Electric car advice

[London Best]

@udderlyoffroad,   
The EV salesman has really got you conned, hasn’t he? Or are you an EV salesman?

[Westward]

2 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

If there's a system of street lighting, there's the means to charge an EV.  On street charging isn't the technological challenge people seem to think it is, it's one of logistics, see @oowee posts in this thread.  You plug in and, fire up the relevant app on your phone and/or the car phones the mothership and you are subsequently billed for the privilege.  You do not need a physical connection back to your own house's electrical meter.

It's a nice theory but if you were here I could show you several hundred houses, cottages and flats, all within half a mile, which have no option but to park either on the road or in designated areas. And all the while very few street lights and a good proportion of them on the wrong side or in the wrong place such as the one next door which couldn't be used because the user would be either blocking my access or my neighbours.

[Flyboy1950]

This came up last year, which was very interesting. I wonder how its getting along?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592485/Father-eight-invents-electric-car-battery-drivers-1-500-miles-without-charging-it.html

 

[udderlyoffroad]

31 minutes ago, London Best said:

@udderlyoffroad,   
The EV salesman has really got you conned, hasn’t he?

Quite the opposite, I've said multiple times on this thread why I'm not buying one*.  A few posts ago I have expressed my fondness for Satan's fuel (Diesel) as well as V8s. 

*Same reason as you, but unlike you, I believe (without knowing your age), that both of us will be around to witness the change, as it's already started. 

Do I believe EV's will reach a realistic range of 400+ miles soon?  Yes.  Will I buy such a vehicle?  Unlikely.

 

34 minutes ago, London Best said:

Or are you an EV salesman?

I work in Fuel distribution! My day job is upgrading fuel distribution facilities (i.e. keeping petrol stations feed and heating oil suppliers in business).

Further, I've also laid out my opinion as to why the market has yet to produce a vehicle that would suit my needs - as you would put it, for the average shooting man.

But what I'm not is in denial that EVs are becoming a more and more economically viable prospect.

Those 'early adopters' who profess to do it for environmental reasons are only fooling themselves.  Their chief cheerleader, one Robert Llewellyn, plays so fast and loose with basic physics on his YouTube channel I can barely watch.

Remember the OP, @ditchman, asked the question four pages back about dropping 10k on a 'runabout' EV.  My point was that a 2k Fiesta would get him to Big Sarah's and back, under cover of darkness, with no issue. 

And that, on a serious point, neither he, his wallet, nor the environment would benefit from an EV at this point.

 

30 minutes ago, Westward said:

which have no option but to park either on the road or in designated areas. And all the while very few street lights and a good proportion of them on the wrong side or in the wrong place such as the one next door which couldn't be used because the user would be either blocking my access or my neighbours.

Nowhere in my post did I say you had to use the actual lamp posts...the point is that if you have street lighting, you have a relatively high capacity cable feeding low demand (as street lights get upgraded to LED).

As I said, this isn't a difficult *technical* challenge.   What we have here is a confluence of LAs, DNOs and NIMBYs who all need to talk to each other and agree a scheme. 

Inductive charging, with no physical connection, is also possible, if inefficient (at the moment).

[oowee]

3 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

 

Unfortunately, unlike a lot of other countries, our public infrastructure in this country is in the hands of many different companies, so this won't be an easy logistical challenge to solve.  We can barely manage smart meters.

But can we please get away from this idea that those without a drive need to run an extension lead to their own car.  It's nonsense.

 

 

This is exactly the problem we came up against in the charging infrastructure roll out project. So much of the 'Public' infrastructure is privately owned. Be it cables, car parking or even some of the public realm. Everyone wanting a share of the upside pie and complete indemnity against any possible downside.

[London Best]

@Udderlyoffroad,

How wrong can I be? 
It was just that you said exactly the same stuff as a salesman who convinced a friend’s neighbour to buy an EV. It was only six months after he bought it that he realised that there was not suddenly going to be a charger on each lamp post.

[AVB]

I am I suppose what you would call an early adopter. However I definitely didn't do it to save the environment (although it enables me to take the moral high ground when it suits me!). I did it because I like tech, it suited my driving profile, I like the performance and it was cheaper than the Range Rover I was considering. 

I also don't think that the government banning the sale of new ICE cars in 2030 is the right way to go about things. I would prefer education (to dispel some of the ridiculous myths that you see posted) and financial incentives. 

Edited December 1, 2020 by AVB

[Westward]

1 hour ago, udderlyoffroad said:

As I said, this isn't a difficult *technical* challenge.   What we have here is a confluence of LAs, DNOs and NIMBYs who all need to talk to each other and agree a scheme. 

Inductive charging, with no physical connection, is also possible, if inefficient (at the moment).

So in essence we're at least a generation away from overcoming the logistics. And with a financial outlay that will likely dwarf HS2, I have to wonder who'll end up footing the bill, EV drivers probably. 

2030 is obviously an impossible target but Boris won't be PM by then so I don't suppose he cares too much.

[oscarsdad]

1 hour ago, Flyboy1950 said:

This came up last year, which was very interesting. I wonder how its getting along?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592485/Father-eight-invents-electric-car-battery-drivers-1-500-miles-without-charging-it.html

 

I don’t know but I suspect not very far (yet) - the £100k government grant suggests that it was miles away from production rather than being something we will see in a couple of years as that’s a small grant allocation. 

[Raja Clavata]

This government is really serious about DER (Driving the Electric Revolution) I mean they just released another £5.75M in funding to drive innovation 🙄

 

[Raja Clavata]

Need to take into account that we are really only talking about first gen BEV which is 400V. Porsche has launched a 800V system which plugs into a 350kW charger. At about 1000V with a 500kW you'd get charging ~= conventional re-fuelling.