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Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

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Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#121

Post by jksmith »

I love advancement of technology and when a major player steps up to the plate to execute it (with risk).

Volvo also has a marine division and I'd love to see them come up with a way to migrate the technology. Could finally crack the 10-20k engine service hour mark, so no more $75k overhauls. Would be a gamechanger for the midsize yacht/sport fisher industry. Right now combustion engine overhauls can happen all over the place. 1k hours, 5k hours, because of lots of variable. Do you have an open checkbook service policy, do you let your boat sit too long, do you run it hard too much, did run it at too low rpms, etc.

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#122

Post by asendra »

roel_v wrote: post #111
gambiting wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV. I personally don't know anyone who uses wireless charging for anything, and I work in IT.

"and I work in IT." Yeah that's probably the problem. I mean, fuck dropbox, because ftp mount filesystem and use svn/git, right? Wireless charging is a great improvement over fiddling with cables several times a day. Anyone who's gotten used to it doesn't want to go back.

Except when you want to use the device and charge it...

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#123

Post by [deleted] »

abakker wrote: post #117
infecto wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question. Can a person who has trouble plugging in a car do a reasonable and safe job at driving?

I think the idea was that the car would be self-driving. So, Auto charging would also be important for them.

[deleted]

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#124

Post by slac »

jksmith wrote: post #121

I love advancement of technology and when a major player steps up to the plate to execute it (with risk). Volvo also has a marine division and I'd love to see them come up with a way to migrate the technology. Could finally crack the 10-20k engine service hour mark, so no more $75k overhauls. Would be a gamechanger for the midsize yacht/sport fisher industry. Right now combustion engine overhauls can happen all over…

Sadly not the same Volvo. Volvo Cars is owned by Geely, a Chinese company. Volvo Trucks is publicly listed, no clue who owns marine division if it still exists..

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#125

Post by 8xde0wcNwpslOw »

alkonaut wrote: post #26
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plugin hybrids do seem to offer the best of both worlds right now.

My problem with them is that they don't offer the greatest benefit of electric: the simple drive train. No thousands of moving part kept moving by a handful of fluids and rubber pulleys all needing meticulous care. With the hybrid you get the best of both worlds in convenience and range but the worst in maintenance. Battery aging? Check. Expensive combustion engine service schedules? Check.

Battery aging is less a problem when the battery capacity is less essential. You still get hybrid mileage benefit even if the battery can only hold a single braking charge (and let's face it, it will never go that low during the lifetime of a car).

In any case, there are always going to be advantages and disadvantages, and the market will tell where people's priorities lie. After all, there already is the $100k Model S, with its abysmal range when driving at 100 mph -- and some say that it even has too big a battery for an affordable EV! A hybrid suffers none of that with its more complicated ICE. (They're not that bad, but I'm not going to start arguing about that. I don't even know if you own one to maintain.)

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#126

Post by [deleted] »

infecto wrote: post #113
dayjah wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the appeal of automobile revolution is how it'll empower folks with motor control issues to become a bigger part of society versus being home bound; so I think this request has merit.

Honest question. Can a person who has trouble plugging in a car do a reasonable and safe job at driving?

[deleted]

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#127

Post by ccozan »

jlebrech wrote: post #78
ccozan wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember in movies about old times, you would arrive with your horse-powered cart at a such station, they changed the horses, and off you go. I guess this is similar. Make batteries standard shape and size, just the power may vary. After all, the gasoline/diesel is the same all over the world and is made after some international standards. I think we are looking wrongly at the energy source of an electric car. If w…

A rental company could do this with full teslas. just hope into a fully charged one and leave the old one to charge.

Actually this sounds really interesting and could be a good business model.

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#128

Post by bluGill »

rsync wrote: post #118
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plugin hybrids do seem to offer the best of both worlds right now.

"Plugin hybrids do seem to offer the best of both worlds right now." Yes - absolutely. If you are a legacy car maker . You get all the benefits of the halo of "modern" technology and "green" initiative but you still get to hang on to your very lucrative ICE maintenance business (oil changes, fluids, complicated mechanicals, etc.). As a consumer ? You get none of the technological benefits (dramatically lowered center…

Car makers make essentially nothing from ICE maintenance. The labor goes to the independent shops, even if you have a dealer do the labor the car maker gets nothing for it. The fluids are from a third party (you can buy manufacture fluid in a few cases - but that is someone else's fluid with their sticker on the bottle). Rebuilds are mostly done by independent shops. Sometimes the manufacturer supplies parts, but this isn't a large source of income for any of them (though it is significant enough to keep doing it)

The complicated mechanical are a negative for the most part. They have to spend massive sums of money to keep meeting the latest emissions standards, along with more money on efficiency. The only silver lining in this is the side effect that it costs so much you won't see more competition as only a few companies can afford to design an engine.

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#129

Post by elif »

chongli wrote: post #29
worldsayshi wrote: post #6

Can we please standardize charging stations to not require a person to manually establish a connection? It seems that it would pose such an awkward and unnecessary hurdle. Especially in the coming age of self driving cars. Every time you arrive or leave you have to remember to (dis-)connect the charger. Why not just have some kind of inductive energy transfer or I dunno... something. Edit1: Heh, this could work I gue…

The problem with inductive charging is that it's inefficient. This means it'll take longer to charge and produce a bunch of extra waste heat. For a battery as large as an electric car's, this could be a considerable cost.

Agreed heat is the real problem.

I think something between Tesla's snake and a slot track car toy is the inevitable future. Drive on top of something that knows where to put two metal prongs. Very easy problem if you get to design both halves.

Re: Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'

#130

Post by moogly »

slac wrote: post #124
jksmith wrote: post #121

I love advancement of technology and when a major player steps up to the plate to execute it (with risk). Volvo also has a marine division and I'd love to see them come up with a way to migrate the technology. Could finally crack the 10-20k engine service hour mark, so no more $75k overhauls. Would be a gamechanger for the midsize yacht/sport fisher industry. Right now combustion engine overhauls can happen all over…

Sadly not the same Volvo. Volvo Cars is owned by Geely, a Chinese company. Volvo Trucks is publicly listed, no clue who owns marine division if it still exists..

Volvo Penta is still owned by the Volvo Group. Volvo Cars and Volvo Aero (aerospace: jet and rocket engines) are the two big companies that no longer are part of the Volvo Group.
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