Arte-non-Vi

Category: Industry

  • Electric Vehicles in Australia

    Electric Vehicles in Australia

    What EVs are available in Australia?

    There are over 30 different EV manufacturers in the world. This is a small subset of what is available globally.

    Here’s every new electric vehicle available for purchase in Australia, ordered from least expensive to most expensive (MSRP) as of September 1, 2022.

    • BYD Atto 3: $44,381
    • MG ZS EV Excite: $44,990
    • BYD Atto 3 Extended Range: $47,381
    • Hyundai Ioniq Electric: $48,970
    • Nissan Leaf: $48,990
    • MG ZS EV Essence: $49,990
    • Hyundai Kona Electric Elite: $54,500
    • MINI Electric: $55,650
    • Hyundai Kona Electric Highlander: $58,000
    • Nissan Leaf e+: $60,490
    • Hyundai Kona Electric Extended Range Elite: $60,500
    • MINI Electric Yours: $62,825
    • Polestar 2: $63,900
    • Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus: $63,900
    • Hyundai Kona Electric Extended Range Highlander: $64,000
    • Kia Niro S Electric: $65,300
    • Mazda MX-30: $65,490
    • Kia EV6: $67,990
    • Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor: $68,400.00
    • Kia Niro Sport: $70,990
    • Hyundai Ioniq 5 2WD: $71,900
    • Kia Niro Electric GT Line: $72,100
    • Tesla Model Y RWD: $72,300
    • Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor: $73,400
    • Lexus UX300e Luxury: $74,000
    • Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD: $75,900
    • Tesla Model 3 Long Range: $76,200
    • Mercedes-Benz EQA: $76,800
    • Volvo XC40 Recharge: $76,990
    • Lexus UX300e Sports Luxury: $81,000
    • Tesla Model 3 Performance: $88,900
    • Tesla Model Y AWD: $96,700
    • BMW i4: $99,900
    • BMW iX3: $114,900
    • Mercedes-Benz EQC: $124,300
    • BMW i4 M50: $124,900
    • BMW iX xDrive40: $135,900
    • Audi e-tron SUV: $137,100
    • BMW iX xDrive40 Sport – $141,900
    • Tesla Model S: $147,990
    • Audi e-tron Sportsback: $148,700
    • Audi E-Tron Sportback: $150,900
    • Jaguar I-Pace SE: $151,432
    • Jaguar I-Pace HSE: $155,550 
    • Tesla Model X: $165,990
    • Audi E-Tron S: $168,400
    • BMW iX xDrive50 Sport – $169,900
    • Porsche Taycan: $174,695
    • Tesla Model X Plaid: $174,990
    • Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo: $176,600
    • BMW iX: $179,333
    • Audi E-Tron GT: $181,700
    • Tesla Model S Plaid: $186,990
    • Porsche Taycan 4S: $194,700
    • Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo: $205,300
    • Porsche Taycan Turbo: $276,300
    • Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo: $279,000
    • Porsche Taycan Turbo S: $345,800

    Source: Gizmodo

    More From Gizmodo Australia

  • because he can…

    because he can…

    Quite simply, because he can.

    In an age of “likes”, “friends”, virtual business, “disruption” and automation, it appears there is still room for the genuine steel-bending industrialist with a bold vision, committed to building real assets with genuine ingenuity and innovation.

    Well done Elon.

    Did I mention there is a Red Tesla Roadster also currently in orbit, overhead, Perth Western Australia?

    SpaceX’s big new rocket blasted off on its first test flight, carrying a red sports car aiming for an endless road trip past Mars.

     

    The Falcon Heavy rose from the same launch pad used by NASA nearly 50 years ago to send men to the moon.

    With lift-off, the Heavy became the most powerful rocket in use today, doubling the lift-off capability of its closest competitor.

    Links

     

    Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.
    – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • The Fork in the Road

    The Fork in the Road

    The Volvo motor-car company confirmed in 2017 the strategic decoupling of their vehicles from the internal combustion engine, supplementing all vehicles from 2019 with electric motors.

    We are committed to electrification, so from 2019 all new Volvo car models will include an electric motor. [ Hakan Samuelsson – President & CEO ]

    It will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be high performance electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance car arm.

    Links

  • Economics and Electrons

    Economics and Electrons

    The announcement by Elon Musk of his proposed electric semi-truck and new roadster almost broke the internet last week.

    Perhaps missed in the hype, cheering and very loud music accompanying a very, very, very fast red car, was a small, but potentially profound announcement about the truck “mega-chargers” and the flat-priced provision for charging these trucks.

    Innovations in this sector are highly focussed on the elephant in the room.  Running costs. The famous UPS “don’t turn left” innovation saves millions, but Musk’s numbers look like he might genuinely change the face of the industry and address some of the drivers of climate change at the same time.

    This is potentially the single biggest disruption in the transport and logistics industry; ridiculously cheaper, fixed cost “fuel”. This truck is a “day-tripper”, with no sleeping/overnight cabin.

    Musk suggests a flat-price of electricity at the mega-chargers of 7 cents Kwh. Powered by their own solar photovoltaics.

    Tesla Megacharger
    [Tesla Megacharger -Source: Mashable.com]

    Fixed running cost [almost]

    He detailed that at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, assuming a diesel fuel price of US$2.50 per gallon, coupled with insurance and maintenance costs, a Tesla Semi driven at 60 miles per hour with an full load on a 100-mile route would cost about $1.26 a mile to operate, compared to $1.51 per mile for a diesel truck.

    Design

    The truck’s drag coefficient is 0.36, which is actually less than the 0.38 coefficient of the Bugatti Chiron, one of the world’s fastest sports car. A diesel truck, by comparison, has a coefficient of between 0.65 and 0.7. [Think of a brick versus a bullet]

    Platooning [ Investment multiplier]

    As mentioned in presentations and on my WhaleSongServices blog, “platooning” will [and is] already changing the face of transport planning.  Musk said that Tesla Semis will be capable of platooning, and in that configuration a diesel truck will be twice as expensive. The ability to digitally link trucks together for greater efficiency makes it

    “not just economic suicide to use one diesel truck; it’s economic suicide for rail”

    – Elon Musk

    He might just be right.

    Links

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  • Farewell – ETAOIN SHRDLU

    Farewell – ETAOIN SHRDLU

    A film created by Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss documenting the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times.

  • Stellerator

    Stellerator

    Innovation

    Five frogs sitting on a log, four decide to jump in, how many are left?

    The answer? Five!  … because deciding and doing are two very different things…

     

    The Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald produced its first hydrogen plasma on 3 February 2016. This marks the start of scientific operation. Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest fusion device of the stellarator type, is to investigate this configuration’s suitability for use in a power plant.

    Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, who is also a doctor of physics, attended the opening ceremony this week.

    A 2-megawatt pulse of microwave heating transformed a tiny quantity of hydrogen gas into an extremely hot low-density hydrogen plasma. This entails separation of the electrons from the nuclei of the hydrogen atoms. Confined in the magnetic cage generated by Wendelstein 7-X, the charged particles levitate without making contact with the walls of the plasma chamber.

    “With a temperature of 80 million degrees and a lifetime of a quarter of a second, the device’s first hydrogen plasma has completely lived up to our expectations”,

    states Dr. Hans-Stephan Bosch, whose division is responsible for operation of Wendelstein 7-X.

    The Guardian reports:

    While critics have said the pursuit of nuclear fusion is a waste of money that could be better spent on other projects, Germany has forged ahead in funding the project, which in the past 20 years has cost €1.06bn if staff salaries are included.

    Over the coming years, W7-X, which isn’t designed to produce any energy itself, will test many of the extreme conditions such devices will be subjected to if they are ever to generate power, said John Jelonnek, a physicist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.

    Links

  • Gradatim Ferociter

    Gradatim Ferociter

    Innovation

    The term “innovation” has been embedded in Australian public policy discussions for many decades, in many domains of activity, from Education, to Science, Health, Manufacturing, Agriculture and yes, even Mining.

    We hear this term a lot… Unfortunately, we seem to conflate genuine innovation, [which in my view requires the interdisciplinary approach of many groups, supplemented by visionary legislative and regulatory frameworks encouraging and supporting creative and entrepreneurial actors] with what can only be described as risk-averse, managerial, cost-saving approaches to existing activity.

    A structural bias against the “new”.  Barry Jones opined years ago about the rise of the managerial-class in Politics…

    In 2013, Andrew Dempster, The Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research; Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, UNSW Australia made a salient argument in his paper – Ten reasons why Australia urgently needs a space agency.

    He referred to the 2008 Senate Committee on Economics and their assessment of Australian Space capability and future opportunities. The report:  Lost in Space? Setting a new direction for Australia’s space science and industry sector

    In a nutshell?

    Yeah…. Nah…

    Hardly the future focussed, innovative and visionary view that could unlock generations of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates [S.T.E.M ]. Not to mention the entrepreneurial opportunities for new materials, systems and products.

    Meanwhile…

    Blue Origin

    Blue Origin [ @blueorigin ] is an American privately-funded aerospace developer [yes, the other one…] and manufacturer set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos [ @JeffBezos ] .

    The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal of dramatically lower cost and increased reliability. It is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. [Read the Australian Senate Committee Report on their view of sub-orbital and orbital opportunities]

    Just last week, January 22nd 2016, they completed the SECOND launch and landing of their re-useable system.

    This is what innovation looks like in the West Texas desert. Stunning achievements.

    It is important to consider the Latitude and Longitude of the Blue Origin Launch site 31.422927°N 104.757152°W.

    Australia

    Consider the same LATITUDE line in Australia? 31.5 degrees south.  A line that dissects a point just north of Perth on our West coast and runs through the lower section of our continent, [funnily enough, right through the WOOMERA rocket range, dissecting a point on our East coast, just south of Port Macquarie.

    Consider for a moment the strategic asset that open-space, serviced by existing infrastructure provides for such “orbital industries”. It is the same strategic asset that gives us our Aviation training industry [among others]. Consider our existing settlements, roads, rail lines, cities and populations along this line.

    Consider our world-class Higher Education sector.

    Consider the input-cost of “open space” and the potential value-add of a square kilometre of that open space, compared to mining, tourism, and space-flight, just to name a few.

    Consider Australia’s current employment trends and when and how the “new industries” we so often discuss will actually eventuate?

    The upcoming Australian Federal Budget in May of this year, will once again struggle with the challenges of “getting the balance right”. Trimming percentage points, raising a tax here, offsetting with incentives there, worrying about reduced receipts so “managing” the budget by cutting costs…

    All the while, “orbital industries” don’t have an Australian flag…

    There still comes a time when we need to consider the calculus of historically contracting “core-industries”, leaving the country with between four to five MORE people looking for work than the number of vacant positions… Yes, the State of Victoria alone has more registered unemployed people than the number of Job Vacancies advertised nationally!

    New jobs? Real jobs? Perhaps we need to look to the sky…

    Gradatim Ferociter

     

    Links

     

     

  • Culture + Innovation + Success: Repeat

    Culture + Innovation + Success: Repeat

    60 Minutes USA looks at Apple Computer, the world’s largest Company [for the third year].

    Insights in to design, innovation and modern business practices, including labour-practices, skills and education.  Yes the tax questions were asked.

    Encryption is worth considering.  #keepitlockedtim

    What’s next for Apple?

     

     

  • Makers – More than a movement…

    Makers – More than a movement…

    John Tierney [ The Atlantic ] raises some excellent questions/challenges regarding the rapidly changing and profoundly reforming “maker-movement“.

    He refers to the comments by panelists at the recent Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, USA.

    Tierney states:

     I want to consider some of the intriguing challenges and dilemmas (educational, legal, moral, and ethical) all this will increasingly pose in the years to come.

    This he does.

    Policy-makers and educators alike need to closely consider the strategic challenges that ubiquitous, distributed additive manufacturing will place on existing legal and regulatory frameworks, let alone the historical structures of economies.

    The ethical and moral questions are [potentially] enormous.

    Tierney asks:

    In an age when anybody can print out a 3-D copy of almost anything, what happens to intellectual property?

    Ponder any of these questions for a moment and consider what if?

    • the printing of human body parts became available? Who would have access to this?
    • the printing/assembly of food – Which foods, for who? Would these be copyrighted?
    • Consider Defense Distributed that has come up with an open-source  3-D print model for firearms. “Basically, you can get everything except the firing pin. It works. And with the open-source distribution of this 3-D print gun design, you’ve in one stroke wiped out any gun-control law in the world.”

    The list goes on….

    The full article can be found here;

    Links: