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You think it's impossible to charge an EV at the road side?
If you need a demonstration of the technology in action, pick up a power bank for your mobile phone
EV are they worth it?
- Thread starter ericmark
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If you need a demonstration of the technology in action, pick up a power bank for your mobile phone
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There are already ferries with EV chargers on them...
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I think the point is EV's could be made to work, a small say 3 kW petrol/electric converting unit (generator) built into the vehicle so it can be used while travelling could extend the range on the odd times when required with fast refuel times even if only a couple of gallon, and remove most of the objections to the electric car.
It seems there was a BMW that did this, but now no longer produced. But as it stands, they are not really an option for me, I can do local without a car, the car is for long runs which I can't do with public transport, within wales buses are free for me, but the main point is to do it by example, when all buses, trains and taxi's are electric, then time to do private transport.
It seems there was a BMW that did this, but now no longer produced. But as it stands, they are not really an option for me, I can do local without a car, the car is for long runs which I can't do with public transport, within wales buses are free for me, but the main point is to do it by example, when all buses, trains and taxi's are electric, then time to do private transport.
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Links please.
The technology may be there, but is the product i.e. a portable and affordable unit of which there are more than 100 in the whole country ?
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That's the BMW i3, I think you're referring to? Early ones had a modified motorbike twin cylinder, 28 horsepower "range extender" petrol engine driving a generator. Of course, that makes them a "series hybrid", rather than an "EV". Later ones had a 35 horsepower engine, because 28 wasn't enough. 3kW really wouldn't cut it, I'm afraid. The 28 horsepower ones couldn't maintain 70 on a level motorway once the battery was depleted. The 35 horse ones can just about do it.
Obviously, for a hybrid, they do have quite a big battery and the electric motor is plenty powerful enough in normal use - about 170 horsepower. You would normally use them as an all-electric vehicle, having charged at home. The battery has enough range for most trips. Easily 100 miles in real world conditions (BMW claimed 150 miles in their official figures). Later ones have greater electric-only range. The other thing, is that it's actually quite hard to do a constant 70 on a British motorway for a long period, so the reality is that as soon as you drop below about 60, or go down a hill, the generator will "gain" on the power demand, and charge the battery a little, so the reality is that most long motorway journeys will be completed without the driver noticing any drop on performance.
You'd need to define "affordable", I guess? The AA have a handful of these so far:
Nothing terribly difficult about the technology. Just a big version of the lead acid "booster packs" that they sometimes use to jump start ICE cars with flat batteries, but using a li-ion battery instead. When not in use, it is charged by the van's own alternator.
I don't know your range on a 3/4 charge but my 52ltrs. (70ltr. tank) would take me close to 400m if it was a long trip, a lot less if individual short journeys.
As for an EV 'power bank' even if there was sufficient wattage to run just the essentials (fridge/freezer/central heating pump) how would you re-charge the EV during an extended power outage?
The whole question is subjective anyway, as an extensive black-out would see petrol stations unable to pump fuel either .. so we are all shafted
I don't know your range on a 3/4 charge but my 52ltrs. (70ltr. tank) would take me close to 400m if it was a long trip, a lot less if individual short journeys.
As for an EV 'power bank' even if there was sufficient wattage to run just the essentials (fridge/freezer/central heating pump) how would you re-charge the EV during an extended power outage?
The whole question is subjective anyway, as an extensive black-out would see petrol stations unable to pump fuel either .. so we are all shafted
In this weather, for 3/4 tank, I'd get 150 miles easy enough - maybe £175 if I'm careful. (Funny enough, I'm going to Newcastle this afternoon, from North West Cumbria)! I'll top it up to 100% just before I set off though. Should be able to get there and back without using a public charger, as it's 100 miles each way. Funny enough, with an EV it's the opposite of an ICE. It does of course last longer doing short, low speed runs!
It's an 80 kwH battery so I'd expect it to power the whole house for several days, if full! We use about 20kWh a day (I'm out in the sticks with no gas). However, although the battery can supply 250kW to the electric motor when I boot it for short periods (105kW indefinitely), the charging cable from the car, is only good for about 11kW. The cable from the consumer unit to the charger, probably less than that. I don't know what other hardware changes (to either the car or the house) would be needed. The car can't do it at all, right now. Some newer EVs can do about 2kW.
I have a petrol generator for when the power goes off. (Which does happen, occasionally in winter). It's 4kW and will do the fridges and freezer, some lighting, wi-fi, central heating pump, etc. It's a cheap Chinese Machine Mart one, and I haven't tried charging the car from it. We have friends on a smallholding a few miles away with a 5kW wind turbine and about 8kW of solar. I'm sure they'd let me charge the car off-grid there for a bit, if we got really stuck, once I'd run out of petrol for the genny!
When it comes to "readily available", electricity has petrol and diesel knocked into a cocked hat! Very few buildings don't have electricity in them! Imagine having to drive to a special place to put fuel into your car...
At least if you do run out of petrol/diesel more can be brought to the car to have it on it's way. How do you bring more electricity to an EV stranded on the hard shoulder?
It's probably the other way round, really. When you can't blast 700 miles across Europe in an ICE any more, you'll take EVs seriously...
Exactly. The only way many will adopt EVs is reluctantly in the face of common sense. It will be because of government control, not customer choice. That's basically communism. If EVs are so good, you wouldn't need to ban ICEs to force people into them. Given the choice over 100 years ago, motorists chose the practicality of ICEs over EVs. EVs are a retrograde step.
Last time I can remember difficulty getting fuel was the tanker strike almost quarter of a century ago.
So with electricity, we never have power cuts??
Funny enough, the 100 year ago analogy is a very good one! 120 years ago, you got the "early adopters" who jumped to motor carriages quite willingly, whilst they were unaffordable for the vast majority of people, the fueling infrastructure was pants, and range / reliability wasn't great.
100 years ago, (20 years later), most people had seen that the "motor car" was the way forward, and mass adoption was taking off. Still unaffordable for many, but prices were coming down and the second hand market was starting to develop - as was the infrastructure for both maintenance and fuel. We've only really had the current crop of modern EVs for about 15 years, so far, so we've got another 5 to get to where we were 100 years ago, if we're following your analogy.
And, of course, throughout that whole period of (say) the first 25 years of the motor car's history, we had the doom mongers and naysayers who felt that motor cars were a "retrograde step" and were never going to give up their horse - no sir, not for nobody, not ever...
The argument that "if something is so good, you wouldn't need to legislate people away from it", is very similar to the arguments used by the tobacco and fast food industries. The reality, is that oil will get more and more scarce and more and more expensive. If we don't wean ourselves off the stuff (leaving aside the environmental damage), we become beholden to the likes of Putin and the Arabs, or some rather unpleasant Latin American regimes. Right now, we are buying Russian oil from India (at a higher price, obviously), and pretending we're not buying it from Russia. EVs offer us the chance of hugely increased energy security and independence. You're always moaning about the country going down the toilet, yet you steadfastly oppose it being more independent and showing the world a bit of leadership?
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If one has an EV with a 200 mile range, and one is going to do 300 miles, then to do that 200 miles will take 4 to 5 hours, so 3 kW is an extra 10 kW hours plus it would mean power not used for cab heater, it does depend on how power hungry the car is of course, but when one knows one has a long trip ahead it can extend the range by quite a bit. And running at a fixed output it can run very efficiently.
OK with larger cars may need to be 5 kW, but point is not being big enough to drive the car with, but simply a range extender, and also a method of recharging when no recharging point can be found, same idea of have a spare gallon of petrol.
1978–79 was when I remember the Winter of discontent that's over 40 years ago, however as a result I will not entertain heat pumps, and I have a back up battery which can be charged from the solar panels.
I don't think it will get that bad again, but we have seen loss of power in some areas for a day or two, I remember one petrol station had a moped with the wheel rubbing on the wheel of the petrol pump to deliver petrol, and others were using hand cranked pumps, which have now long gone, so really today no electric means no petrol as well.
Even seen shops stop trading during a power cut as they could not work the tills, so likely could not buy candles even if in stock.
OK with larger cars may need to be 5 kW, but point is not being big enough to drive the car with, but simply a range extender, and also a method of recharging when no recharging point can be found, same idea of have a spare gallon of petrol.
1978–79 was when I remember the Winter of discontent that's over 40 years ago, however as a result I will not entertain heat pumps, and I have a back up battery which can be charged from the solar panels.
I don't think it will get that bad again, but we have seen loss of power in some areas for a day or two, I remember one petrol station had a moped with the wheel rubbing on the wheel of the petrol pump to deliver petrol, and others were using hand cranked pumps, which have now long gone, so really today no electric means no petrol as well.
Even seen shops stop trading during a power cut as they could not work the tills, so likely could not buy candles even if in stock.
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