"Electric car range anxiety to be cured by battery that charges in five minutes"

It might not be down to what 'you want' at some point in the future though?

Just because we can do something now, doesn't mean we should or will still be able to in the future.

When I first started working at BT my journey to work was (say) 3 miles. Then it became 4 and finally 5 miles and we neither moved house or were working elsewhere.

No, what happened is they blocked off 'rat runs' and re-designed parts of my commute route meaning I had to travel further and further to do the same trip. No matter how much I would have 'wanted' it to stay the same, it wasn't going to.

Cheers, T i m

Same here ... and you had to 'eek it out' or queue for hours.

I have had a plug in EV for over 30 years and so I'm very used to working out where I could get to and know if I could get a charge when I was there or not (and so how long I would have to stay there for) and was never caught out (ok, it got close a couple of times).

In the same way I've rarely run out of petrol in my life (even when touring in Scotland and the wife did on her motorbike, we siphoned enough from mine to get us to a petrol station).

Even when racing the electric motorbike I designed and built, I always finished the race (duration) because that was part of good racing technique and energy management.

If it was likely that I wouldn't have enough money to buy petrol to get to work, I didn't squander it going for a drive for fun.

But we probably already do stuff to 'fill in time', reading / working on a train, washing up whilst the dinner is cooking so we should be able (might have to) to engineer working [1] or shopping, dining, sleeping whilst the car is charging.

Cheers, T i m

Can you point to any reliable source that predicts a /runaway/ greenhouse effect (as distinct from a tipping point effect)? (FTAOD I mean before the sun moves to its red giant phase.)

Or a tipping point effect that would make life difficult (as distinct from rather scarcer when it comes to large mammals among others)?

Perhaps they are just using the loss of ability to travel as an example of the way the scale and cost of the changes required to deliver "net zero" with current technology continue to be kept from the vast majority of the public.

I've still got some petrol coupons from which ever crisis came next.

Windmills on the top deck, obviously.

They're probably worth some money. Didn't they use a weird calculation of HP to determine your ration?

2) We are in an interglacial and can expect to return to a period of severe glaciation.

Do you do journeys of 300+ miles without any breaks?

If you don't, an EV is likely to be able to handle it (although perhaps there are other reasons why it might not suit). I think the people who do major road trips without stopping for refreshment or toilets might be in the minority.

Theo

Le 19/05/2021 à 10:53, NY a écrit :

It's not a "little inconvenience" when you are literally unable to get to a family funeral in time without a petrol or diesel car!

Not much help anyway when you find an answerphone message at 5pm saying that your wife's uncle has died and his funeral is on the far side of Ireland, at 11am either. Too late to get a flight organised, get the kids to my parents and and get through airport security that night. The earliest flight in the morning arriving at Belfast or Dublin too late to pick up a hire car and get to the funeral. Too late to organise and pick up a hire car in the UK, book the ferry with the right registration details and get going. The only choice to drive and use the ferry in our own car - with no time to charge before leaving, no time to charge en-route and no time to charge (unless the hotel hosting the meal had chargers) before heading home again.

And we have had multiple occasions of short notice funerals due a large extended family (M-I-L one of 8 siblings, F-I-L one of 13).

But would leave you unable to tow a trailer or caravan on long holiday trips and with lots of problems parking anywhere if needed.

I'd like to know that if I was running low on power on any journey, I could switch to an included petrol engine if my plans changed.

Alternatively, I would love to have standardised battery packs that could be exchanged at a "petrol" station, reducing stops to minutes.

And of course the risks of a fault starting a very difficult to control battery fire in a confined space.

The same way we coped before the motor car, with careful planning.

I do envisage that sort of system. There was a proposal for Tesla along these lines.

Full charge in 90 seconds:

Much later than that. Early 70s. Can remember queuing for petrol and being restricted to a few gallons.

Oh c'mon, Steve. How many funerals are arrange with no notice?

How can you plan for a sudden death and the funeral being the next day, on the far side of Ireland?

In Ireland if someone dies in the night, people are typically notified the next day and the funeral is the day after. We found out when we got home from work and found the message shortly after 5pm - we had to get from Manchester to Sligo for the funeral at 11am. Too late to drop the kids off and get a flight that night, first flight in the morning arriving too late for us to get a hire car and cross Ireland. The only option to drive and use the ferry. With time to drop the kids, get suitable clothes together, book ferries, etc., we arrived at the church with 15 minutes to spare.

Typical for Ireland. Someone dies in the evening or during the night, people are notified the next day and the funeral takes place the following day. With being out at work, you may not (as happened for us) find out until the evening - funeral was on the West coast of Ireland the following morning.

With a large extended family of my in-laws (13 siblings on one side and