Chinese Electric Cars

Hmm, I don't recall my RX7 having sparkling fuel economy... a 30% improvement would still have been a gas guzzler!

Neil

Difficult to know what technology F1 engines use as it is a closely guarded secret. According to Motor Sport they are using TJI rather than HCCI.

By the way, the French government has announced that they will ban sales of IC engined cars by 2040. Easy to say but there will have been a number of changes of government by then!

Russell.

I had an interesting chat with a Tesla salesman so what I am going to say comes from a sales pitch. I was concerned that the range was insufficient for a journey to the south of France. We sat in the car and put the route into the sat-nav which identified the free Tesla charging points, these were placed at motorway services so a quick charge while taking a coffee and comfort break would easily get you to the next coffee break. It looked realistic for my travelling style. Battery life was quoted as a 10% reduction in 7 years which didn't seem too bad. How the sales pitch stacks up in real life I don't know. Shame Teslas are a it out of my price range, but whole life cost might be reasonable.

Mike

I know someone with a Tesla, they use it for all their motoring in UK and on the continent. Has solar panels, reckons that over the year his net fuel costs are ~zero.

A friend's Son is doing very we.., He has put solar panels on His house. He charges His Tesla through them, and when not home sells the excess for a profit. Driving is free. Don't know the bottom line though.

I recently visited this solar energy research facility in the Pyrenees.

A very interesting and informative visit. Especially seeing the high temperature energy storage experiments. http://www.promes.cnrs.fr/index.php?page=storage-for-solar-and-energetic-processes

Now some facts pertaining to solar charging of electric cars:

At midday on a clear day we measured 950 W/m² and with the best current commercial solar panels that would give just under 200 W when pointed directly at the sun. Now, in southern England at mid summer you get about 15 hours of daylight so a steerable 1 m² panel will give at best 3 kWh of electricity, much less for a fixed panel.

The latest Tesla model S has an 85 kWh battery so would need 28 m² of steerable solar panels to charge it in one day, perhaps double that for a fixed array and much more for cloudy days.

Taking account of weather and seasonal variation a 1 m² panel in southern England will produce about 175 kWh per year. So solar charging from a domestic installation is hardly practical unless you drive very little and then only at night!

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 07/07/2017 15:00:04

But you would need to be doing 260 miles a day to flatten the battery, if it is used for local running around and commuting say 50mls per day you would only need 1/5th the area. Range of 85 series Telsa

Also no need to use it in the dark, just put your generated electricity into the grid when it is sunny and draw off from the grid when you need it ( at a higher and faster current rate). You only pay for the difference between what goes in and what comes out

Edited By JasonB on 07/07/2017 15:08:02

Hasn't this just blundered into the basic problem that to be a genuine replacement for convensional engined cars electric vehicles need to be at least in the same ball park in terms of refueling and range. Hybrids seem the only thing to come close to date.

Get the energy desity of the batterys high enough to enable dischaged to charged swappable units and we would be a lot closer.

regards Martin

Edited By V8Eng on 07/07/2017 15:41:51

Edited By V8Eng on 07/07/2017 15:48:16

That very much depends on the whim of the government. The buying price paid by the distribution companies is heavily subsidised here. The price has dropped considerably over the last few years but even so is currently double the price paid for nuclear generated energy. I'm a bit out of touch with what the policy is in the UK but I doubt if the distribution companies would want to buy electricity from small unreliable sources unless heavily subsidised.

Russell.

Martin, we may have to change our lifestyles somewhat. I/c engined cars can do local, fill them up once a month, or long distance, fill them up daily/weekly. We are not condemned to having two cars either. The average commute is 20 miles daily. So, have an electric car used daily, and hire an i/c engined car for holidays or the odd long trip. Or join a car club. Hybrids are an answer tor those who want one car for both, but it means hauling round an unused battery or an unused i/c engine if you are using the alternative power source. In horse drawn days, people were happy to hire a horse or carriage, my family used to run a livery stables in Keighley before WWI. Most people's cars sit unused between 9 and 5 or whilst sleeping. So, rent when needed, save the hassle of ownership, costs incurred only when needed, and no large investment depreciating in your drive most of the time.

.

They need to get the electric 'engines' to sound like this.

Just put a sound chip through the stereo and you can have any car you like, probably need a speaker outside as well so the dozy pedestrians can hear you, buses withe the engine at the back seem quite successful at catching out pedestrians.

Mike

New legislation will require all electric cars to play drum'n'bass, grime or trance at extreme decibels to alert pedestrians to the approach of electric cars.

No heavy metal/rock allowed as too many pedestrians might headbang their way under moving traffic.

Neil

The real down side to electric cars is on cold climates and keeping warm. The batteries don't like the cold.

Neil

I don't see much progress until batteries are standardised (no, I'm not holding my breath).
It would make life easier, keep a set at home charging, or swap out a set at motorway services or 'charge shops' like filling stations. Maybe an enterprise leasing batteries to take care of charging and supply, maybe roving vans with a few sets on board for emergency call outs?

swap out a set at motorway services

A non starter, methinks. How much difference between changing batteries than recharging?

Who would be swapping batteries in? Those that are getting a good deal - swap in older for newer? W

ith a decent range of over 200miles, who would not want a pee break or something, so the 1/2 hour charging time becomes not so much more than queuing at a petrol pump.

As things steadily improve the need to even think about changing the battery diminishes. What will happen is that autonomous vehicles will be rented as and when required, so they arrive fully charged, you drive them and then they toddle off for another hiring or recharge after you have finished with it.

A 30 minutes break should be taken more frequently than this for safety reasons. All the safety advice points to a minimum of 30 mins every two hours or so- that's only 140 miles- and swapping drivers is not considered a safe option, according to the good research.

A system that requires drivers to breaks, without having to impose legislation, might be a significant safety factor.

Oh dear, I'm in the nanny state bad books again. Assuming I don't need to stop for a leak I normally drive to/from Northumberland (280 miles) in one go, with or without the glider trailer. Usually takes 5 to 6 hours, largely dependent upon the traffic in Newcastle.

It's all very well saying stop frequently, but where? Some sort of rip off service station that doesn't cater for long trailers? At least the French motorways have simple stop off areas every 20km or so; to include parking and basic loos.

Andrew

Me too, Andrew. Living in a village in the far north of Scotland would be a nightmare without a petrol or diesel car. With the nearest railway many miles away, and bus companies allowed to cherry-pick routes and only operate on the most profitable, at the moment a conventional car is an absolute must. Let's be honest and admit that, outside cities, at the moment electric cars are nothing but a bad joke. Hybrids may be OK, but do I really want to pay the extra for an electric motor and batteries? Please let's be practical.