Electric cars - the future?

[daffy]

I have mixed feelings about electric cars, but this one has lots of optional extras, including a flame thrower! Probably useful for dealing with cyclists and pedestrians. Or maybe it's a publicity thing for the next Bond movie?



https://mobile.twitter.com/marycmccormack/status/1007831286176571394

[NeMo]

Of course electric cars are the future. I meant to say: what's the alternative?

Naturally the fact the husband of celebrity had his car explode will cause any amount of press coverage. There's nothing happening anywhere else on the planet worth writing about, so bored journalists have to fill those column inches with this sort of thing.

Also bear in mind that who knows how many petrol and diesel cars failed today, but because that happens all the time, nobody will write that up. Kind of like the way journalists desperately look for people who died because of nuclear power stations, while ignoring the hundreds who die in coal mines and the thousands if not millions killed by the particulates and other pollution produced by coal-burning power stations.

Cheers, NeMo

[Chris Morris]

At the moment the technology for electric cars just isn't there. In my current car and can go and spend a weekend with my sister 275 miles away and come back without filling up. Most electric cars available today would need to stop for an overnight charge just to do 275miles one way. When electric cars are capable of travelling 500 miles on one charge they will become a viable means of transport. Also, when taking into account the cost of either renting batteries or replacing them after about five years my current car costs far less per mile to run than an electric. I expect electric cars will continue to improve but they have some way to go.
Hydrogen is also a possibility. BMW were successfully running modified internal combustion engines on test with hydrogen and a number of Japanese companies are working on hydrogen cell cars. This is another possible alternative but nobody has worked out how to make hydrogen efficiently. Having said that we haven't got sufficient electricity generation resources to charge significant numbers of electric cars in the UK. It will take at least twenty years before we have sufficient generation capacity.
Electric cars can be dangerous. One guy near me has been run over by the same electric car twice because he didn't hear it coming twice!
I would love to see an annual Lands End to John O'Groats electric car run for production cars only. The time taken for the run will reduce dramatically  as technology improves. It will also help us to see when they become a viable alternative.

[Intercity]

Mr Clarkson on Top Gear summed it up for me on electric cars when he pointed out about the people that end up with life long problems from mining nickel for the batteries (or whatever metal is used these days), many of the countries it comes from don't have the H&S standards we have, not to say getting oil for petrol or the chemical plants are any safer!!!

I'll still with my trusty combustion engine for now

[NinOz]

Electric cars can be dangerous. One guy near me has been run over by the same electric car twice because he didn't hear it coming twice!

Some electrics have a noise maker to alert such blind or vision-impaired people to their presence.
CFJ

[AlexanderJesse]

Another good alternative are methane ga powered cars.

Methane gas... nowadays it is quite easy, cheap and problemless producable from (changed by forum).

[njee20]

At the moment the technology for electric cars just isn't there. In my current car and can go and spend a weekend with my sister 275 miles away and come back without filling up. Most electric cars available today would need to stop for an overnight charge just to do 275miles one way. When electric cars are capable of travelling 500 miles on one charge they will become a viable means of transport.

For you. The number of electric and hybrid vehicles on the roads suggests the technology clearly is there, just not ideally suited to regular 550 mile journeys. The proportion of the population who make such journeys regularly is tiny. And assuming your sister has electricity you only need a range of 275 miles for an electric car to work.

As for getting run over because they don't make noise, does he also regularly get hit by cyclists?

Ethical issues around the impact of battery production versus just burning fossil fuels are certainly interesting and were always cited as the 'downfall' of the Prius. It's not something I've seen as much since the popularity expanded.

[NinOz]

As for getting run over because they don't make noise, does he also regularly get hit by cyclists?

To prevent such occurances, it will be a requirement for all cyclists and electric cars to have a playing card pegged to wheel supports and touching spokes or similar to produce an audible sound.

[njee20]

I was thinking that drivers be mandated to drive with all windows down making car noises as loudly as possible, to legislate for pedestrians not paying attention.

I must say I'd quite like a Tesla, or a BMW i8.

[Chris Morris]

Going off at a slight tangent. Will technology ever be good enough for long distance electric powered lorries? I know some companies are working on this but developing a means of pulling say 40 tons 500 miles every day is a considerable challenge. Might it be that our railways will become essential for long distance freight again? Might we see big railway freight hubs with electric trucks just being used for fairly local work?

[emjaybee]

Spare a thought for the tradesman.

I use a medium wheelbase,  medium roof Mercedes Sprinter for my property maintenance business. There is currently no alternative to diesel. When a suitable alternative does become available,  it'll be decades before the average tradesman will be able to afford one. The diesel ban in 2040 (I think that's correct) is likely to drive a large proportion of small tradesmen out of business.

[njee20]

Not sure that'll happen. We're heavily reliant on small vehicles delivering stuff or carrying out tasks, like property maintenance, there will have to be a viable alternative, or grants or something.

Ironically the biggest lorries are those which are easiest to replace - for example by using rail more extensively. It's the final bit of the journey where you will have to have road vehicles.

[geoffc]

The main problem is where does the electricity come from to charge them, Fossil fuel fired power station are closing and nuclear has the problem of disposing of the spent fuel safely. The main problem with wind and solar power is that it is not available all of the time, a windless night in winter and neither work when they are needed most. Until somebody comes up with a cheap method of storing electricity they have their drawbacks and some solar farms are being built on agricultural land leading to more food imports. With an ever expanding  population the need for domestic electricity increases so we need to import electricity from Europe as our power generating capacity diminishes.

As for the cars themselves some have as little as a 70 mile range and need 14 hours to recharge, others are much better, at the moment none are capable of driving from London to Glasgow without recharging. Does the advent of electric cars mean that every parking bay in a motorway service area will have to have a charging point, which incidently need an app on a smart phone to work? Many people park their cars in the street overnight so how do they charge the car, cables across the pavements, what happens if they cannot park directly infront of their property?

My personal feelings is that there is a lot of hype for electric vehicles by marketing people and enviromentalists who don't understand the full consequences of electric cars or ignore them to get their view over. In my opinion there is a lot more research and developement to be done before they are the equal to fossil fuelled cars.

Geoff



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[Chris Morris]

Geoff makes some good points. The infrastructure investment required to support  a change to electric vehicles is more massive than anything seen to date in the history of the UK.
The electricity generating companies are currently investing in technology to store huge amounts of electricity in batteries to help even out the problems of generating from wind and sun.

[Newportnobby]

The government 'Road to Zero' plan intends to ban sales of new diesel and petrol vehicles by 2040.
Shame I won't be around to see the ensuing chaos. I bet there'll be bumper sales of such vehicles in 2039