Elec Car, BBC v Tesla

[tim....]

I don't think that design would have a hope of passing current crash safety standards

tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I doubt you'd want the battery pack at the front, safety wise. Most seem to be where the petrol tank is - underneath the rear seats or near enough. Again for safety in event of a collision.

If fashion didn't matter we'd all be driving small lightweight diesels - a better solution until battery technology improves.

To a degree is right. Most seem to prefer to cycle.

[Alan]

In message , John Williamson wrote

In the Calor Gas example it is the equivalent of replacing the battery with a new one every time. The gas bottle and valve will be inspected for damage and the gas is completely replaced. The safety inspection is only equivalent to looking at the tray the batteries fit into.

A brand new battery will perform better than one that is, say, 3 years old. The kind of organisation you are hoping for will be run by accountants who will carry on using the old batteries as long as they can.

If you own your own battery you may treat it favourably to increase its life or to maintain performance. Renting it will mean it will get abused in much the same way as hire cars with only delivery mileage on the clock get thrashed. This isn't something that the drivers would do normally if they had just purchased the same car for themselves.

[Roger Chapman]

Horses for courses.

I don't do much driving these days - less than 4000 miles pa since I retired - but at least 75% of my annual mileage consists of daily mileages in excess of 250 miles.

[Gary]

I would think the best way to go is hybrid with independent charging avalible.

There are inductive charging systems in use for bus's in some country's . They top up charge whilst at bus stops.

That could be a good system for cars if adopted. they could be put in the road at traffic jams and they could top up as you fume.

How about permanent magnet inductors on hills so you could convert the hill into a charge.

If all electric cars had small generators on board then you could always get home/ out of harms way . a bit like the small pop-pop outboard most power boats have stowed away, just in case.

Gary

[John Williamson]

The battery will be connected to a charger, which can carry out automatic condition checks. The electrical charge will be replace. There's a direct comparison with the Calor gas bottle, as if you take a part empty bottle in, I doubt they vent the gas that's in it to atmosphere. They recover it, and sell it to the next person to buy a bottle of gas.

It's not that hard to ensure that batteries must have a minimum energy content when supplied, and as easy to put a recording energy meter into the pack so that the user is only charged for the energy used.

Which is irrelevant. You go into a charging station,and get a pack containing a guaranteed number of Joules of energy. You take it back, and get charged for what you've used. If the pack doesn't contain the energy stated, then it wouldn't be too difficult to set up the system so that the energy supplier is required to correct the problem.

Unless you're totally wedded to the idea that the only possible way to move around is exactly the way it's done at the moment.

[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:

sez you.

[John Rumm]

The answers to those are a fairly resounding Yes, and No. This is the general populous we are talking about.

Depends on the customer. How many Vauxhall Frontera's did they sell?

[John Rumm]

Its fairly certain they might like to... tad harder to add markers to the juice to make detection of zero rated "fuel" for road vehicles detectable though...

(Probably could do something with a secure crypto authentication with the gov approved charging station though)

[John Rumm]

The solution would be to guarantee a certain minimum capacity before batteries are recelled, and at fill up time you only pay for the amount of charge that it held. Its possible to monitor the capacity of the battery as it charges.

[Tim Streater]

Or even populace. But I still want to know how many such batteries a typical supermarket station would need to stock so the queues are only similar to today. I could see it being "many", with an ensuing space and inventory management problem.

[tony sayer]

In article , Alan scribeth thus

You could get around that one by some sort of lease arrangement where you just get a battery which in effect you don't own its owned by the energy company..

Course when you sell the car it comes with he same agreement ..sort of..

But lets hope that we develop a prime power system that doesn't need batteries or a system for picking up power from the road so the battery is only a stop gap until your back on the road-grid again....

[tony sayer]

Need the local 3 phase distribution system \upping/ a bit at the sub station...

[The Natural Philosopher]

battery goes under the floor. Its the only practical place to put it. That gives you front and rear crumple zones for luggage. Or the actual motors and suspension and steering etc.

The easy way to fit it is sideways.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its called a diesel engine..

That is far more likely.

slow lane of motorways reserved for commercial 'trolley lorries' etc.

[Derek G.]

I saw one once limping / stalled up the ramp up onto the M621 west in Leeds.

It was making a sick "Twurdle twurdle twurdle" noise.

Derek G

[Huge]

Thank god it didn't make it onto the motorway.

[Nightjar]

That would require a agreement by the manufacturers to accept a common design that would remain exactly the same size and shape and have exactly the same fittings for many decades to come, despite any advances in technology. Do you really think that is ever likely to happen?

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

On 24/04/2011 10:48, John Williamson wrote: ...

I don't recall ever buying a car as anything other than a means of transport. I'm with Isambard Kingdom Brunel who, when asked about the livery to be used on the Great Western Railway carriages replied along the lines that the outside could be tarred for all he cared, provided the inside was comfortable.

I go for function, but I won't guarantee that my idea of functionality matches yours. I want a vehicle that I can drive at motorway speeds for a whole day without needing to refuel and with all the safety and comfort extras that modern technology allows. To me, that is a functional car.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Watts]

The gas bottle suppliers managed it. Small range of common sizes and regular fittings.

I'm sure there was an evolutionary process there, but with cars, they'd have to get a common aggreemnet in place otherwise there wouldn't be a hope in hell of kickstarting a national support infratructure without which

*anyones* efforts to make such a car would be dead in the water.

More likely, it would be an agreement between a few big boys (take your pick from Ford, GM, VAG, random Japanese etc) and everyone else would fall in out of necessity.

The principle successfully works in many technological areas where lots of different kit needs to interoperate for the whole system to work.

Cheers,

Tim