[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')Where do American leaders come from?

[theluckycountry]

Wakey Wakey adam, the dream is over, time to come back to reality.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'W')akey Wakey adam, the dream is over, time to come back to reality.

[mousepad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '
')Did you know that the Gerald Ford class American aircraft carrier carries about the same number of aircraft that THE ENTIRE ARMED FORCES OF AUSTRALIA HAS?

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mousepad', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '
')Did you know that the Gerald Ford class American aircraft carrier carries about the same number of aircraft that THE ENTIRE ARMED FORCES OF AUSTRALIA HAS?

[theluckycountry]

Supersonic passenger jets, Space travel, and other commonly held Dreams.

Remember the heady days of the Space Shuttle? Or perhaps you just want to forget them... After all they basically ran to a dead end with two disasters along the way. Predictable disasters too, because the engineers, when asked at the outset how safe the program was, all but one stated that 1:100 launches would end in disaster. The guy that didn't agree claimed there would never be a disaster and he was chosen for a top PR position in NASA. There were 130 launches and two ended in disaster. An even worse ratio than predicted, and a stat that tells you something about engineers and scientists. They tend to publish the "Best case scenarios" from their data.

The shuttle was born out of a SciFi dream, 2001 a space odyssey.



We were off to the stars! Or so they said.

Before that was supersonic passenger travel, a great idea really, and it worked, and it was safe as the record proved. Right up until the end when an antique Concorde suffered a catastrophic accident due to a combination of air-frame age, pilot error with loading, and a 10,000:1 event involving some debris left on the runway by a previous takeoff. But the program was disbanded because it wasn't economically or environmentally viable. Economics killed the space shuttle too, just as much as it's safety record. The point is the Public was Amazed by these technologies and fully believed the Marketing surrounding them even though they were doomed from the outset. People thought they could see the future, endless supersonic trips, cheaper and cheaper once they sorted the tech out, and in the case of the shuttle, trips to the moon, blah blah blah.

The flying car has had many iterations over the decades and each time enthusiasm wanes more and more I suspect. People tend to have a fear of heights, but also tend to feel safe in numbers so they are happy to close their eyes and get on passenger jets which though they often have catastrophic crashes are still relativity safe. But alone up there? I'm sure they would even board a passenger jet though if a computer was in total control and no pilots were up front. That's just how people are.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')riverless trains have been operating on this London rapid-transit system since 1987. However, a train attendant is still on board to open and close doors, and to take control in an emergency.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '[')b]Supersonic passenger jets, Space travel, and other commonly held Dreams.

[theluckycountry]

In my next post we'll look at Belgium and the disaster awaiting the corporations there as they went all-in EV because of Government tax codes. See if you can see the looming problem.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')early one in four new cars in Belgium are fully electric, but where people buy them and how they are paid for varies considerably between regions.

While the car market remains fairly stable, with similar trends to last year, the national automotive federation Febiac reported a big shift towards electrification in the first half of 2024. This comes as Belgium's car market is doing very well, said Febiac's CEO Frank Van Gool. Corporate preference: Electric vehicles are becoming the preferred choice for company cars.
Of the 64,404 new electric cars registered in Belgium in the first half of 2024, over three-quarters (77.7%) were registered in Flanders. This is partly due to the large number of leasing companies based in the region.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'I')n my next post we'll look at Belgium and the disaster awaiting the corporations there as they wen't all-in EV because of Government tax codes.

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mousepad', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '
')Did you know that the Gerald Ford class American aircraft carrier carries about the same number of aircraft that THE ENTIRE ARMED FORCES OF AUSTRALIA HAS?

[theluckycountry]

America policing the World

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')A pompous Git. No one liked him.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'A')merica policing the World

[theluckycountry]

Stranded Assets

As the article above reports, Belgium has experienced a big shift towards electrification in the first half of 2024 with "Electric vehicles becoming the preferred choice for company cars." These are all Leased cars of course and many of the privately owned EV's are held on Lease as well. But the public as a whole has rejected the EV because... All the usual reasons. Now the Leasing of cars requires that at end of lease they can be sold, into the public, at a reasonable price thereby making the whole operation financially feasible.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Leasing model behind Europe's EV drive at risk of breakdown
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Low resale values for electric cars have pushed the leasing firms that drive Europe's auto market to double prices over the last three years and some are threatening to quit the business altogether if regulators force them to go electric too fast, industry executives say...

Leasing companies play a pivotal role in Europe as 60% of new cars of all fuel types are leased...
When it comes to EVs, the proportion is estimated to be as high as 80%. The price of a lease is designed to account for the depreciation of a vehicle over the typical three-year lease period, based on estimated resale prices, or residual values. But if second-hand prices end up being lower than anticipated when the lease ends, leasing firms take a financial hit when they get the vehicle back.

According to figures provided to Reuters by data firm Autovista, resale values for EVs in Germany in early July were 24% below pre-pandemic levels and 30% lower in Britain.
That's in stark contrast to second-hand petrol models, which remained about 15% more expensive in both markets.

[theluckycountry]

Stranded assets

No one wants to buy used EVs and they’re piling up in weed-infested graveyards
https://fortune.com/2023/12/22/no-one-w ... la-bmw-vw/
This article was Dec last year! It's already happening.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he problems are expected to intensify next year, when many of the 1.2 million EVs sold in Europe in 2021 will come off their three-year leasing contracts and enter the secondhand market.

[theluckycountry]

Now where's Adam? He was supposed to follow me over to the Gold thread.

Adam, ADAM!

[theluckycountry]

Warning for those in flood effected areas!
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Florida Officials Warn Of Electric Vehicle Fires Sparked By Hurricane Milton
“You can put your electric vehicles up high,” Castor said in the press conference. “Make sure you are elevating all those electric batteries and electric items as well because those batteries—once they start on fire—they cannot be extinguished.” She added that some houses were lost during Hurricane Helene two weeks ago to fires sparked by saltwater flooding electric vehicles.

Prior to that storm, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also warned residents of the risk of fire from electric vehicles and flood waters, as contact with saltwater can short-circuit the batteries, causing a chain reaction known as thermal runaway in which heat energy is released from the battery to cause a fire. The City of Tampa mobility department noted all parking fees were removed in anticipation of Hurricane Milton to encourage more EV users to take advantage of above-ground parking. “The CFO’s Division of State Fire Marshal has confirmed 48 lithium-ion battery fires related to storm surge from Hurricane Helene, with 11 of those fires associated with EVs,” the agency said in a fire safety alert to Florida residents.

[theluckycountry]

Will juice box EV chargers become stranded assets?


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ') --Enel X abruptly left the U.S. market with no initial plan for JuiceBox support, functionality
--JuiceBox line is among the most prevalent U.S. home smart EV chargers

If you’ve come to rely on smart EV charging as part of your daily routine, and you have one of the most popular smart chargers in the U.S., you might soon have to come up with an old-tech backup plan.

Earlier this month, the EV charger provider Enel X sent out a message to U.S. users of its smart chargers—including the JuiceBox line—essentially stating that in nine days it was pulling the plug on its charger business in the U.S.

That potentially meant the end of ongoing support of its smart chargers, which require Enel’s servers to function. So its “smart” chargers, which consumers had paid a premium for, might essentially become “dumb” chargers, reverting to base settings. That might retain their functionality as chargers, but render them unusable for all the smart-and-connected reasons buyers chose them. They'd no longer be able to initiate charging via a smartphone, even at home, or monitor a charging session on the app, as those things depend on the company's servers.

The move sent shockwaves across the EV sector, and it begged some important questions that haven’t yet been addressed beyond the small print users likely skipped over in the app agreement. How long are companies that make smart, connected devices responsible for supporting them? What happens when something as substantial and essential for daily transportation, like an EV charger—one that’s been top-rated by experts for years, and widely supported by automakers and charging programs—is suddenly “bricked” due to lack of support of the brand behind it?

[theluckycountry]

I see Elon Musk has fully embarked on his new image, a sort of an 'overwrite' of the operating system from prophet of tech to a reborn Paul Revere, with million dollar a day cash giveaways "because that's america." His empire (a personal one) is based on marketing himself as someone special, someone worth paying more for, a sort of luxury brand. But with the demise of EV the brand was in danger of tarnishing. Not anymore though, Elon 2.4 is a slick new operating system with enhanced patriotism and free speech packages and the desperate faithful are lapping it up. Now seen as a Hero in this dystopian political saga he is combating the forces of evil. Trump and Musk, Batman and Robin if you will, here to clean up Gotham and make America Great... Again.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he promotion began on Saturday night. It runs until November's election and is open to anyone who signs his online petition supporting the US Constitution. "One of the challenges we're having is, like, how do we get people to know about this petition?" Musk told the audience of blue-collar workers, many of whom were youngsters with families, adding, "This news, I think, is going to really fly."

[mousepad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', ' ')to the defense of Elon,