Electric cars

[Roderick]

Interesting reading, but there are huge concerns over Evs, batteries, what they made of (where it comes from) the generation of electricity and so on.
There is a government grant to have a charging point installed but as usual it's not as straightforward as one would like, especially if living in a development of flats or a house without off-street parking.
I have as it happens been looking into this for the flats where I live for submission to Grant Shapps MP the transport minister and Michael Gove MP minister for housing etc.

I tried pasting it here but it wouldn't, so have attached a PDF of it if anyone wants to read it, I'd be interested to hear thoughts.
Thanks Ray

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

I wonder how long it will be before we see newspaper reports of EV drivers in minor collisions being electrocuted by their cars ??

Then the manufacturers will be able to claim the car has a lifetime warranty, if its written off so is the driver.

[guru]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

I wonder how long it will be before we see newspaper reports of EV drivers in minor collisions being electrocuted by their cars ??

Will the AA and RAC drivers need to be paid danger money ??

Sneaky stuff electricity as you can't see it.--You can see and smell a petrol leak.

In the event of a collision the 12v powered contactor in the battery pack is 'turned off' which means that the 450v battery is isolated. This is why EV's still have 12v batteries and why if the 12v battery goes flat an EV won't 'start'.
In the event of a severe collision pyrotechnic fuses in the battery pack disconnect the modules so that 450v is not present even in the pack.

Originally Posted by Mike Trident

Something I have wondered about for a while.

In winter, I often have the AC running to keep the windows clear. Obviously this has to have the heater on as well to avoid me freezing to death. How would an EV cope with this, as well as having lights on, heated rear window on, charging my phone, and maybe the radio?

Compared to the power required to move the car things like the heater and AC take very little power and don't really impact on the range. What does however is the battery being cold in the winter.

[genpk]

Originally Posted by guru

In the event of a collision the 12v powered contactor in the battery pack is 'turned off' which means that the 450v battery is isolated. This is why EV's still have 12v batteries and why if the 12v battery goes flat an EV won't 'start'.
In the event of a severe collision pyrotechnic fuses in the battery pack disconnect the modules so that 450v is not present even in the pack.



Compared to the power required to move the car things like the heater and AC take very little power and don't really impact on the range. What does however is the battery being cold in the winter.

and towing anything!!
Funnily enough, we currently have power outages here in western australia, 10,000 homes with no power- a 40c day- power grid issues.
As said, glad im not trying ti charge an ev, just jump into my good old fossil fuel car, switch the aircon on and drive to the nearest servo that has power!!

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by MSS

I think the problem is that some members still view electricity as some form of witchcraft.

Nothing to do with witchcraft, and everything to do with practicality.I wonder how those people got on up north who had got no electric for two weeks? The whole idea is to make a few people very, very rich. Look up some facts, but not in the witchcraft books. E.Vs will never come to pass.Again.........tell me where the electricity is going to come from? Have you got some information no one else has got?

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by MSS

Here are a few useful statistics that demonstrate why EV range will not be a limiting factor in over 99.9% of travel needs.

Percentage of journeys less than 10 miles 83%

Percentage of journeys less than 25 miles 95%

Average traveled distance of all journeys 8.4 miles

Like others, I enjoy being able to get in the car once or twice a year and drive 200+ miles. If necessary, this could still be achieved by adjusting my mindset about long distance travel and using the available means.

In the long term, perhaps there will be a regulated car hire scheme for the odd occasion that people wish to travel long distances and public transport is not a viable option. We could quite easily take the train to say York or Exeter and hire an EV for driving around whilst on holiday.

Erm, there already is a car hire scheme everywhere, it’s called car hire. You can hire them even on holiday. It’s nothing new?

[MSS]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

Erm, there already is a car hire scheme everywhere, it’s called car hire. You can hire them even on holiday. It’s nothing new?

Which is exactly how people with EV's manage to travel long distances without much worry. They accept the charging time during the journey or hire a non-EV car!

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by MSS

Which is exactly how people with EV's manage to travel long distances without much worry. They accept the charging time during the journey or hire a non-EV car!

Can you explain to me how this would be any use to me in going to Germany? And how about if there were no cars available to hire? I can go to my sons in Germany in the diesel virtually non stop, apart from the shuttle journey. 520 miles. No hassle. No worrying about where to get a ‘recharge’. Oh the joys of the ic engine. Don’t worry, I will wait for you while you charge your EV at a motorway halt, at least twice. What a good invention the EV is.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

Can you explain to me how this would be any use to me in going to Germany? And how about if there were no cars available to hire? I can go to my sons in Germany in the diesel virtually non stop, apart from the shuttle journey. 520 miles. No hassle. No worrying about where to get a ‘recharge’. Oh the joys of the ic engine. Don’t worry, I will wait for you while you charge your EV at a motorway halt, at least twice. What a good invention the EV is.

Other approached to traveling are possibe.

In the 1980's I used to travel to Geneva every three months for technical meetings at the ITU/CCITT. Sometimes I flew. Other times, I would drive in my Austin Montego. I used to take 3 days to get there, stopping off at various Chateau in France in order to sample the French hospitality and way of life. Looking back, I could have done the same in an EV.

Travel does not need to be rushed - it can be turned into a cultural experience. We just need to get into a different mindset.

[SCP440]

Originally Posted by MSS

Other approached to traveling are possibe.

Travel does not need to be rushed - it can be turned into a cultural experience. We just need to get into a different mindset.

Yes indeed it can when you have the time, Spending 3 days getting to some where and another 3 day bac sounds good but probably only when I retire, if I go on holiday I dont want to spend the week traveling, a day to get there, a day to get back and the rest of the time the car will probably sit in the car park.


As I have previosly said EVs do have there place, for longer journeys that people do make something that either has a range of 400 hundred or more miles or something that can be refueled in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffe and have a comfort brake is needed.


I have a diesel Transit Van for work and this will comfortably travel 450 miles between fuel stops, the new Electric version has a range of less than 150 fully loaded on a full charge and needs 45 mins to give it an 80% charge. Today I have done about 300 miles and I would have no time to stop let alone for over an hour.