OT: Electric cars

[Andrew]

It hasn't really applied to computers for at least 5 years which is why ex-corporate 3-YO cast-off PC's are a really good bargain 2nd hand.

[Rod Speed]

Yeah, apart from price and life, that is the main downside with EVs.

And it is hard to see that will change significantly.

Yeah, tho that one is easier to fix, just requires money spent, not new tech.

Still much better with an EV, particularly if you can charge overnight.

Certainly in the UK. Not so dramatically here.

[Andrew]

The figure I have seen is that petrol would have to come down to £1/litre to be cheaper to run than an EV charged at home on 5% vat.

Once EV's pay road tax and contribute towards the massive loss of fuel duty+vat@20% then the equation shifts radically.

[Chris Hogg]

Er... I never mentioned or even alluded to her busty substances. It was you that did that!

[Andrew]

EDF have paid 2x£66+£67 into my account but my last electric bill on 28/Nov was £160.22. I didn't think I was a mate of the government.

[Andrew]

Since she has had chemo for breast? cancer, it could be worse (for her).

[Andrew]

When the eurostar trains first started, they had a nasty tendency to generate so much electrical noise that when they passed some BR lineside signalling relay boxes, it affected the normal operation of those boxes.

[Andrew]

And you would struggle to get more than one phase on a single overhead ?copper conductor. :-)

[Scott]

What I meant to say was that there has been a very considerable advance in battery technology over the past few years and my expectation is that such trend will continue. To suggest it will not is IMO being pessimistic.

[Scott]

All Freudian. He know what you were thinking even if you did not say it :-)

[Joe]

“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. “This is known as ‘bad luck.'”

R A Heinlein

[Scott]

Yes, but as has been pointed out by others, the three phase supply is created on board the train. .

[Tim Streater]

I wouldn't say "considerable" at all. There has been a certain amount of improvement. Others can chip in here and indicate by what factor over what period of time.

Some new battery chemistries are in the offing, but AIUI some of even these have various downsides. If you're expecting battery capacity to say, double every say, 3 years or whatever then I think you're dreaming.

Apparently Moore's law is expected to run out (where traditional transistors are concerned) around 2025.

[Theo]

That's a common problem with introduction of many new types of trains. The signalling uses certain AC frequencies at relatively low power for train detection (detecting a signal across the running rails indicates there's a train in section).

If the train motors happens to produce those frequencies, bad things happen. This is only generally detected when the trains are on test and the signalling must be modified so that it is not susceptible to the output from that type of train.

Theo

[Theo]

25kV between the overhead line and the running rails, 50kV supply via autotransformers. Twitter thread with the gory details (and diagrams): Theo

[Paul]

That's the wrong way of looking at it.

The lesson you should be learning, is of the value of multi-fuel vehicles.

That's why a PHEV makes a bit more sense. At least it has two options, even if the options aren't exactly equal.

Here right now, the price of diesel spiked, and all because of a single refinery going offline for regular maintenance. It's pathetic when there is that much price volatility, from a change in the status of a single refinery (price doubled overnight). And you just know, if you ran out and bought a petrol truck to replace your diesel work truck, the price of petrol would spike the next day.

Paul

[Rod Speed]

That has never happened.

And neither has that.

In fact once decent welfare was invented, there isnt even much abject poverty seen. Really just those who choose to blow what income they do have on grog/cigarettes and expensive illegal drugs or the loonys we used to keep in locked wards with a few who choose not to use the welfare system or who legally can't use it.

[SteveW]

Recycle them to provide the raw materials for new batteries - which means reduced demand for new materials mining from abroad.

[SteveW]

I looked at this the other day. Home charging, even without a special EV tariff, is still roughly 1/3 the cost of petrol.

[SteveW]

I forgot to say, unlike petrol or diesel engines, electric motors can provide full torque at zero rpm - hence no multi-gear gearbox and no clutch.