Electric Cars

davidjwest

I've been looking at electric cars quite a bit recently and am well aware of the pros and cons - I wont be buying one for the forseeable future but with technology improving all the time and the costs possibly falling as sales volumes rise, it may be an option in a few years.

I was going to setup a website for people to use to find out more about this subject as the websites I found my information from weren't all that great.

What information would be useful to have on this type of site do you reckon and what features should it include?

Obviously news is going to be an important part of the site with new models being released etc but is there anything else that would be particularly useful?

What information about the cars would be important - I've got make, model, price, range, speed, recharging speed, weight, type of vehicle, seats, availability - anything else?

Thanks.

bryanb

Compatible charging points throughout Europe.

decsdad

battery life, replacement costs

A_Doonhamer

The truthful environmental impact of the building, running and disposal of the vehicle. Or at least if I was the kind of person to be considering an electric vehicle for the green factor that is one of the things I would want to know.

TVR2

Would be good if users could plot journeys they have completed in it for some real world battery range. I mean, 100 miles means what if there are lots of hills?

forgotmyname

Ask the powers that be, If they are taxing motorists to death to save the enviroment why do they not spend
.01% of that on supporting electric or other so called green energy vehicles.

I would have bought an electric powered bicycle if they could actually agree if they are legal or not. Too many
rules and restrictions in place.

thescouselander

Every time I see the specs of electric cars they give the maximum speed and maximum range. Of course the range decreases the faster you go so what you really need to see is a graph of range vs average speed or something like that.

AndysDad

My concern would be in weather like this where the inside would never get above the average temperature of a fridge and you wouldn't want to use a heater (even if there was one)as this would probably halve you possible range.They are ok in California but a bad choice in the UK until there are great advances in battery technology.

victor2

Real world tests, including long term tests and eventually reviews from owners.
Compare the cost of ownership with regular petrol/diesel cars and hybrids, including depreciation. Bit of guess work required there with new technology, but a lot of people put cost first and green credentials second.

1jim

cost of battery replacement and lifespan of battery
cost of recharging battery
time for recharge, real time between charges/miles etc
true environemental impact including emmssions for generating electric needed to recharge battery

I saw a calculator some time ago where you could select a car and it would work out how many more miles you would need to do to make a diesel car worth the extra expense- something like this would be great for electric cars too given how much they cost to start with and offest lower costs etc

frothey

A_Doonhamer wrote: »

The truthful environmental impact of the building, running and disposal of the vehicle. Or at least if I was the kind of person to be considering an electric vehicle for the green factor that is one of the things I would want to know.

But you've got to take it in context - their would be potentially people shouting that the batteries aren't "green", but conveniently forgetting you can knock the impact of producing an engine, the lubricants and the production of the fuel. Green arguments are pointless IMO, there is no such thing as a truly green method of transport, unless you count walking barefoot! Everything has a negative impact.

thescouselander wrote: »

Every time I see the specs of electric cars they give the maximum speed and maximum range. Of course the range decreases the faster you go so what you really need to see is a graph of range vs average speed or something like that.

That's no different from a combustion engined cars range/economy claims though.....

the battery thing is a red herring imo - I'm pretty sure that in 14 years Toyota have only replaced a handfull of batteries, they are arguably more reliable than most manufacturers engines! manufacturers will be very lenient on battery claims for years as they won't want the negative press.