Elec Car, BBC v Tesla

[hugh]

Then along came BP with a revolutionary product which although the same capacity is different shape.

[djc]

All the filling stations I see seem to have a more or less constant queue of vehicles filling up at all hours.And they tend to be open 24 hours a day. There isn't much margin in selling fuel, so they need the throughput (and even more the convenience store sales) to stay in business. Batteries do not provide anything like the milage of a tankful of petrol or diesel so it seems to me there would have to be a large warehouse of batteries, taking up rather more space than that required for a few underground tanks. Plus a big power supply or lorry loads of batteries being collected/delivered for recharging elsewhere.

[John Williamson]

I didn't say that it would be an easy transition, or even possible. I was floating an idea as to how it could be done if the need arose and the economics made it necessary and possible.

As far as I can see, in practical terms, some form of liquid fuel will be with us for a long time to come except for some specialist uses such as urban deliveries, urban buses and short distance commuting, all of which can cope with permanently fitted batteries and suitable scheduing of vehicle use.

[ARWadsworth]

At least they would get a full charge and not 20 quids worth like some motorists do.

And of course you can top a battery up at home or work, you cannot do that with petrol so not every fill up needs a trip to the station.

[John Williamson]

And if, for the sake of argument, your idea of a functional car cost ten or twenty times the amount to run that my proposed system would, what then? I notice you also say "want" not "need".

I can see, with political will, a time not too far in the future when using your own car to drive anywhere could be made to seem as antisocial as smoking in a public enclosed space seems now.

[John Rumm]

Can't see may voting for that.

[andrew]

I suppose 7Kw would propell a small car on the flat at > 30mph.

I would expect there to be more scope to play with HGVs, ours uses GBP2500 cost of fuel a month. As big trucks and locos can have diesel electric a pantograph over the slow lane looks a way of reducing dependence on fossil liquids.

It's interesting that the CO2 emission of an EV charged from the grid is < the equivalent vehicle on diesel, is this because they run slower, hence less air resitance or is it because the grid is diverse with the 20% non carbon emitting allowed for?

[Andy Champ]

Did someone say PM10 pollution alert?

Andy

[djc]

Are they allowed on a Motorway?

[tony sayer]

Anyone any idea just how far a say 1.6 litre domestic family salon could go on a bottle of Butane heating gas, the ones around say 2 foot tall and a foot in diameter?...

[ARWadsworth]

No, and nor are pedestrians but it did not stop me seeing a naked bloke running across the M1 the other night.

[Dave Liquorice]

Summer or winter?

Winter not very far as the gas wouldn't vapourise in the bottle...

27.7MJ/l for butane, Petrol has 34.8MJ/l, diesel 38.6MJ/l.

You do the maths.... B-)

[andrew]

My V8 landrover does about 70% the mileage on propane per litre compared with petrol.

I guess butane is similar in density so your 19kg bottle probably has around

32 litre

AJH

[Gib Bogle]

Storage and handing of these big heavy batteries would be very expensive.It wouldn't be practicable to store them underground.

[Gib Bogle]

"all the safety and comfort extras that modern technology allows" certainly qualifies "as anything other than a means of transport".

[Huge]

Oh, I can see them *voting* for it.

And then realising what they've done.

[Huge]

What complicated lives some people lead. (Him, not you.)

[Donwill]

We've bred a nation of sheep.

[tony sayer]

What's a 32 litre bottle of Butane gas cost .. anyone?..

Course thats a fossil fuel so defeating the original argument a bit..

[Tim Watts]

We've bred a nation of ill educated people who don't know how to enlighten themselves (despite the enormous ease of researching almost any subject in the internet these days). Said sheeple will change their opinion based on a

2 minute advert irrespective of how the issue will actually affect them.

We're doomed.