Kevin Bacon 5 Posted December 20, 2010 Indeed, plus a turbo boost option depeding on how much curry you put in it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Portent 0 Posted December 21, 2010 Electric cars will only be successful when either the batteries can be charged overnight and then last a full day, or a solution is found to the charging issue. People don't want to sit at a charging station for more than a few minutes. We pull up to a petrol station, put in some fuel, pay, then drive off again. It needs to be something similar othwerwise people will just be prepared to pay every higher petrol prices. The person who solves that will be a very rich person indeed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harin 0 Posted December 21, 2010 Electric cars will only be successful when either the batteries can be charged overnight and then last a full day, or a solution is found to the charging issue. People don't want to sit at a charging station for more than a few minutes. We pull up to a petrol station, put in some fuel, pay, then drive off again. It needs to be something similar othwerwise people will just be prepared to pay every higher petrol prices. The person who solves that will be a very rich person indeed. I think we'll see these charging stations pop up at places like supermarkets, car parks or places the car would normally be parked up for a decent amount of time. People will have to change the way they think about cars in general. Must admit it would be nice to not have to go into petrol stations! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Album56 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Electric mini going from London to Edinburgh in hops, needs 10hrs charging for 2hrs driving, drivers of electric cars will suffer from "recharge anxiety" apparently & it just shows these vehicles just arent practical yet.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coullstar 0 Posted January 10, 2011 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? Funny you should say that. I was in Holland last year with our departments Global Sales manager and whilst we were out for dinner one evening he started telling us about a sideline project he was working on that uses this very principal to power the cars. He had even presented the idea to congress and had secured impressive funding for it. We quizzed him for the next half an hour or so on all the little asepcts and how we though it wouldnt woprk and he had a good answer for everyone. No batteries, fuel cells etc and the cars would all run on GPS so they could travel at high speed feet from each other cutting travels times and negating a lot of flights. Freight could be loaded onto GPS controlled pallet trucks and be a lot more flexible and quicker. There were so many things that just made sense. The only drawback is the required investment in the infrastructure. This is all from a senior guy in one of the biggest oil services firms in the world. This has to happen at some point. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Bacon 5 Posted January 10, 2011 Electric mini going from London to Edinburgh in hops, needs 10hrs charging for 2hrs driving, drivers of electric cars will suffer from "recharge anxiety" apparently & it just shows these vehicles just arent practical yet.... And that 10 hours reduces to 8 hours in cold weather, and then a further 10-15% less still if you use the heater. I didn't use the Corrado for 2 weeks over my xmas break and I took it out for a spin yesterday to make sure it was OK for work this week, and it was just sublime. It makes my missus's 06 Polo GTI feel old and rough as f'ck. I will sorely miss [good] petrol engines, I really will :( Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rado2 0 Posted January 10, 2011 I will sorely miss [good] petrol engines, I really will :( Your not alone there, but hopefully we all have a few more years left yet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aki 0 Posted January 10, 2011 hi i really dont understand the investment in battery powered cars its all pointless!(unless you only do very small journeys) the future is hydrogen fuel cells simple! why cant all the manufacturers spend the cash on fuel cell development instead! batterys cannot be a long term solution they are just a stop gap knee jerk solution ,the range frankly is terrible, youve got to charge them somehow using coal,gas,nuclear power take your pick, they weigh literally a ton, what is the lifespan of these batterys and how much will it cost to replace them? how much lithium is there really out there for these batterys? i know battery technology is constantly moving forward but we all know fuel cells are the solution! fuel cells use hydrogen which lets face it is pretty abundant it can be stored at existing garages (the tanks are going to need replacing) and simply top up when you run low (just like petrol etc) and water as an emission! the perfect solution to the personal mobility problem! the only downside is that as im a mechanic theres going to be fewer and fewer moving parts meaning theres going to be fewer and fewer mechanics required so i will be jobless! best keep using internal combustion untill i retire! (25 years! :shock: ) my 2p andy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Album56 0 Posted January 13, 2011 Also things that we take for granted in our cars (heater/blower) become a problem, apparently you have to turn the heating off when batt gets low, are we going back to the 50s when a heater was only fitted in deluxe models. The more I hear about the problems the more I think battery cars are going nowhere. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davidwort 0 Posted January 13, 2011 seen this: http://bbc.in/elcars twitter #electriccars PMSL, 4 days to get to scotland from London and he can't put the heater on or won't make it 60 miles to the next stop, 6 or seven hours charge after a 60 odd mile drive :sleeping: the mini looks pretty rubbish for anyone that want to choose where to go in their car :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Bacon 5 Posted January 13, 2011 best keep using internal combustion untill i retire! (25 years! :shock: ) Shouldn't worry about it. The oil companies won't let electric cars take over for a while yet! At best, they'll just occupy a niche market for urban use the next decade or so. They won't 'replace' internal combustion for a long time yet :D Besides, you can just re-train yourself in electric motors and their control systems and you will still have gearboxes and general drivetrain to fix ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Serial 0 Posted January 13, 2011 Next week, the BBC will be sending an intrepid reporter up Mount Everest on a mountain bike, to assess it's suitability... IMHO it's the reporter here who's wrong -- Clearly it's not a good idea to drive an electric car from London to Edinburgh, but that's not really what they're for... Considering the average car journey is around 6 miles, electric cars would be perfectly usable for the vast majority of people who just go to the shops, or to see their friends, or even a daily commute of 40 miles each way would be perfectly do-able with an 8hr charge whilst they're sitting at their desks. If people in london want to go to edinburgh, use a petrol car or get the train or an aeroplane... And, every electric car sold reduces the demand for petrol which will make the price go down, making it cheaper for genuine petrolheads like us! :-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Bacon 5 Posted January 13, 2011 And, every electric car sold reduces the demand for petrol which will make the price go down, making it cheaper for genuine petrolheads like us! :-) That's a very good point sir, but you can bet your bottom dollar the government / oil companies will already have a contingency plan for that! They would rather pour it into a big hole in the earth somewhere than see people get it cheaper. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pummer67 0 Posted January 24, 2011 ok so you drive to work which and use most of the battery power. You have to charge for 8hours or so before you can go home. Then phone rings and its emergency you got to go home for or somewhere and then you cant as battery wont have enough charge. The more you think and hear about battery power the more you realise just how useless it would be. I cant see how the government would let hydrogen cells power cars either as they cant tax on water as we all need water daily at home, but i dont really know anything about hydrogen cells so im not sure if it just uses water or anything else? Anyone know any thing about hydrogen cell and how it works? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fanjita 1 Posted January 25, 2011 ok so you drive to work which and use most of the battery power. You have to charge for 8hours or so before you can go home. Then phone rings and its emergency you got to go home for or somewhere and then you cant as battery wont have enough charge. The more you think and hear about battery power the more you realise just how useless it would be. I cant see how the government would let hydrogen cells power cars either as they cant tax on water as we all need water daily at home, but i dont really know anything about hydrogen cells so im not sure if it just uses water or anything else? Anyone know any thing about hydrogen cell and how it works? It doesn't use water mate, it produces water as a byproduct (emission). It runs on hydrogen (hence the name hydrogen fuel cell!) which is stored in liquid state or gaseous state at high pressure. The first complication here would be the 5000-10000psi tank sitting in the back of the car, imagine getting shunted in that car! That would be as gas storage though, they're working towards viable liquid storage methods, but for now gas is the most popular. I too think hydrogen fuel cells are the way forward, and if these became affordable, I would most certainly create a hydrogen-electric corrado. The other problem with this at the moment is the easiest way to get hydrogen is to crack hydrocarbons, creating the typical selection of horrible gases as a byproduct as well as using the crude oil stocks! You can also create hydrogen from other methods, for instance breaking down water, but this uses a hell of a lot of energy, and where does that come from? fossil fuelled power stations..... It seems we cannot escape this vicious crude oil surrounded circle right now, but things will get interesting in the next few decades! Here's to waiting... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
