Elec Car, BBC v Tesla

[tony sayer]

Yes it prolly will.. seeing the power needed to be stored for a typical run...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher saying something like:

It's your imprecise use of language that caused the problem. Really, if you're going to argue technical points, you must be accurate in your terminology.

[ARWadsworth]

I'd hope to get more than 30A from some 4mm:-)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Streater saying something like:

It would if we/you were a nation of diy-ers and that's something we should be promoting. If every household (where possible, excluding the obvious, like blocks of flats) were to erect their own diy solar, it would make a significant difference to energy consumption. Still, with the rising price of energy I expect we will see more and more householders looking seriously at picking up some tools and doing it themselves - it's the only way solar heating of water makes sense. The commercial rip-off artists have served no cause but their own pockets and have succeeded in giving solar heating a bad name in some areas.

[Tim Streater]

How big d'ye think the battery would be and how many would a typical charging station need to stock, so that the stream of vehicles coming in could expect that they'd be able to get one. Given the typical queues for fuel I see at any supermarket fuel station, that is.

[Andy Wade]

100's pushing it though :~) Combined car charging and street de-icing perhaps...?

[Peter Parry]

This was a bit more cunning than a Pius. The diesel ran at the same load all the time (you can make a very efficient engine if you do this) and did nothing but charge the batteries. The only motor was the electric one/s. The theory was that the load on the battery varied during a journey so the diesel, running at the same load setting all the time, was more effective than it would be if it was driving the car directly. Its power needed to be nearer the average required rather than the peak required.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A battery on a pallet truck might be ok for a commercial vehicle, but how are you going to make this look ok on a car? It would likely have to fit in from the underside - so would require either manpower or full automation.

[dennis]

I was thinking of an Ampera, electric motor on each wheel, runs for about 60 miles on battery and has an IC engine and generator to give extended range.

[ARWadsworth]

That was your first mistake. What was your second?

[John Rumm]

Have coil of it doing a few laps inside the car - saves running the heater so much and hence extends the range.

[Steve Firth]

Today's Daily Telegraph features the new Renault electric "car" the Twizy. It's more like a four-wheel motorbike or a large Sinclair C5. Two seats one behind the other, no doors, no heater. Despite all of that it only has a sixty mile range and that can fall to 30 or less if the route includes hills.

It seems to be for mugs since it costs £7000 and there's a £45 a month service charge to use it.

The most useful about it that I can see is that it provides clear evidence of why it's important to build nuclear power stations. The CO2 emissions of the Twizy are 12g/km if used in France, 62g/km in the rest of Europe. A Smart Car which is, a damn sight more useful is 85g/km.

It's interesting though that France's nuclear installation makes the use of an electric car a real emissions saving measure and in the rest of Europe, meh, better use a small diseasel.

[Alan]

So in the real world you take your brand new car with a new set of batteries to the first swap out charging station and you get a set of knackered batteries that have been abused for the past 3 years? Instead of the 100 miles you planed to do on the set of recharged batteries the power fails after 60 miles leaving you in the middle of no-where.

[John Williamson]

Put the battery pack where the engine is now, and slide it in and out through the current location of the radiator. The motor(s) will fit very nicely inside the wheels, or under the floor where the gearbox goes at the moment. Or in the current location of the fuel tank......

Does a car *have* to be a fashion item or could it be just a means of transport?

In the future, the desire for economical personal transport may override the desire to have the latest and greatest fashion item, and why change it every year or two for one that looks "better". Looks or function? Which is more important?

To take one existing example. The G-Whizz caught on to a degree in London in spite of its limitations. The battery pack holds enough energy to do about an hour at 50mph. It will do fifty miles or so in town, will commute locally very nicely, and if you could just swap a battery pack in a few seconds, then a short stop every hour or so on a long trip and very cheap energy may be an acceptable tradeoff against the cost of petrol. Or it may turn out to be the only way that the journey can be made.

[Huge]

I've only ever seen one once.

[Gib Bogle]

What is it that you smell of?

[ARWadsworth]

I like Clarksons review

[John Williamson]

No, in the real world, you take your brand new car to the charging station and *rent* a battery pack, which is owned and maintained by the energy company. (The pack would actually be delivered, fully charged, to the place where you bought the car). It is in their interest to ensure that all the packs are of a suitable standard. When you sell the car, you either keep the pack, using it in your new car, get the deposit of the purchaser, or reclaim the deposit.

Think of the way you rent a Calor Gas bottle. You pay an initial deposit, then every time it's refilled, it's checked over, and sent out to another user. The cost of the checking and maintenance is included in the cost of the gas you buy. You don't buy a new gas bottle when you buy a new caravan, you just move it from the old 'van to the new one..

[Jeff Gaines]

You don't think the government (of any hue) would introduce fuel tax on electricity used for re-charging cars?

[The Natural Philosopher]

it wouldn't.