Other hobbies/Obsessions?

Yeah, I don't know where Fitz is getting the talk that's anti uptake and the future of motoring part. I think he's arguing with himself. 😁 The change certainly is happening quickly and just by going on the number of EV's I see out and about it has really picked up over the last 18 months. Not just Teslas either. In my neck of the woods, while there were a couple of BMW i3's about and two i8's of all things*, and one neighbour of mine jumped in early with hybrids and then to a Leaf, now he's on a second series Leaf(which is a much nicer car. IMHO the best thing about driving the earlier Leaf was you didn't have to look at it), people seem to have gone straight from oil burners to full EV's. The Kona is one I see a lot around the place. Early adopters seem to go through the hybrid phase, current buyers are just jumpiing to EV's. In two years time, or less I could see ICE sales fall off a cliff. When people's PCP's are up, why would they buy an ICE? Prices have narrowed too. Roll on a couple more years and those same EV's will hit the used market en masse and ICE for personal motoring will start to look very old hat.

Ireland is ideal for EV's anyway. I can't think of any EV for sale that can't get to anywhere in the nation on a single charge and even get back, or halfway back. We're also an urban/suburban population for the most part and the majority live in houses with driveways to plug in the car overnight. Our climate is mild too. I could understand resistance in places like the US, or Canada outside major cities because of the distances some people travel, but not in Ireland, or Europe in general. We do need a better charging infrastructure but that's improving quickly. Chalk and cheese compared to even a couple of years ago.

*for all the chatter about Teslas being sloppily built, I found the i8 felt oddly tinny and delicate.

People wonder will they be repairable cause they are all electronics and software....they are already repairable, and if the uptake is this strong (which it is) there will be indies and specialists for older EV just as there is for older classic ICE cars. My point is they are easier to fix, cause you just replace the bits and reset the computers. This is unfamiliar in the ICE world where engine rebuilds are now seen as "easy" but recoding a car is seen as complex. That will change as time goes on. Look how easy it is to fix a computer now as opposed to in the 1980's or 70's.

Again you're using a really bad example for your position. Computers have become less fixable and upgradable over time. That's undeniable. Try repairing/upgrading a ten year old laptop, or phone with new parts from the manufacturers. If you can get the parts it'll be easier to repair and upgrade than a brand new one. A computer of the 80's and 90's and well into the 00's was more modular, upgradable and easier to fix. Now they're essentially all in one throwaway sealed units and getting more that way with each product release. Apple stuff being the extreme example of that, where the spec is what you buy at source and good luck if you want to fix/upgrade ram, HD capacity, battery etc, but they have a tendency to lead in such things(though at one time guaranteed spares supply for ten years).

'Throwaway' is good for business. It's the basic operating procedure of many businesses including cars. And consumers of course. EG Phones from the Chinese brands are far easier to take apart and repair than an iPhone, but the product cycle and churn is not so different. I would say that smart phones accelerated this churn and outside of their direct market. When the iphone came out first one of the biggest reactions was; how much? Nobody will pay that for a phone. Until they did and then the phone company contracts kicked in to take the sting out of buying them outright. Now many, if not most people get a new phone every two years. A friend of mine is never off his and the battery starts to go south after one year so he upgrades accordingly. Now a large part, or at lease a percieved part is newer tech means better and that's the case, but the majority use their phones for phone stuff with a camera on top and never read or use the specs in the fine print. EV's are going to have at least some of that going on too.

Oh and in the ICE aftermarket world remapping, replacing and updating ECU's and the like has long been seen as easier than engine rebuilds. There's a big industry in such systems and setups with companies like Haltech and the like. Indeed if I wanted to do an ECU upgrade it would be easier to find someone who knew their stuff there compared to getting someone to rebuild my engine properly. Much of this is down to the oily bits lasting much longer than in the past because of better materials and design, so far fewer mechanics outside of specialists would be doing engine rebuilds. Not so long ago a family car on 100,000 miles in old money was fecked mechanically. The Japanese changed that. Ironically as it happens given the crazy turnover and churn in their own domestic market.

apple is for noobs but you can still upgrade ram and storage

I admire your boundless confidence in stating something that's so completely wrong. Nope I'm afraid you can't. The current M1 Macs come with what they come with at purchase. You can't upgrade the ram or storage. Not unless you want to break out the soldering iron, a microscope and a steady hand. You either spec it from new, or buy an entire board and swap it out. Hardly upgradeable. Their laptops have been like this for nigh on five years. Their imacs weren't much better, storage upgrades required separating the glued in(or magnets in earlier ones) screen from the case. The new ones, see above. The Right to Repair campainers must be doing it for the craic.

I cannot agree the oily bits are more reliable it's just you are more comfortable repairing them.

Nope. You seem to have this compulsion to read what you want to read, or somehow get confused, because it bears little resemblance to what I wrote. I wrote: "Much of this is down to the oily bits lasting much longer than in the past because of better materials and design, so far fewer mechanics outside of specialists would be doing engine rebuilds". If you think ICE engines haven't gotten more reliable overall I really don't know what to say. Again, nobody who actually had a clue about cars would say that, because it's a ridiculous statement. EV motors should be far more reliable again over time. Nobody is disputing that. I'm certainly not and said so previously. That would be a ridiculous statement too.

As for my comfort in tackling such things; beyond basic oil and filter changes, which any moron could do, that's where my involvement stops. I wouldn't even think of trying to replace something 'simple' for a mechanic like a head gasket. I'd run screaming from the thoughts of an engine rebuild. However I would happily tackle an ECU swap if such a need ever occurred. I would be far more comfortable doing something involving the electronics.

Yeah it seems like a solution to a non existent problem, though one that as been mooted for ages. Understandable when batteries could take hours to charge, not when they can take 20-30 minutes. Capacitors could well be in play down the line alright, or something similar.

Plus to go the watch angle(albeit a bit left field) and what people actually want: Accuracy was the big thing for most of the history of personal timepieces. Then quartz came along* and brands went nuts with ever more crazy accurate and expensive watches. And bugger all people bought them. It turned out, other than oddballs, the vast majority were happy with a watch that was accurate to say a minute a month, or just didn't care. That was enough. They bought the new tech not because of accuracy, but because of convenience and that 'new normal'. I can see EV charging times just being accepted as the same new normal, because all the other advantages are so advantageous in every other way it matters less and less when it gets to a certain point. And that sweet spot IMHO is a charging time of half an hour or less. Set that 'inconvenience' against 90% of the time you car is charged overnight outside your gaff**, requires less maintenance and has all mod cons and is faster, quieter and better for the baby seals(with some caveats). If tomorrow a new EV came out with a charging time of 10 minutes, yes some would be oh this is fantastic and some would be lining up. Fine if it was around the same price as all the others, but if it cost half a million quid, not so much.

*Like Jay Leno in his garage who drops in his McLaren F1 in every vid... 😁

** yep I can 'charge' my oil burner in ten minutes and yep it has greater range, but I have to go to a petrol station to do it. And it costs more. Now if I had minions in jumpsuits(of course) who filled my car with motion lotion while I slept for a fraction of the price, well I'd be signing up for that in short order. 😁 And on the rare occasions I had to wait for half an hour to fill up with petrol, little care would I give.

EV's definitely keep decent value alright. Their depreciation curve is a lot lower on average than ICE(the exception seems to be the Leaf. Not nice looking(mk1) lack of cooling for batteries so they degrade more). I can see that lasting for a while too as the population moves over to EV, the secondhand EV's will be what's in demand, whereas seconhand oil burners not nearly so much. This is just a feeling now, but I do have the feeling that the halfway house hybrids, will take the biggest hit over time. They're a stepping stone for the cautious and that had merit even a few years ago with range anxiety and all that, but that's pretty much gone today. If someone is looking to go battery powered a hybrid is going to look a bit meh IMHO.

Cos in case anyone missed the general awesomeness the first time I imagine Traco. 😁 "Ballet dancer on twisty country road", you're speaking the song of my peeeple T.