Electric/hybrid vehicles

[MaryN]

Has anyone on the Forum actually got an electric car? I've been watching the news recently and following the debate on diesel vehicles with some interest. The suggestions that people ditch their diesel cars in favour of electric/hybrid vehicles had me in fits of laughter. The thought of a wussie electric car trying to drag our trailer through a muddy field was hilarious - it would run out of puff in seconds. Thank heavens for rufty tufty diesel Landrovers.

Following on I started to wonder how much more energy this power guzzling electric cars would use - would we need to build more nuclear power plants to deal with the extra requirement? And what happens in a grid down incident?

No, I have decided TPTB will have to prise my old Landy from my cold dead hands.

[Stewart]

believe it or not but an electric 4x4 would have better traction and better pulling power through mud and crap than your diesel landy. bye the way I love landys

[Barneyboy]

My car runs on used veg oil ,been doing it for years ,my dads looking at and think about buying the Nisan leaf

[Mortblanc]

I have several friends that drive the Gas/electric hybrids and have had good luck with them. They charge themselves as they move along so there is no real connection to the grid.

One friend has a Leaf and reports that the recharge time is 6-8 hours and pulls as much electricity as if one were running the clothes dryer for that period of time. He has 40 mile range, which makes ownership of the unit completely impracticable except that he got the entire cost of the vehicle covered as a tax write off for the government to promote the silly things and brag about how many have been sold. GM, being government funded, attempted to push their little Spark or whatever it was and so many of them caught fire and burned down houses that I believe they stopped production.

I am waiting for the system used by the railways to be applied to passenger vehicles. A unit where a small 3-5hp motor runs a generator which supplies continuous power to the electric motors at each wheel. You would have the power of the electric side of a normal hybred vehicle, extremely high gas mileage, on the order of 50 kpL from the tiny motor, and eliminate the need for the huge bank of batteries now required for all the systems. It has worked efficiently for the railroads for the past 75 years but only BMW has made any effort to promote it for use on the roadways

I do find the systems restricted by the batteries available at the present time. Battery technology is lagging far behind the needs we now have and no one seems to be putting the research or funding into that area.

[Barneyboy]

Well the leaf in the USA must be different than the uk ,they say 180 miles ,but more realistic 120 on a charge,the good thing about Nisan is you can drive one for a month and see if you like it ,so no problem there

[CharlesHarris]

The gas-electric hybrids have all kinds of safety issues to avoid responders from being electrocuted when extricating an accident victim. And when the battery bank finally needs replacement the costing of doing so is not for the faint of heart or wallet. My agency had several Toyota Prius hybrids for pool vehicles and while they may be more reliable now, the fleet cost to operate and maintain 50 vehicles for three years exceeded the fuel cost savings over the conventional gas compact sedans (Ford Taurus) which they replaced.

[Mortblanc]

(13 February 2017, 12:48)Barneyboy Wrote: Well the leaf in the USA must be different than the uk ,they say 180 miles ,but more realistic 120 on a charge,the good thing about Nisan is you can drive one for a month and see if you like it ,so no problem there

Probably is a difference, and my friends had the older models. They had much lower advertised ranges and most owners never saw what was advertised.

The newer ones have larger battery packs and the base Leaf still only gets 84 miles and our advertisements only offer 120 mile charge life on the larger SUV models with the bigger batteries. And note that it was not a technological advancement that extended the rage, just a bigger battery pack, which also means more weight.

The Leaf is not very popular over here for several other factors. Not many sold. I can not remember ever seeing one on the road. Neither do we have a "drive it for a month" program because all of them would be returned.

Several of my friends and relatives fell for the Hybrid scheme back when they first came out and the Prius was everywhere! None got either the electric range or the gas mileage advertised and I often told them the tests had been made in Canada using the 5 quart Imperial gallon and shorter miles!

The closer they got to the 8 year life span of the battery pack the lower the resale value became to the point that after 8 years they zeroed out due to the almost immediate anticipated need for a $5k battery pack. You are charged for the new battery pack and for recycling the old pack in my area.

My FIL even tried to scrap his when the pack finally failed and the salvage dealer quoted him a salvage cost in the thousands due to the cost of scrapping the battery pack.

He fussed and cussed constantly for the life of the vehicle because he never got more then 45 mpg trip range from the thing and it was advertised at 75.

Our driving customs over here are different from those in GB, with 75-100 mile one way commutes to work common and the quick weekend trip often being 300-500 miles. Our holidays are normally vehicle based and sometimes wind up being 3500 mile swings through the country side to see America before it gets more European.

A couple of years ago I made a 1900 mile camping trip and just going to see the grand-kids is a 600 mile drive. The stops for recharging would make seeing the family an 8 day round trip in a Leaf!

The electric vehicles are generally considered toys for limited use over here, not basic transportation.

[Barneyboy]

Yeah your wright pal ,the distance you guys travel,just for giggles in mind blowing ,and the fuel cost of here are bloody stupid,£1.25 a litre,so yes it makes sense they didn't do well in the USA

[Mortblanc]

There is also a secondary factor which we Americans always consider which is that a pickup truck is always in the back of our minds.

I was running the numbers and doing the measurements and math and a though did occur to my American mind that the Nissan Leaf costs $30k US and the ford F150 costs $26kUS.

The Leaf has 120 mile rage and the F150 gets 26 MPG on our smaller gallons and has a 23 gallon tank.

This means that one could take off down the road in their Leaf and drive their prescribed 120 miles being followed by another person in an F150.

When the Leaf dies it can be loaded into the bed of the F150 and carried for another 455 +- miles

[Barneyboy]

Them f150 are shiny and pretty