When are you going fully electric?

Soldato
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Those limitations to tank/station size are associated with economics, not the technology. Same with the cost of both stations and fuel in general. The $1.5M, 180kg stations are pilot stations, built in small volume for a small number of cars to use. That's a very different situation to potential future costs and station size if development and rollout continues. Lets not confuse that

Hydrogen, with the current thinking, is integral to the battery. The hydrogen is not meant to turn the wheels directly, but recharge the battery that drives the electric motors. Out of interest do you know the Mirai's acceleration is limited by hydrogen conversion or is it more to do with the power of the motors. Lets not forget that 10s isn't exactly uncommon in ICE vehicles, nor is a similar acceleration uncommon in a BEV. Tesla are not the norm in the acceleration stakes remember, and <6s acceleration is unlikely to be the norm when BEV's become mainstream.

I wasn't intending to infer that those costs would stick, or that single pump stations would remain the norm. But the current costs suggest some incredible economies of scale would be needed to reduce the cost of infrastructure to something reasonable. The Japanese are aiming to reduce costs to 50% by 2030 by installing 900 filling stations.

On performance, the motors in the Mirai are marginally more powerful than those in the 2018 Leaf. The Leaf hits 60 in about 7.5s.
 
Soldato
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#rapidgate has been fixed (at what degridation cost has yet to be seen). But what’s more mind boggling is the Leaf e+ still has an air cooled battery....I just don’t understand what they are thinking. That and still with Chademo...
 
Soldato
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#rapidgate has been fixed (at what degridation cost has yet to be seen). But what’s more mind boggling is the Leaf e+ still has an air cooled battery....I just don’t understand what they are thinking. That and still with Chademo...

I’d disagree with fixed. Improved perhaps, but it still throttles. Most cars have cooling and will continue to run at max charge speed.

Remains to be seen how this impacts the larger battery but I agree it’s a terrible decision. They also have really bad winter consumption as they lack battery heating. I really feel like Nissan have wasted their early head start in the market.
 
Soldato
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Yes, but more cells packaged more closely together means more heat and more concentrated heat that is more difficult to dissipate and no active cooling.
 
Soldato
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You certainly pay your money, I didn't realise the car is £36,795 AFTER £3,500 government grant. That makes the car £40,295 :eek:

Bonkers.

You are starting to get up into Model 3 money at that price.
 
Soldato
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Very nice to see the the new What Car? Car of the Year for 2019 is a fully electric model, the Kia e-Niro.

Obviously due to this new award the short(ish) waiting list is now about to get a lot longer, but maybe that will promote Kia to ship more to the UK to build early market brand awareness with longer range EV's and their badge on the front.
 
Soldato
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when I can drive for 250 miles with the stereo and aircon on and still have fun


We are literally at that stage now with 250+ miles in normal conditions. Driving fast or accelerating hard affects both ICE and EV ranges so steady state in normal conditions is a pretty good comparison.

Bjorn's recent vid in the Kona at -17 DegC in Norway and still managing 205 miles range was pretty good indication how much batteries are advancing. Just need mass production to catch up and a decent infrastructure.
 
Soldato
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RWD and instant torque was possibly not a brilliant idea in the snow but the traction/stability control in my i3 handled it well this morning. The fine control with the throttle was great for creeping up to lights so I didn't completely stop as I could hear other cars around me struggling to gain traction. Regen braking was also a good way to slow the car without undue force up to junctions. No fun in the car park though as the traction control was just too quick to react and no manual handbrake either. Peugeot 106 diesel I had previously wins that hands down!

I tried to order some new rear tyres online in time as my current ones are near the indicator but the first order from got cancelled by my first supplier after they decided they wouldn't be able to get any (This was Camskill which surprised me) and the current order from MyTyres is in transit from Europe somewhere.

Also thought about winter tyres but I've still got a set here from my previous car that only got used once so i3 tyres being odd to start with are just too expensive for the amount of use they'd get in the UK.
 

FTM

FTM

Soldato
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10 Dec 2003
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South Shields
What do you find most fun about the Golf, I mean obviously looks are irrelevant since it's a box on wheels. :p

cant argue lookswise...but at least for MY2019 they have have improved the exhaust note!

I spend a lot of time fishing in the summer which lots of B-road driving in northumberland and NW durham and trips to scotland

drop it it into sport, and you have moortop roads with only bikers and sheep to share with

plus its a manual..nothing quite like punting out a of corner in 2nd (thanks to the excellent differential)
 
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