But it might be good for electric motors to have a gearbox?
slarty45,
Jun 3, 4:00am
But might have plastic bits designed to crap out with age
gazzat22,
Jun 3, 10:22am
People, myself included question the longevity of the batteries in EV,s but a wall of silence seems to have fallen on the performance and durability of the other electrical components in EV,s. I have had experience with Electric Fork Hoists and they are not without their problems.
intrade,
Jun 3, 10:30am
*57 the same design flaw and cost-cutting is Done in electric cars and any other product. If you followed why the Asian Electric car was recalled and what GM found to be the problem= lack of quality control cost-cutting. AKA what i call corner cutting since years.
intrade,
Jun 3, 10:35am
All plastic craps it self the good stuff is banned by greenies Just like The bull$it bigclive.com debunked that lead is bad in solder. The lead-free stuff is why you end up with cracking solder joints premature over old lead based solder. Lead is not a problem in solder as it was made out to be.
intrade,
Jun 3, 10:42am
Back to ford One thing i can say good about ford They do have a low cost compared to some other company for a factory tool subscription. However Ford have electronic parts that only work if they are oem ford made. So why don't aftermarket part clones work well. It could well be that ford and this is just a theorie of how it could be as most other manufacturer dont have as much problem with aftermarket parts. They must have made it so the electronics need to see a exact signal and if it is slight different won't use the signal any longer . It was the only reason i could come up with, affecting ford like The leader for this phenomenon.
onl_148,
Jun 3, 12:33pm
Ford is a big company, especially in the US and for years they have traded on this size etc, (whole cities and towns owe there existence to the local Ford factory), so the upper management / owners have been very chummy with the US government, so the US politicians are not going to "bite the hand that feeds them", so they have been very easy / accommodating to Ford. So now Ford NZ have this same arrogant / we will do what we like attitude, here in NZ !
franc123,
Jun 3, 12:55pm
Thats true in principal, but FMC does not have anywhere near the clout they used to have with anyone in this country, and certainly not in the marketplace, I dont think they are even involved with any Govt supply contracts either, there aint no Telecom Transits, Police Falcons or Ministerial LTD's no more. 40 years ago they had 25% of the market without even trying and all of their product lines were at the top or close to the top of their market segment. Contrast that to now. As I said earlier, if things get too rough for them here and/or there was a sizeable drop in Ranger sales, they will bail.
tygertung,
Jun 3, 1:05pm
I don't think the "greenies" as you put it are pro-plastic at all. They are more interested in things which can be easily recycled such as steel, aluminium, copper, lead etc. So the greenies would prefer for things to be made from metal. It is the car manufacturers who prefer things to be made from plastic as it is cheaper to produce. It can just be molded so it is cheaper. They probably don't care that it can't be disposed of,
apollo11,
Jun 3, 4:08pm
The cost of mining, refining and casting metals is far greater than plastic, embodied energy-wise. Then you have the extra weight of the component making a dent in fuel economy throughout the life of the part. Plastic is a great material if it's used in the right situation (ie not engine/drivetrain parts), and is recyclable too, ie BMW design their vehicles to last ten years, after which every component has been designed with recycling in mind.
gazzat22,
Jun 3, 4:13pm
Am inclined to agree with you.Seems to be a bit of a hangover from the years when it was necessary to grovel to the new car dealers unless one had Overseas Funds for the deposit on a new car.Holden is no more,Ford have a limited range BMC,Rootes Group are just a distant memory but the advantages are that we can now buy cars that are economical,reliable and dont rust while you look at them and dont leak copious quanties of oil and stop when it rains. !
tygertung,
Jun 3, 4:29pm
That may be so, however the figures on plastic recycling are poor:
And I believe that it is unlikely that plastic which has been used as part of a car could be recycled, as it is usually composite, therefore it is very difficult to separate into its component parts.
If it were metal it could be melted down and re-used to make the next car part.
Recycling of steel, copper, aluminum, lead etc. is very common.
apollo11,
Jun 3, 4:53pm
All plastics can be recycled. but because plastic is so cheap it's often easier to buy new. So specify a percentage of recycled plastic that needs to be added to new components. The Aussie system of steam distillation works on any plastic and produces a raw material as good as virgin plastic. Money needs to be invested in these areas because plastic isn't going away.
apollo11,
Jun 3, 4:58pm
Apologies, steam distillation turns the plastic back into an oil, which can then be processed to make new plastic.
It could be argued that all of those specific companies mentioned are guilty of the same thing, they were building the cars they wanted to build and not what the public really wanted, moreso as time went by. BLMC and Rootes basically wiped themselves out 40 years ago with outdated gear and GM/Ford have persistently lost market share since then for a number of reasons. Holden started losing money in 1977 and since then was only occasionally profitable, Ford was still doing well in the 80's but market share dipped in the late 90's and has never bounced back. All of them had varying quality problems/poor R&D with the non Japanese sourced product and were not especially helpful when it came to warranty and rectification and customer service generally.
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