[grandizer52]

@Tucson John, hope yours is in there as well, security isn't super tight over there, may try and get a closer pic this eve.

 

[BinPNW]

... but Toyota says everyone wants hybrids, so everyone is getting hybrids.

Maybe the higher-ups at Toyota saw a video like this. While it's an opinion piece (and TED says a lot of claims in the video aren't scientifically supported), it raises a lot of thought provoking questions about the carbon costs of ICE vs. hybrid vs. plug-in vs EV

 

[n6nl]

What does the range (how often distance-wise) it needs to be refueled or recharged have to do with the CO2 emitted over the vehicles lifetime? Some of his points are dumbass.

Some I do agree with.

But in order to go EV, we are going to have to experiment with and improve and build infrastructure, sometimes just in order to experience and get a handle on things we may not have been able to predict.

 

[grandizer52]

Security let us in so they could say hi to our dog. Here's a few more close ups of the cars... I may get one here since range HERE in Japan is negligible...and you can't get a higher that 50KW charge rate in the country with the exception of a tesla...

 

[Tucson John]

Maybe the higher-ups at Toyota saw a video like this. While it's an opinion piece (and TED says a lot of claims in the video aren't scientifically supported), it raises a lot of thought provoking questions about the carbon costs of ICE vs. hybrid vs. plug-in vs EV

In my field of work whereby I deal with a lot of engineers (and I have a couple of engineering degrees myself), I resonate with the vast majority of what this guy says. That is, we need to look at the entire system before we make claims. So he is right that "marketing" electric vehicles today as solving climate change "today" is just pandering to talking points and inherent thought laziness. Yet, the vast majority of humans are not engineers and in no way think like engineers who always want to study and validate claims before making them.

The danger of this TED talk is that 90% of his audience (the non-technical, non-system thinkers) may now think electric vehicles are a lie and they should not exist. Most humans are inherently lazy and we just want to be told what the truth is. Then a subset of that 90% will create their radical talking points to politically and incessantly attack electric cars. So unfortunately, I think this guy has done much more harm than good and I do not think that was his intent. I think he was actually trying the help people understand a pathway to a better world. But again, we are humans.

The TED presenter also had a minor theme that electric is likely a long term solution to transportation problems, but that theme was overshadowed by his other points about keeping ICE and hybrids. I believe that the current World Leadership push with their electric car "talking points" as solving global warming is good, albeit not technically correct (as the TED presenter points out).

The more technically correct thing for World Leaders to proclaim is: "Electric cars are part of the eventual solution in maybe a few decades and having these mandates will lead to investments in better batteries, create the infrastructure we need, show people there are awesome options to ICE, and at some point maybe help climate change. Are you with me?!?!" As you can tell, this would be a terrible talking point and 90% of the audience would have been lost.

We gotta start somewhere. Debate is healthy, yet I'm glad World Leaders have taken actions. Just my opinions here.

 

[FelineFreddie]

i agree with much of what the presenter said in the video, but there’s a problem with his graph…when he gets to the 400 mile range battery point. Most EVs being produced today don’t have nearly that range, and not everyone wants to pay the added cost to get that range, especially if 99+% of their driving is local. So, IMO, he’s stated a premise that isn’t necessarily that valid (a statistics teacher I once had used to say “pick your point to prove your point”), just as stating an EV range of 1000 miles between charging would show a higher graph line, with a farther distant intersection point with a fossil fuel powered vehicle.

But he’s absolutely correct in almost everything else he said.

A 100% EV fleet of vehicles is decades away, at a minimum…. Not just a few years.

 

[Tucson John]

i agree with much of what the presenter said in the video, but there’s a problem with his graph…when he gets to the 400 mile range battery point. Most EVs being produced today don’t have nearly that range, and not everyone wants to pay the added cost to get that range, especially if 99+% of their driving is local. So, IMO, he’s stated a premise that isn’t necessarily that valid (a statistics teacher I once had used to say “pick your point to prove your point”), just as stating an EV range of 1000 miles between charging would show a higher graph line, with a farther distant intersection point with a fossil fuel powered vehicle.

But he’s absolutely correct in almost everything else he said.

A 100% EV fleet of vehicles is decades away, at a minimum…. Not just a few years.

I had a bad week at work with a small subset of people horrifically affecting my company's strategic future. Sort of like what happened at Polariod and Kodak. So maybe I am venting here?

My wife will eventually get our Solterra (April), almost have solar panels (Feb), and have already installed rainwater harvesting in order to support things we think will be beneficial.

Let me pick on rainwater harvesting since that is something I already completed. We live in Tucson, AZ and we definitely have a water issue. Amazingly there are some people who are doubting we have water issues. These are the housing developers. They point out if Arizona kicks out all of the farmers who use 70% of the water, water will no longer be a problem for direct human consumption. They are correct and unfortunately Arizona still has houses and apartments being built like wildfire. Now putting the housing developer lobbying aside, my wife and I want to incrementally help the water issues and hence installed rainwater harvesting. In half of the rainy season, we collected almost 9,000 gallons of rainwater for my wife's landscaping and gardens. Mind you, we get very little rain here. That 9,000 gallon is 9,000 gallons that we will not pull from the reservoirs. It is a start and we are doing something in an attempt to help solve a problem. There is also the added benefit when Tucson says "no more watering landscaping and gardens", which will happen, we have our rainwater tanks to allow my wife to continue with something she loves.

Are electric cars going to help solve anything? Maybe. But if we don't try SOMETHING, then nothing will change.

 

[md.]

i agree with much of what the presenter said in the video, but there’s a problem with his graph…when he gets to the 400 mile range battery point. Most EVs being produced today don’t have nearly that range, and not everyone wants to pay the added cost to get that range, especially if 99+% of their driving is local. So, IMO, he’s stated a premise that isn’t necessarily that valid (a statistics teacher I once had used to say “pick your point to prove your point”), just as stating an EV range of 1000 miles between charging would show a higher graph line, with a farther distant intersection point with a fossil fuel powered vehicle.

But he’s absolutely correct in almost everything else he said.

A 100% EV fleet of vehicles is decades away, at a minimum…. Not just a few years.

I totally agree. He's taking a bunch of logical information and then applying it to an unreasonable scenario. That's how you get people to believe your biased conclusion. Especially since he so badly appears to wish it were true that BEVs had lower emissions. He even owned one in the past! To someone who's not paying attention, all they hear is that they've been lied to about BEVs having lower emissions than ICEVs.

Funny how this thread strayed from pictures of cars on boats!

 

[JayEM]

IFunny how this thread strayed from pictures of cars on boats!

If I knew how to move multiple messages in a thread to a new thread (and I wasn't sitting in a car speeding along the highway) I would fix that problem!

 

[FelineFreddie]

I had a bad week at work with a small subset of people horrifically affecting my company's strategic future. Sort of like what happened at Polariod and Kodak. So maybe I am venting here?

My wife will eventually get our Solterra (April), almost have solar panels (Feb), and have already installed rainwater harvesting in order to support things we think will be beneficial.

Let me pick on rainwater harvesting since that is something I already completed. We live in Tucson, AZ and we definitely have a water issue. Amazingly there are some people who are doubting we have water issues. These are the housing developers. They point out if Arizona kicks out all of the farmers who use 70% of the water, water will no longer be a problem for direct human consumption. They are correct and unfortunately Arizona still has houses and apartments being built like wildfire. Now putting the housing developer lobbying aside, my wife and I want to incrementally help the water issues and hence installed rainwater harvesting. In half of the rainy season, we collected almost 9,000 gallons of rainwater for my wife's landscaping and gardens. Mind you, we get very little rain here. That 9,000 gallon is 9,000 gallons that we will not pull from the reservoirs. It is a start and we are doing something in an attempt to help solve a problem. There is also the added benefit when Tucson says "no more watering landscaping and gardens", which will happen, we have our rainwater tanks to allow my wife to continue with something she loves.

Are electric cars going to help solve anything? Maybe. But if we don't try SOMETHING, then nothing will change.

I agree…

The question I wonder about is whether (maybe when is more appropriate ) or not things like golf courses and surfing wave pools/parks will ever be placed under water regulations/restrictions.

Rainwater harvesting has a long and proven history in the Caribbean, as lots of houses have cisterns for storage. One day, sooner than many might think, there’ll be areas where potable water will be more valuable than gasoline…

 

[grandizer52]

I didn't get to take a good photo last night, but the cars were loading at 7pm,1900 for the military types. So if your cars on order, it's on the way, if you went through a STEALERSHIP, start pinging them, like a kid that dropped their blanket, I paid your bonus where's my damn car. I'm leaning heavily on getting one here in Japan once the moon roof is available again. Majority manufactured is going to the US. If you get a chance, look up the NISSAN SAKURA. It's called a Kei car, popular sized car out here, it's tiny and cute, since most roads are a wide side walk and driveways are like Tetris, I'll post some photos of HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE WITHOUT KNOCKING OFF THE MIRRORS, AND STILL GET OUT OF YOUR CAR.
This thread is evolving/revolving, not mentioning names @FelineFreddie @Tucson John....just kidding...stay safe people. Arigato

TL/DL, cars loaded at 7pm on the ship. Check out Nissan Sakura, tiny EV. Small cars here in Japan are good.

 

[Tucson John]

I didn't get to take a good photo last night, but the cars were loading at 7pm,1900 for the military types. So if your cars on order, it's on the way, if you went through a STEALERSHIP, start pinging them, like a kid that dropped their blanket, I paid your bonus where's my damn car. I'm leaning heavily on getting one here in Japan once the moon roof is available again. Majority manufactured is going to the US. If you get a chance, look up the NISSAN SAKURA. It's called a Kei car, popular sized car out here, it's tiny and cute, since most roads are a wide side walk and driveways are like Tetris, I'll post some photos of HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE WITHOUT KNOCKING OFF THE MIRRORS, AND STILL GET OUT OF YOUR CAR.
This thread is evolving/revolving, not mentioning names @FelineFreddie @Tucson John....just kidding...stay safe people. Arigato

TL/DL, cars loaded at 7pm on the ship. Check out Nissan Sakura, tiny EV. Small cars here in Japan are good.

Thanks for keeping us on track @grandizer52 .

 

[Tucson John]

@Tucson John, hope yours is in there as well, security isn't super tight over there, may try and get a closer pic this eve.

Did the fleet leave port yet?

If it is a single fleet going back-and-forth, then I bet mine would be on this particular shipment.

 

[grandizer52]

The on ship left on the 11th, the cars are starting (11:30 am Japan time) are starting to get unloaded in the same port TODAY...hope yours is on the way to the west coast...

 

[JayEM]

@Tucson John, you can track the location/progress of the ship using e.g. marinetraffic.com.

 

[Tucson John]

@Tucson John, you can track the location/progress of the ship using e.g. marinetraffic.com.

Dang it. Appollon Leader is headed for Balboa, PA -- which appears to be the Panama Canal. Do Solterras with final delivery on the West Coast area typically have their transportation ship go to an East Coast port be be off loaded?

 

[JayEM]

Dang it. Appollon Leader is headed for Balboa, PA -- which appears to be the Panama Canal. Do Solterras with final delivery on the West Coast area typically have their transportation ship go to an East Coast port be be off loaded?

Cars bound for Texas go through Richmond CA. Only cars bound for east coast states go through Panama.

 

[ajpascucci]

Aloha, and greetings Pilots,
Steve Here in Yokosuka japan. I work here and every AM I see the huge fleet of Left hand drives departing for new homes in the US. I really want to like the car, but has a few short comings as far as range and charge speed, add to CCS vs Chademo (here) I currently own 4 EV's, been through 8, and I hope to see SOLTERRA evolve, but Toyota is sold on HYBRIDS, VS PURE ELECTRICS, also HYDROGEN cars are growing here, and there's a lot of charging stations. Hope to hear from everyone. I'll post photo's of the feet later.

Steve

Please do we would enjoy seeing the Solterra fleet departing Japan. As Solterra owner I love car .

 

[grandizer52]

sooooo fleet is piling up, and new ship came today, man they are pumping them out, Electrify america
, EVGO and charge point best get their shit together, otherwise our lord and savior Elon is going to outpace them with chargers for all

 

[Tucson John]

sooooo fleet is piling up, and new ship came today, man they are pumping them out, Electrify america
, EVGO and charge point best get their shit together, otherwise our lord and savior Elon is going to outpace them with chargers for all

What are the ship names? I want to see where they are going...hopefully one is going to the West Coast. Or if you find the time, can you snap photos again. My Solterra excitement is via your posts since April is soooo far away.