Ch-ch-ch-changes

kabayiri

I think EVs would suit car sharing in somewhere like London, where you picked up a car at a charging station and drove it to another station within the London area close to your destination.

globalds

Lots of Chinese companies with pockets nearly as deep as apple are thinking electric is the future
NextEV

kabayiri

I'm working on an EV which can operate without a driver.

It will be able to work on roads but also on guides. It won't need to carry power, but will instead source it from an innovative rail of power.

I think I will call it ....... "tram" !

princeofpounds

My rough calculations suggest that the pre-tax fuel running cost of a Mini would be 2.49p a mile, whilst the pre-tax fuel running cost of an i3 would be 2.67p a mile, so the i3's cost advantage in that respect is entirely down to tax.

That's actually quite impressive when you consider that electricity is actually a fairly expensive source of energy, given it has already done one (energy-costly) conversion from - primarily - fossil fuels.


For instance, we all know electric heating is more expensive than gas - it is surprising that transport is not the same way.


As pointed out, there are large hidden green taxes in electricity too these days.

cells

The car market is a huge differential of cars from £6k to £600k

A lot of the market is the cheap affordable end, eg the best selling car in the UK is the Ford Fiesta at around £8k. Maybe electric can take some market share from luxury expensive end or even the high mid end but its not going to take the crown until a compelling cheap (£12k and under) versions are out

However I suspect come the robo cars governments will make electric mandatory in cities like London

michaels

cells wrote: »

The car market is a huge differential of cars from £6k to £600k

A lot of the market is the cheap affordable end, eg the best selling car in the UK is the Ford Fiesta at around £8k. Maybe electric can take some market share from luxury expensive end or even the high mid end but its not going to take the crown until a compelling cheap (£12k and under) versions are out

However I suspect come the robo cars governments will make electric mandatory in cities like London

Can you get a new fiesta for under 10k?

Our Leaf which would claim to be the next size up (focus size) with satnav and reversing camera, alloys etc was 16k (or be it with a 5k subsidy from the govt)

cells

michaels wrote: »

Can you get a new fiesta for under 10k?

Our Leaf which would claim to be the next size up (focus size) with satnav and reversing camera, alloys etc was 16k (or be it with a 5k subsidy from the govt)

Google suggests the basic model is under £8k new

Electric cars would do well in cities where they are a good deal more efficient than petrol and diesel and air quality problems are important. On longer trips on motorways they are likely going to be worse or equal at best.

Personally I don't see how battery cars can take the low price segment of the market the £6k-£10k sort of range vehicles any time soon

Generali

cells wrote: »

Google suggests the basic model is under £8k new

Electric cars would do well in cities where they are a good deal more efficient than petrol and diesel and air quality problems are important. On longer trips on motorways they are likely going to be worse or equal at best.

Personally I don't see how battery cars can take the low price segment of the market the £6k-£10k sort of range vehicles any time soon

Presumably the cost of the actual car (chassis, doors, windows etc) is equal regardless of whether the car is electric or petrol, the only differences are the cost of buying and running the energy system and drive train.

AIUI, electric motors are far simpler and reliable than petrol or diesel ones so electric cars already have the advantage there. The key to the success of electric cars will boil down to battery prices and the cost and speed of filling them.

If batteries can be standardised, and I don't see why that couldn't happen as most other types of batteries I use are standardised, then it boils down to the cost of the battery. That cost appears to be falling very, very quickly.

I suspect for most of us electric cars are going to be a when not an if. If, as you suggest, self-driving cars come in big which I think will happen too, there is an opportune time when the fleet is being replaced in a relatively short space of time and being disrupted anyway.

vivatifosi

Possibly one for Cells, but going back to London being the logical place for electric cars, how do you get over the infrastructural problem that people often have to street park in congested cities and sometimes a couple of streets away, so how do you do the over night charging bit?

It strikes me that the places with the greatest need and potential for use also have some of the biggest problems in terms of adoption.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Possibly one for Cells, but going back to London being the logical place for electric cars, how do you get over the infrastructural problem that people often have to street park in congested cities and sometimes a couple of streets away, so how do you do the over night charging bit?

It strikes me that the places with the greatest need and potential for use also have some of the biggest problems in terms of adoption.

Shared cars and switchable batteries. I used car sharing in London and it worked perfectly.