An Australian-made solar-powered race car has narrowly set a provisional Guinness World Record in a 1,000 kilometre race, claiming the title with just six minutes to spare.

The Sunswift 7 vehicle, created by a team of University of New South Wales (UNSW) engineering students, is now on track to hold the record for the fastest electric car to travel more than 1,000 kilometres on a single charge.

But the low-profile vehicle almost missed the finish line, with a battery management issue causing a 14-minute pit stop that almost cancelled the record attempt.

The Sunswift 7, powered by a battery and solar panels on its roof and bonnet, completed 240 laps of Victoria's Australian Automotive Research Centre to complete the challenge, or the equivalent of driving further than Sydney to Melbourne.

Sunswift team manager Andrea Holden said the win had been "validation of all the effort everyone in the team" put in after originally creating the vehicle for the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021....

When German automaker Porsche was preparing to release its first electric vehicle (EV) in 2019, executives met with a roomful of historians to test a slogan idea: "The world's first electric Porsche."

From the end of the long table, there came a chuckling noise.

Heads turned to stare.

"That won't work," said Guido Eickholz, the director of the archive of the German auto-parts manufacturer, Reutter.

"It's not the first electric Porsche. There's been one done years ago and it's sitting in a factory in Melbourne."....

LONDON/DETROIT, March 20 (Reuters) - For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles - leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.
And now those battery packs are piling up in scrapyards in some countries, a previously unreported and expensive gap in what was supposed to be a "circular economy."
"We're buying electric cars for sustainability reasons," said Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research. "But an EV isn't very sustainable if you've got to throw the battery away after a minor collision."

Unless Tesla and other carmakers produce more easily repairable battery packs and provide third-party access to battery cell data, already-high insurance premiums will keep rising as EV sales grow and more low-mileage cars get scrapped after collisions, insurers and industry experts said.
"The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point," said Christoph Lauterwasser, managing director of the Allianz Center for Technology, a research institute owned by Allianz (ALVG.DE).
Lauterwasser noted EV battery production emits far more CO2 than fossil-fuel models, meaning EVs must be driven for thousands of miles before they offset those extra emissions.

"If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you've lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions," he said.

The base variant of Ford's electric F-150 truck now starts at $59,974, excluding shipping and taxes, up nearly 50% from its starting price when launched last year.

or are the owners going to ignore the problem until we have a collapse?

That's good...

At long last we can have parking spaces that are doubled in size so that the humans are not doubled up in contortions to squeeze out of ridiculously small gaps for the overcrowded too-small parking spaces.

Hopefully that will also reduce the cost of repairing the dings from other's struggles with extricating themselves after parking up...


An update in the regulations needed?...

Stay cool folks...
Martin

“Towed my first EV Today… a brand new $90,000 electric pickup from the rest area on South Pass to Rocksprings…” Jake Yeaman, tow truck operator with Specialty Towing, wrote in a Facebook post.

Guess his extension cord was not long enough.

“Towed my first EV Today… a brand new $90,000 electric pickup from the rest area on South Pass to Rocksprings…” Jake Yeaman, tow truck operator with Specialty Towing, wrote in a Facebook post.

Guess his extension cord was not long enough.

“Towed my first EV Today… a brand new $90,000 electric pickup from the rest area on South Pass to Rocksprings…” Jake Yeaman, tow truck operator with Specialty Towing, wrote in a Facebook post.

There needs to be a figure quoted for, max milage when the weather is cold and wet at night in hilly country, in the specs.

Guess his extension cord was not long enough.

“Towed my first EV Today… a brand new $90,000 electric pickup from the rest area on South Pass to Rocksprings…” Jake Yeaman, tow truck operator with Specialty Towing, wrote in a Facebook post.

There needs to be a figure quoted for, max milage when the weather is cold and wet at night in hilly country, in the specs.

You assume people: 1) can read 2) do math 3) aware of surroundings ...

A MAN claims he has created a car that might solve the world’s traffic congestion problems. Rick Woodbury from Spokane, Washington USA, is the president, founder and sole employee of ‘Commuter Cars.’ The carmaker’s flagship model is the 2005 super slim two-seater Tango T600, a high-performance electric car that preceded Tesla. Rick told BTV: “I started this company 21 years ago – it was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.” He was inspired by the shocking traffic congestion he had to face on a daily basis.

Electric vehicles are taking the world by storm — and now, new research in lithium-ion batteries could expand EVs’ driving range up to ten times.

Two of South Korea’s top research universities — Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Sogang University — have joined forces to create a new material that could radically expand the charge capacity of EV batteries.

The new material developed by the researchers uses both hydrogen bonding and Coulombic forces — best summed up as the attraction between negative and positive charges, according to SciTechDaily. By combatting the shortcomings of high-capacity anode materials, these combined forces allow the researchers to use silicon and other high-capacity materials that were previously too unreliable for widespread use in EV batteries.

Silicon and other high-capacity anode materials have at least 10 times the capacity of the materials that are currently used, like graphite.

The researchers discovered that by removing cobalt and increasing the amount of lithium in EV batteries, their energy density substantially increases and retains most of its capacity after hundreds of charges.....

In a speech at a Michigan auto parts plant, former President Donald Trump distorted the facts about electric vehicles and the U.S. auto industry.

* Trump said President Joe Biden “has dictated that nearly 70% of all cars” made in the U.S. must be “fully electric” in 10 years. The administration cannot mandate how many cars must be all-electric. It proposed new emission standards, and how the industry meets the new rules is up to them.

* We found no support for Trump’s claim that the proposed rules would kill 40% of the auto industry’s jobs. Instead, Ford’s CEO said EVs take 40% less labor to make, but the company would offset job losses by making its own EV parts.

* Trump claimed all-electric vehicles can only “drive for 15 minutes before you have to get a charge.” Most EVs have a range of 110 to 300 miles, with some expensive models reaching 400 to 500 miles.

* He claimed EVs are “bad … for the environment.” But studies show that electric cars produce less pollution over their entire lifespan than gas-powered vehicles.

* He said Ford expects to lose $4.5 billion on EVs. The company projected that loss for this year but expects to make a profit on EVs by the end of 2026.

* Trump falsely claimed he “saved American auto manufacturing” after “eight long years of [Barack] Obama and [Joe] Biden.” The Obama administration helped rescue the industry, which increased the number of motor vehicle and parts manufacturing jobs in Michigan by 79,600, or 83%, in those eight years.....

Is it any wonder that politicians like Rishi Sunak & Donald Trump are pushing back so hard against Electric Cars when there is so much wrong with them? Too expensive, too heavy, flawed batteries, flawed infrastructure, & are they really 'greener ' anyway? These are just some of the things that we hear every day.

So why are sales of battery electric vehicles growing like crazy around the globe?...

FUD: Fear Uncertainty and Doubt to stifle any/all change to anything good and new