Off Topic Electric cars

I still think as a one car family would be best to go with a Hybrid. I am currently getting over 60 miles to the gallon petrol with mostly around town but less in winter. All though when using the Leaf it cost me nothing as I would only use the free chargers. So maybe that's why I had to plan my journeys. There was however problems with the charging app as some of the charger were out of commission but still on the app as working, not good but this may of now been improved. Just my thoughts but keep an open mind.

 

I have been leasing for over 20 years now. Yes the car is never mine but I know what I am paying out and I get a nice new car every 2-3 years.

 

Only a couple years for me mate, but I wish I’d got onto it sooner, lost tens of thousands over the years.

Don’t worry about **** all and swap every couple years, ideal.

I’ve paid a bit extra couple times for certain options but it’s barely made an impact on the monthly, just waiting for the new 4 Series which everyone hates but I am in love with

 

I will probably get another Volvo. Stopping making the S60 so some good deals on the T5 models with 250bhp. I will look about at other offers though.

 

Volvo are beautiful nowadays, they really are. Interior is spectacular in some of them.

I considered one of the XC90 about 18 month back as was considering a 4 x 4 and it just stood out quality wise (short of RR which I didn’t fancy), decided to stick with coupes a bit longer, and I will have at least one more when the new shape is available.

 

We use electric vehicles at work and they are absolutely fantastic. If I could afford one I would have one.

 

Senior management has an X3 her 2nd or 3rd, she seems happy with it

 

The problem with hydrogen, is that it would be a massive investment for someone to build the infrastructure of the new filling stations. Hydrogen is quite complex to store, as it leaks out, is very explosive, etc... They're not going to invest billions building filling stations until they can see that there's a demand (by people having bought many hydrogen powered cars), but people aren't going to buy a car until they know that there's going to be somewhere they can stop and fill it up. Catch-22.

Ammonia is another possibility. It's a bit expensive to produce (hydrogen can bee too though), but it can be stored easier. You could fill up your car with ammonia, and have a "cracker" in the car that splits the hydrogen out of it and burns it. The only emissions are harmless nitrogen. They need to reduce the cost of producing the ammonia, and have sufficient capacity (nuclear or wind) to produce the electricity to make the ammonia without having to rely on fossil fuel to generate that.

Same argument applies to battery powered cars though, if the electricity that you charge the batteries with is produced by coal/oil powered power stations, you've solved nothing, you've just moved the problem.

 

Yeah mate mines a very good car and all I need at the moment
I don’t cover many miles
I only get 40 miles to the gallon bit I’m ok

 

MPG is irrelevant when you do less miles, I get just over 30 but at the minute doing less than 100 miles a month with remote working.

Used to do 12k year but I doubt I’ll ever return to that now, which is why electric isn’t a consideration at minute.

 

Yeah I only do about 150 month infact I got the car in November and only done 1800 miles
Mind you this lockdown in early summer ment the car never moved for a few weeks

 

Only had it a few hours but the Kia e Niro is fantastic. Has everything you need plus things you don't need, heated seats, heated steering wheel. Reversing camera, speech activated phone, sat nav, One Pedal Drive setting, regenerative braking. I also Downloaded the UVO so can see the status of the car and switch things on/off, unlock/lock via the android before I leave the house. Took it for a spin and in sport mode, it actually threw me back in my seat. I'm too old to be a boy racer, but that's what happens when you have sons who are. The drive is smooth as owt, its pretty big and I intend to take it to Leicester at the weekend to see what its like on a long journey. I've registered my credit card with egotricity and will nip out later and try a rapid charge at Washington services. You can see what charge points are currently available live in your area. So far so good

 

He's on his way round right now marra. Thought he might need a bit more than a baseball bat to fit it but there you go.

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He will need that to get past The Hackle

 

I am going to arrange a test drive in one...

I suppose if I do not do a lot of milage pa then electricity being cheaper than diesel is not so big a factor.

 

Me and her indoors both drive hybrids. I've got the Toyota Prius and she has the Toyota Auris. Very cheap running costs and no worries about finding a charge point.

I'm about to change my Prius for either the Hyundai Ioniq or the Kia Niro. Really torn about which one to get if I'm honest.

Got to test drive each one first, so hopefully one of them far exceeds the other, or I'll have a tough decision to make.

 

wont have as much affect, obviously 0 emissions, but the drive itself is brilliant

 

The "filling station" issue applied (still applies?) to battery cars. Not a lot of capacity and has needed a lot of investment to get it to where it is, and that's well short of what would be needed if plug-in EVs get even more popular. So if a technology is a viable option, the money will follow.

Hydrogen is explosive, but so is petrol. And at least Hydrogen disperses quickly, not forming the right concentration to really go off "pop", unlike petrol vapour. I suppose we have just got used to the idea! And have you ever seen what Lithium does when it gets wet?

The initial demand for hydrogen will come from bigger vehicles. Batteries are no use in trucks as they weigh too much and reduce the payload. Note that no current EV can be fitted with a tow bar (would impact range too much to manufacturers don't allow for it), so the caravan brigade will be using petrol/diesel for a while. And Airbus has just stopped all research on battery technology to use hydrogen.

The ammonia idea my take off, and there are other ideas around to make hydrogen handling easy. That could help by reducing the need to pressurise or cool hydrogen to make storage a bit more compact A bigger problem may be the fuels cells as they need platinum as a catalyst, and that is rare and expensive. But then again Lithium is not that easy to get and you need a LOT more of that to make a battery.

Going to be an interesting next few years.....

 

On my third Hybrid, now Toyota RAV 4, love it! Super smooth with no gear changes, powerful and fairly big but getting average 50.6mpg over the last 1500 miles, would recommend. The latest versions offer a great improvement in economy.

 

**** electric im a petrol head and just finished my baby so many mods i cant list them all