Electric cars

[harin 0]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11990800

 

Reading the above and thinking these types of articles are getting more frequent. How long before we start seeing these things on the road. Soon people like us who appreciate the ole engine are going to have to pay a lot of money to keep our cars. Tax is going to increase sharply to push people into buying these things.

 

Made me a bit sad on a Friday afternoon :camp:

[domwells27 0]

I don't believe fully electric vehicles will ever take off. The problem is, where does the electricity come from? Without a significant investment in renewable energy, the environmental impact is just displaced from the car itself, further up the line to the electricity station. The environmental impact of battery manufacture used in these cars is also significant. The infrastructure to support a nation of EVs would also be massive. Added to that, the range of these cars isn't great enough for them to be worthwhile.

 

Hydrogen fuel cells have more of a chance. Still a big investment in infrastructure needed, but these vehicles emit zero emissions and will at least have better range.

[harin 0]

I'm not sure, a couple of the car makers are going to be masss productions these cars and they would put that much money into it unless they though it would take off (esp people like Nissan).

 

Have you seen the Nissan Leaf? Thats the one they are going to be mass producing and it goes 90 mph and lasts 100miles.

 

The charging stations are already popping up, found this online http://www.pod-point.com/ from the people who are putting the charging points up.

 

Edit: this is a better link: http://www.pod-point.com/PDFs/UK%20infr ... 0boost.pdf

[harin 0]

and yes i have too much time on my hands...

[Jim 2]

I'm all for them. I don't understand the resistance. As plenty more intelligent people have said, as long as there is a solution which enables us to keep petrol powered cars in existence longer (by using less of it!) then that's fine.

 

I drive a short trip to work, don't do many miles, and am vaguely eco-conscious. I'd have one in a heartbeat if it was affordable :)

[WigsVR6 0]

^^ Totally agree with Jim. I do only 90 miles a week in my VR so if these electric vehicles take off and become more affordable then I'd have one. However this aint going to happen for a long time so it looks like i'm stuck using the VR. Aint that a bummer :lol:

[harin 0]

^^ Totally agree with Jim. I do only 90 miles a week in my VR so if these electric vehicles take off and become more affordable then I'd have one. However this aint going to happen for a long time so it looks like i'm stuck using the VR. Aint that a bummer :lol:

 

I don't mind the idea and am also a little eco-concious. I just feel some impending doom that as soon as this takes hold our gvmt will try to force everyone else to follow suit by taxing us into it.

 

Anyway glad its beer time now :)

[rado2 0]

This interests me i drive a few miles to work and back twice a day as i do split shifts so a electric car would work for me must be better than the bucket fiesta i drive to work . I think for the people that are not petrol heads electric is the way forward saving the petrol that is left for corrado drivers :lol: . As long as we are allowed the freedom of choice to drive what we want then its all good and we will be on the road for longer in our classics .But when the day comes that the goverment say we cant drive petrol cars on the public highway then its a sad day . Who will be the first person on here to convert there corrado to electric. Would be nice 140kw motor on each wheel independent four wheel drive oh but 4 tonne of batterys so still slow . Lets be honest right now a blue motion polo is far greener than any electric car .

[stretch. 0]

Diesel electric hybrid is the way forward, small little 3cyl diesel running at an optimum rpm charging an electric battery.

 

None of this dual hybrid crap, like the volt where you can drive it on just the gas (petrol) engine!

[The_Dude 0]

I don't believe fully electric vehicles will ever take off. The problem is, where does the electricity come from? Without a significant investment in renewable energy, the environmental impact is just displaced from the car itself, further up the line to the electricity station. The environmental impact of battery manufacture used in these cars is also significant.

 

 

Bit of an urban myth that one mate...true, while the energy consumption of electric vehicles is about equivalent to a car doing an average mpg, no one takes into consideration the energy needed to actually get your petrol to the pump in the first place. One this is factored in an electric car is way more efficient.

check this out for a decent explanation, at about 02:35 onwards

http://fwd.five.tv/fifth-gear/videos/road-tests/nissan-leaf-with-robert-llewellyn

[pummer67 0]

they may well take off eventually but where does electric come from! About 20 Percent coal 38 percent oil and 37 percent gas all polluting into our air. Remaining percent from renewable and nucleur! Also our whole electric system in the country would not cope with everyone charging cars! Most are overloaded already! I am a firm believer in renewable energy but if we go all electric its going to mean more nucleur power stations needed than we are already going to end up with.

[Andy665 0]

I read some research that showed that, based on the UKs production of electricity, a pure electric car will produce emissions of circa 80g/km - still better than any petrol or hybrid vehicle but not significantly better

 

I have driven a Nissan Leaf and have to admit I was impressed - pure electric vehicles do have a future but I can't see one being used as the only car in a household - the range is just too restrictive for many people. MY OH would be perfect for a pure EV but she loves a petrol engine far too much

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Who will be the first person on here to convert there corrado to electric. Would be nice 140kw motor on each wheel independent four wheel drive.

 

I bet you won't be allowed to convert your own cars to electric, but yeah, the performance of that would be awesome if the vehicle weight doesn't increasd too much.

 

As said earlier, a little diesel motor to recharge the batteries is the way forward.

They seem to be ignoring that idea though. It's either full electric or nothing. They're trying to run before they can walk!

 

Full electric is YEARS off being viable. Commuters who get 600 miles a tank from their diesels aren't going to be remotely interested. And no one is mentioning winter and electric cars. The bloody thing will be flat by the time it's thawed out and warm enough to drive. And what if you run out of juice? You can't walk to a BP and fill a jerry can with electricity. Fancy popping out for a meal? Oh wait, we can't, the car is charging up.

 

There are a lot of freedoms we take for granted with petrol / diesel and the move to full electric is going to be hard for a lot of people.

[8vMatt 1]

Silly ideas time

 

Would it be possible for a manufacturer to produce a small enough generater that would recharge the batteries while its actually being driven? That would sort out any range limit problems :?

[Album56 0]

Diesel electric technology has been around for many decades & is used because it can be an efficient use of fuel, has any of the manufacturers produced a diesel electric car?

[Serial 0]

I'm sure electric cars will become the norm eventually, just not for another decade or so. I expect they'll become more common in the 'city car' market, as they'd be ideal for nipping into town, doing shopping and running the kids to school, etc... Apparently the average car journey is only around 9 or 10 miles, which would be no problem at all for an electric vehicle. And obviously people will still need a larger petrol or diesel engined cars for doing long journeys with luggage etc.

 

Battery technology will get rapidly much better, I expect we'll see battery packs able to be recharged to 80-90% capacity in 30 mins or so within a few years, and the range will increase as well...

 

As for an electric Corrado, that would be ace! Or even better, how about a gas turbine to charge the batteries if they get a little low, a la the jaguar CX-75... :-)

[corozin 0]

Silly ideas time

Would it be possible for a manufacturer to produce a small enough generater that would recharge the batteries while its actually being driven? That would sort out any range limit problems :?

 

It's not a silly idea. That is exactly the principle that all the Toyota hybrids use (Prius, RX450). The technology is good enough to massively improve the mpg, although (for small cars) the VW Blumotion cars are very close in terms of economy now, and they don't need the technology (or weight) of batteries.

 

Full on electric cars will never take over transportation. For one thing there isn't enough lithium available in the world market to meet demand (and there's a huge international politic going on as producer countries try to control & limit supply). The future frankly will be with hydrogen cell cars, but that will take a while because hydrogen - being the most abundant element in the universe - won't be able to be controlled by Governments and petrol companies commercially in the way that petrol is. No matter that it's 100% emission clean; there are too many people who need to make money to make it happen as quickly as we need it to.

[Andy665 0]

The Lexus Hybrid Drive principle is better than the Honda Integrated Motor Assist principle in that electric power alone can be utilised, the problem is that it is only for a very short distance (2 miles) and at no more than 31mph.

 

The Lexus hybrids use Atkinson cycle engines which focus on maximum fuel efficiency rather than maximum power. When the engine is running (always at speeds above 31mph) any surplus power generated is channelled back to the battery pack via the generator. The Prius for example produces 89bhp from its petrol engine, maximum power with battery pack engaged is 131bhp so it is first and foremost a petrol engined / driven vehicle.

 

No manufacturer is close to producing an electric vehicle that uses an internal combustion engine to recharge the batteries. The belief was that the Chevrolet Volt / Vauxhall Ampera did exactly that until the day that GM released the details of its patents and it was revealed that it was more of a hybrid than a pure electric vehicle.

 

Lithium ion is not the panacea to radically improved battery performance, lithium air is the next true advance but performance vs cost is likely to be once again a major stumbling block

[PeteL 0]

I have driven a Nissan Leaf and have to admit I was impressed - pure electric vehicles do have a future but I can't see one being used as the only car in a household - the range is just too restrictive for many people. MY OH would be perfect for a pure EV but she loves a petrol engine far too much

 

I have also driven the Leaf, and Allied Peugeot Expert and a Mitsubishi iMiEV, and was also very impressed. Instant torque makes them seem very quick at low speeds.

 

Range anxiety is the key, but as many of you have said, for those who mainly do short journeys or as a second car it could be ideal. Aslong as you have a somewhere to charge over night, as those who park on the street could have issues with cables!

 

Other concerns over long term battery life, residual values are also heavily discussed in the industry, but as technology/battery size/performnace/efficencey improves hopefully these will be addressed, and also bring the purchase costs down.

 

Time will tell.

[Jim 2]

Range anxiety is the key, but as many of you have said, for those who mainly do short journeys or as a second car it could be ideal. Aslong as you have a somewhere to charge over night, as those who park on the street could have issues with cables!

 

As I think James May was saying in his feature on the Honda Clarity... Step back, and look how ridiculous it must have seemed when the petrol engine was proposed for the level of infrastructure that would have been required to make it work. Assuming they're what we end up with, the requirements for electric cars currently seem unacceptable but going forward it'll be something we get used to and adapt to, or we'll have something like induction loop charging or something where there are designated spaces and those wirelessly charge the car. Such technology already exists now for portable appliances.. no reason to believe it won't come to cars at some point!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

or we'll have something like induction loop charging or something where there are designated spaces and those wirelessly charge the car. Such technology already exists now for portable appliances.. no reason to believe it won't come to cars at some point!

 

Yeah neat idea. The car would have to be made of plastic though :D

[Jim 2]

F1 cars have little metal loops on the pits, not unlike what a Scalextric has.. so that when the car parks up for a pit stop, telemetry and diagnostic data can be offloaded from the car. Could something similar not exist for charging a car over a longer period of time?

[harin 0]

F1 cars have little metal loops on the pits, not unlike what a Scalextric has.. so that when the car parks up for a pit stop, telemetry and diagnostic data can be offloaded from the car. Could something similar not exist for charging a car over a longer period of time?

 

Why have I never seen those things?!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

F1 cars have little metal loops on the pits, not unlike what a Scalextric has.. so that when the car parks up for a pit stop, telemetry and diagnostic data can be offloaded from the car. Could something similar not exist for charging a car over a longer period of time?

 

I would have thought so mate. I know it can, or should, work though because my old college lecturer told us a neat little story during our inductance lesson. This is going back 20 years now and I dunno if it's true or not, but it's along these lines:-

 

Some enterprising gentleman took it upon himself to fill a fake garden shed with inductance coils and strategically placed it under a National ground pylon that passed over his property. The resultant 'free' electricity ran his house for years :lol: He was eventually rumbled when the National Grid sent an engineer out to investigate a voltage drop on the line.

 

God knows how many coils and volts you'd need to charge up a tonne of batteries, but the theory is sound :D

 

Oh and I was talking to someone about small diesel engines as generators over the weekend, and for the kind of performance some of us have in mind, i.e. 140KW (190hp) motor per wheel, you'd need a bloody big diesel engine! :D

 

Apparently an alternator with enough grunt to drive that much motor grunt would be like turning a massive supercharger.....

[corozin 0]

My wish for the future :