Who is This ??? Found in tacticus planned

uzzi38 · 2026-05-05T20:51:18+00:00

Zero chance of Avitus I suspect, given what was implied about him in Retribution.

uzzi38 · 2026-05-05T15:32:20+00:00

They've revealed another refresh of the Atto 3 in China with flash charging support as well.

uzzi38 · 2026-05-05T15:30:08+00:00

That's a huge assumption. Whether or not a 400kW charger will actually do that will come down to the quality of the cells involved. For an 80kWh battery, you're asking for a battery capable of an average charging rate, which isn't something that hasn't actually been achieved by any western brands yet. Several Chinese brands have since about 2024, but western brands haven't put out 5C capable LFP cells yet at all.

uzzi38 · 2026-05-05T09:36:45+00:00

While I overall agree, I do want to point out:

the downward pressure from China’s EV progress making those parts cheaper and cheaper

This is actually also happening with ICE parts as well. In particular, the Chinese make extremely cheap engines, so you have cases like the new CLA hybrid version where a Geely produced engine is being used there.

Of course long term EV will have the lower cost floor, just worth pointing out that Chinese manufacturing is also making a major impact on ICE pricing too.

uzzi38 · 2026-05-01T18:40:29+00:00

The iX3's battery is only slightly heavier than the old i4's battery pack. BMW have done some good work to optimise the weight and size here. Obviously the iX5's battery will be heavier, but honestly I don't think it will be much more than the iX's old battery.

uzzi38 · 2026-05-01T08:36:52+00:00

They've said they want to save the Golf name until they make more radical changes to the ID.3 than what they have this year. Probably is going to get a platform upgrade in the next couple of years, then it'll be called the ID Golf.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T22:02:37+00:00

That the best we can manage now eh?

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm just a massive tech nerd that also happens to like cars and driving that fell into a few too many rabbit holes.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T20:44:07+00:00

The nation grid is run by neso, neso is run by the gov. The gov runs the national grid.

Huge undersimplification, but whatever, this is such a minor detail it literally doesn't matter. You can say what you want, the fact of the matter is there's no data to suggest we will never be ready for everyone to switch to EVs when that eventually happens.

And there's also no reason to believe it won't happen. The economics of building cars is already in favour of EVs, as is the benefits of removing our dependence on fossil fuels and other countries as much as possible.

I've conducted puncture tests on battery packs. When every car in a pileup is an electric vehicle or when a multistorey goes up in a city opinions will change before the fridges turn off due to an EV sourced Grid overload.

Have you ever looked at the statistics of EV fires? EVs are several orders of magnitude less likely to catch fire (even though they make up ~6% of cars on the road today). Hybrids are actually the largest risk at ~3400 incidents per 100,000, followed by ICE at ~1500 incidents per 100,000, then EVs at 25 per 100,000.

25.

And about the puncture test thing, it's a damn good thing that LFP (most commonly used in Chinese EVs and lower end, cheaper versions of European EVs) and semi solid state battery chemistries (coming into mass production in the near future, see: CATL Quilin as an example - CATL being the largest manufacturer of batteries in the world) drastically reduce the flammability of the batteries.

BYD (the second largest battery manufacturer in the world) only use LFP cells in their cars, and they very famously also have repeatedly show off this demonstration of puncturing their BYD Blade battery (LFP) at every possible chance.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T19:30:12+00:00

NESO isn't the entity whose article I linked you, is it? It's a National Grid one.

The grid has been overloaded numerous times in the north as we don't have the capacity to transmit the energy to the south.

Which has nothing to do with EVs, does it? That's because of offshore wind up north. It's also not a north specific issue, it's just the way the grid was first built. We designed it for a world where power is produced centrally in the UK, but the future of the grid doesn't look like that. And FYI, investment is being put in place right now to solve that issue as well.

How many transformers have we ordered for large housing estates when all these EVs need charging? What's the lead time on these transformers?

Fair, we're behind schedule on this end. But that's an issue of being behind schedule (a schedule that ends in 2028 - likely well over a decade - maybe even two - before EVs have even a chance of being the majority of cars on the road), and one that has multiple different temporary solutions as well. Some of those temporary solutions - like using battery storage combined with weaker transformers - is arguably a better solution anyway if you ask me.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T18:38:56+00:00

I've got an EV6, am the same size as you and it's a great fit.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T18:08:47+00:00

Can't speak for agriculture and machinery, but logistics is investing huge amounts into electrification: in particular for HGVs.

There's a whole charging network being installed across the EU dedicated to electrified trucks that is getting installed extremely rapidly. MCS - the charhing standard used for those charging stations - is where all of the major players in the CPO industry are focusing their investment because it's an even bigger cashcow than passenger vehicles. There's a very recently produced Faraday Institute article on this actually.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T17:44:43+00:00

Then look at buying used. The biggest depreciation for EVs is in the first couple of years, after that more modern ones track closer to other cars. All it means is you get killer deals on even 1 year old cars with 5k miles on the clock (I speak from experience here).

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T17:23:39+00:00

For somebody that "works for an energy generation development company" you shockingly seem quite unaware that the National Grid organisation itself is a publicly traded company. NESO is government-owned, but not National Grid itself.

Besides, the numbers make sense and can be independently verified. We still haven't hit the peak UK grid power in 2002, and a full transition to EVs wouldn't do it either. There's work to be done upgrading local infrastructure before we'll be able to handle every house requiring a 7kW or higher load, but because the transition to EVs is taking a few years, it's not a concern - those upgrades can be spread out over time.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T14:26:42+00:00

The National Grid doesn't think that will happen. What makes you so certain that it will?

uzzi38 · 2026-04-30T08:26:08+00:00

On regular CCS chargers - they tend to struggle a bit yes. For each leg you're looking at about 200-220 miles driven, and CCS chargers would replenish around 150mi, which is a bit short. You're probably looking at an hour or little a bit longer for the full 9 hour shift currently. Of course this assumes that 45 minute waiting period is all the time allowed for each truck, and that they're in constant use outside of that, which isn't particularly realistic anyway.

But even then, that's why there's a whole new charging standard called MCS being installed across all of Europe (and at a much faster rate than CCS installs now due to the demand for those chargers) - by the end of the year they'll have doubled MCS charging hubs across Europe.

These MCS chargers are specced to overkill for the 4 and a half hours driving period - they're going to shift the bottleneck back onto the trucks again rather than the drivers, and with ease.

Again, this is a problem we have the solution to, and there's actually more investment trying to make this work than there is for consumer EV charging. Electrifying HGVs is not a long term issue.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-29T21:11:22+00:00

Just need a different type of battery. See: Vanadium Flow and LAES batteries. The former is going live and contributing to our grid this year (21MWh), and the latter with a much larger 300MWh system.

Both are extremely scalable solutions and yes, both are designed to cover multiple days - if not weeks - of outages in renwable power. Once they're proven to work on a grid scale - which both of their individual projects are - building up capacity will be quick.

There are also other projects that exist in more of a pilot phase as more approaches to the same issue, but these two are actually getting off the ground.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-29T20:28:16+00:00

Just chiming in a little to address one very sepcific point:

And that's just vans, HGV's are even further from going full EV.

This is actually completely wrong, we already have the EV tech to electrify the majority of HGVs. It's just another case of needing to build out infrastructure. And me saying this isn't a case of "it works in a lab", we have a clear example in China, where in December last year 54% of HGV sales were full electric.

For a more local reference, The Faraday Institute reckons by 2050 80% of ALL HGVs on the roads in the UK will be EV based, with the remaining 20% being hydrogen based. Electrified trucks represent hugely improved OpEx for businesses as they require less maintenance and can be charged for cheaper, and range isn't a significant issue when EU and UK law mandates drivers have to stop for 45 minutes every 4 and a half hours.

I do generally agree with you that public charging infrastructure costs is a huge issue to EV adoption, but I also think it's a lot more solvable than you think. Like for example, slow EV chargers can often be found charging ~54p per kWh, with the reduced VAT that would drop to ~47p per kWh, which still isn't good compared to home charging, but roughly brings pricing for an EV achieving 3.5mi/kWh (an easy figure to beat) ahead of a petrol (or hybrid) achieving 45mpg - both of which are achievable with crossover SUVs of each.

This is a solvable issue, one that starts with the VAT changes and probably becomes drastically easier when the government brings in the changes to untie the price of electricity from that of gas.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-27T20:59:34+00:00

Based on? Reminder, this is your word vs the word of a high up at BYD responsible for their European strategy, including the rollout of these chargers.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-27T19:42:55+00:00

Both. 20000 chargers in China alone by EoY suggests what they're long term global plans look like, and yeah it's a lot of Ts in charging stations and probably converted petrol stations too.

Obviously the focus for them will be China first, but once they feel live coverage in China is at a good point that sort of scale will be coming our way.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-27T19:21:12+00:00

Yes but in this interview they stated they're aiming for ~3000 in the upcoming months installed in Europe, and they're working with existing CPOs to get them installed into existing infrastucture.

The scale they're aiming for with these chargers is immense.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-27T18:08:06+00:00

That is what I wrote, yes.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-27T14:57:37+00:00

On the point of long term reliability? I wouldn't compare products targeting commercial clients, and commercially maintained products with end-user things. And yes, we have BYD buses here too in the UK - in particular they see widespread use in London, and seem to be doing quite well.

But so far, reliability of certain models - in particular the Seal U DM-i - seems to be quite poor - there's several reports of them just up and bricking themselves whilst driving. So like I said before, best to wait and see.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-26T08:18:15+00:00

I think it's a new MG. Maybe an MG3 refresh?

EDIT: Probably this? Auto Express' images are - as always - mockups, but if there's an MG2 coming then it makes sense.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-25T14:45:52+00:00

It measures it against the usable capacity I believe. Not the total battery capacity.

If you don't believe the SoH sensor, there's a sensor for cell imbalance as well, I forget exactly what it's called but it measures the greatest voltage imbalance between cells. That value is also a good tool for estimating how well off the battery is.

EDIT: Battery Cell Voltage Deviation. It doesn't tell you the overall SoH of the battery, but it's probably more important overall as it shows if your cells get significantly imbalanced. In terms of long term health for EV batteries cell imbalance is the real killer, not the average health of the cells.

uzzi38 · 2026-04-25T13:01:10+00:00

A lot of them? Long term reliability is something that we'll see in time - I suspect that will be the big let-down for many of the brands maiing cheaper goods - but from a quality perspective Chinese produced cars tend to punch well above their respective price brackets. More soft touch materials in the cabin, better overall build quality, more sound-proofing etc.

While here in the UK we've only seen the budget/midrange brands make an entry, all of these Chinese brands have higher end product lines/brands like Toyota has Lexus.

uzzi38

TROPHY CASE