Would you buy an electric car ?

jigger · 26 Feb 2011 at 18:53

Looking at the Nissan leaf prices a £3000-4000 deposit and £350-400 month gets you the car for 3 years. That has to be worth considering for a lot of people.

[TW]Fox · 26 Feb 2011 at 18:57

jigger said:
Looking at the Nissan leaf prices a £3000-4000 deposit and £350-400 month gets you the car for 3 years. That has to be worth considering for a lot of people.

£18400 is a lot of money for a 3 year hire car.

Joshy · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:01

Until 'performance' electric cars become a LOT more cost effective than the Tesla I will not be making the change.

Witor · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:04

Getting the (artificial) sound right is a consideration for me. Otherwise, and for many other reasons, no.

Joshy · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:07

Witor said:
Getting the (artificial) sound right is a consideration for me. Otherwise, and for many other reasons, no.

Trust the man with an Alfa to be worried about getting engine noise right

.

ZG002 · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:16

jigger said:
Looking at the Nissan leaf prices a £3000-4000 deposit and £350-400 month gets you the car for 3 years. That has to be worth considering for a lot of people.

£3000 deposit and £250 a month for 3 years gets you a normal car of the same standard with £100 a month to spend on fuel. You then have the car to sell.

The leaf is imo a joke at the price it is currently.

jigger · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:20

[TW]Fox;18553975 said:
£18400 is a lot of money for a 3 year hire car.

You could get a better deal than 18,400 over three years.

[TW]Fox · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:21

jigger said:
You could get a better deal then 18,400 over three years.

I was just going by the figures you gave us?

jigger · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:46

Not sure what your getting at. I think that's a viable price range.

Witor · 26 Feb 2011 at 19:50

Joshy said:
Trust the man with an Alfa to be worried about getting engine noise right .

Haha

first thing I thought of to be honest. Being more honest I'd need to drive an all electric tho

Cosimo · 26 Feb 2011 at 20:08

I will when they are fast and sporty enough.

GravyMonster · 26 Feb 2011 at 20:20

As a commuter car, yes. But only when they have improved from the current crop (ie. range is > 300 miles and the performace is better than walking pace).

However would I only own electric cars? No.

markweatherill · 26 Feb 2011 at 20:20

I will when they start fitting dynamos like on bicycles so they can recharge themselves as they drive along.

Jonnycoupe · 26 Feb 2011 at 20:27

markweatherill said:
I will when they start fitting dynamos like on bicycles so they can recharge themselves as they drive along.

And start using electric lights rather than parafin lanterns?

Minstadave · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:12

markweatherill said:
I will when they start fitting dynamos like on bicycles so they can recharge themselves as they drive along.

You could put one of those household wind turbines on the top too, you'd end up making more energy than you used! Plus it'd look awesome.

Vonhelmet · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:25

markweatherill said:
I will when they start fitting dynamos like on bicycles so they can recharge themselves as they drive along.

Wut.

PhillyDee · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:44

markweatherill said:
I will when they start fitting dynamos like on bicycles so they can recharge themselves as they drive along.

Hmm, good idea! Electric vehicles that break the laws of physics.
I like that idea.

chad · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:49

Minstadave · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:49

Endothermic dynamo ***

Angilion · 27 Feb 2011 at 05:18

mikeh501 said:
yeah, when the work.

500mile range + decent performance (<9s 0-60) + instant recharge

So never, then.

<9s for 0-60 is easy. Low-end acceleration is a big strength of an electric car if it has a reasonable motor. <2s for 0-60 is definitely possible because there's a road-legal electric car that does it already.

500 mile range might be possible at some point in the future. There are some promising research projects that might result in batteries with a far higher charge to mass and charge to volume ratio than any that exist today. Even just 3 times as much as Li-ion would allow a 500 mile range. Maybe within the next 5 years.

But instant recharge? No. You canna break the laws of physics. If you want 500 miles then even with good regenerative breaking you're going to need at least 125KWh of charge. If you want to recharge that in 1s, which is pretty much instant, you're going to need to throw about 475MW into the car. That is not going to happen even if you do happen to have a fair-sized power station handy to supply the power because (a) you're not going to be able to plug anything into a car that will carry 475MW and (b) you're not going to have a battery that will accept 475MW for charging. Not now, not soon, not any time in the foreseeable future with any technology that can be imagined today, let alone made.

I think swappable battery packs are a more promising route for long range wholly electric cars. That might be possible if batteries improve at least fivefold over Li-ion. With that, you could have a battery pack with enough charge for 200 miles that had a mass under 100Kg and was the size of a couple of briefcases. That would be swappable in a reasonable amount of time at a station with appropriate equipment. Drive in, swap, pay, drive out. It cuts the recharge time out of the driver's perspective, since recharging happens in the station instead of in the car. If you can do that in enough places, you don't need 500 mile range anyway.