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Electric cars - 12/8/2012 2:49:11 PM   
SimplyMichael


Posts: 7229
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Status: offline 		Anyone have one? Hate them? Opinions?
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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 2:55:19 PM   
freedomdwarf1


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Status: offline 		When I can drive at least 400 miles in one that I can afford, with quick-charging points all over the country, I'll buy one.

Until then, like LPG, they won't ever get to be popular or mainstream.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 2:57:03 PM   
SilverMark


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Status: offline 		I drive the opposite...I am a non green liberal with almost 400 hp of American V-8 muscle car...and I do love it!

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 3:06:04 PM   
SimplyMichael


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Status: offline 		Mark, Tesla has a 4 door sedan with more horsepower! 0~60 in 3.7 seconds.

And it goes 300 miles

They have a way to.go yet but are getti.g interesting. Plus an interesting new concept is to use their batteries as a component of the new smart grid coupled with solar.

Its fun living in the future here where technology and the future is born.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 3:14:48 PM   
jlf1961


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Status: offline 		Thanks to Tesla motors, the electric car is not as boring as it was.

However, with the limited range provided by present battery technology, and the lack of recharging stations, IMO they are impractical.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 3:48:38 PM   
DomKen


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Status: offline 		I drive a prius with an after market plug in mod. I get close to 100 mpg in city driving and around 60 mpg in long distance trips.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 3:53:08 PM   
igor2003


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Saw this a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked interesting. Kind of impracticle, and most likely would be illegal in most areas of the States, but still looks like fun, and it sounds like the price is right! http://www.wimp.com/farmerinvented/

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 4:08:25 PM   
SimplyMichael


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quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

Thanks to Tesla motors, the electric car is not as boring as it was.

However, with the limited range provided by present battery technology, and the lack of recharging stations, IMO they are impractical.


They said the same thong aboit horseless carriages and the airplane...

And what the does, matters little. China is now the largrst car market, the europeans are intelligent and the us will just be behind the times.

Also, lawtence livermore labs is now working.on mew battery technogy....

Its a done deal

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 4:48:52 PM   
jlf1961


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Status: offline 		I understand your point, but until the infrastructure is in place, and the range is improved, the electric car is impractical. I did not say that would be a permanent situation.

FYI, according to the tech rumor/conspiracy mill, NASA has developed a lithium Ion battery technology that would give an electric car an 800 to 900 mile range at 70mph.

However, in my research I can only find a report of a battery that would give an electric car a 300 mile range, and that is just a little better than the Tesla model X.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:12:10 PM   
freedomdwarf1


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Status: offline 		That's why LPG never really caught on in the UK and Europe.

Sure, there are quite a few that do serve LPG but there are far too few filling stations that offer it.
So there are a lot of very large gaps in the infrastructure for such a fuel as to make it main-stream, even after all these years since LPG was introduced as the wonderful new cheap fuel for motoring.

You need to have the infrastructure and affordable cars to make it work properly.
Until then, an electric car will only ever be extremely local and a novelty for those that have money to burn.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:12:29 PM   
SimplyMichael


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Status: offline 		Everythings starts out being impractical, the question is whether or not it is likely to become so. Burning fossile fuels for airplanes is almost a matter of physics. Cars are utterly.practical.

Urban areas where the.money and early adopters live work great. Pwople like yourself will.naysay it till.its a done deal, lol.

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:22:43 PM   
OsideGirl


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Status: offline 		If your electricity comes from coal or oil, I don't really see the where it's perfect solution.

As for the hybrids, I was not pleased when Master told me about the class he took to repair hybrids. If they are working near the batteries: The first guy wears four pairs of gloves. Nytrile, cotton, rubber and leather in hopes of not conducting electricity. A second guy stands behind him with a fiberglass hook, so he can pull the first guy's dead body off the batteries in the case of making a connection.



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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:26:12 PM   
SimplyMichael


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Status: offline 		Yikes! Good thing gasoline wont do anything bad to you. Yep, better stick to a highly flamible carcinogen...MUCH safer, lol!

And there is no perfect solution...

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:31:04 PM   
freedomdwarf1


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Status: offline 		I think the only 'near perfect' solution (emphasis on 'near') would be to live in the desert, with a car covered in super-efficient(?) solar panels, and only ever drive during daylight hours. lol.

Anything else in the pipeline is going to be decades away from your average car user.


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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:33:13 PM   
Aswad


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Status: offline 		Lots of hybrids around here, particularly with the taxi companies.

Charging stations for electrics are available just about everywhere close to a city, and the cars are slowly becoming more common, but we had a diesel binge a while back that got followed up with a tax increase on diesel, so it's nowhere near what it might have been if not for the short sighted tax cut for diesels.

The main cost benefit with electrics, in any area that doesn't use coal or oil power, is the reduction in cardiovascular diseases and strokes.

IWYW,
— Aswad.


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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:43:01 PM   
SimplyMichael


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Status: offline 		Aswad

Competent urban planning, high density housing, and quality public transit makes a huge differencr. As does not having.morons driving escalades, lol.

Lighter cars go farther on less, cause less wear on roads, and are cheaper. Seen one of the new BMW electrucs?

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:48:03 PM   
DarkSteven


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quote:

ORIGINAL: OsideGirl

If your electricity comes from coal or oil, I don't really see the where it's perfect solution.



You're right about the electricity having to come from SOMEWHERE. One of the big advantages of electric cars is that they can tap into the grid at night, when the demand is lower, thus evening demand out over a 24 hour period (and getting the cheap electric rates).

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 5:48:17 PM   
TheHeretic


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From: California, USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: SimplyMichael

Opinions?



I'm still in the, "making fun of them," stage, and an electric car wouldn't fit in at all with my life, lifestyle, or needs.

I don't sometimes need to go 300 miles without a recharge, I may need to go 1000 or more. I've got a couple hundred pounds of stuff in the back of my car right now, and there was a solid oak gaming credenza in there last night. My garage is too full of stuff to get a car into, and I understand extension cords are a poor alternative.



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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 6:10:18 PM   
freedomdwarf1


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Status: offline 		I just had a quick look at the 'Zap Map' for the UK for charging points.
There's quite a few.

However, looking at the other bits on the site, it would still be impractical to own an electric car for most people here.

"For most electric cars, It is expected that most charging will be performed at home, during (off-peak) night time hours when electricity is cheapest and it carbon intensity is lowest. Although a standard single-phase 13 amp three-pin domestic socket is adequate to charge a car in 6-8 hours".
- And -
"The most common method of charging electric vehicles, uses a standard single-phase 13 Amp three-pin plug (BS 1363) and draws 3 kW of power – with a full charge typically taking 6 to 8 hours".

3KW for 6-8 hours??
Sheesh!
That's more KW power than a fast-boil kettle uses!! And for 6-8 hours continuously??
I can foresee many electrical fires happening.

Couple that with "our advice is that a qualified electrician conducts a house survey to ensure that the wiring will safety support the relatively long periods of charging".
That would probably rule out about 80% of UK housing that is more than a decade old - and that's an awful lot of houses!!!
And what about all those that live in high-rise dwellings but not on the ground floor??
And those that have homes where you cannot park your car in your own front driveway because there is only communual parking or you don't have a driveway or a front garden big enough to park your car?? And of course, that's assuming you manage to get permission from your landlord/council to park your car in your front garden!
Again, that's quite a lot of people that just couldn't use such cars.

I think that they need to re-think the charging strategy before it will catch on over here.
It is only going to be 'practical' for the well-off elite class that own their own home in its own grounds where home charging is possible.

As it stands, living in a country where a lot of housing is either very compact (little or no garden/driveway) or multi-storey to accommodate the resident population, it just isn't going to work for a very large majority of UK people.

And for visiting relatives more than about 150 miles away (which would be all of my family and those of the OH), there's no way we could sit and wait 6-8 hours (or even 3-4 hours on a fast charger) just to go see them and get back home again.
Filling up with fossil fuel for 2-3 minutes is about right.
Anything longer than that is just not on to be practical.

It might just work in the US where the average 'house' is 5-10 times the size of those in the UK and a matching proportion of land to go with it.



< Message edited by freedomdwarf1 -- 12/8/2012 6:15:40 PM >

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RE: Electric cars - 12/8/2012 8:12:02 PM   
DomKen


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quote:

ORIGINAL: OsideGirl

If your electricity comes from coal or oil, I don't really see the where it's perfect solution.

As for the hybrids, I was not pleased when Master told me about the class he took to repair hybrids. If they are working near the batteries: The first guy wears four pairs of gloves. Nytrile, cotton, rubber and leather in hopes of not conducting electricity. A second guy stands behind him with a fiberglass hook, so he can pull the first guy's dead body off the batteries in the case of making a connection.

Somebody was bullshitting. While the batteries do push a lot of amps the voltage is low and almost any decent insulator is sufficient to protect a person. People work barehanded safely around much more dangerous electrical equipment every day. the big key is to wear insulated shoes so there isn't a low resistance path to ground through the body.

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