Electric cars

NigeWick

Martyn1981 wrote: »

The new Leaf is getting some good reviews,

But, they've done away with the specs holder in the roof lining which I find really convenient. Should get mine in four to five weeks.

System

JPR5 wrote: »

Official figures are unachievable

I exceed those of my Mondeo even though its now on 127k, nearly 128k miles. I've seen as high as 70MPG on a long motorway run from Yorkshire to France even with two adults, two kids and a boot of luggage.

If you know how to drive economically they're fairly easy to hit.

David_Aston

A bit of clarification please guys. I had assumed that a hybrid used the small ice to keep the battery charged. Say, on a trip up the motorway, periodically starting up when needed. However, is it the case that the first 25 miles might be electric, but the remainder would use the ice. Perhaps the ice would also be charging the battery during the journey?

uknick

David_Aston wrote: »

A bit of clarification please guys. I had assumed that a hybrid used the small ice to keep the battery charged. Say, on a trip up the motorway, periodically starting up when needed. However, is it the case that the first 25 miles might be electric, but the remainder would use the ice. Perhaps the ice would also be charging the battery during the journey?

If you're referring to a hybrid such as a Prius, then no the petrol engine does not keep the batteries charged so you can run on only electric. So, as you say you might get about 25 miles on pure electric and then have to use the ICE to power the car until you can recharge the batteries at a charging point. There will be some recharging of the batteries from the regeneration system but I don't think that's enough to give enough power to retain charge to drive in electric only mode.

I believe the only car currently available in the UK which has an ICE to keep charging the batteries is the BMW i3 with range extender (REX). This only runs on electric power. The range extender is a little petrol engine which acts as a generator to maintain the charge in the batteries when they fall to a certain level.

AdrianC

uknick wrote: »

If you're referring to a hybrid such as a Prius, then no the petrol engine does not keep the batteries charged so you can run on only electric.

Yes, it does.

The internal combustion engine both powers the car's motion and charges the battery. The electric-only range is, however, very short, and the performance is very limited. Some hybrids are now available as plug-in hybrids, with larger batteries and greater performance, but they are still primarily internal combustion vehicles with limited electric-only operation.

The i3 is primarily electric - the REx version's electric motor doesn't directly provide motion, only charging.

uknick

Adrian, from what you say about the ICE charging the batteries, does this mean you can drive a hybrid in electric only mode for more than 20 or 30 miles?

David_Aston

Thanks guys. The BMW does seem to be a heck of a lot cheaper than a Tesla. 37 grand is still a lot of money.

AdrianC

uknick wrote: »

Adrian, from what you say about the ICE charging the batteries, does this mean you can drive a hybrid in electric only mode for more than 20 or 30 miles?

Depends entirely on the battery capacity, of course.

A non-plugin Prius has a 6.5kWh battery. A plugin Prius has a 25kWh battery. Toyota claim 39 mile range from the plugin. They make no claims on the range from the non-plugin, but assuming it consumes power at the same rate, that'd be about 10 miles range at most.

Martyn1981

AdrianC wrote: »

Depends entirely on the battery capacity, of course.

A non-plugin Prius has a 6.5kWh battery. A plugin Prius has a 25kWh battery. Toyota claim 39 mile range from the plugin. They make no claims on the range from the non-plugin, but assuming it consumes power at the same rate, that'd be about 10 miles range at most.

Do you have a link for those figures? I thought the plug-in was about 9kWh. I don't know what the current non plug in is, but I recall it used to be about 1.3kWh.

If Toyota are only getting 39 miles from a 25kWh batt, then they need to have a chat with Nissan, who get far far more.

I'm also not sure that the Prius engine charges the battery in a comparative way to a range extender - instead I believe it adds some charge to the batt if in high gear and driving steadily in the torque sweet spot ..... plus of course brake re-gen.

Martyn1981

Interesting to see that BMW and VW are also looking to lock in cobalt supplies for the medium term. I think they may be getting serious about EV's.

BMW: Close To 10-Year Lithium + Cobalt Supply Deal — Is This Just A Response To News That Tesla Is Locking In Supply Deals?