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I've got a PHEV right now, and it's a decade old. My next car will be BEV. This car was a good compromise as far as what was available for a reasonable price at the time, but I'm seeing used Chevy Bolts for $10k now, a few more years and prices on used Mustangs will be in the range I'm willing to pay.

I've had a couple of HEVs, a PHEV, and a couple of BEVs. There is no going back, BEVs are by far the best solution unless one has some very special needs. PHEVs are better in theory than in practice; they tend to be quite lousy EVs and having a dual drive system doubles the number of possible failures.

Hydrogen isn't going anywhere. I think long haul trucks will go BEV, they still have to stop long enough to allow driver rest anyway. For "it must keep moving" with driver swaps it would be as quick to swap a battery or the entire truck cab unit anyway.

I am talking about the cost balance. Hydrogen fuel cell is expensive, hydrogen tank not so much. Battery cost has a linear relation to capacity, electric motors are not that expensive. If you need to lug 1 MWh of exergy (electricity in battery or enough chemical fuel to produce 1 MWh of mechanical work) with you, chemical storage may have significantly lower capital cost.

This, of course, needs to be balanced with higher operating costs due to higher fuel price. I am looking at different long-term projections regarding energy transition as part of my daily work, and I do not think we know the right answer, yet. My personal guess is synthetic methane for long-haul trucking. It may also depend on country and location, and it will depend on battery development.

Biofuel is probably going to be the answer for jets. It makes a lot more sense than hydrogen or synthetic.

Biofuel sounds good only as long as you are not really trying to find sustainable biofuel sources. True, we have the technology to squeeze jet fuel out of spruce, but at the same time we have plans on using the same biomass for chemical production (plastics and replacements), pulp&paper (all those cardboard boxes), construction, etc. And also at the same time, we would like to increase the carbon storage in biomass either as a short-term storage (delayed harvesting) or as a permanent storage in, e.g., biochar or BECCS.

Making synthetic SAFs (sustainable aviation fuels) will be quite expensive. Flying will become more expensive than it is today. There are, however, very few alternatives.
 
I think this just about confirms the end of American companies dominating. BYD are rapidly starting to dominate outside China. Tesla starting to show its age. Apple cancelling etc. It's not looking good.
Sadly this is true.
 
It’s become political. If you’re on the right, you must hate EV’s.

That doesn't really make sense, though. EVs have many advantages besides the environmental benefits.

They promote energy security and economic independence, with money spent on energy to power them going back into local economies rather than into the pockets of global oil giants, and often enriching foreign regimes who are potentially hostile to US interests. And by reducing the cost of fuel, EVs mean hard-working families have more money to spend elsewhere, which benefits the the domestic economy.

EVs also make the US economy less vulnerable to oil price shocks, and free up more US oil production to be exported, reducing the trade deficit. These are all things that should be of interest to those on the right!
 
I believe precisely none of this. Apple has decided to pretend to cancel the product to buy themselves more time. There is no way in hell they cancel this. No way, José.

Millions they invested? Their investment in Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing was $1B by itself. Apple have invested many billions of dollars into this and will continue to do so as they refine their self-driving software and street mapping systems.
Buy time for what? There is no car and never was going to be one imo.
 
I’m not convinced it was ever a thing. Those prototype cars were likely a test bed for the technologies found in Vision Pro rather than self-driving automobiles.

Some might point to them hiring former designers from BMW but so would then return by saying Ive started out designing Urinals and there is a big hole in Apple’s design team for someone used to squashing technology into a metal chassis.
 
I'll just leave this here...



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Apple Car was always a non-starter. No loss. They should be focusing on their core competencies, not trying to enter a mature market that isn’t really ripe for disruption.
 
WHAT?
Huawei has cars, Xiaomi has cars (only took less than 3 years to develop), Sony probably will have cars, and Samsung will probably follow. And dare I say, those cars are really good.

It’s just not hard to produce good electric cars now in 2024. And Apple can provide a LOT with good iOS integration.

Is it just that Apple couldn’t innovate and build anything new anymore? And there are so many good electric cars Apple can copy.. ahem.. learn from and differentiate with ecosystem integration.

This is very sad
Samsung did already, in partnership with Renault.
 
Crazy idea - what if Apple is ending its development of an EV but staying in the same space, working on ways to improve the automotive experience for other companies. Or looking past electric and at something like hydrogen, where they could partner with an existing car company?

There are other ways to be part of the personal vehicle market that don't involve building electric cars. I'd love it if they got Maps 100% right, for example ;) And I have yet to see a company get the driver interface software/OS/UI right. Apple could develop something that makes sense and license it.
 
They are inefficient and don’t have good ranges before they need time consuming charges. And they aren’t green.

This may have been the case five or six years ago but it isn’t anymore. Range is no longer a major problem. Charge times have come down significantly too. The thing that’s missing is a comprehensive network of charging stations.

As far as not being “green,” in comparison to what? The most “green” thing you can do is take public transport and or keep and use one car for decades.
 
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