Electric cars

[XmisterIS]

I just saw a thing on the TV about teh Mitsubishi i-MiEV, so I looked it up on Google.

Apparently it does the equivalent of over 100 miles per gallon (wow!) and has a 0-60 time which is not so bad either. The trouble is though that (a) it costs a small fortune, (b) I've never seen an electric recharging point at a petrol station, and (c) point b is of particular concern because Mitsubishi claim that the i-MiEV manages less than 100 miles on a single charge (which reviewers say is more than a bit of an overstatement). Also, it takes 7 hours to charge, so if you forget to plug it in at night, you aren't going anywhere in the morning!

Point c is the clincher for me - it turns what promised to be an excellently efficient little car into a very very (nay, astonishingly) expensive run-around.

How long I wonder before [a] the technology is there to be able to store more than a relative pipsqueak of charge in a battery (my car will go more than 500 miles on a tank of diesel) and it takes minutes rather than hours to charge the battery?

 

[Breedon]

it will take years look at how long it took the car to evolve, chaging a car up at home if you have a garage or drive is fine but not so fine if it's parked on the street at night

 

[Eddy13]

I have also read that the batteries also only last 5 years.

 

[Mozzy]

it will take years look at how long it took the car to evolve, chaging a car up at home if you have a garage or drive is fine but not so fine if it's parked on the street at night

Agree with street parking but not on your opening words. Things seem to be moving on at a speed I would once have scoffed at. I can't even keep up anymore. Not convinced sparky cars are the way forward, but .... twont be long methinks before a 500 mile run is on the cards. Hydrogen??? Now that seems to be on the back burner; no, something will come and quite quickly. That'll pee the Arab nations off if oil is no longer the dirty diamond it currently is

 

[XmisterIS]

The trouble is there are a lot of very rich, very powerful people at the top of the oil-tree, it's very easy for them to aggressively stamp all over alternative fuel solutions, like they have done for years ...

 

[derrick]

What price batteries, below is a price for g wizz batteries, and these are old tecnolagy. whats the cost if they use lipo, life, or any other new style, i copied this below from the net, i don't own one.

G-Wiz themselves have told me it will cost £500 to replace 1 battery cell! This is extortionate as the labour it £400 and the battery they tell me is only £100. If all 8 need replacing I will have to sell the car as it is too expensive to maintain.

PS i hate leccy cars you can't here them coming.

 

[Canrider]

When I was a kid, I had one of those 'What life'll be like in the future books', which featured electric cars. The way *their* filling stations worked was you were to pull in, and a mechanism would swap out your drained battery pack and swap in a fresh one. And off you go, while presumably the old one is recharged and eventually recirculated.

 

[Arch]

When I was a kid, I had one of those 'What life'll be like in the future books', which featured electric cars. The way *their* filling stations worked was you were to pull in, and a mechanism would swap out your drained battery pack and swap in a fresh one. And off you go, while presumably the old one is recharged and eventually recirculated.

That would of course be the sensible answer. So no hope of it happening here then. The Scandiwegians or Germans might manage it...

I'm seeing electric cars with a panel you unscrew, and a ribbon you pull and 4500 AA's fall out all over the forecourt...

 

[JtB]

The thing that puts me off electric apart from the cost of replacing the batteries is the poor range and long charge times. However, I hear diesel-electric locomotive technology (series hybrid) is starting to look promising for cars.

 

[rualexander]

I like the idea of the Vauxhall Ampera which runs purely on battery power for the first 40 miles or so (enough for most daily duties), but also has a petrol driven generator to produce electricity to power longer journeys.
As the petrol generator runs at a constant optimum rpm, it achieves a high efficiency and the vehicle can get 175mpg.

 

[colly]

Apart from the cost an electric car (or van) that a limited range of even 100 would in fact be ideal for 90% of trips.
Probably more than 90%.
Shopping, school runs, local trips etc etc. Even for most commuting too, unless you are someone who is unfortunate enough to have to drive 40 miles plus to get to work.
Ranges on electric cars are being extended all the time too. The big problem is the occasional trip that's going to leave you stranded.
Hybrid cars are getting ranges of hundreds of miles now so I expect they will be the way forward for the next few years.
I work locally and pretty much all my trips to and from are less 20 miles. Very occasionally 60 miles at the very maximum. If I could afford an electric or hybrid van I would get one like a shot. (If one were available that is)
I seem to recall Bedford produced an electric van something like 20/25 years ago but at the time it cost somewhere in the region of 10 grand where an ordinary van was about 4. Very limited range too but I guess that was with lead acid batteries.
Harrods and some other department stores had their own fleet of electric delivery vans decades ago. (1930s?)

According to this:
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10221432&screenwidth=1600

They had a top speed of 19 mph which would be more than adequate for city traffic.

 

[slowmotion]

Where does the electricity come from that charges these green vehicles? As one wag once commented..." Feeling snug about your Prius is rather like feeling smug that you trained your dog to crap on your neighbour's lawn."

 

[Red Light]

The charging issue for electric vehicle is put in perspective by the factoid that when you put the petrol pump nozzle in the filler on your car and pull the trigger, energy is transferred into your fuel tank at a rate of 15MW compared to 3kW from your electric socket at home.

 

[slowmotion]

Actually, I got that all scrambled, reiver. In a Prius, all the electricity comes from fossil fuel. In a purely electric re-chargeable Postman Pat car ( no offense intended), it comes from the likes of the above power station.

BTW, all that white stuff in your picture actually isn't wicked carbon belching smoke. It is that evil greenhouse gas, water vapour

 

[Night Train]

The issue with range is only an issue if you do a lot of long distance runs.
We are cyclist here. You wouldn't often complain that the range on your bike is insufficient and yet how many of you can and need to cycle 800 miles non stop? Yet people expect their car to do that and then only drive, say, 30 stop start miles a day.
For that infrequent long distance run there is the train or a hire car. For lots of long distance stick with diesel fuel, for the time being.

Charge times are also a non issue for many people as the car can charge while you are at work or are asleep at home. You shouldn't forget to charge any more then you would forget to lock your bike when you leave it.
Having somewhere to charge is another matter as, at home, you really need a garage or a drive way to do it without a wire across the public foot path. There are plenty of public charge points but they are not at garage forecourts for obvious safety reasons. There are 'member maps' of charge points on the BVS website and there is a chap going around installing them free just to try and make charge points more acceptable and 'normal' in domestic and commercial sites. He installs them at about a tenth of the cost of a government or council installed point as he doesn't need to pay for committee meetings to discuss the colour of the block paving or run a public consultation for each one.

I think all cars will be electric drive in the not too distant future. The energy source is still in the air at the moment but whether it is batteries, hydrogen or fossil the transmission of drive will be via an electric motor.

Generation of the electricity is another good point.
Yes, we generate mostly with fossil fuel at the moment but it is a more efficient use of the fossil fuels being burnt in a power station then in the car. Also not all the electricity is fossil fueled but all the petrol and diesel cars are.
When the oil become too expensive to just burn then other means of power will be needed and utilised and those cars that can use electricity will be one step ahead of those that have no oil to burn.

Electric cars are not too quiet, they make more noise then bikes! It isn't the electric car that is too quiet but the other cars that are too noisy.

We are only at the begining of making electric cars commonplace but they have been around for as long as the car has been. There is a large and increasing number of people converting and building electric cars, I am one of them so, yes, I am biased.

I have been forum chatting with this chap.
This is his first electric car conversion, 600hp.


This is his second, 1000hp, exhibited at the Geneva motor show.
http://www.rimac-automobili.com/


I also have a friend who has a Berlingo van with a range of 300+ miles between charges and I have been providing tech support for a 600 hp electric hotrod in America.

Electric is more then the i-MiEV.