Electric cars 🤔

[Bender]

26 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

Which is worse for it stop start can just sap the juice 

 

but the point I was making I bet the majority of people drive to work then back and thats it with the odd trip out on a weekend which a range of 150-200 miles will be sufficient between charges 

 

I drove to Grimsby and back in my bosses car then he went home for the full weekend before returning on Monday before he could charge it 

 

Grimsby and back took about 30% battery with all the heating on as normal and I put it in sports mode for a while which made no difference to the range 

 

When he first got it he left work on the night with 275 miles remaining went home then football then returned to work the nest day with 278 miles remaining

What was the car?, when I took the leaf back he asked how was it, great to drive but crap range, Yea we get that alot said he  

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Bender said:

What was the car?, when I took the leaf back he asked how was it, great to drive but crap range, Yea we get that alot said he  

 

Skoda Enyaq 

 

An electric car would be more than enough range for me as all I do is go to work and back! We use the wife's car for everything else but even then we could probably get away with an electric car for her for 99% of the time

[Bender]

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

Skoda Enyaq 

 

An electric car would be more than enough range for me as all I do is go to work and back! We use the wife's car for everything else but even then we could probably get away with an electric car for her for 99% of the time

We the same, have looked at it but prob going to wait a few yrs before taking the plunge, will likely always have a second car, but after first hand experience with a small battery that won't be an option. 

 

I liked the E brake setting, dosent half slow you down and its progressive so slower you go the more it slows, can see brake pads lasting a long time, it also had a mechanical hand brake, I don't like electric handbrakes  

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, Bender said:

We the same, have looked at it but prob going to wait a few yrs before taking the plunge, will likely always have a second car, but after first hand experience with a small battery that won't be an option. 

 

I liked the E brake setting, dosent half slow you down and its progressive so slower you go the more it slows, can see brake pads lasting a long time, it also had a mechanical hand brake, I don't like electric handbrakes  

I would get one tomorrow if they was cheaper  

 

The cost you pay for a decent one just outweighs any savings 

[Bianco2564]

I considered one to replace Mrs Bs 120d however it made no financial sense.

Cheapest lease deal for an equivalent size car was £300 upwards and that was far in excess of what the BMW costs a month to run.

[Ronnie]

Nobody's mentioned electric motorcycles ?

[MikeHorton]

7 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Nobody's mentioned electric motorcycles ?

Nah still not for me yet wouldn't fancy this on the M6

[Bender]

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Nobody's mentioned electric motorcycles ?

Same problem, range, nothing wrong with the electric drive, it's just hard to hide a big battery on a bike and not notice the extra 250kg  

 

It will happen though and it's a shame cause electrons weigh bugger all  

[onesea]

9 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Nobody's mentioned electric motorcycles ?

They are taking off just in a different manner...

 

(Link for some of not safe for work small children or those of sensitive disruption).

 

https://www.veed.io/view/45c4b249-5b04-48ee-b2ee-30f40fa2afb3

Edited March 9, 2023 by onesea

[Fozzie]

If anyone wants an electric bike/car, the only real reason I give not to get one is simply that the tech is about to get a lot better in the next coming years. And these changes will be large. If you take an S1000RR for example, it doesn't improve much year on year. It gets an extra horse power, maybe a few less kg's, or better suspension settings. Electric cars/bikes by comparison are going to lose a lot of weight and gain a lot of range in the next 5-10 years. Often with figures exceeding 30%, so I'd make the case it is worth waiting. 

 

But even then, it will be based on need. Electric cars are far more efficient in town, and stop/start compared to petrol cars. They don't idle, and only use enough energy to move their mass, whereas a petrol/diesel uses a lot of energy which we clutch in and is very imprecise by comparison. 

 

However, this swaps on the motorway. Electric car range dies a death on motorway runs. Higher speeds placing a high load on the battery drain it very quickly, whereas with petrol/diesel, the greater energy density of the fuel combined with steady load/revs on the engine see it become much more efficient by comparison. I've compared with colleagues that have electric cars, they beat me on range in town by 20-50 miles, but when they run flat on the motorway I often have 150 miles of range left in the same conditions. 

[skyrider]

3 hours ago, MikeHorton said:

Nah still not for me yet wouldn't fancy this on the M6

the owner looks happy enough though

[Bender]

1 hour ago, skyrider said:

the owner looks happy enough though

Yea till it goes flat and he has a tantrum  

[Ronnie]

Anybody watch Harry's Garage on You Tube ?   Very interesting video about JCB's development of hydrogen powered internal combustion engines. Some very good points made. Like why are politicians starting the lemmings race to the cliff with electric vehicles ?  Why were real engineers not consulted ?   Apparently BMW are scaling back electric car development and concentrating on hydrogen power. As are Toyota.   Down the road from us here in France there's a huge plant built just to make hydrogen.  They wouldn't be making it it they didn't have a market for it.

[Bender]

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Anybody watch Harry's Garage on You Tube ?   Very interesting video about JCB's development of hydrogen powered internal combustion engines. Some very good points made. Like why are politicians starting the lemmings race to the cliff with electric vehicles ?  Why were real engineers not consulted ?   Apparently BMW are scaling back electric car development and concentrating on hydrogen power. As are Toyota.   Down the road from us here in France there's a huge plant built just to make hydrogen.  They wouldn't be making it it they didn't have a market for it.

It goes bang easier and scares them that's why  

 

I'm sure it will become more of a thing in the future. 

 

A safety report for hydrogen in houses said there would be 4 times as many deadly house explosions and in any room containing an appliance or pipework you would need a fixed 4" vent, that will screw up the thermal efficiency  

 

Only 1 hydrogen car on autotrader at the mo. 

[Fozzie]

10 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Anybody watch Harry's Garage on You Tube ?   Very interesting video about JCB's development of hydrogen powered internal combustion engines. Some very good points made. Like why are politicians starting the lemmings race to the cliff with electric vehicles ?  Why were real engineers not consulted ?   Apparently BMW are scaling back electric car development and concentrating on hydrogen power. As are Toyota.   Down the road from us here in France there's a huge plant built just to make hydrogen.  They wouldn't be making it it they didn't have a market for it.

 

I can offer an answer. I was in New Jersey last week for work inspecting a device that converts methane to hydrogen. 

 

In short, we didn't have a good way of producing hydrogen that wasn't also extremely costly. Water electrolysis seems like a good idea, but the power requirements to produce it are astronomical, so you end up almost needing an entire new national grid just to support its production at the scale we need it. And that doesn't deal with the fact that the world is facing a fresh water shortage in the long term, and if you turn to sea water, it's even worse as you need desalination plants to process it first.

 

I'm not allowed to give the brand name or specifics of this product, but I can explain the process which is well understood. You inject methane into a cylinder and heat it to a plasma (getting on towards 1000 degrees). The process is called plasma pyrolysis. Out the other end you get two things, a pure hydrogen gas. And carbon black, basically a type of soot. The carbon black can be buried in old mines, quarries, underwater wells etc of which we now have plenty. 

 

You then use atmospheric carbon capture to reprocess the hydrogen into a liquid synthetic fuel. And you essentially have a new type of petrol with a great power density. 

 

These devices could also be fitted inline with the gas grid, so that we fire our home boilers with hydrogen. In the short term, it lets oil companies continue production, and providing us with methane. Longer term, agricultural processes can be ramped up to produce methane. And longer term than that, we can get more nuclear and excess of renewables built, which make using sea water for electrolysis more feasible. Or alternatively, it lets battery technology develop enough it can take over reliably. But even then, you absolutely need a "power mix" for resilience.  

[manxie49]

Forget EV's, this'll be the future when the national grid goes bang, because it can no longer cope, due to this countries blinkered push towards net zero and total reliance on renewables.

 

[S-Westerly]

5 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

 

I can offer an answer. I was in New Jersey last week for work inspecting a device that converts methane to hydrogen. 

 

In short, we didn't have a good way of producing hydrogen that wasn't also extremely costly. Water electrolysis seems like a good idea, but the power requirements to produce it are astronomical, so you end up almost needing an entire new national grid just to support its production at the scale we need it. And that doesn't deal with the fact that the world is facing a fresh water shortage in the long term, and if you turn to sea water, it's even worse as you need desalination plants to process it first.

 

I'm not allowed to give the brand name or specifics of this product, but I can explain the process which is well understood. You inject methane into a cylinder and heat it to a plasma (getting on towards 1000 degrees). The process is called plasma pyrolysis. Out the other end you get two things, a pure hydrogen gas. And carbon black, basically a type of soot. The carbon black can be buried in old mines, quarries, underwater wells etc of which we now have plenty. 

 

You then use atmospheric carbon capture to reprocess the hydrogen into a liquid synthetic fuel. And you essentially have a new type of petrol with a great power density. 

 

These devices could also be fitted inline with the gas grid, so that we fire our home boilers with hydrogen. In the short term, it lets oil companies continue production, and providing us with methane. Longer term, agricultural processes can be ramped up to produce methane. And longer term than that, we can get more nuclear and excess of renewables built, which make using sea water for electrolysis more feasible. Or alternatively, it lets battery technology develop enough it can take over reliably. But even then, you absolutely need a "power mix" for resilience.  

Carbon black is one of the principal components in tyre manufacture as well as in various other plastics. Hope we aren't going to chuck it away!

[Ronnie]

At my age I'm not particularly bothered about new forms of transport.  I'm more concerned about the rising costs of cremation. Getting access to an official hole in the ground thing is astronomical but I'm sure Greta the Goblin will soon be homing in on cremations.  I can see a rise in clandestine burials at sea or discrete dumpings in a deep ditch.  My wife will just say I went out one morning and never came back.

[manxie49]

15 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

At my age I'm not particularly bothered about new forms of transport.  I'm more concerned about the rising costs of cremation. Getting access to an official hole in the ground thing is astronomical but I'm sure Greta the Goblin will soon be homing in on cremations.  I can see a rise in clandestine burials at sea or discrete dumpings in a deep ditch.  My wife will just say I went out one morning and never came back.

Funny but true,  apparently body composting is be coming all the rage in some places .... family can spread you around the greenhouse to help grow the tomatoes  https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/body-composting-green-alternative-cremation-legal-not-california/

[Fiddlesticks]

I saw that in a documentary once. I think it had Kevin Costner in it.