Is the EV really carbon neutral?

[Taylortwocities]

Yes agree. I am much in the same position. The programme also costed EV with the current legislation. Currently EV cars do not pay vehicle excise duty (road tax). I can see that position to change as the VED income reduces when more people move from ICE to EV cars.
Also charging from home cost will increase as fuel duty income reduces. I can envisage an EV tariff, perhaps enforced by the much-loved smart meters.
So, I’ll not be going EV. I’ll keep my car going until it dies and then either buy a second hand replacement, or look at a car-share scheme.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It seems there have been experiments using steam, basic idea is the waste heat from an internal combustion engine generates steam, which is then used. Seems the grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell holds the speed record for a steam car on 26 August 2009 at 148.308 mph not as fast as the JCB Max by a long way, (350 mph with diesel engines) but there are other options as well as electric and the big push for electric is in many ways stopping the research into other methods.

+1

I personally feel all our railways should be electric, and we should have an integrated transport system so there is no need for a car for long runs, which is the reverse to as it is at the moment, I can catch a bus or train for an 8 mile run, but for a 80 mile run we run out of time to do within a day.

+1 Public transport is passable for very local trips, but only if you want to go where they happen to run. Girlfriend is spending 2 hours via bus and train to travel the 40 miles to here, or 3 hours via just bus alone. Her choice is 1 bus and two trains, or 3 buses - just hoping that none are cancelled.

I'm maybe lucky - car at the door, if I want to use it and a bus every 15minutes passing the end of the street 100 yards away, able to take me to two of the local town centres, plus a choice of two local stations on the same line, just half a mile away. Getting to anywhere else, is a matter of very detailed planning and hoping.

 

[ericmark]

I'm maybe lucky - car at the door, if I want to use it and a bus every 15minutes passing the end of the street 100 yards away, able to take me to two of the local town centres, plus a choice of two local stations on the same line, just half a mile away. Getting to anywhere else, is a matter of very detailed planning and hoping.

This is a problem, local train station does have two charging points, but the line is only 8 miles long, and still steam hauled, so 6 am start to get train out by 10 am, and after last train a hour to clean it out, so don't run at night. Limited to 15 MPH but still beats some of the buses which seem to take the scenic route.

When I became 70 needed to renew my licence, gave it as I thought plenty of time applied on January 20th and birthday March 10th, got licence in October. So bought an e-bike, wife also had problems, seems her licence has been revoked years ago, but no one told her until she got caught speeding. Could not have been a worse time with Colvid meaning trains stopped and buses not really safe.

We had to rely on daughter doing out shopping, we could not get a delivery slot. And not really sure if allowed to drive or not, they did extend expiry dates before December 2020 but my birthday was in 2021, and it says you can drive if a valid application is made, how does one know if valid until licence issued?

But could have been worse, January this year road to Welshpool closed for 3 months, the alternative either 10 miles extra or 1:6 hills, not even a pedestrian assess around the road works, so could not use e-bike to get to Welshpool so stuck in this town unless one had a car, or braved Colvid on the Bus, trains don't run in Winter.

To my mind most business open at 9 am, so first bus needs to get one into town by 8:45 am so you can use bus to get to work, and most close around 5:30 pm so last bus not before 6 pm, really should be a bus a lot latter around 10 pm so one can get a meal etc before returning home. Lack of public transport forces us to use cars. And once you buy the car, you are going to use it.

The 250 watt limit may be OK for a person weighting 11 stone living in a flat area, but at 22 stone in the Welsh hills 250 watt simply is not enough to use a e-bike, it will not even get up a 1:10 hill. I have tried walk assist, theory OK, practice I can't walk at 4 MPH up hill, and the pedals get back of my legs, even with folding pedals.

I tried cycling to Welshpool when the road was closed, narrow roads pushing a bike (now know why called a push bike) and cars zooming past is not funny, and run out of battery so the return would have been worse if daughter had not rescued me. At least with an e-bike I can get off and push, what happens with an EV when diverted so 12 miles extra each way up and down hills? With a 60 - 70 mile range an extra 24 mile could well tip the balance.

 

[plugwash]

It seems there have been experiments using steam, basic idea is the waste heat from an internal combustion engine generates steam, which is then used.

The trouble is the waste heat is at relatively low temperature, low temperature means low pressure and low pressure means poor power to weight.

So while "combined cycle" approaches are very effective for power stations I doubt they will even be practical for mobile applications.

 

[ericmark]

My push bike has a minimum speed, below that I can't balance, but move to 3 or more wheels there is no minimum speed, OK boring travelling slow, and it clearly takes longer, but train has a speed limit of 15 MPH and the limit is adhesion to the rails, too steep and can't start or stop, this is why there are signs to apply the brakes on wagons before going down an incline.

There are slow EV's be it a milk float at 10 - 15 MPH or Sinclair C5 at 15 MPH, and the French cars which can be driven by 14 year old people limited to 28 MPH, the ebike limited to 16 MPH. So these do 28 MPH and cost around £8,000 and 68 mile range. This would clearly get me the 8 miles to local town, in this country does need a licence, but for local trips it would be adequate.

However not sure what other traffic would think when stuck behind a car doing 28 MPH? We can all remember being stuck behind a milk float or tractor, and we have seen dangerous over taking as a result. But we also see 20 MPH speed limits so why not use a car limited to 28 MPH?

We saw a lower limit imposed on wagons which was 6 BHP per ton, so 228 BHP for a 38 ton wagon. But not seen any limit for a car. If this was scaled to a ebike around 600 watt which seems about right as 250 watt from motor and 250 watt from pedalling gives 500 watt. And a wagon in crawler gear is likely doing around 2 MPH.

But I know my mobility scooter limited 4 MPH with 380 watt motor will not get me up my drive with me sitting on it. Claims a 25 mile range, what do you think, Welshpool here I go at 4 MPH so 2 hours to get there, if no one hits me.