How to really wind up the Supercar boys.........

[jjb1970]

PS. Terrific episode of the Grand Tour, one of the best I've seen, a hoot from start to end.

[298]

I plug my details into We Buy Any Car every now and then. A year ago they would offer £5,500 for the Leaf. Now 15k miles later they are offering £9,000

That might be in part due to changes in the Leaf Flex battery lease scheme, but yes- prices are increasing.

[Guest]

That might be in part due to changes in the Leaf Flex battery lease scheme, but yes- prices are increasing.

It's not flex! Nobody wants one of those! The only way to sell them on is to buy out the battery.

[jjb1970]

A few months ago I had a Ford F150 truck as a hire car in Houston, the car hire people offered me the choice of a car or a truck for the same price and I decided it'd be fun to drive around in a truck for a week. Those things are huge, and although some of the interior trim felt a bit plasticky and cheap it was very well equipped with all the toys and a very powerful engine. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Horsetan]

The Tesla would be even better with some form of oleopneumatic suspension....

[great central]

The Tesla would be even better with some form of oleopneumatic suspension....

Wouldn't buffers be a bit on the hard side for car suspension? Maybe that's what the hire car I had last week had in?

[Guest]

The Tesla would be even better with some form of oleopneumatic suspension....

Fancy air suspension across most of the range now...

[Enterprisingwestern]

Fancy air suspension across most of the range now...

 

Not as goiod as a proper Citroen system IMHO.

 

Mike.

[jjb1970]

I think the Tesla 3 may be another game changer. The model S proved that a pure electric car could sell on the basis of performance, dynamics and style, albeit at a price. The 3 promises to bring that Tesla mix to BMW 3 series, Audi A4, Jaguar XE et al territory.

 

The Asian car manufacturers still seem to see hydrogen as the future, it'll be interesting to see how the hydrogen - battery EV battle plays out.

[Torper]

The UK is meant to be phasing out petrol cars by 2040.  But I can' see either happening until the infrastructure is in place to allow speedy refuelling.  I have a friend who has a Leaf.  If she drives to Edinburgh she has to refuel on the way back, and there is indeed a services place on the way where she can do a fast charge in under 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, last time she was there someone was already using it so she had to wait 20 minutes before she got her turn, thus 50 minutes in all.  Of course, people can charge their cars slowly when they get home, but only really if you've got a private drive.  How about the millions who live in terraced houses where they're lucky to get a parking place in their own street, far less outside their house?  And those who live in rural areas, eg highlands and islands - are there really going to be fast charge units provided at frequent intervals for them?  We live in a "I want it and I want it Now" society and I can't see people being prepared to accept these sort of delays just to drive their cars.

 

Autonomous motoring?  Perhaps in cities, but as someone else has already said it's difficult to see how autonomous and human driven vehicles could mix and i can't envisage a situation where one day, at a stroke, we all have to abandon our cars and turn to autonomous vehicles.  As I see it, the only way to get private cars off the roads is to introduce fast, convenient, comfortable and free public transport and I can't see that happening either.

 

There's also, of course, the additional electricity generation that's going to be required to fuel all these electric cars, not to mention the loss to the government of fuel duties (electric may currently be free, but it won't always be).  Because of all the problems,  I too  see the furture very much as hydrogen rather than electric.

 

DT+

[jjb1970]

Certainly on the financial point it is almost inevitable that as the market shifts to EVs the government will claw back lost taxation and revenues from the decline of petrol and diesel.

[great central]

If the amount of trouble people seem to have keeping mobiles and laptops charged is any indication I can forsee a potential business in mobile charging facilities for electric cars.

The number complaining there's nowhere to charge their gadgets on the train almost increases daily. I presume before they got on the train, especially first thing in the morning they've recently left somewhere with a mains plug?

[giz]

If the amount of trouble people seem to have keeping mobiles and laptops charged is any indication I can forsee a potential business in mobile charging facilities for electric cars.

The number complaining there's nowhere to charge their gadgets on the train almost increases daily. I presume before they got on the train, especially first thing in the morning they've recently left somewhere with a mains plug?

Could use one of these:

 

http://www.eptender.com/

[ejstubbs]

As much as I admire the achievements of the new generation of electric power , I just prefer the ICE and all that goes with it .

I suppose I'm just old fashioned !!

 

Is this the kind of "ICE" that you had in mind?

 

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/faking-it-engine-sound-enhancement-explained-tech-dept

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2016/jun/13/a-roar-deal-why-your-cars-engine-noise-might-be-fake

 

(Not saying that the R8 has Soundaktor, but Audi do fit it to other cars in their range.  TTs maybe?)

Edited February 11, 2018 by ejstubbs

[AMJ]

If we look at the analogy of laptops and mobile phones given a period of time the batteries will be far less efficient as they get older. Can you imagine that the main dealer advice would be the same as I give in IT where you need to fully discharge and recharge a couple of times to get the battery life back.

 

With all electric vehicle I think many have missed a simple idea. When parked up the roof should have solar panels to aid the charging. Just take a look at boats in marinas and they often also have a windmill generating more power. It would be easy to design and add a windmill for all cars.

 

On one site someone used to plug in the car from a adjacent office whilst they were working. A rubber cable tidy was placed on the pavement.

 

Autonomous vehicles will be a good idea except if I go out drinking and get one of these home rather than a taxi or bus home I'm surely incharge of the vehicle? If this is the scenario I should be charged for being over the drink drive limit. This will also put out of business many of the taxi and minicabs.

[stovepipe]

A solar array on the car roof would only be suitable for 200W per square meter, and probably at 12V, so not particularly useful for charging batteries used for propulsion. Even the slow home chargers are rated at 3kW on 240V.

[2mmMark]

If you really want to wind up supercar owners...

 

Edited February 11, 2018 by 2mmMark

[Junctionmad]

The UK is meant to be phasing out petrol cars by 2040. But I can' see either happening until the infrastructure is in place to allow speedy refuelling. I have a friend who has a Leaf. If she drives to Edinburgh she has to refuel on the way back, and there is indeed a services place on the way where she can do a fast charge in under 30 minutes. Unfortunately, last time she was there someone was already using it so she had to wait 20 minutes before she got her turn, thus 50 minutes in all. Of course, people can charge their cars slowly when they get home, but only really if you've got a private drive. How about the millions who live in terraced houses where they're lucky to get a parking place in their own street, far less outside their house? And those who live in rural areas, eg highlands and islands - are there really going to be fast charge units provided at frequent intervals for them? We live in a "I want it and I want it Now" society and I can't see people being prepared to accept these sort of delays just to drive their cars.

 

Autonomous motoring? Perhaps in cities, but as someone else has already said it's difficult to see how autonomous and human driven vehicles could mix and i can't envisage a situation where one day, at a stroke, we all have to abandon our cars and turn to autonomous vehicles. As I see it, the only way to get private cars off the roads is to introduce fast, convenient, comfortable and free public transport and I can't see that happening either.

 

There's also, of course, the additional electricity generation that's going to be required to fuel all these electric cars, not to mention the loss to the government of fuel duties (electric may currently be free, but it won't always be). Because of all the problems, I too see the furture very much as hydrogen rather than electric.

 

DT+

Hydrogen is the Betamax of Car propulsion. The decision. Has already been taken , all major Car companies are designing electric , even Toyota has abandoned hydrogen

 

Range in ejecuric cars will ecdeed dirsel within 5 years the need for public charging will dinenish as range increases with many charging st hone or work or other destinations

 

Autonomous driving will remain as essentially a drivers aid for many years. And the law will make the driver always responsible even if not actively driving

 

Electriciity production will have no issue keeping up with EVs as demand rises

 

It will still be 30+ plus years until few IC cars are around

 

But within 10 years 50 percent of new cars will be EV

 

The future has been decided and it’s elecyric

[Guest]

A solar array on the car roof would only be suitable for 200W per square meter, and probably at 12V, so not particularly useful for charging batteries used for propulsion. Even the slow home chargers are rated at 3kW on 240V.

Some Leafs have a solar panel on the roof. It's purely for keeping the 12v battery topped up.

 

A respectable mileage for an EV is 4 miles per kWh so you can do the math on how big a panel you'd need.

[APOLLO]

I hope people realise that vehicle fast charging needs a high amperage charger & cable etc (and the supply to it). Overnight / trickle charging can be done with a smaller cable / amperage - but that won't suit all (or most ?) EV owners.

 

Lots of households have 2 cars. Their existing electricity supply will not sustain two rapid chargers simultaneously. Nor will the local electricity supply down the average street supply such rapid charge loads simultaneously, along with other peak time domestic loads..

 

Anyway we will see. A long way to go and technology advances rapidly. 

 

Brit15

[duncan]

Can anyone who knows about electric cars advise me if you can fit a towbar to them ?   I tow a racing dinghy & if an electric car can't tow it, then it is going to kill off dinghy sailing (for those non sailors - people take their dinghies to a club to race each other for open & championship meetings)

[Guest]

I hope people realise that vehicle fast charging needs a high amperage charger & cable etc (and the supply to it). Overnight / trickle charging can be done with a smaller cable / amperage - but that won't suit all (or most ?) EV owners.

 

Lots of households have 2 cars. Their existing electricity supply will not sustain two rapid chargers simultaneously. Nor will the local electricity supply down the average street supply such rapid charge loads simultaneously, along with other peak time domestic loads..

Overnight is when you'll do 99.9% of charging.

Yes you can have two chargers. If your house has a weedy 60A fuse then they'll have to be 3kW but that's not a big deal.

 

The National grid have a couple of pieces on their site that are more informative than you'll find in the media.

http://fes.nationalgrid.com/insights/

[Guest]

Can anyone who knows about electric cars advise me if you can fit a towbar to them ?   I tow a racing dinghy & if an electric car can't tow it, then it is going to kill off dinghy sailing (for those non sailors - people take their dinghies to a club to race each other for open & championship meetings)

You can, but currently there's an issue with type approval. You can buy a Leaf towbar from the US but as it's not type approved it's not legal. An e-nv200 I believe is approved, as are the Tesla models S & X.

It's not a technical problem but a red-tape problem.

[Torper]

Overnight is when you'll do 99.9% of charging.

 

If you live in a house with no off-street parking, how do you connect the house to the car when the latter is parked 50 yards down the road?

 

DT

[APOLLO]

Overnight is when you'll do 99.9% of charging.

Yes you can have two chargers. If your house has a weedy 60A fuse then they'll have to be 3kW but that's not a big deal.

 

The National grid have a couple of pieces on their site that are more informative than you'll find in the media.

http://fes.nationalgrid.com/insights/

 

Very interesting National Grid article that. Explains the future problems (and probable solutions) very well indeed. 

 

In summary, (NG summary at end of article)

 

If we want long range vehicles that can be charged in minutes, home is not going to be the place to do it. And it certainly won’t be for nearly half of householders who do not have access to off street parking.

 

In a world where almost all cars will be electric:  43% of car owners will not have access to off street parking  too many domestic charging points will cause network stress. 

 

Brit15

Edited February 11, 2018 by APOLLO