Electric cars

gzoom

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Edit - Just pondering, but it also occurred to me that automotive batts might not be expected to last as many cycles as stationary batts since they are designed to deliver so much more 'punch'. EV's might ask for 50-100kW from the batts, something that is highly unlikely from a stationary batt of similar size.

Doesn't the 'ludicrous' mode function on the Tesla's warn that battery life will be impacted, suggesting that the higher acceleration (resulting from a higher discharge rate) is detrimental to the batts.

Our Tesla hasnt got ludicrous mode but still shifts 0-60 in under 5 seconds.

Our car is charged daily to 75%, use Tesla Superchargers about once a month, rarely run the battery below 20%.

Millage is currently sitting just under 18K at 15 months. I did a rough capacity check recently, I estimate pack degredation is currently about 1.5%, cannot really complain.

Martyn1981

AdrianC wrote: »

Wouldn't a tax change against EVs have resulted in a sales fall...?

Nope, covered in the article and quote:

Of course, the higher taxation of expensive BEVs in 2019 is the major reason for this surge,

Martyn1981

I watched a You-tube vid yesterday from the Tesla Time News team, which I thought was very interesting.

It was discussing a much longer discussion by Sandy Munro, the 'strip-down' specialist and his comments on the TM3.

Putting aside any pro/anti-Tesla comments, I though some of the issues they raised were shocking, such as the fact Sandy didn't drive the car first, so didn't seem aware of BEV characteristics, or the automotive commentator who didn't know Tesla had passed Audi, or asked why all automakers don't do over the air upgrades ...... seriously! Or a couple of Sandy's team buying Tesla's.

There really seems to be a problem with EV commentary coming from people not well informed on EV's, possibly explaining why so much of the ICE industry seems to be acting too slow.

Sandy Munro Reveals Model 3 Insights | In Depth

almillar

What do you guys make of the Renault Kangoo EV, like this one on autotrader for a family vehicle?

It doesn't have rapid charging (7kW max, I think), which means it'll take hours to charge at a time. If you commit to charging at home, and staying within range of that, you're grand. But multi-stop motorway jaunts will be off. I also note the ad says there's a leased battery - I don't know the lease rates on the Kangoo, but there's some extra money to pay out ecery month, on top of the purchase price.

Herzlos

almillar wrote: »

It doesn't have rapid charging (7kW max, I think), which means it'll take hours to charge at a time. If you commit to charging at home, and staying within range of that, you're grand. But multi-stop motorway jaunts will be off. I also note the ad says there's a leased battery - I don't know the lease rates on the Kangoo, but there's some extra money to pay out ecery month, on top of the purchase price.

Thanks, I never noticed the slow charging. That with the 100 mile range kills it off for me (it'd likely to be work horse, I could get away with slow charging at 100 mile range in the other car).


I suspect it's had a pretty bad uptake too, so there won't be many out there to grab cheap.

Martyn1981

This is about cars, I admit, but robo-taxis if they are to be cheap and therefore successful, will have to be BEV's, so an interesting article.

Are the days of the private car really over?

A couple of months ago I wrote a wildly optimistic piece about how we've all probably bought our last cars.

It drew on analysis that suggests that the convergence of electric cars and Uber-style ride hailing networks, together with autonomous driving technology, could completely reshape the car market.

These new "robo-taxis" would be so cheap to use that it just wouldn't be worth owning a car any more, and this transformation could happen very quickly - in as little as a decade - or so the argument runs.

The results would transform the way we live.

I acknowledged that the idea was controversial and invited readers to respond. And you did. Thousands of you.

Lots of readers thought this brave new world of self-driving vehicles sounded great. But more doubted whether it would really come to pass. So we recruited some experts to explore your concerns and to help try and work out just how likely it is that the age of the private automobile really will soon be over.

Let's take each element of this revolution separately.

NigeWick

Martyn1981 wrote: »

This is about cars, I admit, but robo-taxis if they are to be cheap and therefore successful, will have to be BEV's, so an interesting article.

If Tony Seba is correct, and I think he is, I'll get my last car in August.

Herzlos

I'm not convinced; cars will still be a status thing, and people will still want their own personal space at least some of the time. They might get rid of the need for 2nd cars though.



I'd be reluctant to use a shared taxi for a lot of my trips, purely down to the volume of crap I need in the car for the kids (buggies, bags, toys, seats, etc). Then there's stuff like bike racks

molerat

In large cities maybe it will happen, it already has to some extent, but meanwhile out in the rest of the real world ...........

AdrianC

Urban shared-use cars are one thing. They're also hardly a new concept.

But outside urban concentrations...

(And I repeat what I keep saying - cars of whatever type are the wrong answer for urban mobility)