The Prius adds 2.2miles worth of driving per full day of standing in direct sunlight. A weeks worth of charging just on the solar panel wouldn’t get me to the nearest large town which is 20 miles away.
Technical C'mon Fiat, give us an electric 500
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Technical C'mon Fiat, give us an electric 500
The Prius adds 2.2miles worth of driving per full day of standing in direct sunlight. A weeks worth of charging just on the solar panel wouldn’t get me to the nearest large town which is 20 miles away.
lsgraham_uk
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Lol, I know, but it keeps an old Mgf topped up. Edit turns out it's a 1.5w panel so on a good day I might hit 1 ah, so I can fully charge my battery in just two months!
I found the quote from Steve Cropley who reported that the panel gave 14.2 miles in 3.5 days on the prius-solar-roof.
I found the quote from Steve Cropley who reported that the panel gave 14.2 miles in 3.5 days on the prius-solar-roof.
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Even if it gave you those figures, it would still need you to leave the car for most of the week, just to get to the shop and back, also have you seen the size of the Panel in the prius.
I can't even find a price for this roof as an option but have seen figures that suggests its cost is far better spent on a home solar charging system.
lsgraham_uk
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It's far more expensive than any gain you would get, but I quite like the idea. my commute is a mile, with that car I would never have to plug it in.
I looked at a Renault Zoe as a second car, but the figures just didn't add up. The cheapest battery lease Was £50 a month and even with the car costing 7k it was not any cheaper than an equivalent petrol. I think the break even point is 12k miles and I barely manage 5. So instead I got the xsr and even driving it like a loon I get 30mpg with 45+ easy on a long run.
Edit the panel costs £1500
I looked at a Renault Zoe as a second car, but the figures just didn't add up. The cheapest battery lease Was £50 a month and even with the car costing 7k it was not any cheaper than an equivalent petrol. I think the break even point is 12k miles and I barely manage 5. So instead I got the xsr and even driving it like a loon I get 30mpg with 45+ easy on a long run.
Edit the panel costs £1500
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If I lived a mile from work I’d walk and not bother with the car at all.... actually I’d probably run it, would take me less than ten minutes and do me some good rather than the hundred+ miles a day I’m doing at the moment in traffic for over an hour and half each way
lsgraham_uk
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It sounds easy, but as with all things not always possible. If I have books to mark, child to collect or a multitude of other mundane things it becomes Pain. Tempted by an electric scooter though - almost as much range as a prius ( probably quicker also) xiaomi have a decent one.
I run to the supermarket and take a bi rucksack to run home again with the shopping, loaf of bread strapped to the side, so a few books wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not running home with a child on my back lol and yes probably easier to coax them into a car then get them home by other means.
Gosh, we're onto page 3 and we're still on-topic - is this a forum record?
Not really on-topic!
We’re four pages in, and no-one has yet mentioned the existing electric 500 on sale now... the one that Sergio Marchionne didn’t want you to buy:
https://www.reuters.com/article/chr...-fiat-500e-electric-car-idUSL1N0O71MS20140521
If you do a Google search for “FIAT 500e review”, there are lots of results including YouTube videos from owners etc. ([ame]https://youtu.be/R_PdTY0xxKc[/ame] for example). It went on sale in 2013.
A long time ago in the 80s there was an electric Panda as well. Electric cars are nothing new for FIAT. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and decided it’s not worth it
-Alex
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...sorry, I shouldn’t have disliked that post, but couldn’t stop laughing... it’s been out for five years
-Alex
Only if the battery rental cost is less than the petrol cost.
We don't pay anywhere near £50 a month on petrol. Perhaps £30 maximum.
Read this:
https://www.renault.co.uk/renault-finance/battery-hire.html
You'll see that if you do no more than 6,000miles a year, it'll cost £59 per month.
£59 will buy you ten imperial gallons of petrol which would get you maybe 500miles. Multiply that by twelve, and you can do 6,000miles too, but you can chuck more petrol in and go further for no penalty. Do more than the 6,000miles on your rental plan, and they sting you for another tenner a month. You cannot win.
The only way you can get anything out of this, is by saving on other things like congestion charges and servicing costs. Hardly a good reason IMO unless you work in London.
Mick.
...sorry, I shouldn’t have disliked that post, but couldn’t stop laughing... it’s been out for five years
-Alex
Lol I meant to say in the EU ?
As we're all being encouraged to consider Hybrids over the next 22 years, electric cars aren't the answer just yet. I'd considered a Leaf as good value at £5k considering list price of £31k. Think the Peugeot equivalent of the C Zero was even more new. So the Panda will be fine for now.
So our Tesla S has free Tesla supercharging for the lifetime of the car. I read one was still going strong at 400k miles. Cant remember when we last paid for a charge. I wanted a smaller daily driver, that was fun to drive, hence I got my Fiat 105s, I expect to exchange this in maybe 3yrs for an electric car, smaller and cheaper than a Tesla. Agree with most posts that at the moment, electric vehicles only make sense if you use them a lot. Of the current pick I would go for the BMW I3 (love the interior), but the range isn't enough. Range on a Fiat 500 ev would be deciding factor for me personally, as I would want 150miles real world - but I think in 3 yrs time there will be a lot more competition in the smaller ev category to choose from.
You seem hung up on the whole battery lease thing but you can buy electric cars without leasing the battery. You can buy the Renault Zoe without releasing the battery, you pay £5k more for the car ~£18k then drive it. If you have any access to free charging or you use very cheap tarrif electricity then even at your low mileage you would still save money over the years compared to a petrol car, the Zoe battery has an 8 year warranty so if you’re doing low mileage it’s reasonable to keep a car for that length of time, no tax at all and the servicing costs on electric cars are next to nothing. And because you own the battery when you come to sell the car it will still hold a good value
Could do with a panel that covers most of the roof of a car that could easily keep it topped up from a few short jouneys a week in the summer
I think you’re missing the point. You’re far better off putting panels on your roof that will be cheaper and will be able to generate power for a bigger proportion of their lifetime.
I'm not
Because that requires the car to but at home plugged in
Ones on the car could keep it topped up anywhere
And for many home charging us not an option
Charging points will be far far more widespread in the future, don’t worry.
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I think this is where they fall short in large cities.
It's unlikely that the majority of owners would be able to home charge when they live in flats and apartments, like a lot of city dwellers do.
Even those with houses have trouble parking in the same postcode, let alone the same street.
I know, I live close to and work in the centre of London.
Every evening there are more cars parked on my local streets than spaces. A lot of street is yellow lined (due to a fire station), but owners know that the council parking patrol finish at 6.30 so park where ever they can, if there's a bay or not.
It would require a vast investment in basement car parks and private/council housing developments, but most importantly on street charging systems on residential streets, but for this one there's just no room.
At the moment, a space is a space for any vehicle, but turn them all or most into single use bays for charging isn't going to work, I can see the flames of the all the burning EV's in my minds eye already!
At the moment on street charge points are few and far between and not really in residential streets, there are none near me as it's all residential zoned, the ones I know of are mainly in parking metered zones in central areas.
The nearest to me is around half way between home and work, it would be effectively useless to me if I had an EV.
To convert resident bays that councils earn massive profits from into free or even paid charging bays dedicated to EV vehicles on such a scale is not something that will happen.
The councils are just not interested in it, I've asked.
They'll discount a parking permit, but not supply the charge points.
Also turning any bay to a single use charging bay is only going to clog up the spaces.
Cars might be parked in a bay an hour or so will now be parked up in the same space for hours or overnight if they are charging or not.
Many of the on street EV charging spaces I notice have not been converted from normal parking spaces, they seem to have been tacked on to existing bays, same goes for the car club bays that have popped up recently.
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That Tesla had 2 new battery packs in its lifetime and they arnt cheep allthrough they were done under warranty
Edit also had its front drive unit replaced
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