot in global car sales. In China, the world’s largest vehicle market. BYD has now in 2023 taken the lead from VW and Toyota as the bestselling brand of all vehicles inside China. No Chinese brand has ever been market leader in China before, and this not just of EVs but all sales including diesel and gasoline vehicles, despite BYD snow selling only EVs.

As of March 2023, the Atto 3 from BYD has risen to 3rd bestselling EV globally behind the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, but the world outside of China is only just starting to see the capabilities of BYD and quality of their vehicles and batteries.

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One pedal driving, lift-off regen and regen braking explained: reality, myths, hype, fads and Tesla vs the rest.

Update in progress.

To make sense of all the often seemingly conflicting information on “regen“, one-pedal-driving, and how to best drive an EV, it can really help to understand that in most EVs the regenerative braking is fully integrated into the braking system and the two different regen system in use in EVs can suit two very different driving styles:

  1. 1. Lift-off regen: In all EVs and like engine braking in an ICEV.
  2. 2. Brake-by-wire regen, an additional regen system in most EVs.

Confusion over these two systems is part of regen confusion, but there are many myths and so much misinformation about regen-braking, lift-off regen and one-pedal-driving including that “one-pedal-driving” is not the most efficient way of driving, and that the regen you feel from lift-off is not all the regen.

Despite the fact there is so many myths leading to so much misinformation making it sound complex, driving an EV for optimum efficiency is usually extremely simple.

Read More »
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This topic contains subtopics on living with EVs, reference pages, and analysis of the impact of EVs and electrification on the world.

As this is not a news site, the focus is on analysing the implications of news for these topics, rather reporting all EV or electrification news, for which I recommend Cleantechnica, InsideEVs and CNEVPOST.

The focus of these pages is on how EVs and electrification will change our lives, and change the planet. As a species, we are currently transforming from combustion as our primary energy source, to an electronic age, where electricity is our energy source. Just how much of our lives are changed by this can be easy to overlook from the inside experiencing the steps as the occur.

Electric Vehicles and Electrification: Another perspective.

This topic contains subtopics on living with EVs, reference pages, and analysis of the impact of EVs and electrification on the world.

As this is not a news site, the focus is on analysing the implications of news for these topics, rather reporting all EV or electrification news, for which I recommend Cleantechnica, InsideEVs and CNEVPOST.

The focus of these pages is on how EVs and electrification will change our lives, and change the planet. As a species, we are currently transforming from combustion as our primary energy source, to an electronic age, where electricity is our energy source. Just how much of our lives are changed by this can be easy to overlook from the inside experiencing the steps as the occur.

Moving on from combustion for energy is a significant milestone.

From the first ability to harness fire as a tool during the early paleolithic age, energy became one of the tools that most transformed humanity. Fire, or combustion, remained sole the energy source as we moved from wood to fossil fuels until the 20th century, when made the step to adding electrical power generated by combustion into our energy mix.

One way of looking at periods of human history through considering the tools:

  • Palaeolithic with the first stone tools.
  • Neolithic win newer stone tools.
  • The bronze age with metal tools.
  • The iron age with more newer metal tools.

There is less consensus on what follows the above ages, partially because insufficient time has passed for perspective to be established. Some suggest the ‘steel age’ and the ‘steam age’, which if accepted, would be logically succeeded by the internal combustion age.

A different perspective to consider the role of energy in each of these periods:

  • During the paleolithic and neolithic ages, energy came from burning renewable wood, and there was insufficient energy intensity for metallurgy.
  • The bronze age was enabled by improved harnessing of energy, with neolithic pottery kilns improved in their utilisation of combustion energy to be able to reach temperatures beyond 900oC.
  • The iron age was enabled by further improved utilisation of combustion energy to able to reach sufficient temperatures to smelt iron.

The industrial age was powered by utilisation of combustion energy to power machines, and then accelerated by the introduction of the internal combustion engine.

The first wave of electrification introduced the more efficient electrical energy, although initially with combustion as the energy source. During this first wave, the two problems with electrical energy were:

  1. As the electrical energy was sourced from combustion, there will little advantage over combustion energy.
  2. Electrical energy without conductors connected to the grid had very limited energy available.

We have now entered the age of moving beyond those two limitations.

What Changes?

The losers.

The unusual thing is that two of the worlds largest industries, fossil fuels and vehicle manufacturing, both lose in this transition. Normally, a change where the losers are extremely valuable industries and the winners have far less wealth would be perpetually stalled. It is obvious how the fossil fuel industry loses, but not all realise the impact on the vehicle manufacturing industry. Electric vehicles simply need less parts are less complex, and produce less revenue per vehicle, so the industry loses revenue. Although currently electric vehicles have a typically higher price than internal combustion vehicles, the increased cost is in the battery that vehicle makers buy from others, and as EVs go mainstream prices will fall below internal combustion vehicle prices.

The Winners.

The huge change is perhaps demonstrated by the ability of people to go ‘off grid’. Going ‘off grid’ is not even possible with fossil fuels.

People can become more independent and self reliant, and with the potential competition of people sourcing their own energy, energy providers, and even governments, have less hold over peoples lives.

Contents:

I also provide reference information that I needed as background for analysis, and some timeline pages that look at how the future might pan out.

Some sample pages by sub-topic:

* = Recently Updated as of March 2022.

External Reference data on EVs:

Updates.

  • 2022 Aug 1: Modified this page to better act as a topic introduction.