Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please
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Even the power generation companies use a range of 'fuels' as they admit they cannot rely on any one fuel source.
Imagine this as a scenario. All vehicles powered by electricity. Terrorists attack the power supply, (easy to blow up a few strategic main pylons in the middle of nowhere all over the country). Power outages occur and everything comes to a standstill for days as repairs will not be quick. Mobile phones will die so communications will be almost non-existent. It might sound a bit far fetched but it could conceivably happen. ( I think I might write a novel !)
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Really? I thought you were more down to earth than that, PD.😕
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It’s my belief that it’ll be nothing like a gradual increase, PD. It’ll be massive and rapid in my view.
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It can only be gradual a lot of the population can`t spend £30000 upwards on an electric car and second hand ones will take a while to filter through, whether they will be a good buy after 3-4 years from new remains to be seen because of the battery lifespan (90% efficiency) Charging at home let alone on the road is still early days it really requires a drive and charging point, those that have to park cars on the roads often some distance from their properties won`t find it so easy.
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Will a vehicle will ever be produced, powered by leccy, that would enable me to tow a caravan for 250 miles or more without the need for refuelling?
Long live diesel, and the heck with the greenies who are usually all words and no suitable actions!
I really do not think that any car mfr. will come up with an all electric vehicle, with sufficient battery storage, to do what I need in terms of miles and tugging ability.
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How gradual? Just to cater for the increase in power requirements for the East Coast London to Edinburgh rail route they have had to double the amount of substations off the national grid,and 12000 add houses are to be built in our area of Hertfordshire the Government are still provaracating over what is needed
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So was it computer hackers that ‘broke’ the 2 power stations?🤔
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Were you affected by the Hornsea outage around 1700 yesterday, Rocky, or did the rest of the Grid keep you powered up?⚡️
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I live in a tiny Hamlet of sub 50, if there’s any movement of Lekky cables we get an outage. Then we have to wait for owd Alf to get his bike out pedal the 3miles & reset the breaker. That can take 1-4hrs🤷🏻♂️😊
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Oh, ok. I thought you knew.
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We have similar issues, although not this week. The last was when a seagull flew into the transformer. We’ve even been wired into a big gennie on occasion while things get fixed. You should have heard the neighbours whinge about the noise it made. It was just like moaners on a forum🤣
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And how much 'new' power will HS2 need if the country is daft enough to ever build it?
An electrification scheme on existing railway lines in the Midlands has been scrapped. Instead they will use Modal locos that run on both electric and diesel. The government say it is because of cost of the scheme but is it really because they know there will not be enough power available for the trains to run?
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Time to get mining good Welsh Steam Coal again ? electrification of rail lines beyond Cardiff is scrapped....! to run on...you guessed it, good old dirty Diesel...Now there's progress isnt it ? old Welsh saying boyo !
Forget Electric Cars if the Government themselves intend to power new trains with Diesel. Dont do as I do, do as I say.
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I see there is a bit on the BBC website saying we will have stop driving altogether to combat climate change.
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For me the cost of replacing batteries, scarcity of charging points and general lack of power make fully-electric cars (especially for towing) still years away. PHEV would seem to be the best compromise for now but for us less well-off who still see caravanning as the best of budget holidaying, my dear old oil-burner will just have to do. I wonder if anyone ever considered how much scrapping and destroying older vehicles costs our planet?
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of course we could all go back to horse-drawn gypsy caravans!
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This is an interesting read, (See below). I was also reading about TESLA recently, you can't argue that they are the market leaders at the moment, but some of the articles I have read about horrendous repair bills some owners are having to pay puts an already very expensive car in a poor light.
Electric VW Golf Shouldn't think it do VW's sales any favours.
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So far our BMW i3 has run problem free for the last three years, there is very little to go wrong with it as there's no conventional engine and we hope the computer driven system lasts well. There are now five EVs and some phevs in our village so it's interesting to see who's going to try one next. It was a major investment for us but has been virtually cost free since purchase. It's a shock when we have to fill up our motorhome!
OH feels the next generation of cars will be long distance computer controlled...there are major changes ahead but this will probably be for the next generation.
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Yes Tigi the batteries are still doing well. Our range is excellent due to the Rex system which regenerates the batteries along with other inbuilt regeneration designs. The batteries are guaranteed for 8 years so we'll see how it goes but so far so good. We're disappointed that BMW dropped the Rex system as it's the best of both worlds. The latest ideas are to build regeneration systems into the roads, we may not see that in our life time but it's another possible future development.
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Yes brue but how much can it TOW ? this thread is about Towcars is it not, be interesting to see what is 'Towcar of the Year' in 2030 (not THAT far away).
I think the hints about restrictions on personal mobility were ominous. You cannot 'uninvent' personal mobility systems, governments will have to aaccommodate them. And Towing a Caravan is part of that mobility.
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Rayjsj. As an EV user I have tried to be totally upfront about the actual EV experience and the wish to see homologation in the pipe line. As you may be aware this is only available with Tesla at present. It appears to be one slow step at a time. Personally we want to tow our trailer again. If I hear of any progress it will be relayed on here.
I would love to hear feedback from the club and Kelly the OP. This thread is two years old now and I think it would be great to have some industry news and updates.
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I have a Tesla Model X....the standard range. We took delivery of this on 6th Sep.
.....and i have a 2018 Compass Casita 840 weighing in at an mtlpm of approx 1734 kg and its the 8ft wide and 26ft long too
I towed for the first time after doing loads of research and it was amazing!
By far the best towing experience i’ve ever had....better than any diesel or petrol, manual and automatic.
It typically uses double the battery.....we went from West Yorkshire to Morecambe on a Friday afternoon after school.
We had 234 miles in the battery when we set off and arrived 70 miles later with 100 miles left in the Battery.
It pulled like there was nothing on the back and because there is no gear changing in the engine (both manuals and auto’s have a lag), the acceleration was instant, at one point i checked to make sure the my van was still attached to the A frame!
The car comes with a Tow mode and a little camera that allows you to keep an eye on your hitch whilst towing.
Upon arriving at the camp site....Tesla provide you with a 3 pin industrial socket to charge from the caravan connection, so when not using the full mains in the caravan, we charged the car. This type of connection gave approx 12 miles for every hour it was on charge....ideal to get out and explore.
Anyway....it was amazing....i’ve attached a photo below
I do think it’ll restrict our distances with our breaks away, maybe even encouraging more overnight stops on to our final destination....however when you arrive and have not paid for any fuel....that leaves you with a nice little smug feeling.
Any questions, please ask...i’ve found it a mine field trying to get any British people to give advice on towing with an EV.
Manu thanks
Paul
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