Elec Car, BBC v Tesla

Apr 22, 2011 253 Replies

In message , tony sayer writes

Use propane or propane/butane mix as they do in Holland. In the Autogas conversion business the rule of thumb was that the car would do about 10% less in gas than on petrol, and a KG of propane is about 2 litres. Usual practice was a cylindrical tank (say 80 litres) in the boot or a doughnut , say 50litres in place of the spare wheel. The big advantage of using propane was not lower CO2 emission but cleaner exhaust, minimal CO, minimal unburned hydrocarbons, no SO2 and no nitrous oxides. Having encouraged conversion with lower fuel duty the government then screwed it up by starting to phase out the differential.

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

I think the OHC was horrendously unreliable anyway and needed replacing.

Possibly more because he concentrated almost exclusively on the aerodynamics.

which in light of the way tyres are behaving, may have been not the optimal strategy.

An inevitability once LPG showed any sign of popularity.

The same will happen to electric cars. The grasping bastards have to steal the money from somewhere - Ghod forbid they should stop pissing it away instead.

Which government where and ever could put up with reducing revenue? It won't be long before this one works out how to get the same sort of income from electric vehicles as it does from IC ones. Probably a special VED for them.

well not necessarily...since reducing oil imports will improve the balance of payments and reduce the need for taxation.

The 'barbarians' managed it when they seceded from the Roman Empire :-)

Somehow less legions breathing down your neck and demanding taxes seemed a fair price to pay for the loss of a bunch of civilised roads, bath houses and aqueducts that no one actually seemed to find that useful..for the next 1000 years.

Nah. They will just make electricity more expensive, that's all.

Tee-hee. You don't actually believe that, do you?

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:

My Scimitar does, but does a damn sight less than 50mpg.

Otoh, my SOJC has the main tank of 60L, and an aux tank of 72L, totalling 29 Imp gals, which gives a range of 1453 miles @ 50mpg.

If we don't import fossil fuels, that's a whole good bunch of excuses for pissing about with unstable random countries gone for a start.

This predated (my ownership of) GPS to be fair...

I believe that it would reduce the *need* for taxation, yes....:-)

Oh, I agree. It was the "reduce the need for taxation" bit I was skeptical about.

Well, we'll waste a few billion less without the nobbing wars thus reduce the need for taxation.

Oh wait - this is Britain, they'll find something else to waste it on

...in the UK. In Holland it is a butane/propane mix, more butane in summer, less in winter. Autogas in the UK is typically commercial grade propane However there is no definition or specification for "autogas" so they can sell you any old crap - and some times they do!!

And think of the other advantages that we could get from F1

A new set of tyres every time you stop for fuel. A new engine at the same time as your MOT Only single carriageway roads needed as you couldn't overtake. :)

In message , Alan writes

And no going from A to B - only A to A

My wife has recently bought a 1l Matiz, which is pretty good to drive, even with both of us plus three kids in. However it's not good for the motorway, as our nearest sliproad has a pedestrian crossing at the bottom, followed by entry control traffic lights and the whole thing is on a steep, uphill slope. Getting any reasonable speed by the end of the sliproad is difficult and accellerating to line up with a gap in a line of wagons that are all on the limiter is impossible! Low power is absolutely fine around town, which is all she needs, but I'd hate to use her car to get to work that way every day.

SteveW

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