Electric Cars
After reading a car magazine I started thinking about the increase of electric cars. The article implied that in five years a quarter of car production will be electric. Now as an ex design engineer I totally embrace new technology (in case you think I am a killjoy). My concern is with the recharging infrastructure. Down our roads there are cars parked in a continuous progression. I have a mental picture of hundreds of wires coming out of houses across the pavement connected to their cars. But what happens if you get home and your space is taken by someone else? Would you then have another extension lead? Are I hear you say, you can just pop down to the garage to share the charging facilities there and have a chat for three or four hours either while you are charging or waiting for one to come free. What are your views?
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You could drive to your local Ikea which has 'refuelling' plug ins, as does our local Toby Carvery (and one or two other local businesses)! I doubt that many people will actually plug in at home!
I appreciate that 'filling up' is not as rapid as for petrol/diesel cars but I imagine that most people will choose to fill up whilst they are at work/shopping/eating.
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You could drive to your local Ikea which has 'refuelling' plug ins, as does our local Toby Carvery (and one or two other local businesses)! I doubt that many people will actually plug in at home!
I appreciate that 'filling up' is not as rapid as for petrol/diesel cars but I imagine that most people will choose to fill up whilst they are at work/shopping/eating.
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For us not practical. We run a 17 year old 1,000cc Yaris that has had one replacement exhaust and second replacement battery last year. A few sets of wipers and probably 8 tyres replaced largely because of age. It does less than 3,000 miles a year.
We also run an 11.5 year old X-Trail that is used mainly when on holiday and taken to shops between times so that it is not sat for too long. As the X-Trail is used for towing and on site for 17 weeks of the year and the CC sites do not have recharge provision seems a non starter.
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We have recharging points all over Central Milton Keynes. I would make the assumption that someone would not be mad enough to buy/lease an electric car unless they had done their homework on how to keep it charged up first? I think I could quite fancy an electric car but would worry that it would be restrictive for longer journeys but for going backwards and forwards in MK it would be ideal. Easy to charge via my garage.
David
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Our local Ikea is 65 miles away and our nearest Toby Carvery is 45 miles away... I've seen electric car points whilst away in the van, but never seen one in our local area. So not an option for us...
If we do use our car for longer trips its for journeys of 200 miles or thereabouts, so again, electric is not an option for us....
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There are always those that will talk down changes.
I understand that there are grants and planning exemptions available for installing charging points, should you have the room. The latest electric cars are capable of being recharged in about 20 minutes and this will reduce as improvements to batteries are introduced. I too can foresee cables trailing between house and roadside parked cars but it will simply be more pavement clutter for pedestrians to avoid.
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For local commuting, a small electric runabout seems a no-brainer. There is currently no practical solution for heavy load/long distance travel so I shall probably use my trusty Kuga until it drops. The OH's car is good for another eight or nine years, so if we are still breathing then perhaps a 21st century solution will be available for our transport needs.
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Far from " Talking Down Changes " ....I am very much in favour of electric vehicles.. However, having just had a look on an online map, our nearest public car charging points are in York, 45 miles away... Fine if you happen to be going that way and assuming the vehicle would get that far, and back perhaps in the dark...
Until local councils and businesses install sufficient or even some charging points, electric cars will be a non starter in North Yorkshire, along with cable TV and superfast broadband which have also yet to arrive where we live. ..
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At present they have insufficient range for many people but might be ideal for some. Nissan leaf has quotes 124 miles. The 24kwh unit takes 7 hours to reach full charge in a specialised home charge unit or 12 to 15 plugged into mains.
The 124 miles assumes you don't want to keep the cabin much above ambient temperature and so the range could be greatly reduced in the winter when batteries are less efficient and greater temperature differences are required to be maintained between outside and inside,
Yes there are some charging points on the road that let you obtain an 80% charge in 30 mins it claims.
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Jaguar are to introduce a totally electric (no petrol engine etc as back up) with a range of 300 miles. Obviously it would be considerably less when towing or for that matter driving at night, rainy weather and needing heating/aircon. Despite 300 miles being a move up the scale in electric cars performance ability it would seem to be very restrictive in real world towing conditions needing to plan journeys and recharging unless travelling relatively short trips. Not quite there yet in my view.
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I read some bumph a year ago and on a small electric commuter vehicle, Renault Twizzy, which appears to have no heating but quotes a 20% reduction in range in cold weather.
So with a quoted 124mile range of the Leaf I would want a 20% emergency charge left giving an effective range of 100 miles. I would not be surprised if this range reduced to 70 miles in severely cold weather with cab heating running
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Perhaps there will be car renting and sharing from a charge point, rather like bikes are hired in towns now. It is a future view and can't be based on the way we run our cars now, the whole concept is revolutionary but interesting.
At present our nearest Ikea is an hour and a half away!
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We have just updated our 62 plate Mitsubishi Outlander GX4 2.2 di to the 66 plate Outlander 4, 2-2di (they have dropped the GX bit). The salesman at Mitsubishi spent a good hour trying to persuade us to buy the Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid PHEV even though we kept telling him we tow a caravan and after research we found that the vehicle is just not powerful enough.
Ironically just after that we saw a 65 plate PHEV towing a Lunar single axle...didn't catch the model but looked fixed bed type with front door...so maybe they do tow OK. I would certainly buy one if this is the case...charging points are on every street corner in Europe..
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Have a look at ecotricity
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I know a Nissan leaf driver who has travelled from Tunbridge Wells down to see a friend in the New Forest, not towing, and enjoys a cup of coffee en-route at a motorway service station which has a free ( for now) re charging point which only takes 30 mins to get sufficient charge to see the journey completed.
As an 'around town' vehicle it is without equal. running costs =1.2 p per mile!
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, This map does NOT show the facility at Eurotunnel . !! 0
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Nearest supermarket with parking= 18 miles
Nearest Toby Carvery= 36 miles
Nearest Ikea= 162 miles.
Ah well, maybe that's the research that DK mentioned!
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Same here A&J but there is a place in Truro a mere 25 miles from me.
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To use a point other than home I would have to drive 8 miles to an Asda which has only two points or a similar distance to a car dealership that has only two points. I wonder how many are able to charge either whilst they shop or whilst they work? Not many I suspect
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Electric cars are perfect for city centre driving and should be the only type of vehicle allowed within city centres.
Outside cities, in rural towns and villages, there is no need for electric vehicles ---- Petrol and Diesel vehicles are perfectly OK.
Cheers....................K
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Correct,1500kg it is..and as my van is plated 1473kg without the OH contribution thats what made my mind up to stay with the diesel version of the Outlander...but as I said, I did see a 65 plate PHEV towing a Lunar and since then a warden on a club site says he has seen one towing a twin axle...!!!
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Wonder what happens if, say, for instance, you have a terrace house and it has 2 or 3 cars in the household, how would this do to re-charge their cars. It seems to me that the best thing to have is "car parks" solely for charging cars and that's the only place you can go to
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So you have driven 80` you are already suffering from RANGE ANXIETY when you arrive at the car park with the charging points that you`ve investigated on the internet. Oh no they are in use and six cars are waiting, its got a long way to go yet.
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I wonder who will pay if they install power points with separate meters, similar to those on caravan pitches, along the kerbside? Will they need to add a security device to stop someone creeping out during the night and connecting up to someone else's supply? Will the cost of AA, or similar, insurance rocket sky high to cover the cost of towing electric cars with flat batteries?
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