Posts by BenWilson
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I guess it's now really not summer any more, but ...
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Brent Jackson,
So not at all surprised at $14,000 for a full install these days.
Why do you think prices would have gone up?
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Chris Waugh,
ummm... wow....
Solar water heating alone?!
I'd be amazed if that's what Hebe meant. I presumed she was talking about a PV array.
As for solar water alone, there's a real range of prices. A small DIY with evacuated glass tubes and little by way of guarantees is well under $1000. At the upper end you could pay $4000.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Heh. For me the environmental factor is secondary to cost. Electric should be cheaper to own, because it's cheaper to run, and fuel costs far outweigh capital costs in cars in the price range I'm prepared to pay until the day I become a millionaire. But currently, except for the very newest ones that can be plugged in, electrics lose on that score. I'm gonna wait it. Gut feel is that it's gonna happen this decade.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to BenWilson,
My understanding from research a few years back was that plug-in converted Priuses got a reliable 75km/liter for regular commuter use.
Note: The electricity costs were not included in this calculation. For comparison, the current Prius Plug-in, that was produced (finally) in 2012 claims electric-only efficiency of around 61km/l of petrol equivalent. So it's damned energy efficient. But it's still lugging that petrol engine around for commutes...
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…when were we promised a power grid for life?
Plug-in doesn't have to be grid connected. Plug into your windmill.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Stephen R,
My understanding from research a few years back was that plug-in converted Priuses got a reliable 75km/liter for regular commuter use. That kicks any petrol vehicle's arse. But the stock Prius was somewhere around 20km/liter, which was not exceptional at all.
It breaks down if you're doing long distances, but therein lies the main beauty of the Prius, that it was an electric vehicle that was even capable of long distances. If there were a plethora of reasonably priced choice, though, I think I wouldn't bother with a hybrid - I'd have a pure plug-in EV for commuting, and a petrol vehicle for longer hauls. Until the battery-only EV gets a reliable range in the 4-500 kilometer spot, I'd probably want to own a petrol. After that, though, I'd probably hire one if I ever wanted it.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Farmer Green,
Possibly because in the majority of the target market locations 70% of the electricity was NOT coming from renewables. Godzone is exceptional.
Perhaps not, but the efficiency is still far greater in a plug-in, even if coal is being burned to charge it up. A coal fired power plant is far more efficient in producing energy from fuel than a petrol engine is. People who have converted their Priuses to plug-in (at considerable cost, considering that this is just electronic stuff, the parts are not expensive), have got far greater savings on their fuel bill (including whatever part of their electricity bill that goes into the car). Also, the carbon conscious consumer in the industrialized world may prefer that their car gets it's power from nuclear plants, despite the fuel being non-renewable.
Furthermore, a plug-in electric vehicle makes a hell of a lot more sense in much more densely populated countries, because the commute distances are often smaller, and the emissions are close to zero.
I don't know the reasons it was left out. But it was the most important flaw in the Prius, to me.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Brent Jackson,
We’re also keen to get an electric car, but the price point for those seem way too far above break even point at the moment. We’ve never been early adopters, so we’ll bide our time on that one for now.
Yup, early adopters are righteous, but it's not usually a financially sound decision, in much the same way that owning a new car, period, is not financially sound (it is perfectly sound in other ways, not least, because you might just like it). The Cost vs Age curve is U shaped, and the best place to buy to keep the cost of car ownership down is at the bottom of the U, which is usually between the 10-20 year old mark. I was hoping this might also apply to electric cars, but I'm not so sure - the most expensive part by far is the batteries, and that's the very part that wears out the fastest. So this curve may be a much shallower U.
And I largely did the same math when I bought a Prius 8 years ago – but we did anyway because we saw it as a technology that needed to be bought into because it was bound to get cheaper and more common over time – if no body bought them we’d be stuck with the traditional technology
I've kept my eye on second hand Priuses. They're still a reasonably expensive car second-hand, considering the class of vehicles they are effectively in, in terms of the priorities of customers - a Toyota Corolla is probably a better buy at the same age, it will last 10 years mechanically, has similar petrol efficiency to the Prius, and will most likely be cheaper. It's also a devil that is known. The Prius is a very complicated vehicle, there's so many ways it can go bad.
Also, I insist that my first electric car is a plug-in. That's just basic to the whole idea of fuel efficiency in electric cars. Converting a Prius for that is an added cost that should never, ever have been there. Why, oh why did Toyota not make this a standard feature?
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Gareth Ward,
Yes, I don't quite follow Bart's argument about a conflict of interest - is it a reductio ad absurdum to show that Meridian is not, in fact, a "real" company? Or that the government is not a "real" shareholder?
I think that's probably true, but what's really odd is to act like that makes the government's position weaker. The opposite is true. The government is far, far more powerful than shareholders, and Meridian can be used to drive a hard bargain. It should be used like that, in fact, when the other side of the table is full of flinty-eyed experienced deal-makers backed by massive capital. Anything less is just weakness.
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