Should Drivers Be Retested?
For most of us, it is a rite of passage as far as becoming an adult – learning how to drive.
Some of us learned how to drive in cars that are, quite frankly, a whole other entity compared with the latest and greatest vehicles on the market today.
New Cars Aren’t Always Super-Expensive!
If you are looking to buy a new car, and your budget allowed a price ceiling of $40k ($40,000), then there is a plethora of opportunity for you out there at the car lot. It has been interesting to observe the changing winds in the car industry. The onset of a wide variety of more affordable new electric vehicles (EVs) becoming available to buyers has meant that the opportunity to own a new EV is becoming much more attainable. There are still some EV issues that need to be seen to before living with an EV becomes a seamlessly easy way of life; however, for some people, the switch to owning an EV has been a good move. If you can charge your vehicle at home, and most (if not all) of your travel is short distances in a city/town environment, then you’re well on the way to being a happy EV convert. Or maybe you are reading this and are feeling smug that you are already a happy convert.
Definitely, there are also many more new hybrid vehicles (vehicles that use battery power to enhance the fuel economy of the internal combustion engine (ICE)) that you can buy. In my humble opinion, these are the best new vehicles to buy, particularly if you want good fuel economy and low emissions but spend time travelling between townships and cities. They offer the best of both worlds. Let’s face it: Australia’s EV infrastructure is improving but still has a long way to go before it is anywhere near perfect.
The Art of Braking
It goes without saying that there are a number of different braking technologies incorporated in the latest range of cars on the market. They might fly under the radar, if anything, but all those acronyms are more than just an abbreviation, they are a life-saving invention designed to look after you and your family’s safety.
So, what are the different types of braking technology?
ICE Batteries And EV Batteries
Anybody who’s left the lights on in their car overnight or helped a mate push-start a sulky ICE vehicle knows only too well that all cars have batteries, not just EVs. So you might be wondering about what the big deal about battery life and battery fires and battery range is all about. To understand this, it’s time to go back to basics and to look at what a battery is and how it works.
Your bog-standard battery in an ICE vehicle is a lead–acid battery – the lead is why it’s so heavy, and the acid is why the batteries are “interesting” to dispose of, as the acid in question is often H2SO4 or sulphuric acid. Car batteries were a very welcome replacement to the old-fashioned method of getting the motor started with a crank handle. These lead–acid batteries are rechargeable, as the petrol or diesel motor handily charges them back up. This is why you can drive for hours and hours with the headlights on at night without the battery going flat, but if you leave lights on overnight, it will go flat.
Level 2, 9 Help Street