When are you going fully electric?
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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It's not an unreasonable name. But the grumbles come because of Toyota's marketing, for example:
https://www.toyota.co.uk/hybrid/?&u...WY_7bgLpPL0VdNlTZGBoCyawQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.lexus.co.uk/hybrid/why-hybrid/#efficientperformance
The implication is clear; the self charging hybrid is the superior electric car technology because you don't have to plug the car in. But in truth it's basically just a petrol car with marginally improved economy, and marginally lower emissions. And the "self charging" trick isn't really unique; many PHEVs do the exact same thing if you don't plug them in.
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I think maybe EV conversions will become quite popular once it's figured out. Otherwise you buy a new ferrari that's EV for £500k when it's not really that different from the outgoing petrol motor. I can see people thinking of saving their treasured car by doing a conversion. Admittedly you do lose that soundtrack from these engines
The problem here is that newer cars are heavily integrated. Carrying out a major conversion like this would be extremely difficult and expensive
It is the older vehicles that would be more suitable for EV conversion such as, say, my old VW (Plenty of space not only for the electric drive but also batteries) since it would be far more of a simple bolt in job.
Soldato
EV conversions are difficult if you want to keep modern amenities. Air conditioning? Designed to be driven from an engine. Vacuum assisted brake servos? Pumped from the engine. Power steering? If it’s older and hydraulic it’s likely belt driven. ECU expecting to receive engine signals? Who knows what fault lights will throw up and this could also impact airbag and seatbelt pre tensioner deployment etc. All of these systems will now need separate motors or a significant redesign. By the time you’re finished you might as well buy an EV from the start! Battery packaging is also compromised so you won’t get much range, and for a daly driver you need to consider battery cooling systems and higher power chargers which is another layer of complication.
Not to mention the safety aspect of some of the conversions I’ve seen - where some of the HV cabling runs and battery packs sit is cringeworthy and certainly not something I would want to be sitting in in a shunt.
If all you want is a basic motor to make the car go forwards and backwards that’s easy, but the rest and adding things like rapid charging gets increasingly difficult. Classic cars are a good target at the moment as they have very few other ancillaries to run, I doubt we’ll ever get to the point where people are converting your average Ford Focus or Golf etc.
Not to mention the safety aspect of some of the conversions I’ve seen - where some of the HV cabling runs and battery packs sit is cringeworthy and certainly not something I would want to be sitting in in a shunt.
If all you want is a basic motor to make the car go forwards and backwards that’s easy, but the rest and adding things like rapid charging gets increasingly difficult. Classic cars are a good target at the moment as they have very few other ancillaries to run, I doubt we’ll ever get to the point where people are converting your average Ford Focus or Golf etc.
My plan (If I ever get round to it) was essentially to strip the guts out of an old milk float and use that to convert the VW. For the usage I would want to make of it, 30 mile range with a 30MPH top speed would be just fine. (Short distance urban shopping trolley really)
Trying to convert a more modern vehicle would be an utterly different (And significantly less practical) prospect
Trying to convert a more modern vehicle would be an utterly different (And significantly less practical) prospect
Yeah it is a shame as otherwise I'd quite like to have converted my pickup in the long run if it wasn't too expensive and too complicated. (Not with the intention of using it like a pickup at that point i.e. sacrifice the cargo bay for battery, etc.).
Your entirely right and on those points and on that note I think I'll continue to use petrol rather than considering converting.
Soldato
You'd be much better getting a purpose built EV conversion.
Soldato
You're not stuck doing 30mph in a milk float. 
You're not stuck doing 30mph in a milk float.
A, A fully laden milk float is very heavy, a milk float based conversion would be a lot lighter so different gearing could be applied to allow a higher top speed.
B, As I said, this would only be used in urban areas where a top speed of 30 is all that is required anyway.
Soldato
Have a look on youtube at some of the classic conversions, Hubnut has done a few vids on cars he's been lent. He had a Fiat 500 conversion on which was very interesting, they're still silly money for normal people at this stage but they'll come down over time i'd think.
Also saw a nice conversion of a classic series land rover by a guy in Australia.
It'll be the future of most classic car's i'd have thought, my dad has a lovely Landrover series IIa lightweight which would be amazing to convert in the future.
Also saw a nice conversion of a classic series land rover by a guy in Australia.
It'll be the future of most classic car's i'd have thought, my dad has a lovely Landrover series IIa lightweight which would be amazing to convert in the future.
Caporegime
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What if your local city / town introduces laws banning them? Where you get a daily fine for driving into said town/city?
I know from next year I won't be able to drive my petrol car into Glasgow any more.
Why won't your wife drive an auto? Does she still think that they drive like they did in the early '70s?
Soldato
You realise EV's aren't autos?
Soldato
I'll probably end up having an EV conversion done on my Civic by Protean
https://www.proteanelectric.com/
Either that or buy a Zero FSX bike and keep running the dirty derv !
https://www.proteanelectric.com/
Either that or buy a Zero FSX bike and keep running the dirty derv !
Very similar from the user's perspective though. Can't say I understand the attachment to manual though, though I was a little hung up on it a years back but mostly because autos were largely ****. These days there is no way I'd give up having a big engine auto for my general driving it is so much more stress free.
Bit of a blow for hydrogen (literally 
) in Norway. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
https://electrek.co/2019/06/11/hydrogen-station-explodes-toyota-halts-sales-fuel-cell-cars/
No real details of what happened but the whole network has been shut down as a precaution and people with fuel cell cars are getting a loaner from Toyota as no one can refuel.
Surprised the shut down hasn’t spread elsewhere, there can’t be many filling station designs given how few there are.
) in Norway. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.https://electrek.co/2019/06/11/hydrogen-station-explodes-toyota-halts-sales-fuel-cell-cars/
No real details of what happened but the whole network has been shut down as a precaution and people with fuel cell cars are getting a loaner from Toyota as no one can refuel.
Surprised the shut down hasn’t spread elsewhere, there can’t be many filling station designs given how few there are.
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