Owning an Electric Car - Anyone Else Looking Forward to It?

peterattheboro said:
Wrong section. This is Motors, not Batteries ;)
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You know those batteries power electric motors that turn the wheels? just saying :P


Philz0r said:
I noticed on top gear he didnt mention range/mpg in that car. Mpg being the generator.
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I would guess a lot as, like he said, its a more efficient way to turn the wheels. (with the engine direct driving the dynamo and that powering the wheel motors you won't lose anything in a gearbox, diff, prop, etc).
 
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No, not really.

Most electric / hybrid cars are pretty sad at the minute.

I think it'll be quite some time before electric is at all viable if you live outside a city (are they a realistic ownership prospect even in a city?).

Hybrids... still not sure of the point of a petrol hybrid tbh.

Personally I don't want one. Where's the fun in driving a milk float?

A mate just bought a Prius. It is such a beige cardigan of a car. I made fun of him for buying a girls car. It has an autopark function :(

I want a V8 before the government ban them to save the dolphins.
 
When the battery is depleted in charge sustaining mode its just a heavy Insignia with even more handling of the energy. The Fisker is not efficient doing that. The merit comes from being able to use grid energy. The Volt again is just a GM lump, just 1.4, material costs of building the Gen 1 cars is preventing better engine being developed. The Prius plugin really is the best example soon to be on the market due to the fact the engine is an Atkinson cycle and performs far better as a generator.
 
Fundamentally they are second or third cars to a household which typically turn into the 'main' car. Thats the position in the market they currently occupy.
 
ubersonic said:
I would guess a lot as, like he said, its a more efficient way to turn the wheels. (with the engine direct driving the dynamo and that powering the wheel motors you won't lose anything in a gearbox, diff, prop, etc).
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Instead you lose power in the alternator, wiring, control system and motors. Add in the batteries and you have a considerable weight penalty as well.
 
I did half consider the idea of something like a Renault Twizy for doing the 3 miles getting to and from work, but given the cost of the lease of the batteries of around £40/mo, that would cost nearly as much as the tank of fuel I get through in a month anyway (not bothered about environmental reasons, just wallet reasons!). With needing a second car anyway for those longer journeys it made even less sense, so just gonna cycle when the weather is nicer instead...even more hippymentalist.
 
Simon said:
How? You wont fill the battery in 5mins for a 400mile range for a very long time.

Soon people will realise they are also no greener than a normal car.
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anyone wanting to be green, jsut drive an old banger and keep it on the road no matter how much it costs...

Unless its a myth energy / resources required to make a car are so vast its better to keep what we have on the roads
 
They're good for city driving, but not situations where your on the throttle for ages, i.e. motorways.

In the city you spend half your time not moving in traffic jams, the ICE is ticking over and using fuel, the electric car is using barely anything.

When you brake, some of this can be done using the motor which regenerates energy.
You won't be slowly suffocating due to all of the unnecessary exhaust gasses.

Also you won't be constantly riding the clutch whilst crawling forward in rush hour, wasting fuel. (people thinking they need to floor it just to stop the car from stalling :p )
 
Isn't the rise of fully electric cars just a transferrance of the problem?

Instead of nasty gasses coming out of the exhaust pipe, the extra demand for electric power means more nastiness coming out of power stations, either in the form of other nasty gasses, or nasty irradiated stuff.

Am I missing something? Happy to be proved wrong here.
 
edscdk said:
anyone wanting to be green, jsut drive an old banger and keep it on the road no matter how much it costs...

Unless its a myth energy / resources required to make a car are so vast its better to keep what we have on the roads
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This is quite interesting.

Imagine all the car manufacturers stopped making new vehicles in a major push to be green.

I would imagine that would have a far better effect than creating lots of new cars.

The effect on the economy however would be a lot different.
 
Spunkey said:
Isn't the rise of fully electric cars just a transferrance of the problem?

Instead of nasty gasses coming out of the exhaust pipe, the extra demand for electric power means more nastiness coming out of power stations, either in the form of other nasty gasses, or nasty irradiated stuff.

Am I missing something? Happy to be proved wrong here.
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There is something to be said for using a transport method that can use a wider range of fuels and the impact of local air quality. Also EV cars can be used as electric buffers to power the grid on peak demand meaning less ramp up at power stations which is a slow process so you end up with excess power generation post demand - overnight is similar where the base load cannot be ramped low enough so again there is an excess.

Powerstation emission management is far easier to implement.
 
Spunkey said:
Isn't the rise of fully electric cars just a transferrance of the problem?

Instead of nasty gasses coming out of the exhaust pipe, the extra demand for electric power means more nastiness coming out of power stations, either in the form of other nasty gasses, or nasty irradiated stuff.

Am I missing something? Happy to be proved wrong here.
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Further to what Johnny just said, there's also more ways to create electricty than fossil fuel burning power stations.
 
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