electric cars

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comment wanted ...up to 5k of government money if you want an electric car that is 30k when the same size one that runs on normal fuel can be had for 10k, considering there are not many places you can recharge it . but the government are willing to spend 63million to enable the few that will be sold to be recharged for the few that can afford them .??????????
 
If the batteries are fully loaded. How many miles would an electric car travel before you need to recharge the batteries and how long would you have to sit around for them to be fully charged?? I personally don't think it will come of the ground. maybe around towns and cities but not for long treks. Further more, I would rather spend the £30000 towards a Motorhome.
 
Yesterday I heard Jeremy Clarkson say that given the limited range and 12 hour charge-up time it could take 12 days to travel from London to Edinburgh by electric car.
Not much use unless you are close enough to your destination to not need a car.
 
Details have been released of the first nine electric cars that will be eligible for grants of up to £5,000 in a government subsidy scheme. Under the £43m initiative that starts on 1 January, buyers will get a 25% discount up to the maximum £5,000.

However, only three of the nine cars will be immediately ready for delivery, with others following as late as 2012. The government also said that a further five areas were to install charging points after bidding for funds. The additional locations getting a share of £20m to build plug-in points are the Midlands, Greater Manchester, the east of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. They follow after London, Milton Keynes and the north-east of England.

At the launch of the electric car subsidy, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond spoke of motoring costs of just a couple of pence per mile, echoing claims made in the past about nuclear power "too cheap to measure".

But he also acknowledged that there is no point in switching the car fleet to electrics if the power plants emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide.

Consequently, electric motoring makes perhaps less sense in the UK now than it might do in the future, once the intended shift towards more renewable energy becomes reality.

By then, the low cost of recharging the cars may have become a thing of the past, however, as in the long run the government will probably want to tax electric motoring in a way similar to how other forms of motoring are taxed today.

"Anyone who's filled up at a petrol station recently will realise that the ability to recharge overnight at 1-3 pence per kilometre is extremely attractive," Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC News at the launch.

"The point of supporting this technology is to get it up to scale."

However, he acknowledged that how the power was generated was an issue.

"There's no point in switching the car fleet to running on electricity if the electricity emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide."

Of the nine electric cars so far confirmed as qualifying for the subsidy scheme, the three that will be available for delivery in January are the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Smart fortwo electric drive and the Peugeot iOn.

The Mitsubishi is being advertised for sale from £24,000, after the £5,000 government grant. The Smart and the Peugeot electric cars will initially only be available through four-year leases.

The Nissan Leaf and Tata Vista will then follow in March, while the Citroen CZero is currently only confirmed for "early 2011".

The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid and the Vauxhall Ampera (which will also be sold - with some modifications - as the Chevrolet Volt) are due to see their first UK deliveries in early 2012....................................

just a few comments here looks as if we will be spending a lot of money to subidise mostly non uk built cars that are not that green
 
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kenjones said:
Yesterday I heard Jeremy Clarkson say that given the limited range and 12 hour charge-up time it could take 12 days to travel from London to Edinburgh by electric car.
Not much use unless you are close enough to your destination to not need a car.
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Ken, I'll race you. You from West Yorkshire to Cornwall and me from Cornwall to W. Yorkshire. No cheating by adding an extra battery on. :)
 
if you added extra batteries will they have to be the same amperage as per a leasure battery in your vans ;)
 
I noticed in quite a few French supermarkets they have areas for electric cars with a charging point, wonder how it is working there :rolleyes:. There possibly is a case for them in some circumstances, if you are only taking short journeys & you can charge them where you park. Although costs are high it is offset by the zero road tax & the running costs. The case for using them as being 'green' is doubtful as the power has to be produced somewhere & we are nowhere near to getting this with our current power plants.
Any new technology starts off expensive & prices/performance will improve if it is found to work.
 
The latest technology is battery swap where you drive into a filling station over a ramp and the battery on your car is removed from beneath and replaced in about the same time as it takes to fill up with petrol now.

Question is how much?
 
i suppose like france if you have the infrastructure then they may work for city running. but unfortunately we in this country as per are sadly lacking and in these desperate financial times the money could be better spent. also dont we have small city electric cars that are quite ample for that short run in town after all no electric car will replace the internal combustion engine yet .i think more funds could be used on the other types of fuel ie hydrogen which is basicaly cleen and an ample cheap supply .but if you look deep into where the power comes from to charge up these electric cars , oil fired power stations mostly so the oil companies still have a grip on our transport. also the green footprint to make these cars is that realy as low as they say .
 
Electric cars:

Battery life............... approx 3 years.

Cost of renewing....... Approx £3,000.

So don't whinge on about the cost of a leisure battery. :D
 
with that cost of replacing the batteries every 3 years or so ,i cannot see second hand values being so great 30k or so to buy and other running costs being comparable with a normal car then the batteries depreciation massive me thinks and after 6 or so years scrap. as 3rd and 4th users want a cheapy car to run there certainly wont be any classic electric cars in the future .
 
maingate said:
Electric cars:

Battery life............... approx 3 years.

Cost of renewing....... Approx £3,000.

So don't whinge on about the cost of a leisure battery. :D
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£3000 left unattended in a small car. Looks like tempting and safer target for those who currently get an income from railway cables and church roofs.
 
David & Ann said:
If the batteries are fully loaded. How many miles would an electric car travel before you need to recharge the batteries and how long would you have to sit around for them to be fully charged?? I personally don't think it will come of the ground. maybe around towns and cities but not for long treks. Further more, I would rather spend the £30000 towards a Motorhome.
Click to expand...

Aparently you will get around 80-100 miles from one charge and you would then have to sit 8 hours for it to recharge, £63 million the government will yet again waste on something that just can't work but who are we to disagree we're only the people paying for it,Shawbags.
 
IF and I say IF electric cars are introduced in a big way, then there will be no Income via Taxes. Bet your bottom dollar the Govt: will charge x amount for every unit of electricity, whereby the Gas station will pass the cost onto the vechicle owner. If diesel today is £1.27 then perhaps it will be 1.27 per unit of electric. Remember the days when diesel was cheaper than gas, everybody changed from petrol to diesel. Now diesel has gone past the petrol price. The people are and will always be in a no win situation. You have better odds at roulette.
 
Why has nobody considered a compressed air powered car? You could charge up a tank with compressed air and that could power a piston driven engine. when it needs refilling use a garage airline-simples. This would overcome the weight problem associated with batteries.
The French did have a version but I think it dissappeared.
 
Air vs Batts but what about hydrogen cells

Compressed air did make promises but the vehicle was so lightweight and only for light people. With batterys, don't forget they can be boost charged with 60-80% of charge in less than an hour, Clarkson is a petrol head not electrical genius. No doubt you can buy pattern batteries which will eat into the £3000 price nicely. Hydrogen cells offer the best long term bet but battery's seem a good option short term if enough are sold where the price can be reduced.
What gets me is why we have to make it look like a standard car rather than more interesting designs, perhaps more basic!
 
WOT - no batteries!

Only hearsay, but this comes from a relative who sells buses in China and therefore has a vested interest in keeping up to date with developments.

Electric buses without the need for batteries. Apparently they use capacitors to store the electricity and recharge at every bus stop . All done while the doors are opening. I can see a couple of minor problems - high voltage charging and needing a boost every half mile or so. Thinking outside the box, but somehow I don't think it would work with cars on the M1!!

Aygee
 
Capacitors

Simple coils every few miles along the motorway would do it, this idea was put around a good few years ago, simply too expensive, might be viable for a few buse routes!
There has been battery and capacitor systems developed to be built into the body itself!
What we need is changes in regulations as we have nothing between the Sinclair C5 and a £30,000 battery car unless you count disability scooters!
 
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