Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek|September 2020
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Nigel Fox
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

A scandinavian electric vehicle company is expected to showcase a prototype electric truck later this year. This “state-of-the-art” design will have a range of 160km and a top speed of 80km/h. Wow! That’s a similar performance to a battery-powered milk delivery truck of the 1960s.

Not much progress after more than 50 years. And it doesn’t address the charge barrier that all battery-powered vehicles face – that is the time taken to fully charge the battery and for how long and how far it will power the vehicle.

The Tesla Model S has a top speed of around 250km/h, a range of 600km, and an acceleration of 3.7 seconds to 100km/h. Impressive. But there’s still the battery charge barrier. It’s a genuine Catch 22.

There won’t be enough public fast-charging stations until more people buy electric cars, which they’re not going to do because there aren’t enough public fast-charging stations.

We won’t mention the other problem of potential electricity grid interruptions that used to be unthinkable until the advent of load-shedding.

All those decades of furious research by huge corporations and still no massively significant success. The technology pot for batteries has long been emptied but researchers and engineers are still licking it out looking for marginal performance increases. Are there really no groundbreaking alternatives?

Prolific inventor and vacuum cleaner mogul, Sir James Dyson, launched an R50 billion electric car plant in Singapore for vehicles based on solid-state batteries which reputedly offer faster recharge, higher voltage, and longer cycle life.

That project was shut down in October 2019 because it was “not commercially viable”.

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FLERE HISTORIER FRA NOSEWEEKSe alt
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

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September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

Panel Beater De Luxe

Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.

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8 mins  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman

Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.

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10+ mins  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

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6 mins  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

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4 mins  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

Everybody Drinks Corona

I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.

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May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

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4 mins  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

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10+ mins  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

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8 mins  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

Bush school – A memoir

OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.

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May 2020