Britishvolt Megafactory for EV Batteries. --huge-uk-electric-car-battery-factory-on-life-support-to-cut-costs--

I hope that this much needed facility does survive and become a profitable reality.
I am not sure what we get in return for the (government) grants, but a major shareholding may be good idea, and some dividends to help us taxpayers.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/huge...ca3a66cf79

PS Its not only batteries that catch things alight, I hear that they have stopped some heritage STEAM trains as they are dangerous in our present over-dry conditions. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

An interesting chat with a former colleague recently revealed that his garage currently tries to put potential EV buyers off EVs, giving all sorts of odd reasons to the customer for not getting one.
I asked why this is, he said it's to protect the technician's jobs down the line, as EVs seldom go wrong, seemingly only needing minor maintenance at this present time.
So the technician's don't get the same amount of warranty claims to repair, and don't get any ICE related service operations either, as basically there's nothing that needs doing, other than an annual visual inspection of the vehicle, a top up of the screen wash, before an EV is out the workshop for another year.
This could well have a damaging effect on traditional garages in the future, as a majority of the garage income is from maintenance and repair work.
Good for the EV owner, not good for the garage owner. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

Yep...and if you folks are like me and tinker with my vehicle that will also stop
Makes you wonder about sites such as this which is based on support/knowledge and experience of FL2s and how to resolve issues!!
So i personally feel i will keep my freelander as long as possible (im 59yrs old) and see how many miles etc i can get from her over the next 10-20 years.
I have thought about some sort of stockpile of service items/oil but not made that decision yet

Nodge68 wrote:

An interesting chat with a former colleague recently revealed that his garage currently tries to put potential EV buyers off EVs, giving all sorts of odd reasons to the customer for not getting one.
I asked why this is, he said it's to protect the technician's jobs down the line, as EVs seldom go wrong, seemingly only needing minor maintenance at this present time.
So the technician's don't get the same amount of warranty claims to repair, and don't get any ICE related service operations either, as basically there's nothing that needs doing, other than an annual visual inspection of the vehicle, a top up of the screen wash, before an EV is out the workshop for another year.
This could well have a damaging effect on traditional garages in the future, as a majority of the garage income is from maintenance and repair work.
Good for the EV owner, not good for the garage owner.

If JLR builds its EVs like they build cars now there will still be lots of warranty work.  Jules

AT1963 wrote:

So...
Battery fires
Who would have thought the salvation of the motor trade (EVs) would have potential issues. Odd as i am just listening to the news and there is alot about fires (not EVs) and there is a certain irony that the battery is potentially hazardous and one of the issues that was not mentioned was the number of cars with these batteries worldwide and the potential reuse of them once no longer capable of running the car.
Who would like storage batteries with this risk?
So will that result in these dirty batteries not being reused and going into some battery graveyard somewhere. So saving on pollution and co2 but the used battery contributes to pollution and if explosive co2
And...electricity is still going up, cost to buy EVs is approx. 25% more and insurance companies have you pants down
What not to like

 Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Nodge68 wrote:

An interesting chat with a former colleague recently revealed that his garage currently tries to put potential EV buyers off EVs, giving all sorts of odd reasons to the customer for not getting one.
I asked why this is, he said it's to protect the technician's jobs down the line, as EVs seldom go wrong, seemingly only needing minor maintenance at this present time.
So the technician's don't get the same amount of warranty claims to repair, and don't get any ICE related service operations either, as basically there's nothing that needs doing, other than an annual visual inspection of the vehicle, a top up of the screen wash, before an EV is out the workshop for another year.
This could well have a damaging effect on traditional garages in the future, as a majority of the garage income is from maintenance and repair work.
Good for the EV owner, not good for the garage owner.

Very true, after almost seven years our i3 has only ever seen the dealer for the two yearly service/inspection, nothing has needed replacing* or repairing.

But of course if you wanted to “tinker” the still have conventional brakes, suspension, lights and wipers* etc,

* I must admit I have replaced the front wipers once and even unblocked the washer fluid filter, myself…..not a garage. What shock horror on an EV?  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

But of course if you wanted to “tinker” the still have conventional brakes, suspension, lights and wipers* etc,

* I must admit I have replaced the front wipers once and even unblocked the washer fluid filter, myself…..not a garage. What shock horror on an EV? Rolling with laughter

We all believe that nothing will change, and all our hard won skills will be needed forever.

I know that I scorned the idea of (non maintained) 'fit for life' parts, but better design/machining of these originals led to long service intervals (or perhaps none), becoming the norm.

Right from the beginning of my experience I have come to know that mechanical faults generally come gradually wear and tear, and electric/electronic components occur almost at once, or not at all.

EVs do not seem to have lots of bits banging up and down or into each other, so will either fail in the first few weeks or not at all.
It seems a pity that we abandoned BMW's (i3) method of building a near indestructible bodyshell, and went back to the old metal construction.

Electric propulsion is the future, although the electricity will eventually be produced on board. How does a small nuclear fusion generator sound as the answer.

Edit - found one (that may be built before the Battery Megafactory) - another dream project

https://www.yankodesign.com/2022/04/11/a-n...ation-era/


PS just to bring you back to earth, I still have a couple of (decades old) unused tubes of grease for my grease gun in my garage. I haven't been able to find the grease nipples on any cars lately. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

AT1963 wrote:

But of course if you wanted to “tinker” the still have conventional brakes, suspension, lights and wipers* etc,

* I must admit I have replaced the front wipers once and even unblocked the washer fluid filter, myself…..not a garage. What shock horror on an EV? Rolling with laughter

No…you do it like this  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

IanMetro wrote:

WeIt seems a pity that we abandoned BMW's (i3) method of building a near indestructible bodyshell, and went back to the old metal construction.

PS just to bring you back to earth, I still have a couple of (decades old) unused tubes of grease for my grease gun in my garage. I haven't been able to find the grease nipples on any cars lately.

Indeed it does, one of the main reasons we love the i3 is due to its purity of engineering concept, n aluminium chassis and suspension components and a carbon fibre passenger cell with all outer panels of plastic, it made for a lightweight very efficient and unique EV, the fact we also liked the odd looks made it an easier choice.

I’ve also still got a few pots of grease in the shed, Girling Red Rubber grease, Moly and various grades, no grease gun anymore, which was a mistake as my new off-road mobility buggy uses grease nipples

@AT1963……I get it you don’t like EVs or at very least think of them as the spawn of the devil, but does it matter very much to you if others do?  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

IanMetro wrote:

PS just to bring you back to earth, I still have a couple of (decades old) unused tubes of grease for my grease gun in my garage. I haven't been able to find the grease nipples on any cars lately.

Whether you like it or not everything has a life expectancy and a vague limit, for electronics it's about 7 years MTBF, it is low due to the initial failures in the first 3 to 6 months, your electronics will probably last about 12 to 15 years as most of you with FL2's have found out, anything with an electric motor is slightly different, though washing machines and tumble dryers have extremely long lives those fitted to EV's may or may not achieve those lives, electric motors are great at constant temperatures but start throwing high currents at them then the life shortens this is due to localised heat produced due to high currents, high currents are caused by rapid acceleration and the longer you accelerate hard the more heat is produced this in turn heats the motor windings which expand and cause the windings to rub together which slowly but surely wears or cracks the insulation eventually causing the motor to short and fail.
Possibly the old story of owned by a little old lady who hardly drove it is probably a good buy, there's no oil change needed there's no clutch to burn out, and very little to seize up with lack of use my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

This is how you should make an EV (its in three parts) BMW I3 Manufacturing







When I first saw this, a few years ago, I was fascinated, and I still am. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Dartman the one wrote:

Whether you like it or not everything has a life expectancy and a vague limit, for electronics it's about 7 years MTBF, it is low due to the initial failures in the first 3 to 6 months, your electronics will probably last about 12 to 15 years as most of you with FL2's have found out, anything with an electric motor is slightly different, though washing machines and tumble dryers have extremely long lives those fitted to EV's may or may not achieve those lives, electric motors are great at constant temperatures but start throwing high currents at them then the life shortens this is due to localised heat produced due to high currents, high currents are caused by rapid acceleration and the longer you accelerate hard the more heat is produced this in turn heats the motor windings which expand and cause the windings to rub together which slowly but surely wears or cracks the insulation eventually causing the motor to short and fail.
Possibly the old story of owned by a little old lady who hardly drove it is probably a good buy, there's no oil change needed there's no clutch to burn out, and very little to seize up with lack of use

Interesting programme from 3 knowledgably involved engineers on EVs and the future.

Pity it could not have been longer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001b72w FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Last edited by IanMetro on 14th Aug 2022 12:27 pm. Edited 1 time in total