More on electric cars.

[Tim Lamb]

On a railway?

[Tim Streater]

He was finding hell a bit too quiet.

[Alan Braggins]

Only if you totally ignore wave forming, which depends on hull shape and (in shallow water) water depth.

in fact it's not "purely" true even then: a box labelled "Form effect on skin friction".)

If your statement was true at cruising speeds, there would be no point to

Air resistance is more complex

At very low speeds where you can ignore wave formation for boats, you can also simply ignore air resistance.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. So would be an addition to the family car(s). And a very expensive one at that. Which is why - although available - they are rare. They simply make no sense financially if you already possess a car - even although it may cost much more for the actual fuel. But in any case if all you're doing is commuting from the edge to centre of a town, PT makes much more sense. You don't have to park that. Or, of course a scooter etc. That is probably the most sensible town individual transport.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Are you sure it's not just a message from the past? All the latest ones sure read like it.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Or the electric bicycle, which is easy to park, nothing to run (barely) and relatively cheap to buy. Only downside is year round weather, but alleviating that isn't too much of a problem for most people. Plenty of people use them for commutes of 15 miles or more.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I think there are electric scooters which might at least keep the feet dry. ;-)

[djc]

In other words, it is fine for a mobility scooter or a second car, but if you can only afford one car then you want a real car that can do all the journeys required.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Playing devils advocate, a transport system consisting of large charging car parks coupled to a decent high speed electric train system - and the electricity is already there at the trains up to a reasonable point, plus home charging and car RENTAL makes some sense.

I can even conceive of GPS piloted electric cars that come to collect you..

Run the things on off peak nuclear electricity...

[charles]

Doesn't that depend on how frequent these longer journeys are. If it's only an annual summer holiday, then you could always hire. If, on the other hand it's needed to visit aged parents every weekend a hundred miles or more away , yes, you'd need two cars.

[Andy Champ]

Contact patch 6 inches square, x 40 psi... OK, make that 6x5 so it's 30 sq inch... that'll support 1200lbs. Per wheel. Should be enough.

Andy

[geoff]

In message , John Rumm writes

Certainly not a car

community ambulance more like

[djc]

Up to a point. I managed well enough for several years in Central London without a car, I can walk, hire a Boris Bike, discover how much a taxi costs these days, hiring a car when necessary. But there's a inhibition to hiring a car just to take a load of junk to the dump, or do some distant window shopping. You can't readily hire a car on a whim, especially on a busy weekend etc. I am still in central London, but I have car car now. I could justify it by saying it's cheaper than hiring a car for the time I spend in Italy each year, that fly-drive would not do for transporting back 15 cases of wine etc. But the fact is, never mind the expense; having a car at hand whenever I want it, for whatever purpose, is worth a thousand pounds a year or thereabouts, even if for the next nine months it does less than 200 miles a month. Just for the convenience and options it keeps open.

[Tony Bryer]

I've lived in Melbourne Docklands for nearly four years without owning a car - most things I need are within walking distance and as PT is radial loads of places are easy to get to. Train + bike works for a good few others. Alongside this I have been a member of a car share scheme so have had access to a nearby car when required - online booking so I can hire a car on a whim. The inhibition is the cost because it's on as-used basis (A$11, £7 per hour, A$65, £45 per day) rather than if you own a car when most of the cost is fixed and the marginal cost is relatively small.

But this has changed as of last week - I decided to buy my own car (a Prius C[ompact]) as I'm now regularly working as a volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity building project which is not accessible by PT. Even assuming two full days a week the cost equation is marginal (I was renting out my car space so parking effectively costs me the lost rent), but I really am enjoying being free of the continual loading and unloading of the car share car.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There is a car hire system in London rather similar to the Boris Bike one, but on a smaller scale. Dunno much about it, though.

[djc]

I have looked into it.

In principle there could be a car parked five minutes walk away, ready at any time. In practice you have to book it online and I suspect like anything else it might not be available just when wanted. At a daily rate a normal car hire company would be cheaper (I'm 200 yards from the nearest). On an hourly rate, over-run your pre-booked time and it will be costly; around here the roads can go from empty to solid in moments - I've known it take half hour to to the end of the road. So, in conclusion it might work for some but for me it appears neither significantly cost saving, nor particularly convenient.

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[Dave Liquorice]

That only makes 25 to 50 miles on battery. The *up to* 310 miles comes from an on board petrol generator.

It's also too close to the ground, bit of snow and it would be stuck trying to be a snow plough. In fact it looks so close to the ground a decent speed bump might give a problem.

[The Other Mike]

I take it the injunction only covers Toyota showrooms...

[Alan Braggins]

Plenty of people have a regular commute less than 25 miles, but need more range often enough that a pure electric car isn't enough. But at around £30000, you could buy a cheaper ordinary car and a lot of petrol.

Yes, it would handle my commute fine, the trips up a forest track in North Wales most holidays not so much.

But there's no inherent reason a hybrid has to be like that.

it's not a plug-in hybrid, and it's not sold in the UK.

[Clive George]

I was using an Auris Hybrid (which is sold in the UK) on snowy Norwegian mountain roads back in February :-)

(though I preferred the diesel Yaris the year before, even though I took off a bit of trim on some deep snow. Easy enough to fix fortunately. The chirruping of the traction control was amusing too.)

(not plug-in either, obviously)