bollox,do electric cars magically recharge themselves ?

and does the manufacture of batteries release magic fairys that absorb co2.

the hydrogen for fuel cell cars comes from oil.

there is no such thing as clean energy.its in the physics.

 

WHS. It's not the 100 mile to a charge that's the biggest problem, it's the 6 hours of charging you need before you can start the 100 miles back.

That BBC reporter made it from London to Edinburgh in 4 days, stopping 9 times for hours at a time:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12189321

Batteries have lots of chemical nastiness too; which is not something anybody ever seems to consider in the rush to go "green".

 

Thing is, most people drive nowhere near as far as 100 miles at a time, or even in a day. Pretty much the only time I do this is for the Ricky Run, or on trackdays.

Other than that, it's local stuff, or even visiting a friend in Southampton. It's 70 miles or so, and I usually hang around long enough to have recharged the batteries before I head home again.

Most families in my street have at least two cars. One is used by Mum to drive the kids to school, go to the shops, maybe head off to work locally too. The other may be used by Dad to commute to work or for longer distance driving.

There's absolutely no need for a huge range on "Mum's car", and to have less "ground level" pollution and noise (particularly from diesels) would be great. Walking to the station in the morning is becoming less and less pleasant as the number of diesel vehicles increases.

The argument against electric cars on range is somewhat similar to that used by people to justify 4x4 ownership - "it snows a couple of days a year, so I need a 4x4. I might need to drive more than 100 miles, so I need a car with that sort of range."

(Of course there are problems with generating the electricity to power these cars, but they are not insurmountable - nuclear is probably best, as that would allow for hydrogen production too. It's not without its problems either though.)

 

Which brings up an interesting point. Will it be socially acceptable to turn up at somebody's house and plug your car in, at their expense? And employers will probably be less than happy about providing free electricity for their employees' cars, which is what's going to be expected.

I think the argument about most journeys being regular short distance ones could be better solved by public transport, and if a car is only for occasional long distance travel, then you may as well stick with your petrol car.

 

I expect it would become so, all part of hospitality, it's not like it's going to be a significant cost, and handing over "electricity" money would work in a similar way to people paying petrol money at present.

Better public transport isn't the answer for short suburban journeys, PT works best for regular journeys into, around and inbetween large urban centres.

Walking or cycling/mopeding are better alternatives than more buses. The country needs more "Boris Bikes".

 

Exactly.

The biggest issue with the acceptance of electric cars is range-fixation. The vast majority of UK journeys are less than 10 miles; most of which will be commuting so the 100 miles or so range will be more than adequate.

If you've consistently longer journeys to do or do lots of short journeys then, given current (sorry...) technology, an electric car is not appropriate. Much as an S2000 is not appropriate if it's your only car and you have 4 kids...

Mrs P could easily cope with a Leaf or an MiEV but has full blown range-fixation.

The biggest issue from my perspective is capital cost of the car. The 'fuel' costs are hugely attractive; 12,000 miles at today's electricity cost of c. £140.00.

There's some research to suggest that if all the cars in the EU went over to electricity it would add c. 30 % to the electric grid's demand - but given that most would be off-peak charging, it may not be such a problem.

I have a 118 mile per day commute - with the ability to recharge at home and at work, even with today's limited range Lecky's I could manage.

As ever, it's economics. Once the momentum sees a significant shift to electrically powered vehicles the cost of electricity to recharge them will no doubt have a 'Fuel' tax element added - the software for it is probably already sorted in the new domestic smart meters being rolled-out.

 

As I said I don't think it's the range; it's the recharge time that's the killer. You have to admit that a fuel cell car, with the same lack of polllution, but with the ability to "recharge" in minutes is a much more attractive proposition.

With your battery car, even if you only use it for short trips, you're going to have to keep it on charge a lot of the time. Forget to plug it in one night, and then you're screwed for the next day. And if you run out somewhere, the AA can't come out with a can of petrol to get you going again.

 

People have adapted pretty well to keeping their smartphones charged which typically have a far more limited battery life than their predecessors.

As I'm sat at a PC all day, I just connect mine phone up and it recharges. No different to driving a car to work and hooking it up to the charging point (of which there will be an increase).

Most cars are parked up for far longer periods of time than they are driven for, so for many people it's not really a problem.

The AA could always carry a generator on board

 

and they will charge more !

 

You've a range-fixation too!

I'm sure people will forget to plug it in - but only once. It will require a change of attitude and for users to adapt slightly but is that such a problem? We changed from vinyl to cassette, CD to download, video tape to PVR. Even my old dear at 80+ years has mastered a PVR. Change is good.

If an electric car doesn't work for someone, it doesn't work - but my suspicion is it will work for most of the people, most of the time (assuming the capital cost aspect is addressed).