Apple Cancels Car Project

These are literally the same thing.

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No need to worry, he was born in South Africa, he cannot be President of the US.

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Nope. Not even close.

So many things contain circuitry or computers these days, it doesnā€™t make them computers.

Even my dog has a chip! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Iā€™m about to have them for tea. :wink:

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I love a good apple crisp.

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The batteries are easy to recycle as Toyota has been doing with Prius batteries. The recycling industry for EV is ramping up slowly because - surprise - the batteries are lasting much longer than the warranty period (typically 8 years). EV batteries donā€™t just die, they lose capacity just like your phone. A cheap used EV with limited range might be the perfect vehicle for many people.

The biggest objections to EVs seem to come from those that have never driven one. Iā€™ve owned 2 hybrids, a PHEV, and an EV. Never had any of the supposed issues that people complain about.

EVs arenā€™t for everyone. My son is a good example. He lives in a condo in an older neighborhood and has to park on the street. No place to charge at home or work. My wife & I are the exact opposite. We charge at home and rarely drive more than 50 miles one way. In 10k miles of driving weā€™ve only used public charging twice and both cases were just wanted a little extra reserve headed home.

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That has been my issue, I live in a condo that is ~15 years old. We have garages, but the only plug in the garage is 120v and they are are hooked up to the condoā€™s group grid, not to our units. Of course you can slow charge EVs on 120v and we have a bunch of people doing that, but we are all paying for their charging. Which is BS, but I am seeing more and more Teslaā€™s here (every other car seems to be a Tesla here) and there is nothing in the rules banning that.

I raised this problem at a recent HOA meeting, but none of our board members care, they just kind of shrugged it off. Washington state enacted some law that apartments and condoā€™s must support EVs in a couple of years, so I guess it will force their hand then. Which will probably raise our rates. The situation is frustrating.

I am thinking that if I make the switch, it will be best to go with a hybrid for now.

No, my biggest objection is the apparent attempt to eventually ban anything but an electric vehicle. I have no problem if you like them and want to drive one.

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Thatā€™s not really the point, or what is happening, though. No one is trying to ban gas vehicles, that is the talking point of the oil companies. They are trying to force innovation so we can move on, otherwise auto and oil companies will stick to the status quo. Even if you donā€™t believe in climate change, oil is a finite resource that is controlled by a few nations. It would be a good thing to find alternatives, and government is trying to help move in that direction. That is one of the things governments are good for.

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Yet.

In New Zealand, our previous government enacted EV subsidies and also levies on larger ā€œgas poweredā€ vehicles. I am fairly sure I heard a minister name a year by which ā€œwe want to have all new car sales be EVsā€. Though I cannot find a reference for it.

Despite there being bigger contributors to climate change, itā€™s the one people can recognise easily, including politicians, so (depending on leaning) the likelihood of bans, at least in some form if not total, are quite likely in the medium term.

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California has said they will ban the sale of new gas cars in 2035.

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Fair enough, I should have known better, of course CA is. Although 11 years away, I donā€™t really think that is a credible expectation, but it is more of governments trying to force innovation, which personally I donā€™t think is a bad thing. If the industry isnā€™t there in 8-10 years, they will change the law.

Well you canā€™t expect people to give up beef. (Sarcasm)

Edit: Reading up on it, my state is one of the states banning them in 2035. Living in a state that is ā€œbanningā€ them isnā€™t impacting anything other than the car companies are forced to research new techs and businesses are being forced to build the infrastructure to support them (which they wouldnā€™t do unless forced). I find it hard to get too upset about it, and I like that that it is forcing change.

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However, government mandates can distort the free market, often leading to unintended consequences. According to news accounts Iā€™ve read, CA is already experiencing difficulties keeping up with power demands partly due to government regulations related to clean energy mandates. Full adoption of EVs will put additional strain on the power infrastructure. Iā€™d bet that CA will modify, delay, or eliminate the mandate before the deadline.

Regardless of oneā€™s perspective on the human element in climate change, we should always do all we can to reduce and eliminate pollution. We are stewards of Godā€™s creation and are mandated to care for it. Pollution is harmful to animal life and people. We are to ā€œlove our neighbors.ā€ A practical means to demonstrate that love is not to pollute their air, water, and soil. To the extent that moving to affordable, assessable, and reliable alternative power sources results in a net reduction in pollution while protecting livelihoods, we will all be better off. The problem is not the goal (reducing pollution and reliance on a finite resource) but how best to achieve it. Government incentives or mandates can be helpful in some situations, e.g., seatbelt laws and the like, while others can have unintended negative consequences. My impression is that mandating EV adoption is fraught with unintended consequences and needs to be more thoroughly thought through.

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From 2035 (it was 2030 but the government short sightedly pushed it back), Car companies will not be able to sell Petrol or Diesel vehicles in the UK. I appreciate thatā€™s not the same as banning them, but car companies will ramp down before 2035 as they wonā€™t want to be left with unsellable stock.

Before this is even an issue though, some city centres are already charging a fee when people drive the most polluting vehicles through them, you can definitely see this as the thin end of the wedge with increasing minimisation of petrol and diesel in city centres to the point where they end up banned.

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+1

ā€œAbout 1.2 million chargers will be needed for the 8 million electric cars expected in California by 2030. Currently, about 80,000 public chargers operate statewide, with another estimated 17,000 on the way, according to state dataā€

I donā€™t see California building 180,000+ chargers a year to meet the anticipated demand. I do expect to see residents going out of state to purchase standard vehicles.

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While I donā€™t think these deadlines are real, I also think people in this thread are underestimating how much things will change in 10 years. If there is a financial incentive, companies will make it work. For years the oil companies have been doing everything they can to fight alternatives and they are going to continue to spread misinformation.

Itā€™s completely anecdotal, but I keep hearing their is no demand for EVs and the car companies are pulling back. Yet I am sort of car shopping now and most of the manufacturers sites have an EV/hybrids front and center and I have to scroll to get to gas cars. And just on the roads here, there are tons of them. I swear every MS/Amazon employee drives a Tesla. As I said above, we can only slow charge in my condo, yet we have a number of people with Teslas, and a growing amount of other EV/hybrids. Things are definitely changing. I am sure that is not true in the conservative middle of the US.

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What it sounds like is that there was an initial surge of demand as the ā€œearly adoptersā€ and some of the ā€œearly majorityā€ began to get them, but now demand is falling off.

I know where I live (medium city thatā€™s a suburb of a large city), we have a bunch of single-story 10-plexes. Getting power to the various cars would require either a maze of 50-foot extension cords, or rewiring the parking lot with a ton of weatherproofed outlets on poles. And the range gained on an overnight 120V charger would be about 1/3 of what my girlfriend needs to get to and from work.

I would suspect thatā€™s true for the majority of people around here.

Itā€™s not that these problems canā€™t be solved, but I think they probably need to be solved to a greater degree at the infrastructure level before a majority of people here start buying EVs. Again, this is a major metropolitan area - but every time we have a storm it becomes very obvious that our section of the grid is basically held together with baling wire and duct tape. I think that upgrading and stabilizing the infrastructure will give people more confidence to purchase vehicles that make them increasingly dependent on it.

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Yep, as I said above, in my state condos/apartments are supposed to have charging available by a certain date. My condoā€™s HOA have done nothing, but our management company has stated that this is something they need to start thinking about. I imagine they are going to have to do a special project and we are all going to have to pay for it, which is going to anger a lot of people. On the other hand, currently we are all paying for peopleā€™s slow charging now. Even though that probably doesnā€™t cost us much.