441–450 of 783 posts
I pick up a bad screw every year from careless Ute drivers with leaky toolboxes and have to throw 1-2 tyres in the bin. Tyre wear isn't that important to me.
A lot of tyre shops offer insurance which might be beneficial for you if you reckon you have a higher-than-average rate of punctures.
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> and have to throw 1-2 tyres in the bin. That's your choice. We jack the car, pull the wheel, extract the screws, and use a tyre plug kit. Howto repair tubeless tyres with plugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwWPlaghfs Tyres with inner tubes can also be repaired, that's slightly more involved.
depends where the puncture is. too close to the sidewall and you have to bin them. if they've already been plugged once and theu get another puncture its off to the bin.
Yeah a proper internal glue on patch would likely perform better in the shoulder but ain't nobody got time for that, that's like 90% of the work of changing the tire.
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which is the whole point of hybrids Part of the point, not the whole point. Regenerative breaking is absolutely a win; but there can also be a significant benefit from allowing the ICE to remain in the RPM "sweet spot" rather than moving around a larger range.
> […] but there can also be a significant benefit from allowing the ICE to remain in the RPM "sweet spot" rather than moving around a larger range. Which is why I'm surprised electric cars with range extenders aren't a bigger thing: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_extender Have the powertrain be all-electric, and have a battery pack, but for those with range anxiety have a small generator as an option that woul…
Assume the car gets 4 miles per kWh delivered and the charging cycle is 90% efficient (measured from generator output). The 2.2kW generator can add 8 miles/hour of generator runtime (2.2 kW * 0.9 * 4 miles/kWh).
For range anxiety of the form "we're driving to a destination pretty far away and I'm not sure we can get there", that's not very helpful. For range anxiety of "I'm driving to a destination that's over half my range and then going to spend a full day [or overnight] there, but I'm not sure there will be working chargers available there", charging 8 mph times 8-10 hours is very helpful.
Worrying about being stuck in the boondocks without a charger is addressed by an 8 mph on-board charger, but I think that's the less common form of range anxiety.
The Chevy Volt range extender was 75kW; the i3's was 26.6kW. 2.2kW is literally an order of magnitude too small to replace those.
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Smaller cars have always been available, but people have shown a preference for bigger cars where they can sit higher up, even though it costs them more.
does "preference" equate to endless, manipulative advertising from car manufacturers? Or, perhaps, the "preference" of higher profit margins from larger cars, pushing manufacturers to entirely abandon reasonably sized cars?
I hate to break it to you but something like a Rogue or HRV does circles around an Altima or Civic when it comes to daily flexibility and utility for a fairly paltry additional cost. It doesn't take a degree in rocket surgery to figure out why they fly off the shelves. For the average person they're a good combination of attributes.
An an EV owner, I can testify that the tyre wear more than makes up for the reduction in brake dust. I’ve had to change tyres every 10K miles.
The article says that even including tire and road wear, EVs generate 38% less particulate pollution than ICE cars before considering the lack of tailpipe emissions.
But they burn through tires much faster due to the battery packs. All that tire friction has to go somewhere right?
Tire wear is an extremely strong function of torque. If you accelerate and decelerate calmly then the stiff tires they put on EVs will last a long time.
A lot of people drive EVs extremely aggressively because the motor provides a ton of instant torque and they find it fun.
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Many hybrids are not driven to max regenerative breaking. You need to drive and look ahead to make good use of the regeneration. Short distance breaking is still fast and using the discs.
Hard braking is an insane power. Eg. A typical 4,400 lb car emergency stopping from 80 mph has a braking power of 940 horsepower. Hybrid cars have smaller motors, inverters, and battery packs - and none of those components can absorb 940 horsepower! A 2nd gen prius battery for example has a max in/out of 30 horsepower.
We should obviously ban combustion engine cars, at least starting with cities. I can’t think of a single clearer win for air quality.
If all of us renters were forced to convert to electric there’d never be an open charger in any city again for the next five years, because no landlord will voluntarily afford that cost, and no municipal region can pass a ballot measure to afford that cost. California’s impending ban of combustion car sales hinges wholly on a magical DC-charging network that doesn’t exist in U.S. cities yet (i.e. at parking meters),…
Annoyingly, I've already invested in a 11kW charger (with 22kW infrastructure) which I've never used!
You don't need "magical DC-charging" to go EV.
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It's not "nearly". It's exactly the same effect. Compression braking. Even if you're not on the throttle the engine is still rotating as it's connected to the wheels. If the engine is rotating it is compressing air. If it's compressing air but not igniting fuel (throttle closed) then it will suck energy out of the wheels to compress the air. You can do it in an automatic, you just have to force it to select a lower g…
If it takes energy to compress the air in the cylinder - doesn't it also release most of that energy when that compressed air is expanded on the subsequent stroke? If you release the compressed air without pushing the cylinder down you would lose that energy, but you would need a extra device to do so (by lifting a valve at the right time). This option does exist for large vehicles like trucks as a compression releas…
It's basically like an air compressor that just keeps running despite hitting max pressure and every pump just goes out the blow off valve.