Electric Cars Will Replace Petrol Cars For Most People

I dont care about the environment.

I drove a full sized turbo petrol sedan for 13 years.

I am very, very, conservative when it comes to cars.

That said, I will likely never buy a petrol car again.

Here's my story.

I required a 7 seater for a growing family.

The Mitsubishi Outlander, Honda CRV7, and VW Tiguan Allspace were really 5+2 cars. The two rearmost seats could not really fit two full grown adults with the middle seats occupied. There was no way to fit child seats in both the middle and rear rows either.

That left the Toyota Kluger (Highlander), Mazda CX 80, and newcomer BYD Sealion 8. They were all plugin hybrids.

Being conservative, I was initially planning to get a Toyota Kluger, the de-facto taxi 7 seater. The Kluger had a 6 month waitlist, so nope.

The CX80 was very nice to drive, but still 2k more pricey than the Sealion 8, with far less features. If the Kluger were available, it would be almost 20k more expensive for similar features, so again it is not really comparable.

It was not really a competition. I got the BYD Sealion 8. Compared to the CX80, it has 4 massage seats, a nice heavily tinted panoramic sunroof with automatic physical shades, a blacked out (heavy tint) rear, adaptive dampers, and is ergonomically sound (more on this later). Much more powerful and with a bigger battery.

AUD76k on the road in Victoria, Australia (RM215k, USD54k)

I have just done 1000km in the Sealion 8. I dont think I will ever buy another petrol powered vehicle. I expected to buy a hybrid, but what I really got was an EV with a range extender. 150km electric range means that I dont really need to use petrol at all. Unlike most hybrids, the SL8 is, in effect, an electric car first with a petrol motor as a range extender.

Speed

It is stupid fast for a 2.6 ton 7 seat family hauler. The 4.9s 0-100 time does not do it justice. Being an EV, it accelerates *very* quick at day-to-day speeds. Driving within the speed limit, I dont think I have ever used over 200kW (it makes 369kW!) or the full 675NM of torque it has to offer.

Comfort For Highway Cruising

Driving ergonomics is important as I daily drive this to work (75km round trip, mostly highway). Easy to use buttons on the steering wheel for cruise control and a large HUD that displays speed, cruise control target speed, the road sign speed limit detected, and blind spot alerts is amazing. The cabin is well insulated and quiet, so third row passengers are easily heard from the front seat at normal speaking voice. 

It is ultimately a 2.6 ton land-yacht with adaptive dampers preventing pitch and roll (that see-saw movement over bumps) despite the large size and ground clearance (I set the dampers, branded DiSus-C to High all the time).

Google Maps comes built in to the car - though personally I just use wireless android auto and my phone's google maps for convenience. It pairs flawlessly (S26 Ultra) and the wireless fast charger has an air vent to prevent overheating while using android auto.

The massage seats seal the deal for me. They are just so nice on my commute to and from work.

Practicality

This is one of the few cars that can fit a child seat in both the middle and rear rows at the same time, with enough leg room for an adult to sit comfortably in the rear seat, with all middle seats occupied. Notably many 7 seaters dont have third row child seat attachments. I wasnt expecting to need this feature, but it has been very very convenient to have. The 360deg camera is also very easy to use with a dedicated physical button on the steering wheel. 

Economy

I did not expect the savings to be so immense. In my usual commute, the physical brakes dont get used much. This car regenerates up to 80kW coming off a highway ramp. In day to day start-stop driving in town, physical brakes only engage towards the very end <5km/h of a red light stop. Lightly pressing the brakes engages regen instead (usually 10-30kW), which is incredibly smooth compared to physical brakes.

Realistically, here are the figures. It uses about 21kWh / 100km in pure EV mode.

I charge at night when rates are low (8c/kWh). Even if I did not have an EV specific plan, 20c/kWh is still really cheap. The numbers are maddening. There is no reason to drive a petrol car anymore:

Round trip to work (75km), 16kWh, electricity costs $1.28 ($3.20 at normal rates), while petrol on my old sedan (8L/100km) would cost $9 at $1.5/L fuel prices. Currently there is some war in the middle east, and petrol is 2.05/L, so it would cost about $12. Using an EV is literally ten times cheaper than using petrol.

A longer trip to a rural hospital I work occasionally (142km round trip, mostly highway) uses 23kWh and 2.5L of petrol. This works out to $1.84 in electricity and $5 of petrol. A petrol sedan would use about $23 worth of petrol. The SL8 has a petrol direct drive mode which directly powers the wheels without a gearbox when highway cruising - it can operate as both a parallel and series hybrid depending on the circumstances, but will stretch your petrol as much as it could by default as EVs are less efficient at highway speeds.

Note the calculations above are for 90% highway driving, where EVs are supposed to be less efficient. If you do mostly in-town driving, EVs really really shine.

I recently did some groceries in a small Polo GTI. Granted, it is a high performance 2.0L turbocharged hot-hatch that weighs only 1.3 tons, but fuel economy should be similar to most normal sized petrol cars ~1.6 tons as I wasnt driving it hard. 20km round trip to a few supermarkets. 10.5L/100km, so about 2.1L of fuel used. That's about $4.00 in petrol. The same trip would have used only about 4kWh total in my 2.6 ton sealion 8... $0.33 worth of electricity. Even paying full price for electricity, it's only $0.84. 

TL;DR: EVs will easily cut your fuel bill by over 70%. There is no comparison.

Charging

I have made it 1000km without owning a dedicated EV charger. Yes, I have been using the 'granny charger' supplied with the car that plugs into a regular 240v 10A domestic power plug. It charges the car at an awesome 1.4kWh. Pitifully slow. Does it matter? No. Because you plug in the car when you are sleeping overnight, much like your phone, so it does not matter. I will be getting a proper 7.4kW charger soon though, to take advantage of cheap night time electricity (8c/kWh).

Final Thoughts

A great majority of people will be perfectly fine with a small EV, 300km range battery, and a granny 8amp slow charger. There is no reason to own a petrol car anymore. The only ones who will have a problem are those who live in units/apartments without a plug they can access, but this is slowly changing as many apartments are installing chargers for their residents. Commercial chargers are expensive (40-80c/kWh), but are alot faster (22kW+). Even at 50c/kWh, it is still much much cheaper than petrol.

Where Whatsapp Stores Videos

Im documenting this online because I cannot find this information anywhere.

If you take a video on your phone, and send it on whatsapp, two copies will appear.

• one original quality one in:
  This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\DCIM\Camera
  
• one low quality one in:
  This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
  Media\WhatsApp Video\Sent

If you take a video using the Whatsapp app itself, it saves two copies, 

• one relatively high quality one in:
  This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
  Media\WhatsApp Video
• low quality one in:
  This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
  Media\WhatsApp Video\Sent

Here's the thing that really sh!ts me. If someone sends you a video, it is saved in, you guessed it:

• This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
  Media\WhatsApp Video

SUMMARY:

\WhatsApp Video folder keeps videos people send you, and videos taken using whatsapp

\Whatsapp Video\Sent folder keeps videos you have sent. (originals are still in your DCIM folder)

Im pulling my hair out because whatsapp irritatingly at some point was saving a low quality versions of videos I have the original (taken with phone video camera) in the whatsapp video folder by default - meaning there are lots of videos that are essentially low quality dupes of videos that already exist - mixed in with videos sent to me by family/friends to which I dont have the original. 

What sh!ts me even more is that when you transfer to a new phone, all metadata is wiped (date created/modified), so you are left with only the filename to go by - no auto renaming or sorting will work to add these videos to my main archive.

A Tale of Two Coconuts

A Tale of Two Coconuts

Phil and Tony live on a small island in the middle of the ocean with a population of 2. The nation state of Islandia. There is a coconut tree on the island. In 2020, it produced 1 coconut. Hence, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the island was one coconut. There are 10 Island Dollars in circulation. In 2021, the the tree also produced 1 coconut (valued at $10 dollars). Unlike 2020, this 1 coconut was picked up by Tony, who sold it to Phil, who then sold it back to Tony. Hurrah, Tony declared. "The GDP of our island went up by 100% in 2021, our GDP was $20". As a result, Phil, who also coincidentally runs the central bank, was in structed to print more money to prevent deflation - as a rule of thumb, the money supply has to match economic output, or else money becomes more valuable. Money becoming more valuable/scarce is the real definition of deflation.

Gross Domestic Product is useful for comparing economic output over the years, but it can very easily be manipulated to give the impression of economic growth when in reality there wasnt any.

The value of the Islandia Dollar is ultimately determined by the number of coconuts produced. If the coconut is transferred back and forth between Phil and Tony, GDP can rise by a few hundred percent - but it still doesnt change the fact that only one coconut was produced.

Now a Mexian beer themed virus hit the shores of Islandia. In a panic, there were lockdowns and the economy was disrupted. No coconuts this year. To maintain spending, Phil increases the money supply by encouraging people to take loans - because money is spawned into existance when people take loans (this is the objective reality of the fractional reserve system used in modern banking). Ultimately the money supply grew by 30%.

Over the coming years, the virus is but a distant memory, and coconut production has resumed. Tony says "Yay! The GDP grew by 10% this year", after noticing that the coconut was sold once for $11, instead of $10 before the Mexican Beer Virus.

The economy still ultimately makes one coconut a year - but because Phil expanded the money supply, there is now 1.30 times the number of dollars per coconut. There are 13 dollars in circulation.

Yup. Money just became 30% more worthless because of money printing. This, people, is the true definition of INFLATION. It is the devaluation of every dollar in existance. By definition, if you print more money you are devaluing money itself. Think of it as a tax on every dollar in your savings account, because that's what it really is.

Why Australia is a nice place to live.

In a very literal sense - Australia makes stuff, and has a small population relative to the amount of stuff it makes. Iron ore, natural gas, agricultural produce, and services that are exported (education / software / consulting) for foreign currency. Australia has a lot of coconuts for relatively few people. That's the bottom line.

Despite all this, if the money supply goes up by 30% - it's guaranteed that it will be felt by everyone, as things will become 30% more expensive by definition. This is true inflation.

Ezradamus predicts the future

Link to March 2022 article: Australian Inflation Will Be 20pc between 2020 and 2022

Petrol used to cost around AUD $1.20 per litre before the pandemic. It now costs about $1.89. While it is true that there was genuinely a hydrocarbon shortage due to supply disruptions in early 2023 (war in Ukraine etc), those disruptions are now over, and prices have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Keep in mind the American Dollar also devalued due to money printing in the past three years by around 20% (Look up USD M1/2/3 money supply statistics). Around $60USD per barrel 2020 to $80USD per barrel now.

Oil prices ($USD/barrel)

The Reserve Bank Does The Right Thing

There is another country that starts with the letter "A" - Argentina - that has experienced hyperinflation despite making lots of coconuts. They were the number 1 beef exporter in the world for decades and was a one point predicted to outpace Singapore and Europe in growth. Then their central bank (with lots of corruption and political influence) devalued their currency to peanuts and caused hyperinflation - now they are stuck in a debt trap and are financial pariahs on the world stage.

RBA - M1 money supply

Kudos to Reserve Bank of Australia govenor Phillip Lowe for doing the right thing.

Interest rates are now in the 4pc range. Money supply is now starting to shrink. Realistically, it will need to shrink further - or else, inflation will 'stick'. This will no doubt be a politically unpopular move, and I can already see lots of political pressure to stop the interest rate rises.

Absolute Legend.

In my opinion, interest rates should be closer to 7-8 percent (the decades long average). There will be blood - people will default. Anthony Albanese (The current elected PM) will no doubt face a lot of pressure to lower interest rates from stressed mortgage holders - and even homeowners keen on seeing their property prices keep on rising. But in return, retirees with savings will have the value of their savings protected, and young people will find housing much more affordable. This is much more sustainable in the long term. The problem is that 'long term' = decades, and election cycles are much shorter than that. I am writing this to improve general knowledge on this topic for this reason. IMHO voters are too shortsighted to see the bigger picture - everyone wants handouts and tax cuts. But monetary policy is ultimately what is making your payslip more worthless every year - as it's a tax on money itself.

My message to people who own property keen on seeing prices rise - The value of the house you stay in is meaningless unless you are planning to sell. If your home doubles in price, but the value of the money it is being sold for halves in value, you have not turned a profit - only hedged against inflation. The property price increases (much more than inflation) over the past two decades was from genuine population and economic growth - something that may not necessarily repeat in the coming decades as birth rates fall: You will be proverbially shafted by a demographic buttplug. Ask all the Tokyo homeowners that were once told Tokyo house prices will never fall. A single detached home only costs USD$300k in Tokyo (LINK: Life From Where Im From (Youtube)). Also note Australian coconut production is pretty stable after the mining growth spurt.

Thoughts / Comments

I would like to invite comments from readers on this topic.

• Has your household spending risen by 20% in the last 3 years?
• Will a rise of 3-4% to interest rates cause mortgage stress?