Off Topic Electric Car Survey

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
DMD said:
Again, it's what I was referring to with the investment required to support electric vehicles, rather than improving public transport.
Click to expand...

I always think how more attractive a lot of European cities are than ours with trams, especially the older ones, clanking about.
 
As far as I can recall he said all his motorway service station charges are free of cost, so he normally has it on charge at work and stops for a break as he would if he was in a petrol/Diesel car as the range is (again from memory) 200-250 miles,
He said he use to spend £6-7K a year on fuel for work and now doesn't have that cost, so think it works very well for him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
NeverDullInUll said:
Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the survey, and also to this discussion. I'm not convinced by electric cars, but now that the main manufacturers are moving into the market (I think Audi just announced their first fully electric model is to be released soon), it could be that for all of Tesla's marketing they will just be swallowed up by the establishment ... especially when Merc/BMW announce they are phasing out Diesel (which can't be too long given the bad press).

It's all about critical mass and economies of scale, same as wind farms ... as soon as there is enough perceived demand, charging points (not free, nothing in life is free) will be springing up everywhere, and battery range will just get better. When the petrol engine first came out I can't imagine cars could go 500-600 miles on one tank.

If nobody objects I might copy this thread to the young 'un, he may fiind some of the comments useful.
Click to expand...

No objection here, completing the survey gave me an insight to the tax breaks etc.

As you mention, the biggest fail point, and mentioned often (politic straying included) is battery range and charging facilities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
robcentral said:
As far as I can recall he said all his motorway service station charges are free of cost, so he normally has it on charge at work and stops for a break as he would if he was in a petrol/Diesel car as the range is (again from memory) 200-250 miles,
He said he use to spend £6-7K a year on fuel for work and now doesn't have that cost, so think it works very well for him.
Click to expand...

It's always good to hear the experiences of those actually using them. <ok>
 
DMD said:
Straying to where we can't go, but that's part of what I meant in my previous reply on public v private transport. With no income from VED or fuel duty, the road repairs will fall even further behind.

It's part of what I was referring to in the whole cost.
Click to expand...

It wasn't politics, DMD, just a fact of life which will apply to nearly all countries irrespective of which parties are in power in them. Same as if everyone stopped smoking and drinking, everyone would have to pay more tax on something else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
Barchullona said:
There are ecological problems with the manufacture, and in time the disposal of, the batteries, surely?

Will hydrogen powered cars be the future?
Click to expand...

Good point about the ecological impact of disposing of the batteries, I've no idea how much is recyclable, but making a battery, charging it with electricty produced from renewable energy, and then disposing of it must be better than the extraction of oil, refining it, making an engine to run on it, burning it and then disposing of the engine.
I know - very simplistic, and needs a brain much better than mine to quantify it.
 
Barchullona said:
Trouble with public transport is doesn't run at times people want, at least in this country. And who would want to be travelling on it in the early hours nowadays?
A big mistake was getting rid of trams, and in Hull's case, trolley buses.
Click to expand...

Trams and trolley buses are rubbish as they can only go where the tracks and power cables are, one breaks down and the whole line stops.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
NeverDullInUll said:
Good point about the ecological impact of disposing of the batteries, I've no idea how much is recyclable, but making a battery, charging it with electricty produced from renewable energy, and then disposing of it must be better than the extraction of oil, refining it, making an engine to run on it, burning it and then disposing of the engine.
I know - very simplistic, and needs a brain much better than mine to quantify it.
Click to expand...

Of course, seeing as our grid can hardly cope as it is and with nuclear power stations closing, coal mines as well, and an inability to store excess electricity generated by wind turbines at present, in fact turbine owners are paid to switch them off, the question is how will all the extra electricity required be generated and stored?
 
Barchullona said:
Of course, seeing as our grid can hardly cope as it is and with nuclear power stations closing, coal mines as well, and an inability to store excess electricity generated by wind turbines at present, in fact turbine owners are paid to switch them off, the question is how will all the extra electricity required be generated and stored?
Click to expand...

Stored? Riches and treasures beyond belief to that problem solver.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
NeverDullInUll said:
Good point about the ecological impact of disposing of the batteries, I've no idea how much is recyclable, but making a battery, charging it with electricty produced from renewable energy, and then disposing of it must be better than the extraction of oil, refining it, making an engine to run on it, burning it and then disposing of the engine.
I know - very simplistic, and needs a brain much better than mine to quantify it.
Click to expand...

It depends on how much of the raw material is realistically available to make the number of cells that would be required for the mass market. Even if there turns out to be enough, the ecological damage of extracting some of the elements is quite significant.

Current[sic] battery technology also has a limit on how much more it can be developed without finding a different technique or materials.
 
Barchullona said:
Of course, seeing as our grid can hardly cope as it is and with nuclear power stations closing, coal mines as well, and an inability to store excess electricity generated by wind turbines at present, in fact turbine owners are paid to switch them off, the question is how will all the extra electricity required be generated and stored?
Click to expand...

Even if they can find a way of generating what's required, getting it to where it's needed will require significant changes to the existing network.
 
Asterix said:
Stored? Riches and treasures beyond belief to that problem solver.
Click to expand...

If I was a bit younger I would be working on it. But I am not expending time and energy to make a fortune for my kids to get all the enjoyment from. I would find a cure for the common cold and cure world poverty and bring about world peace but for the same reason.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
Barchullona said:
Of course, seeing as our grid can hardly cope as it is and with nuclear power stations closing, coal mines as well, and an inability to store excess electricity generated by wind turbines at present, in fact turbine owners are paid to switch them off, the question is how will all the extra electricity required be generated and stored?
Click to expand...

Worrying about ecological impact of disposing of a battery and then bemoaning the closure of nuclear power stations with all of the ecological issues they create (yeah I know, politics) - just proves there is no easy answer to the conundrum of heating and transporting 60m people around the UK
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMD
NeverDullInUll said:
Worrying about ecological impact of disposing of a battery and then bemoaning the closure of nuclear power stations with all of the ecological issues they create (yeah I know, politics) - just proves there is no easy answer to the conundrum of heating and transporting 60m people around the UK
Click to expand...

I wasn't bemoaning the closure of nuclear power stations, though I think it short sighted. Have never notice the sandal wearing greens turning off their electric and shivering in the dark rather than use the electric coming across the Channel provided by France's nuclear power stations. Not to mention nuclear fallout knows no boundaries and they are nearer the .French ones than some of ours. Maybe they should move?
 
Last edited:
NeverDullInUll said:
Worrying about ecological impact of disposing of a battery and then bemoaning the closure of nuclear power stations with all of the ecological issues they create (yeah I know, politics) - just proves there is no easy answer to the conundrum of heating and transporting 60m people around the UK
Click to expand...

And while 60 million in Britain are trying to save the planet over in India and China billions don't give a ****.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Barchullona
I know I might get shot down here but supposedly the worst effect for the environment was the burning of the amazon jungle (to make way for farming land) at least double the co2 then all the modes of transport in the world.
Cue the guns
 
  • Like
Reactions: augustatiger
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back