When are you going fully electric?

sandys said:
:D

Every ones opinions are coloured by what there life experiences and often other peoples use cases seem irrational to them, that's fair enough, much like buying an EV to me as a main car when it lacks this flexibility, there's a cost saving and comfort element to 'vans and it opens up options.

We got a van getting fed up spending thousands on vacations in school holidays ( we actually started camping but wanted more comforts), a van is a big out lay but your school holiday breaks end up costing half a grand rather than multiples of grands, depreciation curve of vans is pretty much flat if you've bought a good used one, you can sell it in a decade for much the same.

For example, we let the kids stay in the south of France in the van for summer vacation, 6 wks, £700, bargain, no much local accommodation we could rent for that. you also have everything in these little mobile boxes, entertainment, bikes, boats, toys very handy for kids, sure I can understand many would rather pay an extra grand a week and stay in and airbnb/hotel etc and we still do that too, having a van didn't stop that, it just meant I could take many more holidays a year versus a couple of big ones.

Besides, also tow other things besides van.
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We spent this weekend at a nice campsite in the middle of a forest. Been on plenty of walks and bike rides during the day and chilled out with a BBQ and beer in the evenings.

91 miles home this afternoon, 48kwh used, 528wh/mile - no hang around behind a lorry either, 60mph all the way back.

what’s the cost of diesel/petrol these days? There was many people pootling along at 50 today being overtaken by me and the trucks.
 
Can't avoid the 50 everywhere brigade, they seem to get annoyed when someone in a caravan overtakes them :D

That's not bad efficiency towing some struggle to get that without a towing a home :D
 
would be interesting to drive the caravan at 50 vs 60 just to check that V squared air resistance impact on battery drain - 40% less no ?
 
Dont forget if you are towing a caravan then legally the only road you can go faster than 50mph is a motorway or dual carriageway and then you are limited to 60mph;)

I am convinced most caravan towers are going at 50mph for fuel economy rather than lack of towing power though. Tests with ICE cars have shown a 25% difference in fuel economy between 50mph and 60mph. And yet even over a 100 mile journey you arrive 20 minutes later.
 
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Greebo said:
Dont forget if you are towing a caravan then legally the only road you can go faster than 50mph is a motorway or dual carriageway and then you are limited to 60mph;)
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Indeed, although if you are going any significant amount of milage, you’ll inevitably end up on a dual carriageway for a decent chunk of it in most parts of the country.

Greebo said:
I am convinced most caravan towers are going at 50mph for fuel economy rather than lack of towing power though
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This basically. Although 56mph behind a truck (with a sensible gap) nets you the extra speed without all the associated consumption penalty.

On Friday the same 91 miles (opposite direction) and I averaged around 500wh/mile when sticking to lane one with the trucks.

It’s not really like for like though as there was a lot more traffic so the journey was generally just slower even if I wasn’t going slightly slower.

jpaul said:
would be interesting to drive the caravan at 50 vs 60 just to check that V squared air resistance impact on battery drain - 40% less no ?
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No.
 
In France, if you are over 3.5t train weight you have to do 50, which is so slow, yet 80 if under, 60 is slow IMO, speed limit plus 10% :p , fuel economy is not a concern, you know it's going to be bad or worse :D and it's only a small percentage difference really between one speed towing and another, in ICE at least, probably not too dissimilar for EV.
 
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jpaul said:
with the relative efficiency of ev's versus ice - you need to check your assumption.
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Eh? It’s not an assumption, I own a caravan, an EV and use one to pull the other, I’ll let you guess which was round that is :p

If I could drop my energy consumption by 40% by driving at 50 rather than 60, I’d be not far off the normal range of the car and the conversation about towing would be a nothing burger.


sandys said:
In France, if you are over 3.5t train weight you have to do 50, which is so slow, yet 80 if under, 60 is slow IMO, speed limit plus 10% :p , fuel economy is not a concern, you know it's going to be bad or worse :D and it's only a small percentage difference really between one speed towing and another, in ICE at least, probably not too dissimilar for EV.
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I say in reality, having a max speed of 50 vs a max speed of 60 is the difference between 150-155 miles and 140 miles range on a good run in my car.

In practice, during day time traffic, while the target speed is 60, they’ll be time where you’ll be going slower. The reality is you’ll not be able to overtake that easily without holding up or bullying your way into faster moving lanes and you’ll get stuck behind slower moving traffic fairly regularly.
 
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