The Electric Revolution

[acbytesla]

I'll say one thing. The Aliexpress app sucks.

 

[SteveAitch]

EV vans, trucks and buses are all mainstream these days (and have been for quite some time really)- in Australia they are already in widespread use (hell, our local courier company just bough a BYD T3 van for doing local deliveries in) and the buses in Sydney are about 50-50 now for EVs (with the first hitting the roads in 2016, over 900 EV buses hitting the road since 2023, and looking to replace almost all the government fleet of 1700 by 2028....

https://www.busnews.com.au/sydney-electric-bus-fleet/

EV trucks are also fairly commonplace sights on the roads (both government )
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And private companies...
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Even electric boats aren't that uncommon, with even large ferries being used in Europe and even constructed here in Australia...
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Tasmanian-built world's largest electric ferry launches

Named after a famous Uruguayan actor, the brand new new ship by Tasmanian shipbuilder Incat is said to be the largest fully electric vessel ever built.

www.abc.net.au

Made in Tasmania lol

Yep, all the parts are available, it's just a matter of persuading people/companies/the government to move over to a different approach to transport (ie moving away from fossil fuels) and doing business (possibly slower but cleaner).

Europe is building canals

Europe’s answer to the Suez Canal breaks ground after 20-year delay

New route will turbo-charge trade between France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

www.euronews.com

Good on 'em.

In the case of the UK, we already have a network of canals from pre-railway days. It would just (hah! 'just' he says...) be a matter of cleaning them up, possibly widening certain branches and maybe even extending the network. And finding a way for leisure boaters and commerce to co-exist peacefully.

I'm moderately surprised at this. Even in the US electric busses and Trains are relatively common for mass transit anyway. Not universal but common.

Oh yes, my five points were really nothing particularly new (apart from the canals one), it's a matter of combining and moving to them, to an all electric (if possible) way of doing things. I think it's the social/business side that is the hard part. The problem is, as usual, people.

Most cargo trains are diesel electric, so converting to all electric shouldn't be hard, just a matter of batteries.

or overhead cable/third rail systems.

 

[Dabop]

Location counts. Being just south of China gets those cargo planes and container ships to destinations much faster.

Halfway around from China we got a lot of cargo turned away from the US for a while and our MercadoLibre version of dropshippers is slow. Temu is a lottery with really bad odds.

My two attempts at using got me a RCA smart TV as described perfectly and two attempts at a Bluetooth keyboard got me a remote control with a keyboard on the back that isn't what I ordered, twice. The keyboard part does connect but the remote doesn't recognize any TV here. Shipping got me hard there. I got a 4G USB wireless somehow.
That could be useful on my TV. But I wanted it for my phone via Bluetooth.

I'm about as 'just south' from China's export hubs as the US is 'just west' of them lol

From Shenzhen to Sydney is 7408km/4603.3 miles straight line

From Shenzhen to Los Angeles is 11,657km/7243 miles straight line
However, you cant go in a 'straight line' if you are talking container ships (planes obviously can lol)
In fact by sea, there is actually very little difference in distance at all...

Sure you 'can' risk the 'shorter' routes- but ships don't...
There's this big thing in the middle they skirt around, may have heard of it??? the Great Barrier Reef....
Plus a whole bunch of narrow channels with heaps of scattered islands in Indonesia etc

So realistically- shipping times for anything except an airpacket of small components is going to be via container ships- and they are practically identical ...
To LA.... (as in Port of Los Angeles in California, not Latin America lol)


Not quite as close as you thought Australia was is it?????

 

[Dabop]

Well I'm going to buy a few things from them and see how it goes. I am in need of few items that fit that description. MC4 connectors, Solar cable fuses, some various other fuses, Distribution box. Maybe battery cables. But I really hate their descriptions on a lot of what I'm looking for. For example, I need some 2/0 AWG cable. And cable sizes and whether it is copper or aluminum seems not to be clear. This is pretty expensive and I would love to save some money, but it has to be copper.

Big hint- stop looking for 'AWG'- nobody except those in the US use it....
(hint- its in the name lol- 'American Wire Gauge'....)

2AWG is around 34mm2 (say 35mm2)

IF the US had gone metric like the rest of the bloody world.... sighs....

Aluminium is rarely used (again thats a US fascination for some reason and its rarely found outside the US), but you DO have to look out for CCA these days (Copper Covered Aluminium) which has been making an appearance in the last few years- nasty stuff and I refuse to use it....
Thankfully its easily spotted thanks to the old 'ciggy lighter trick' (strip a few cm back from one end and heat it up with a cigarette lighter- copper will just sit there,CCA will 'shrivel up' and turn grey)

CCA is bad news- with only about 60% of the the conductivity of pure copper, its 'cheapness' disappears when you have to have massively larger cabling to carry the same current without excessive voltage drop!!!!

 

[acbytesla]

Big hint- stop looking for 'AWG'- nobody except those in the US use it....
(hint- its in the name lol- 'American Wire Gauge'....)

2AWG is around 34mm2 (say 35mm2)

IF the US had gone metric like the rest of the bloody world.... sighs....
View attachment 66208
Aluminium is rarely used (again thats a US fascination for some reason and its rarely found outside the US), but you DO have to look out for CCA these days (Copper Covered Aluminium) which has been making an appearance in the last few years- nasty stuff and I refuse to use it....
Thankfully its easily spotted thanks to the old 'ciggy lighter trick' (strip a few cm back from one end and heat it up with a cigarette lighter- copper will just sit there,CCA will 'shrivel up' and turn grey)

CCA is bad news- with only about 60% of the the conductivity of pure copper, its 'cheapness' disappears when you have to have massively larger cabling to carry the same current without excessive voltage drop!!!!

There are warnings in the comments about several of the battery cables I looked at on Aliexpress that they are actually aluminum. What drives me crazy is that the descriptions on many items seem deliberately vague. That's frustrating. Yes, I know that AWG is not the standards elsewhere. But that is what I know and relate to. But if you want to sell here, you could list the AWG size. By the way, 2/0 cable is not 2 cable. It is much thicker.

 

[Dabop]

There are warnings in the comments about several of the battery cables I looked at on Aliexpress that they are actually aluminum. What drives me crazy is that the descriptions on many items seem deliberately vague. That's frustrating. Yes, I know that AWG is not the standards elsewhere. But that is what I know and relate to. But if you want to sell here, you could list the AWG size. By the way, 2/0 cable is not 2 cable. It is much thicker.

That's why so many companies have no desire to service what is really a pretty small market- one of trumps major bitches no less lol
The US market is about 300 million yes- out of a world population of about 8.2 billion.... (and a market that is rapidly drying up as well, with many US people struggling to do more than just survive week to week)
Throw in the US odd voltages, use of imperial measures (and often non standard imperial at that like the 'US Gallon') and even yes things like AWG, and to many companies, it is really a market they have no great desire to even try entering....

If YOU lot want to buy, try dropping that nonsense and joining 'TROTW'????

Or don't be surprised if your lot can't/won't bother learning what the majority of the world uses, that your choices are both lacking, and more expensive....

 

[acbytesla]

That's why so many companies have no desire to service what is really a pretty small market- one of trumps major bitches no less lol
The US market is about 300 million yes- out of a world population of about 8.2 billion.... (and a market that is rapidly drying up as well, with many US people struggling to do more than just survive week to week)
Throw in the US odd voltages, use of imperial measures (and often non standard imperial at that like the 'US Gallon') and even yes things like AWG, and to many companies, it is really a market they have no great desire to even try entering....

If YOU lot want to buy, try dropping that nonsense and joining 'TROTW'????

Or don't be surprised if your lot can't/won't bother learning what the majority of the world uses, that your choices are both lacking, and more expensive....

North America is not a small market. Australia is a small market. While I agree we should have gone metric in the 1970s. Aliexpress is definitely trying to sell here. So is pretty much every Chinese company. I can work around the metric issue. Just please be precise about what you're selling. And that app and it's descriptions are not.

 

[Dabop]

North America is not a small market. Australia is a small market. While I agree we should have gone metric in the 1970s. Aliexpress is definitely trying to sell here. So is pretty much every Chinese company. I can work around the metric issue. Just please be precise about what you're selling. And that app and it's descriptions are not.

LOL- The US IS a small market compared to the entire world- and shrinking rapidly... (your middle class is disappearing on a daily basis- leaving the top 1% who dont spend, and the bottom 90% who can't spend....)

We know we are a small market- which is why we don't have an 'Australian Wire Gauge' or use 150.33811v lol

The Chinese companies are staying away in droves- go on- show me a BYD, JAC or MG EV in the US????
Hell, show me a ICE car or truck 'not made in the USA' on sale in major numbers there????

Aliexpress is (barely) even trying to tap into the US market, Alibaba not at all...

Even Chinese solar companies are only doing the 'barest minimal possible' in trying to break into the US market...

 

[acbytesla]

LOL- The US IS a small market compared to the entire world- and shrinking rapidly... (your middle class is disappearing on a daily basis- leaving the top 1% who dont spend, and the bottom 90% who can't spend....)

We know we are a small market- which is why we don't have an 'Australian Wire Gauge' or use 150.33811v lol

The Chinese companies are staying away in droves- go on- show me a BYD, JAC or MG EV in the US????
Hell, show me a ICE car or truck 'not made in the USA' on sale in major numbers there????

Aliexpress is (barely) even trying to tap into the US market, Alibaba not at all...

Even Chinese solar companies are only doing the 'barest minimal possible' in trying to break into the US market...

No, they're not. The stupid tarrifs and a few other issues are preventing some foreign companies is the problem. Mostly pure protectionism are keeping EVs out of the US markets. And I don't agree with that. AWG and SWG predate metric cable sizes. It's basically an issue with entrenched systems.

 

[acbytesla]

I now know why I don't use Aliexpress. It's confusing as hell. Vague, even deceptive ads. I should be able to put in battery cables, see a description and specifications and choose easily. Amazon may be more expensive, but the listing's are usually very specific.

 

[EHocking]

I'll say one thing. The Aliexpress app sucks.

And they overwhelm your inbox with spam

 

[Trebuchet]

I agree with this. Companies like FedEx, UPS etc could possibly charge their fleet of trucks every night. Granted they'll have to build the charging infrastructure which I imagine could be expensive. But that could be offset with energy costs.

Late to the party, but I've been seeing quite a lot of electric Amazon delivery vans. Power by Rivian, it says on them. Seems like a good application for electric power. Charge at night and while loading, go deliver all day.

 

[Dabop]

Late to the party, but I've been seeing quite a lot of electric Amazon delivery vans. Power by Rivian, it says on them. Seems like a good application for electric power. Charge at night and while loading, go deliver all day.

Rivian isnt a big player (outside the US) and many are doubtful it will even survive (it sold a grand total of 10000 vehicles in 2025 worldwide- BYD sold more than that just in Australia (55 thousand in Australia) in 2025...

Here there's EV commercial vehicles popping up everywhere....

Vans have quite a few different choices , our local courier company has one T3 in use already (they have been on the market for the last half decade after all), and a second is coming to replace their aging Hiace diesel van, but you can go for one from Peugeot, Renault, LDV, Ford Transit, or a Mercedes....


In the 'small and medium truck' market here, there's JAC, Fuso, FMD/Foton, and with Mercedes, Volvo and Scania all having HR trucks either available or in ADR testing there's no shortage of brands to choose from, either from the EU or China....
JAC, starts at 3 tonners up to 9 tonners... Fuso ECanters (Aussie Post has a fleet of them lol)

Foton has a range from little light duty 3 tonners up into the HR 15 tons and above range...

Scania starts at their 'little' 16 tonner, up to their 64 tonne EV prime mover....

More Aussie Post EVs, the bigger Volvo's.... And LinFox's fleet of Volvo EV semi's....

Volvo is set to start making them here as well.....

 

[Rolfe]

Most Amazon delivery vans in Britain are electric. I have no idea if Rivian is involved, but I would imagine not. There are plenty electric vans available from companies that normally trade in this country.

DPD and BT Openreach vans are also mostly or entirely electric.

 

[acbytesla]

Most Amazon delivery vans in Britain are electric. I have no idea if Rivian is involved, but I would imagine not. There are plenty electric vans available from companies that normally trade in this country.

DPD and BT Openreach vans are also mostly or entirely electric.

Rivian vans are the primary custom-designed electric vans for last-mile delivery, built in partnership with Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer Amazon has invested in.


Mercedes-Benz trucks: For larger-scale, long-haul transport between fulfillment centers, Amazon uses electric trucks like the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600.

 

[Rolfe]

That upper picture certainly resembles the Amazon vans I see around here, if I imagine it painted with the Amazon Prime logo.

 

[ahhell]

I'm moderately surprised by an electric concrete truck.

I am also highly skeptical of a picture from what appears to be a trade show. Could just be a concept vehicle that will never see the road.

 

[acbytesla]

That upper picture certainly resembles the Amazon vans I see around here, if I imagine it painted with the Amazon Prime logo.

They're all over Washington State. In fact one just left my neighbor's driveway.

 

[acbytesla]

I'm moderately surprised by an electric concrete truck.

I am also highly skeptical of a picture from what appears to be a trade show. Could just be a concept vehicle that will never see the road.

Maybe. That looks like a huge stack of batteries behind the cab.

 

[Rolfe]

I think it's a perennial problem. People look at the state of battery/EV technology at a particular moment in time, and believe that that's it. That's the capability, and it won't get any better. There won't be any significant new developments. Then they act all surprised six months later and declare, surely not, I don't think that's actually possible, what you're claiming they can do.