Your questions answered: Why does lane assist try to run me off the road?

There’s some gazing into the future with this week’s carsales e-mailbox.

Readers want to know what our motoring landscape might look like as we race towards lower CO2 emissions. One person is wondering if the V12 engine will survive the environmental cull.

We’re also looking at driver assistance systems that don’t always do what they promise, and one driver’s imminent switch to a hybrid car.

Plus, we tackle an email that makes EVs look like they’ll bring society to a standstill. Scary stuff, but not necessarily based on fact…

Question:

Answer: We feel your pain. Even the best lane departure and lane keep assist systems (Ford and Tesla are among them) are in no ways a replacement for the human twirling the steering wheel.

And many can be distracting and at times dangerous in the way they tug at the wheel when you’re not necessarily expecting it.

It’s a stark reminder of how far away full driverless cars are.

Rest assured that the car companies are getting the feedback and working to improve the systems.

We’re hoping they improve at the same rate as traction control systems, which also provided the basis for stability control. Some early traction control systems were terrible, whereas most modern ones tend to be very good, some of them great.

Question: I’m a young person about to buy my first car. No kids and no partner, so I really don’t need a whole lot of room. A little three-door would work perfectly for me! But it seems like I’ll be buying a five-door because I can’t seem to find any three-door hatchbacks. What happened to them all? – Susie S

Answer: What happened to three-door hatches is people stopped buying them. In many instances it was only another $1000 or so to add the back doors and the reality is most people saw it as a good investment.

Creating an additional body style also meant extra design and engineering resources as well as manufacturing complexity and the requirement to carry more spare parts.

All of which adds up to car company bean-counters drawing a big black line through it.

Which leaves you in the land of five-door hatches… My pick would be a Mazda2 or Toyota Yaris Hybrid. Or a Kia Rio if the budget is tighter.

Don’t rule out some of the small SUVs either. A Hyundai Kona, Mazda CX-3 or CX-30 or a Toyota C-HR would be good choices.

Question:

Answer: It’s certainly a challenging time for large-capacity engines. Mercedes-Benz has sounded the beginning of the end for its V8 AMGs, Ferrari is using V6s where previously it would have chosen eight or 12, and even the mighty Toyota LandCruiser has switched to a V6.

The reality is a lot of grunt can be made by smaller-capacity engines using modern tech.

Then there’s the silent assassin in the room: electric motors. An e-motor can produce loads of grunt and in many instances is the modern weapon of choice for car-makers chasing performance.

That said, we can see a world where big-capacity old-school engines survive in very niche applications, typically supercars.

Clearly the world is moving towards zero-emissions vehicles, but synthetic fuels and biofuels – as opposed to fossil fuels dug out of the ground – potentially allow car-makers to continue with internal combustion engines.

They’ll continue being very inefficient – one reason so many manufacturers are choosing electric vehicles – but will obviously have the sound and character that make them so addictive. It’ll all depend which way brands such as Lamborghini and Ferrari jump.

Clearly Porsche, too, is keen for the iconic 911 to continue using six-cylinder engines. That’s why it is investing in e-fuels.

Question:

Answer: The first thing you’ll notice is much lower fuel bills. You’ll also notice that you don’t usually have to work too hard to get close to the claimed fuel use figure of a hybrid, something that’s a lot trickier with a petrol-only car.

Hybrids do their best work around town, where an electric motor can regenerate electricity when braking. That electricity is then used to assist the car when taking off, something that means the petrol engine doesn’t have to work as hard.

Toyota dominates in the hybrid space – in 2022 it accounted for 89 per cent of the hybrids sold in Australia – because it spreads the tech across much of its passenger car range and makes it relatively affordable. Plus it works in lowering fuel use.

As for which one to choose, if you don’t need the space then we’d cross the Kluger off the shortlist. It’s a sizeable seven-seater and all that extra weight means higher fuel usage.

The RAV4 Hybrid is a great option but the wait lists are a tad crazy at the moment.

Have a look at the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid. It’s a great option that’s slightly smaller than the RAV4 but should still suit your needs.

Question:

Answer: The Isuzu and Mazda are identical in all but their design details, such as the grille, lights, bumpers and body panels. Inside, too, there are minor differences, such as the storage binnacle on top of the dash of the D-MAX that is missing on the BT-50.

There are also differences in pricing and some of the equipment, so shop the models you’re looking at to see which offers the best value.

The Mazda also gets a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty whereas the Isuzu gets a six-year warranty covering 150,000km. If you’re travelling less than 25,000km per year then the Isuzu warranty is a better bet.

Servicing costs are almost identical, too – the Mazda is $31 cheaper over the first five years/75,000km.

However, RedBook is forecasting the Isuzu will hold its value slightly better, something that would obviously lower the overall ownership costs.

Question:

Answer: The Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio (each of which shares the same architecture and drivetrains) are each impressive machines. The Quadrifoglio – or QV – sports models are, in particular, terrific cars to drive, in part because of a brilliant V6 engine with some Ferrari thinking within.

But each also has some foibles, which are in some ways typical of the brand. The in-cabin tech – such as the central screen and reversing camera – are miles behind rivals in terms of clarity and ease of operation.

RedBook also isn’t particularly bullish on future resale values, which is obviously less of an issue if you’re buying second-hand or can crunch a mega-deal on a new one.

It’s a shame, because there’s lots to like elsewhere with the Stelvio. It’s sharp through corners and the turbocharged four-cylinder has plenty of zing.

Question: Are you able to comment on the scary email I received today which I have copied below? I’d appreciate your thoughts. – Jo H

Electric Vehicle costs!!! Can this all be correct???
Tesla Model 3 Battery Pack $21,000: That’s The “Cheap” Tesla Model!
NOW READ THE NEXT SENTENCE SLOWLY AND MORE THAN ONCE, SO IT SINKS IN, WELL AND TRULY!
In order to match the 2000 cars that a typical filling station can service in a busy 12 hours, an EV charging station would require 600, 50-watt chargers at an estimated cost of $24 million, plus a supply of 30 megawatts of power from the grid.
That is enough to power 20,000 homes!
No one likely thinks about the fact that it can take 30 minutes to 8 hours to recharge a vehicle between empty or just topping up.
What are you and (or) your passengers doing during that time??? Particularly if it’s snowing, or hotter than hell….
ICSC-Canada board member, New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland describes why installing electric car charging stations in a city is impractical:
“If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes. If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at a minimum 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say it’s just 30 minutes.
So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. · So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six.
Where are you going to find the place to put them?
Used Car Market: The average used EV will need a new battery before an owner can sell it, pricing them well above used internal combustion cars.
The average age of an American car on the road is 12 years. Most dealers are refusing to trade used Teslas.
A 12-year-old EV will be on its third battery.
A Tesla battery typically costs US$10,000 so there will not be many 12-year-old EVs on the road. Oh, and don’t forget the additional US$2500 labour cost to remove old battery and re-fit the new one!
Good luck trying to sell your used ‘green fairy tale’ electric car!
Also bear in mind running costs:
Thinking of recharging at home? Add another $13,000 - $16,000 plus cost of solar panels, and a big storage battery!!
Ah! Recharge Along The Way, Eh? Add another $34-35 every time (currently). Then you can’t guarantee immediate connection on arrival, assuming you make it in time.

Answer: Wow, lots of sweeping statements and shock tactics in that one. We’ve seen some of those claims pop up on social media, all of which fuels the EV fire (whoops, that’ll light ’em up…).

Yes, batteries are expensive. But so are new engines and gearboxes on petrol/diesel cars. To replace either will cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Fortunately, as with internal combustion engines, batteries are designed to last. All come with at least a seven-year warranty, most of them eight years. And all have advanced software, charge monitoring systems and temperature control systems that mean they’ll last way longer than the batteries in your phone or laptop.

Early analysis suggests EV batteries are expected to last well beyond the warranty period. Some overseas analysis of Tesla data suggests they’ll lose up to 10 per cent of the battery’s original capacity – often less – after 160,000km.

So short story is that while you can expect some degradation of the battery it’s unlikely to fail outright – and if it does in the first eight years it shouldn’t cost you a cent. Again, early experiences – and those with hybrid vehicles – suggest batteries can go well over a decade, possibly two decades or more.

As for EVs being dodged by US car dealers, that’s news to me. From what we can tell there are plenty of American dealers more than happy to buy used EVs.

In Australia they absolutely are. Search through our used car listings and you’ll notice plenty of dealers selling used EVs. And I know from first-hand experience that with some models they’ll try hard to get hold of them – often paying competitive prices.

Onto the charging questions… It’s worth remembering that most electric cars will leave every day – including for a road trip – with a full ‘tank’ (fully charged batteries). We’re not aware of any petrol or diesel cars that can perform that same trick without first visiting a petrol station.

So a lot of those service stations you see around the suburbs may not be required at all in 30 or 40 years because people will just charge from home. We’re guessing most people would prefer to charge at home or somewhere they choose to be, such as a shopping centre, beach or movie theatre.

Charging on the road during peak times is a challenge due to the time taken. The fastest charging EVs can currently add about 300km of range in around 15-20 minutes.

Battery technology and charging stations are working to reduce those times – possibly even halve them. We suspect it’ll be a different story by the end of this decade.

As for the supply of electricity, it doesn’t all need to come directly from the grid in real time. Many charging stations already have backup battery supplies that allow multiple car charging without overloading the grid.

So, yes, there are challenges. But technology and planning should solve them, as is already being proven in Australia and overseas.

As for the cost of home charging. You don’t need a solar system – and if you decide to install one then you can potentially not pay anything to charge your EV. That’s why many choose to install a solar system: because it makes financial sense. In other words, you’ll pay off the solar investment in reduced electricity bills.

If you choose to draw only from the grid there are already EV-friendly energy plans that offer discounted rates in off-peak times – the middle of the night, for example – when electricity use is typically low but a lot of EVs will be doing nothing. Utilise one of those and your EV would cost something like $300 a year to cover 15,000km. Even a modest petrol SUV would cost 10 times that.

Origin Energy is also reportedly readying a plan that would allow free charging between 10am and 3pm every day, allowing those with access to charging that time to take advantage of the excess solar currently across the grid.

That’s one key point with EVs: most will be parked for about 23 hours a day so can utilise electricity that is currently effectively being thrown out.

As for charging on the road, electricity can cost upwards of 60c per kilowatt-hour when you’re fast-charging (which is exactly what you’ll want to do on a big trip). For an average EV that will mean something like $30-$50.

So, yes, it’s a heap more than you’ll pay for electricity at home – but still less than half what you’ll pay to top up an ICE vehicle. We’re not sure too many EV owners will be complaining about that.

Short story is there are challenges ahead for EVs, most of which require planning and/or some government guidance.

We wouldn’t be taking much notice of these emails that are clearly designed to shock rather than provide too many facts.

Got a question but don’t know where to find the information you need? Email us at editor@carsales.com.au

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