All electric motorhomes.... Possible or not?

[trevskoda]

Really the numbers can be manipulated to prove just about anything.
For me the cheapest way to buy/ run a car is what we did with our Saab.
Great car. 2.3 twin cam fuel injection convertible. Leather seats, wood dash, air con alloys auto gearbox. Great car
£1200 to buy 8 years ago
Cost to own £150 per year
Serviced twice in 8 years , local garage £200 each time £50 per year
Road tax £250 per year
So £450 per year plus fuel
And its a damn site better than an electric noddy car

Serviced twice in 8 years, do you ever use it, i service my cars every six mths or less, last set of b pads lasted 8 weeks.

 

[trevskoda]

The layout of rent on an electric car will mean I will not ever own one, my last car at 7 years old cost me £10 and ran for 15 years without fault, so only fuel and oils etc, beat that.

 

[Martin P]

In every respect

 

[trevskoda]

If you count the fuel & oils plus services on a piston tugger then over many years it will start to show, but by that time the batts will be on the way out plus rust etc, so im thinking on long term about the same.
Car makers say in 5 years battery life and distance covered from a fast charge will be not much dif that engined cars.

 

[Martin P]

Set of brake pads in 8 weeks? Are you on the run!

 

[mark61]

In what respect?

In the respect of noddies of course.

 

[trevskoda]

Set of brake pads in 8 weeks? Are you on the run!

We drive our cars here, and I mean drive em, we have the best roads for it.

 

[trevskoda]

To be honest i think the last set of pads were elcheepos from god knows where, just fitted ferodo this time to see how they go.

 

[Martin P]

Looks like a lovely place

 

[Martin P]

I put ferodo on the van .

 

[mark61]

We drive our cars here, and I mean drive em, we have the best roads for it.View attachment 89681View attachment 89682

Thats a motorway.

 

[colinm]

In every respect

At a traffic lights drag race, a granny in a E-Corsa would leave a 900Turbo for dead, even with Stig driving it. That may become one of the problems in the future, most BEV's accelerate at what would have been 'high performance' car rates, but they are generally heavier, so I can see youngsters flying down the road and crashing at the first corner.

 

[maingate]

At a traffic lights drag race, a granny in a E-Corsa would leave a 900Turbo for dead, even with Stig driving it. That may become one of the problems in the future, most BEV's accelerate at what would have been 'high performance' car rates, but they are generally heavier, so I can see youngsters flying down the road and crashing at the first corner.

DC Drives can be adjusted with Potentiometers, so while I agree that they CAN outperform many high performance vehicles from a standing start, they should be set up for battery life more than performance I would have thought. All of which begs the question, can you 'tuneup' a standard electric vehicle?

I followed a Tesla car the other week. It had very sporty styling and looked the business.

 

[colinm]

DC Drives can be adjusted with Potentiometers, so while I agree that they CAN outperform many high performance vehicles from a standing start, they should be set up for battery life more than performance I would have thought. All of which begs the question, can you 'tuneup' a standard electric vehicle?

I followed a Tesla car the other week. It had very sporty styling and looked the business.

All the BEV's I've been in have different modes that can be set, all along lines of 'sport', 'standard', 'eco', and I've no doubt when they become common place 'tuning shops' will offer a service.
A friend of mine has a Tesla S 100D, IIRC 0-60 is 3.5secs, he used it for a few weeks but got fed up, he would rather drive his AM Vantage (in the dry) as it's more fun, his wife mainly drives the Tesla. Also he said the interior is a 'bit cheap', but I guess that's compared to other high priced cars.

 

[Martin P]

At a traffic lights drag race, a granny in a E-Corsa would leave a 900Turbo for dead, even with Stig driving it. That may become one of the problems in the future, most BEV's accelerate at what would have been 'high performance' car rates, but they are generally heavier, so I can see youngsters flying down the road and crashing at the first corner.

Big wow.
I'm in my car with the top down, elbow on the door and life is good. Granny in her whining little boring car can take off vertically for all I care

 

[colinm]

Big wow.
I'm in my car with the top down, elbow on the door and life is good. Granny in her whining little boring car can take off vertically for all I care

Granny will be wishing she could take off vertically, instead she'll be swearing about the old duffer holding her up on way back from EWM.
Funny enough, I would think if Saab had kept going and been brought out by the Chinese, it would be at forefront of BEV's, a bit like Polestar(Volvo) are.

 

[trevskoda]

Big wow.
I'm in my car with the top down, elbow on the door and life is good. Granny in her whining little boring car can take off vertically for all I care

Elbows on doors is bad driving farmer type practice, tut tut.

 

[trevskoda]

Thats a motorway.

Thats the good stretch.
Big problem here is many hills and twisty bends requiring lots of braking and power, tyres brakes shocks and steering parts wear fast.

 

[Eieio]

For my three penneth worth I think the real issue is the infrastructure. Currently it’s hopeless - take for example the person who took nine hours to go 130 miles in their new electric Porsche. Most electric cars are currently charged up at home. To provide enough electricity new power stations will be needed and there’s no sign of that - in fact they are dithering about replacing the old nuclear stations to meet current demand - HS2 isn’t planned to finish until 2033. Most people who call in at motorway service stations don’t stop for fuel but imagine the queues if they did - obviously they’d have to make every bay a charging point.
As for the technology I think hydrogen has probably an equal chance of taking over and there are plenty of examples HGVs already particularly buses. On the question of HGVs the solution will probably be overhead lines like trams running along key distribution routes. They’ve also experimented with road surface pick ups. This lends it self to those auto drive lorry trains they’ve been talking about.
As for the transition period beyond 2030 the government will need to introduce a scrappage scheme and encourage car rental schemes similar to those for bikes and scooters particularly in cities. It’s going to be a painful experience wrenching our vehicles from us.
Having said all that - can you see the government getting their act together to make this happen particularly as we will be in an economic depression for the next five years.

 

[Derekoak]

For my three penneth worth I think the real issue is the infrastructure. Currently it’s hopeless - take for example the person who took nine hours to go 130 miles in their new electric Porsche. Most electric cars are currently charged up at home. To provide enough electricity new power stations will be needed and there’s no sign of that - in fact they are dithering about replacing the old nuclear stations to meet current demand - HS2 isn’t planned to finish until 2033. Most people who call in at motorway service stations don’t stop for fuel but imagine the queues if they did - obviously they’d have to make every bay a charging point.
As for the technology I think hydrogen has probably an equal chance of taking over and there are plenty of examples HGVs already particularly buses. On the question of HGVs the solution will probably be overhead lines like trams running along key distribution routes. They’ve also experimented with road surface pick ups. This lends it self to those auto drive lorry trains they’ve been talking about.
As for the transition period beyond 2030 the government will need to introduce a scrappage scheme and encourage car rental schemes similar to those for bikes and scooters particularly in cities. It’s going to be a painful experience wrenching our vehicles from us.
Having said all that - can you see the government getting their act together to make this happen particularly as we will be in an economic depression for the next five years.

I agree with all your points, except as a minor aside, many new giga watts of power ARE being planned by more wind, offshore and on, and solar. Storage will be needed to smooth demand, but that is possible too. We do not need more fossil fuel power stations. That being said the infra structure and a comprehensive plan is what is missing. Making new infrastructure could even get us out of the looming depression if they would get to it.