Anyone point getting an electric car if you do low mileage?

iolanthe07

I should say that long trips aren't impossible in a Leaf, but you do have to plan a bit, and be prepared to stop every so often to recharge. The longest I've done is a couple of hundred miles each way (Berwick-Manchester), which was fine; I just had to stop for the loo/coffee more than I usually would!

I am very tempted to buy an EV next time, but do you find you ever have to queue up at the charging point in motorway service stations? AFAIK the M5 motorway stops, for example, only have two charging points. As EVs become more popular, there are going to be some long waits!

prowla

I was out shopping on the weekend and they had a Tesla in the shopping centre; it seemed like a nice car; a boot at the front and the back, but the passenger floor is high (like someone said).

Richard53

almillar wrote: »

You can have a city car, the VW e-Up!

Only in Leeds or Bradford.

ElefantEd

iolanthe07 wrote: »

I should say that long trips aren't impossible in a Leaf, but you do have to plan a bit, and be prepared to stop every so often to recharge. The longest I've done is a couple of hundred miles each way (Berwick-Manchester), which was fine; I just had to stop for the loo/coffee more than I usually would!

I am very tempted to buy an EV next time, but do you find you ever have to queue up at the charging point in motorway service stations? AFAIK the M5 motorway stops, for example, only have two charging points. As EVs become more popular, there are going to be some long waits!

I've recharged at a motorway/IKEA rapid probably 50 times and I have had to wait 2 or 3 times (about 20 mins each time). It is a concern though, if EVs do take off, clearly more infrastructure will be needed and it isn't clear whether, or how quickly, this would be built. This would also help with a worse fear, that the chargers have a problem and don't work at all! This has happened to me twice, luckily one was at a place with two chargers so there was an option, and the other had another nearby at a Nissan garage. If you do run out of charge, for whatever reason, Nissan will actually come and pick you up on a flatbed and take you to a charging point. I think if this happens more than a few times a year they start to get annoyed, but are forgiving for newbies! (I haven't needed this, thank goodness).

If EVs do get more popular and more chargers are built, then paying for the electricity will become the norm, clearly. Assuming prices are fair, this would still make EVs very cheap to run, and it would be aprice worth paying for guaranteed charging virtually anywhere (like petrol stations now).

scaredofdebt

Based on current trends* then EV sales will overtake those of petrol/diesel cars by 2017-2018. This will mean extra charge points will be needed and it would make sense for these to be placed at petrol stations as they will start to get less of their traditional customers.

By 2020 it is anticipated EVs will have a range of around 300 miles so you may not need a huge number of charging points as most people would be charging at home.

The question is how will the government make up for the loss of revenue from fuel duty?

I'm surprised battery swapping isn't being taken up as that is quicker than refueling a petrol/diesel car. Do none of the current EVs allow for this?

* EV sales were 0.3% of all cars in August 2014 and 1.3% for August 2015

ElefantEd

Interesting info about EV sales, thanks.

The batteries in a Leaf take up basically the whole bottom of the car (one reason why it is very stable!), so aren't amenable to being swapped quickly being both big and heavy. I guess if batteries improved to the extent that they were much more portable then swapping would be plausible; though in that case the range would also be high enough that you'd never (or hardly ever) need to recharge away from home.

iolanthe07

I'm surprised battery swapping isn't being taken up as that is quicker than refueling a petrol/diesel car. Do none of the current EVs allow for this?

Batteries would have to be wheeled out on specially adapted trolleys and put in place with a power lift. Also, manufacturers would have to agree on a common battery configuration. But this is the obvious long term answer.

Richard53

I'm amazed that the swappable battery wasn't established very early on in EV development. It seems a logical solution, and gets round most of the objections that people like me have against EVs. You need a model similar to the way Calor Gas cylinders work: you 'buy' (actually put a large deposit on) a battery, and then every time it needs charging away from home you go to a battery centre, which could be contiguous with a petrol station or anywhere else, and get the used battery removed and a fresh one installed. With some simple and cheap infrastructure, this could be achieved with wide coverage, and should only take a few minutes.


You don't own the battery, and new ones are always available, so there is no fear of your car being almost worthless after a few years because it needs £5000 spending on a new battery set. You can 'refuel' in minutes and anywhere in the country, which makes it equivalent to a petrol/diesel vehicle, so there is no range anxiety. They could even go one better than Calor Gas by only charging for the electricity you use - that is, they discount the fresh battery according to how much was in the old one. I'm sure that would be possible, and would appeal to the MSE driver.


As with the bottled gas industry, it would need a few large players to invest significant sums in plant and equipment, but with the push to renewables it would be a fairly safe ROI bet, and after that it's all positives. It just needs the manufacturers to agree on a common format for future builds. Call it Common Rechargeable Auxiliary Power and you even have an acronym for the adverts.

WellKnownSid

There are fundamental flaws in switching stations which meant the Fluence technology was effectively ditched by Ren/Nis. Aside from the very high costs over conventional charging stations (which are still required in a switching station to charge the batteries they take out) - battery technology is not yet sufficiently mature to support it.

On the other hand - ranges are increasing, and rapid charge times are getting shorter - making the economic case for switching stations less certain.

gzoom

Battery swap stations are already live in California, the stations cost $500,000 - about the same as a hydrogen refuel station. But Tesla owners aren't using them!!...Simply because when given the choice between waiting 20 minutes for a free recharge or paying $80 for a <5 minute battery swap, virtually all are choosing to wait 20 minutes and not pay $80

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a25872/elon-musk-tesla-battery-swap/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY