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yeah i've been following it for a while 
. Watched all the Youtube vids of their factory too. It's awesome.
. Watched all the Youtube vids of their factory too. It's awesome.
Electric cars
- Thread starter Dominion
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Electric cars
I'm saving up for a Tesla. Will be even better once the Supercharger stations are more widespread. Free power!
Just seen this and thought of you!
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I've seen that. I followed him already been a dwarf fan
Other than the battery there is significantly less to go wrong/look after on a full electric car. The suspension will be conventional, seem to remember the leaf has no gearbox, as you say no oil changes. Brake discs should last a lot longer if you take advantage of regenerative braking. Then if you factor in the costs of owning a modern diesel...which aren't guaranteed but toss a coin things like DMFs and new turbos would imagine the maths falls significantly in the leafs favour.
Having said that i wouldn't say the Leaf is an alternative to a diesel as the usage cycles for both would be different if you use them for what they are designed for. The diesel would not like lots of short trips, Good luck doing 20k a year motorway miles in a leaf, even a plug in hybrid would not be in it's window.
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I beg to differ on the PHV front. Having one myself I'm beating most Diesel MPG, and paying petrol prices on long journeys.
Prime example was 71MPG, sitting at 65MPH on motorway on a 375mile round trip to Birmingham and back, and this was 375miles without and plug in charging, just normal Hybrid Vehicle mode.
The same journey, in Diesel Bravo would have got me about 60-65MPG from past experience.
Then there is the petrol vs diesel price difference.
There is a reason that Prius seem to be being used more often as mile munchers, and them still having a 50% residual at 5 yrs with 100K+ miles on the clock is another benefit.
Fair dos if it works, I was just basing it on it having a 30 odd mile electric only range and a finite battery capacity and no real chance to use regenerative braking. The older hybrids would effectively run out of charge if driven at high speed for long periods leaving it with nothing but a conventional petrol and CVT box. This was mk1 prius though so things may well have improved.
Defo, the mk1 Prius, although cutting edge for its day, was awful at running out of puff half way up a hill when the battery ran out.
The mk3 (current shape) has the benefit of a 1.8 Engine rather than the mk1 and mk2 having a 1.5, which was under powered if the hybrid system ran out of charge, which I believe it would due to being an under powered engine it relied on the hybrid system for up hill runs.
The later Prius seem to have sussed it though, and hybrid system is only used below 40MPH, and when booting it to overtake.
P100 GRR
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If had somewhere to plug one in I'd have one tomorrow. Renault are doing very good deal on Zoe at the moment offering £2750 deposit contribution on it bringing the price down further. I've had a go in a Leaf, Ampera, Zoe and BMW i3, If money was no object I'd go for an i3, but for me the Zoe is the only affordable/practical option.
The battery packs differ on size but all contain individual cells that can be changed when cell goes, no need to replace whole pack in one go. With renault you can only only lease batteries which has the benefit if they start to lose their charge they will just replace battery pack for you.
If you want more info follow Robert Llewelyn's Fullycharged series on YouTube.
The battery packs differ on size but all contain individual cells that can be changed when cell goes, no need to replace whole pack in one go. With renault you can only only lease batteries which has the benefit if they start to lose their charge they will just replace battery pack for you.
If you want more info follow Robert Llewelyn's Fullycharged series on YouTube.
They've got to loose a lot of charge before they'll probably do that TBH, assuming their T&C's are like any other EV manufactures regarding the battery.
The Electric Focus is a good one, only 300 mile range but you can get a small petrol generator like the BMW's fitted which is designed purely to charge the power cells giving extended range upto 600 miles, I think? Can't remember the max range with the range extender fitted.
But the drive is good with a strong pull from the motors.
If the car isn't out yet then ignore and remove this post ;-) but I'm sure it's out now it's been a few years
But the drive is good with a strong pull from the motors.
If the car isn't out yet then ignore and remove this post ;-) but I'm sure it's out now it's been a few years
I've not looked, but don't believe those figures tbh, 300 miles on a charge, not possible based upon what other manufactures are currently managing, the new Tesla is only going to be capable of about 260 and that's market leading.
If the Focus done 300 to a charge they'd be selling them left right and center in all markets.
EDIT: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Focus_Electric"]Ford Focus Electric - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@<title>Ford Focus Electric - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</title>@@AMEPARAM@@Ford Focus Electric[/ame]
That one looks different to the one I tested, but come to think if it it might have been 90 mile range, then 300 with extender... One of the car at the LCV 2013 did 600 with the range extender... Can't say much about the others for another 9 years though :-(
My issue with the range extender is that you have a petrol engine that is dormant for long periods, possibly months if you charge at home and normally travel within the cars' range. Would I trust it to fire up when needed?
I did pose this question in a previous thread around this subject and was assured that everything is in place to keep it healthy and if it needs to it'll fire up itself every once in a while.
However top gear has a long term test I3 with a range extender engine...and does it fire up when needed? Does it hell..kinda defeats the point.
I did pose this question in a previous thread around this subject and was assured that everything is in place to keep it healthy and if it needs to it'll fire up itself every once in a while.
However top gear has a long term test I3 with a range extender engine...and does it fire up when needed? Does it hell..kinda defeats the point.
the changing of cells is a bit of a myth, as the batteries fitted to these cars all need to be very similarly matched to prevent issues putting a 5 year old battery which has chemically deteriorated after years of charging and discharging, with a brand new battery with lower internal resistance and higher capacity will cause the new battery to deteriorate much quicker as it tries to support a older failing battery, this set up will also cause a weaker battery to fail rapidly which isn't good with Li-ion batteries which burst into flame if you look at them funny.
this is why they always say you should never mix old and new batteries in your tv remote or leisure batteries in campers etc,
bobby Lew used to be interesting but his liberal ideology and incredibly bias opinions meant I really struggled to keep watching his stuff the fact he used to be given a prius by toyota for singing its praises and invited to all the alternative energy EVs
The only thing that puts me off with range extenders is the fact that they're not very efficient on the MPG front when used in range extender mode.
Its for this reason the Prius PHV uses petrol to run the engine and the engine to move the car rather than using the engine to recharge the battery to then move the car with electricity, as its more energy efficient this way. Each time you convert energy is looses energy potential.
Its for this reason the Prius PHV uses petrol to run the engine and the engine to move the car rather than using the engine to recharge the battery to then move the car with electricity, as its more energy efficient this way. Each time you convert energy is looses energy potential.
In a slightly related note formula E the inaugural race is on today from 9am on ITV4. I'm at work in 15 mins someone watch it and see if electric cars make a viable racing series.
Never know it could be a big help in bringing forward battery tech for cars.
Never know it could be a big help in bringing forward battery tech for cars.
Well at lest being electric it didn't burst into flames when it tumbled in the air on the last lap
They still seem to crash like anything else
They still seem to crash like anything else
Looks like Kia are joining the EV fold
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/kia/soul/66726/kia-soul-ev-2014-review
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/kia/soul/66726/kia-soul-ev-2014-review
Gotta say seeing alot of leafs recently, they've had to start parking in the normal parking bays at the metrocentre as the electric vehicle bays are full. Could be a problem if your relying on a boost to get home.
Same here but recently saw two in the local shopping center parked opposite the electric charging bays (I think are possibly free to use) which where empty at the time, which I think demonstrates the owners confidence in the technology
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