IDD15

Percy I think most EV car makers offer this service as a freebie on new EV's. But if we are to have a flourishing secondhand EV market then the RAC may well help this along! Idd

Nigel Whilst I agree with your analysis re fast charging you do need to take into account regen braking in an EV. Fundamentally good fast regen is critical in an EV in order to recover energy, and this is where buffering the pack with super caps would really come into its own. As a real world example I have found when travelling from Manchester to Leeds I use a lot less energy than when going home the other way. Basically when going W to E the car has a much longer distance over which it can recover energy on the drive down from Saddleworth Moor. I got well and truly caught by this the first time I did the return trip in the Leaf, fortunately the Ecotricty rapid chargers at Birch services saved the day. Topography plays a significant role when your electric fuel tank holds the equivalent of less than a gallon of petrol! Idd

Range anxiety sorted! RAC News A somewhat ironic solution though!

Well Mr Musk has just gone and thrown a hand grenade with the pin out into the personal transportation room. My assumption had been truly autonomous cars were 10 years away at the very least. He wants to do it next year! Tesla Autonomy Event Given the Tesla artificial brain is growing at the rate of 5000 cars a week (and that is just Model 3's) it may just happen. The implications in such a short timescale are quite staggering. That Hyundai that Trevor has just bought may be the last ever car he buys..... We live in interesting times!

Proper Range Rover here! E Rover All kudos to JLR though: Jaguar Win Smacked down the ETron and quite rightly so IMHO.

Thanks for heads up on Booth's supermarkets Percy, useful to know on some of my trips. Regarding towing this wee beastie might work for people. I particularly like the model wing storage compartment at the back of the cabin, but in truth pickups are not my thing. Apologies to Don, I know it is not in production yet but I think this one might actually make it into reality. Rivian Pickup Truck

Also perhaps coming to a Morissions near you... Not so grand as a Fastned charging hub but very useful for a top up whilst shopping. Morissons Chargers So this follows the lead set by LIDL and Tesco.

A wee update on the charging infrastructure: Fastned Charger It is significant because of the power of the chargers, you can use a contactless credit card to pay (it is one of only three companies in the UK to support this), and it is no longer an isolated single charging post stuck in some god forsaken corner of a car park blocked by an inconsiderate ICE driver. There are another 4 planned by this company for the NE. This will complement existing hubs (built by other companies) in Milton Keynes and those under construction in York and Bristol. Fastned are a significant player in Benelux and Northern Germany so hopefully their move into the UK will accelerate improvements here. As I have said just a few times, the numbers are moving in the right direction.

I think people are ignoring a very significant difference between Tesla and old school manufacturers. When you buy a Tesla you also get access to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IStNA3s4NcQ Tesla are selling you a complete system, and a very good one, everybody else is selling you a box on wheels. No other manufacturer even comes close in terms of forward thinking. The new Audi and Merc are just overweight big boxes stuffed with 2 motors and big batteries with appalling efficiencies. They've done nothing new in EV vehicle terms. I certainly don't see the Merc star ascending the heavens any time soon. Just my humble 5p worth of course! IDD

Don The 350 Kw charging is based on cars with 800V systems, the first of which will be the Porsche Macan which is due later this year. So yes it’s a bit of a paper tiger at the moment, but the numbers are moving in the right direction. Must admit when fast charging I try not to think too much about the 90 plus amps going into the battery underneath my derrière! 350K is going to be very toasty.... IDD

I can verify the regen braking bit as the alloys on the Leaf take very little cleaning. A seemingly minor but significant perk perhaps pollution wise. Wish I'd been a bit more careful/cautious servicing the drum brakes now on my old Mini Clubman with all that dust blowing about. Never could get that damn car to brake in a straight line! idd

Eric I am a current member of BATS. If you send me a friend request I can PM you my contact details and put you in touch with the Membership sec etc. New members are always very welcome, though we may be a bit of a trek from Southport. idd PS Gliders and electric gliders are unlimited in terms of wingspan so your CZ Challenger would be fine. In the hey day of Open glider contests many BATS flew 12 and even 15ft gliders at our site. The 56 inch span is aimed more at the sport electric models. .

+1 for the hair tax idd (baldilocks) PS I can't wait for self driving cars, it would get my elderly mother off the road.

Posted by Percy Verance on 03/11/2018 17:18:37: It isn't going to happen overnight IDD. How long do you suppose it took to build a network of petrol filling stations when internal combustion engines first appeared...... Interesting you cite the Ubercity lamp post chargers. I saw a couple of blokes fitting some over in Yorkshire last week. I assume to use them you'd need one of the existing network swipe cards? Or do they use their own? Edited By Percy Verance on 03/11/2018 17:20:21 You're quite right of course it is going to take a while, with a lot of it funded by private money (ecotricity, Shell, LIDL, IKEA, BP, Polar etc.) and some from the government. Its the lack of planning and coordination that is so frustrating, especially here is England and Wales. Scotland totally different story, lots of public chargers and in the right places, park and ride car parks, shopping areas, football grounds, train station car parks...... When you get your new Leaf I thoroughly recommend a road trip to Scotland but forget SW Wales if you have an EV! idd

In other news.... More lamppost chargers are to be installed in London to add to the existing 300 odd operated by Ubertricity https://www.zap-map.com/payg-char-gy-lamppost-ev-charge-points-go-live-in-london/ We await future stories of charging lampposts electrocuting errant pooches with bated breath.... So good news for Londoners, meanwhile in Macclesfield and many other places it is still a case of "jog on mate" if you have an EV and need to charge. idd

Erf and the Chinese are very much on the same page when it comes to buses. Think TfL has one at the moment with a few more on the way! https://www.itdp.org/2018/09/11/electric-buses-china/ idd

Posted by ken anderson. on 21/10/2018 10:19:00: what about all the duty the government/country is going to lose, what about the millions of jobs that are going to be lost....lots of people employed in all aspects of the "motoring" industry.....get rid of the IC engines could spell the end of the world as we know it now......bet America don't throw away the ic engine...my personal thoughts are that the ic engine will be refined even more...…(cleaned up). don't forget that the electric jobs need a lot of our natural resources to be able to function...what happens when that runs out...… there'll be a few (million) leccy cars that are basically ornaments then. in the big picture there are no ideal solutions......the program on the TV a couple of weeks ago took ic job's off the drivers for a week and gave them a hybrid or pure electric car...they were impressed to a certain extent...but when they were told the price £65k for one of them the colour drained out of them...come on,who has that sort of dosh,they can spend on a tin box with four wheels...not many... ken anderson...ne....1..my thoughts/observations… dept Edited By ken anderson. on 21/10/2018 10:19:30 Crikey! How much coffee have you had this morning? You are quite correct there are no ideal solutions, you just need to determine the one that best suits you. The good thing is as a consumer your choice of transport options is now much wider. idd

Clearly Mr Bate was taken seriously in some circles and rightly so. These are 2015's figures so presumably have been improved.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/25/britain-should-make-more-energy-from-poo-says-ofwat/ If an EV doesn't suit your needs or you don't think the infrastructure is up to it then don't buy one. How you spend your hard earned cash as a consumer is probably a more powerful weapon than your democratic vote (cynic moi!). ICE is NOT going to disappear anytime soon....except if you want a Smart car! IDD

Posted by ken anderson. on 21/10/2018 09:20:44: it'll be interesting to see how the electric cars perform when we have a bad winter and the temps go down.....bet the batts suffer then and also the performance...….. the northern hemisphere can be cruel …. ken anderson...ne...1.... weather dept. It can indeed, I lost a lot of nice plants in the garden with last years "Beast from the East". On the up side the Leaf performed fine. The ability to preheat the cabin before the joyful commute helped alleviate some of the misery of travelling in that lousy weather. Not nice for anyone. Idd PS As your in the weather dept perhaps you could have word and calm things down a bit for us gardeners. Ta.

Posted by Don Fry on 20/10/2018 20:28:59: It's the thought if getting a unit after me. I have rarely cleaned a car in the last 50 years, inside or out. Many years ago. ( I used to smoke), I thought Land Rover was great with their flat sills, when the fag ends fell out at the rate of accumulation. And then I think of the disgusting uses I've put cars to. Don't even ask.

Posted by Rich too on 20/10/2018 16:16:39: Posted by IDD15 on 20/10/2018 10:38:11: Interesting to see that Smart have gone completely electric. Probably not a bad thing either. Had the misfortune to have one as a loan vehicle whilst a car was in the body shop. Very clever design let down by an appalling petrol engine. Absolutely dreadful, how on earth Merc signed that one off goodness knows. IDD Smart haven't gone all electric? What's wrong with the motor? It's been around long enough so I'm surprised at that. https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/17/17018998/smart-fortwo-electric-drive-review-mercedes Smart all electric in USA market now, 2020 ROW. It was the 4 seat version, really funky clever design but the engine was terrible. Inflexible, peaky and gutless. When the delivery driver picked it up he said he'd a lot of complaints about them. Not what I expected of a Merc. Idd

Posted by Percy Verance on 20/10/2018 11:03:35: By the way, that link you posted re: the two photos of New York just 13 years apart. Such a huge change in a relatively short space of time...... it would sure drive down the cost of a decent horse. Edited By Percy Verance on 20/10/2018 11:08:48 TBH I thought those pictures were the best bit of the whole article. We always think we live in an age of rapid change but in reality its happened before! IDD

Posted by James Green2 on 20/10/2018 13:14:10: This thread should be renamed 'remotely polluting vehicles'. Not really. The greener the grid the greener the EV's become. Given the UK now gets 30% of its power from renewables, and that percentage is growing, so the better the overall EV vehicle fleet performs. Remarkably for a few hours earlier this summer the grid was powered purely by solar generation. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago and shows just how much things have changed. IDD

Yeah that little of extra length over the Kona definitely makes it more practical for model transportation. Styling does not seem OTT by SUV standards either. Hyundai and Kia I think have also got Nissan on the back foot with the efficiency of their drive trains, regularly meeting Ioniq drivers who are getting over 5miles per Kwh. My best average with the Leaf is 4.7. Be interesting to see what the Etron and Merc do in the real world given their size and weight. Jag iPace is allegedly a bit of an amp eater too.... Interesting to see that Smart have gone completely electric. Probably not a bad thing either. Had the misfortune to have one as a loan vehicle whilst a car was in the body shop. Very clever design let down by an appalling petrol engine. Absolutely dreadful, how on earth Merc signed that one off goodness knows. IDD

If you are a lover of the SUV some details from the Paris motor show on the new Audi and Mercedes EV variants. Bit expensive, and disappointing ranges for such big battery packs methinks, however the Kia eNiro looks promising. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKpxHo_r7O4 Enjoy! IDD