It's still inefficient and useless for work.

To run them over Australia-scale distances, you’d need to keep recharging them throughout the journey, otherwise most of the load will be the battery. Recharging takes time, so to be time-efficient, you’d want to do so in motion, by running catenary over the roads and equipping the trucks with pantographs like electric trains (there’s a highway in Germany with such an arrangement). At that stage, you may as well electrify the nation’s railways and rely on rail freight (rail can both go faster and run more efficiently, at the cost of needing to offload goods for the last mile), though much of Australia’s railways are still diesel (the electrified ones are mostly suburban).

The oil price shock (and the reality of climate change) should be motivating countries like Australia to electrify their railways. On any line with more than a handful of trains a day it’ll pay for itself. Though Australians seem to not be into long-term thinking, and can’t get past the immediate cost of thousands of kilometres of copper wire. I can imagine them short-terming themselves into shelling out for fleets of heavy Tesla trucks that will spend most of their time charging, because in the immediate term, it feels like the path of least resistance.

Except it's still a wank yank tank. We're (Australia) not that far behind you in this stupid arms race, sadly. More and more of these stupid pick up trucks are on our streets.

Fuck uncessarily big cars.

The only solution to traffic is viable alternatives to driving.

Sorry to be such a downer, but cities designed for massive personal vehicles should be called out at every opportunity.

All the folks who don't need to drive and can take public transport are much more chippy. And it saves fuel for the vehicles that actually need to use it (for freight, emergency, disabled, farms etc)

I'm a Yankee, but my lifetime cost analysis has been up and down since I got it. Gasoline went down, power went up, and it wasn't looking good, but now gasoline is back up and it's positive versus a similar normal F-150 again. But it's been a better truck for my use-case the entire time, so I'll have that anyway.

What's wrong with the Lightning? I got one because it has the best frunk and it's compatible with standard ladder racks, and it's been working pretty well for me.

*Ute since we're talking 'strayan.

China was using hydrogen buses back in 2019. But their infrastructure and population density is a different beast. Having said that, so is the topography

I’m a big fan of Janus, especially their diesel engines retrofit.

The battery swapping makes a lot of sense when the infrastructure is established, and I see a lot of potential with trailer mounted batteries, especially when they have powered axles which double as regenerative brakes.

The Lightning is the worst one you could buy. I say that as someone that put down a deposit on it when it was first announced. The Chevy Silverado is an actual electric work vehicle. I’d never buy Chevy though, US car brands are horrendous.

Great news!

The article is talking about real trucks, like freight hauling. Not pickups.

Sounds like time for a some self-care. In any case, what you've learnt in your activism will come in handy at some point when the time is right for you.

Personally I can't wait for the delicious irony of using them to move fuel.

Fuck yeah it's time. China is switching over to them. Australia can skim off the side of that.

No. The prices are insane.

Now all those folks that bought into the Ford F-150 Lightning are looking pretty chippy and smart, eh ?

Loved reading this comment.

I’m not sure, I’m not a mod or anything. I’m just trying to keep them active to maintain an alternative to Reddit.

Yeah… I have done my best but am completely burned out in terms of activism and I’m not sure if we’re making it out of this anytime soon.

Could they still be merged or posts from the aussie frugal page copied/shared to your page?

As to your second comment: 🩷

There’s also https://aussie.zone/c/aussiefrugal@lemmy.world but it looks like the mod isn’t around anymore. It’s a shame they couldn’t have been merged.

As for systemic change, I wish.

Thanks for that and apologies for having overlooked Frugal.

Maybe we should now exchange tips on how we can organise systematic change. We sure need it.

https://aussie.zone/c/gardeningaustralia

https://aussie.zone/c/frugal

I’ve been trying to keep these places alive for that purpose. Go nuts guys.

Food Australia is also a good place to swap budget recipes. Sewing, repairing and reducing waste might help get more life out of items if they’re not too poorly made. Edit: https://aussie.zone/c/ausrenovation

There’s room to reduce wildlife deaths by helping to get outdoor or unowned cats fixed to reduce their numbers and homing them inside. (Assuming the ability to volunteer or have pets. I’m currently having trouble trapping one and not in a space to take him on.)

But I agree, even the most dedicated individual efforts aren’t likely to be effective without systematic change.

Still… there’s a backlog of tips in there, a lot of them mine. Take these spaces and do your best to manage anyway.

I appreciate also where you’re coming from but at this point in time isn't it more useful for us all to take some responsibility rather than wait for the Revolution? You reckon those bastards are going to allow the nationalisation of assets and allow themselves to be toppled next year?

I am also aware that many people are going to be struggling financially even more than now when the effects of war really hit us and it may ( ?)be an opportunity to step out of capitalist consumerism and to look after nature and each other. It seems to me you think posts like the above are girly, inconsequential puff pieces. People have to look after kids, feed them, home families, or themselves in hostile housing markets and pay for any number of groceries which are often overpriced and overpoisoned. Exchanging information and bringing sociability is important for community-building.

I am as political as the next leftie but if we take humanity and care out of our interchange then we are just a bunch of head-driven wankers who just put up a list of grievances to say how outraged we are by the system (which I am too) . Let's be a bit humble and not look down upon each other.

I appreciate where you're coming from but can we also nationalise a bunch of stuff and get rid of billionaires?

Signed.

May I suggest that "Renewables at the cost of extinction" is an unfortunate title which may tend to only attract the anti-renewables, pro-fossil fuels mob of whom many don't care about endangered species.

This platform has a lot of people who are pro-renewables and who might be suspicious of organisations that put up such headlines and may result in them being put off from signing the letter to the NSW Govt. It doesn't help that one of Aussie Ark's partners is Glencore.

But, the letter that Aussie Ark asks us to sign is actually much more reasonably drafted and is worth signing so I signed it. It asks that the project not go through the vulnerable and unique habitat that these little frogs inhabit and says that Aussie Ark is not anti-renewables. The Australian Conservation Foundation would agree that our endangered wildlife should not be put at further risk by renewable projects or any other industrial project.