Electric cars

Herzlos · 15 August 2018 at 8:20AM

Market forces will come into play. EV's haven't been around anything like 22 years yet and have reasonable support.

As said dozens of times on here; as the number of EV's on the road increase, the number of facilities will keep up as businesses want to attract customers.
As EV technology improves whilst average driving ranges don't increase, the frequency of charging will also decrease. We're already at needing to charge once a week, and will likely get to once a fortnight by 2040. Will many cars not be parked somewhere with a charger for a few hours a month?

I think EV's will be the dominant vehicles long before 2040 by pure market forces alone - for all but the lowest mileage drivers, and those that want to be able to drive for 200+ miles without stopping, it's very tempting to buy an EV over and ICE now. If I was buying new I wouldn't be able to justify an ICE.

Gloomendoom · 15 August 2018 at 8:38AM

Herzlos wrote: »

I think EV's will be the dominant vehicles long before 2040 by pure market forces alone - for all but the lowest mileage drivers, and those that want to be able to drive for 200+ miles without stopping, it's very tempting to buy an EV over and ICE now. If I was buying new I wouldn't be able to justify an ICE.

I would, but then I have very specific needs that cannot be met by any EV currently on the market. I'm hoping as you say that mass adoption of mainstream EVs happens sooner rather than later so that manufacturers will move on to the niche markets.

Soulginge · 15 August 2018 at 10:07AM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I think all of your points have been thoroughly mythbusted already on this thread, though it would be a long read, but perhaps worth it to find out how it all works and allay your many fears.

I don't think the fact that the car park where I live won't be getting a charging point anytime soon has been thoroughly mythbusted has it? I did say nothing would convince me right now... I would very much like to get on board with electric cars but it just isn't viable for me at the moment. There are zero charging points on my daily route and unless I'm going to go hang out in Tesco car park on my own, I've got nothing.

Martyn1981 · 15 August 2018 at 12:35PM

buglawton wrote: »

Nothing is technically impossible, that's not the point.
The point is that the government has decreed that all new cars should be 100% electric by 2040, just 22 years away.
The biggest single UK infrastructure change for the last 100 years, perhaps since domestic electrification itself.
Yet that same government doesn't have the ghost of a plan to make that change even vaguely possible by 2040.

There's a big difference between what's idealistically possible and what UK governments would be capable of - especially considering their track record on infrastructure in general.

Do you buy your petrol/diesel from a chemist shop? Did the government have to 'force' the rollout of profit making petrol stations?

Martyn1981 · 15 August 2018 at 12:44PM

Soulginge wrote: »

I don't think the fact that the car park where I live won't be getting a charging point anytime soon has been thoroughly mythbusted has it? I did say nothing would convince me right now... I would very much like to get on board with electric cars but it just isn't viable for me at the moment. There are zero charging points on my daily route and unless I'm going to go hang out in Tesco car park on my own, I've got nothing.

No need for silly extremes. Nobody is suggesting you 'hang out' in a Tesco carpark on your own or otherwise, the simple point made, dare I say obvious point made (unless one is trying to create a false negative) is that rapid charging will be available in carparks that folk use for short stays (gym, supermarket, cinema etc), and expect slow charging to rollout in long stay carparks, work carparks etc.

If you want to be a little more open to the idea, consider this - people want cars, then those people need to fuel the cars ........ an industry or entrepreneurs will try to provide that service in exchange for money. Demand and supply economics.

Even on the tiniest scale you may find folk wiling to let you park on their drive and charge up, for a fee, as and when needed.

I promise you that no matter how hard you try, more solutions will be found and made available than problems you can imagine. As is the case with the roll out of all new technology ........ and the creative negativity that accompanies it.

Herzlos · 15 August 2018 at 2:18PM

Soulginge wrote: »

unless I'm going to go hang out in Tesco car park on my own, I've got nothing.

I bet you spend more than the 20 minutes a week in Tesco (20 minutes us roughly what an 80% fast charge would take), thus your car would likely be waiting on you coming out rather than the other way round.

It's a solved problem. Demand just isn't there to drive the supply yet.

almillar · 15 August 2018 at 3:26PM

A high current charger at every workplace and shopping car parking spot? Have any of the idealists actually run the £ numbers?

A 7kW public charger was installed for £8,000, I saw the invoice. I'm sure it can be done for much less. That's not rapid, but it'll give you a good boost in a couple of hours. If businesses could spend that they would be getting plenty of business from EV drivers.

Martyn1981 · 15 August 2018 at 4:20PM

Little bit of innovativeness (doubt that's a word) that I thought worth sharing, plus the idea/suggestion that EV's might go on and on and on and on ....... :

Burns had a couple of tidbits he shared with me between TV interviews as the winds swirled and the rain pelted down. The W-15 is a body on ladder frame design. Initially, those frame rails were intended to be made from stainless steel but the company has decided to use extruded carbon fiber beams instead.

As Burns explains, if Workhorse went looking for someone to design and build carbon fiber frame rails, it would have cost the company a ton of money. But Workhorse found a supplier that makes carbon fiber beams for the construction industry. Adapting them to serve as the foundation for the W-15 helped reduce the weight of the W-15 at minimal cost.

So the W-15 will come with carbon fiber body work sitting atop carbon fiber frame rails. Are you kidding me? How long will these things last? Decades? More? Think of all the American made pickup trucks you see every day with rotted out doors and fenders. The W-15 may last long enough to serve the needs of an entire generation and still look as good as the day it was new.

Workhorse W-15 & SureFly Electric Vehicles Take New York City By Storm

In fact, the demand from private customers has been so great that Workhorse plans to open up the W-15 for sale to members of the public. Interested people can place a refundable deposit on one right now on the Workhorse website. But Burns says the company will fill the more than 6,000 orders from commercial customers first. Regular production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2019, so there is a possibility sales to private customers could begin later next year. Base price for the W-15 is $52,000.

buglawton · 16 August 2018 at 8:07AM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Do you buy your petrol/diesel from a chemist shop? Did the government have to 'force' the rollout of profit making petrol stations?

Domestic electricity supply in the UK was in chaos until nationalisation and standardisation, as organised by the government. It's only after a century of standardisation that the current monopoly grid/private energy supplier hybrid is being tried.

I don't trust current ideology based British governments to organise infrastructure anymore.

QED.

NBLondon · 16 August 2018 at 8:34AM

A while back - electric cabs were discussed. I have definitely seen them appearing in Central London over the last 6 weeks or so - will be interesting when feedback from the cabbies starts to come in.

Electric cars

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