OT: How the electric car revolution could backfire

[Capitol]

My Li power tools are nowhere near as good on torque as my Nicd ones.

[Capitol]

Going by laptop batteries, I'd guess 2 years of flat out use. TNP probably has a better idea from his airplane battery experiences.

[Capitol]

The Prius only uses 10% of the battery capacity available, that's why they need an engine to power it! Wildly inefficient.

[damduck-egg]

Possibly, although trams had Trolley poles originally, Hence it became a common name in the states for such a vehicle as sung about by Judy Garland as in Clang Clang Clang went the Trolley. Pantographs were never a great feature of UK trams but became common overseas, where UK systems replaced poles they used a variant called a bow collector as seen on this Glasgow tram.

Both types had the advantages that the tram could be reversed without the need for staff to swing the trolley pole around and they don't in normal circumstances dewire easily and you don't need overhead switches to guide the end of a pole at a route diverge so less to go wrong. Pantographs work in both directions ,the bows were flipped over under a bit of slack wire.

G.Harman

[John Rumm]

Depends on if you can afford to replace the car at the time I guess. The batteries had a warranty for 100K Miles or 10 Years IIRC (more in some places), so they probably ought to be good for more mileage than that in most cases.

[Capitol]

How would you tell it was not knackered?

[Huge]

Sounds like T.J. Bass got it about right;

"Far from the highly advanced past, now an enormous human population (possibly in the trillions) covers every inch of the planet. Technology and science have degraded, and all freely breeding species have been exterminated. The 'Hive' or human population within its computer-supported subterranean culture ruthlessly hunts, kills, and recycles anyone who does not conform."

[dennis]

Well £11.50 a day x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year is a pretty good incentive to use one even if its knackered.

It could have only 10% of its battery left and it wouldn't affect its MPG or performance much, emissions is a different matter.

[michael adams]

There are no charging points.

No they go out of towns and join a motorway. This gives them the freedom to travel for miles and miles at an almost constant speed along with other motorists all going in the same direction all enjoying this new "freedom". Then when they get to the other end unless they're visting freinds or relatives in the country or suburbs where they can park outside their houses they'll agin have to find somewhere to park, and when they've found it, pay for the priviledge. And if they stay too long in the car park , just as if they creep over the speed limit on the motorway over wheuvch they were driving for hours and hours then they'll have to [pay a ?60 or ?90 fine. And in the latter case get three points on their licence. One big advanatge of driving in towns is that the traffic is usually so bad that its impossible to get done for speeding although the bastrads are working on that one.

No Bill, The bollocks is in your thinking that the more cars there are on the road, the more "freedom" everyone has, when its precisely the opposite. Right now there are too many cars on the road and bulding more roads simply encourages even more. What may have been a pleasure in the past has now been reduced to a chore at best. Anyone wanting to travel anywhere over 20 miles at short notice nowadays has no choice but to use the car given the extrortionate cost of rail travel as compared with years ago, More especially if there's more than one of you.

Bit that isn't freedom and it has nothing to do with Greens,

Same with air quality in towns. The people banging on about this are from all parts of the political spectrum. Worried Mums mostly. Because all the roads near schools are riddled with child molesters, the worried Mums take their tots to school in 4 x 4 s. So the tots all get asthma. And then because of the poor air quailty and all the peadophiles the worried mums won't let their kids go out to play - so they sit indoors watching Sky or playing computer s games. So we're raising a generation of lardbuckets with asthma.

As I said this won't apply if someone lives in Heartbeat country or in Midsomer - plenty of murderers but no kiddie fiddlers but applies in most other places.

michael adams

...

[dennis]

Its only impractical if you make it impractical.

[dennis]

You wont /need/ any of that as you can manufacture food in a factory.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The Prius is pretty well the standard London mini-cab these days. Usually not more than perhaps 5 years old. The only reason to use one is low running costs overall. Other than that, there are plenty better vehicles.

[T i m]

Ah. ;-)

Nice pic, thanks.

Good point.

This is where it could be considered that the complication could outweigh the benefits. Unlike a train for example where it's probably more fit-and-forget (more so than a tram possibly)?

Neat. I love the 'tricks of the trade' stuff. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Andy Burns]

An 8 hour day of charging while working would barely make up the juice eaten to get there.

Then there are days when I leave home, visit one site, travel to a friends overnight before visiting another site the following day to then return home, those would stretch the range to the limits.

But filling a tank anywhere en-route only takes a few minutes, a Telsa trying to charge from a friend's 13A socket will only get 6 miles range per hour of charging.

[T i m]

Exactly ... ;-)

So, we have now confirmed your needs are hardly typical of those who just sit there with their shopping, suitcase or golf clubs?

And nor are mine, often with a boat of some sort on the roof, the seats folded down and loads of stuff inside and a trailer of some sort (inc a folding caravan) behind. [1]

In the boot of the car currently is a pressure washer and a 3D scanner but I don't carry either regularly but could carry both in the boot of most cars. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] I have always used all / any of our vehicles as utility vehicles, carrying / moving / towing whatever needs to be moved by whatever means suits best. When was the last time you saw a 3 seater sofa on the roof of a car (unless it was us getting ours ) for example but years ago that sort of thing was fairly common.

[Brian Reay]

Indeed, although body work has improved in recent years.

The Tesla salesman claimed the 'running gear' was, essentially, good for a huge mileage- hints of 1m miles were mentioned. The chassis and body shouldn't rust. The 'weak point' seems to be the batteries, which seem to be so 'buried' in the chassis that they can't be replaced.

If the battery fails, you have an expensive pile of scrap.

[T i m]

Yup, I had two MM vans and Mum had a 4 door MM saloon (Midwifes car ) and they all did ~50 mph and in the case of my 1098 Van, could also do 70 mph (probably not both things at the same time though). ;-)

They were more economical in those days because they were light as they weren't high in performance, weren't overloaded with gadgets (or safety features).

I loved the simplicity, the versatility and reliability of my MM van(s) and it was my main form of transport for many years. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[dennis]

8<

So don't buy second rate li ones then.

Mine take either nicd or li ion and the li ion ones are far better.

No you don't get more torque but the torque doesn't drop off as fast and it lasts longer.

[Max Demian]

People used to drain the rad every morning and refill with hot (or boiling) water. Or have a special flat oil heater to heat the sump overnight.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Then they aren't designed to be.

Both chemistries are capable of rapid discharge in 2-3 minutes with very little voltage drop.

Lithium is lighter, that's all.