Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[Boac]

Well, I've been right through that 'comprehensive' publication and have not found any information other than in the intro. 'Tony' really doesn't want you to use your car, does he?

[Woody]

Well, I've been right through that 'comprehensive' publication and have not found any information other than in the intro. 'Tony' really doesn't want you to use your car, does he?

Not many options for public transport for the 04.30 starts

[Boac]

Ah, but Tony doesn't start work then, does he?

[Wodrick]

And you are not supposed to live in Royal Windsor are you ? Hounslow or Southall innit. Then you can push bike

[Woody]

And you are not supposed to live in Royal Windsor are you ? Hounslow or Southall innit. Then you can push bike

Who wants to live in Hounslow or Southall

[G-CPTN]

And you are not supposed to live in Royal Windsor are you ? Hounslow or Southall innit. Then you can push bike

Who wants to live in Hounslow or Southall

Sikh and ye shall find.

the most common religious affiliation is Sikhism, with 35.4% of the population.

[Woody]

Quick survey- How many of the ex-LHR flight crew on here lived in Hounslow or Southall

[Wodrick]

It's like the LGW crew living in Horley or Creepy, not many.

[OFSO]

Hounslow is hugely Indian. Big families in small houses. My Nana lived there 70 years ago. It has changed out of all recognition. Not many electric cars as absence of sockets, but excellent buses and trains.

[Woody]

Ah, but Tony doesn't start work then, does he?

Wonder if he cycles to the Compass Centre everyday

[ribrash]

Unless you are very wealthy you will not be buying an EV.A few of us are in the departure lounge.Why would you spend a big chunk of your savings on something not fit for purpose.One of my fishing friends has bought one for his business.He lives in Stoke and can't get to London in one go.

[Rossian]

.....received his super Kia EV6, he did say there were some delays....

The Ancient Mariner

[ExSp33db1rd]

Quick survey- How many of the ex-LHR flight crew on here lived in Hounslow or Southal

Hounslow, until married ! Then 1 hour away., subsequently 2 hours away. Once got caught when on 1.5 hour Standby. That's when I discovered that my car - a BMW 2002 Tii. Touring, - would do 140 mph on the M.3. I didn't get caught, and made the flight.

[OFSO]

A touch of reality for those living in an electric car dreamworld, in today's "Financial Times".

[OFSO]

Rivian shares currently 25% of last November's launch.

[OFSO]

Interestingly enough, in sixty years of driving petrol and diesel cars, I've never been unable to open the fuel filler cap, and never, when returning to the car after a few days, found less in the tank than when I left it.

[Boac]

I've never been unable to open the fuel filler cap, and never, when returning to the car after a few days, found less in the tank than when I left it.

Well, that will learn you! You obviously need to catch up with modern technology, and then you might be able to experience all these things................ You'll need to wait a few more days before Plum can go over the benefits for you.

I was really surprised how easy-going that guy was with a totally inept car repair outfit. I would have been fitting the 'supercharger' to the manager's backside!

[TheGreenGoblin]

I've never been unable to open the fuel filler cap, and never, when returning to the car after a few days, found less in the tank than when I left it.

Well, that will learn you! You obviously need to catch up with modern technology, and then you might be able to experience all these things................ You'll need to wait a few more days before Plum can go over the benefits for you.

I was really surprised how easy-going that guy was with a totally inept car repair outfit. I would have been fitting the 'supercharger' to the manager's backside!

I watched the video with interest and, too, am impressed with that chap's patience, in the face of some pretty poor delivery and service from the Tesla, support, supply and maintenance chain. I am no expert on Tesla and their cars but get the impression that Tesla is still very much a niche brand, suitable for those who live in first world countries, who have a second or a third car relying on more traditional petrol and/or hybrid technologies, that will fit the gamut of needs of a busy working family. While it is true that most modern cars have complex electronics, which can fail in enigmatic ways, the Tesla integrated "experience" and cloud based paradigm, certainly begs more question about automotive, autonomy, cyber security and long distance motoring than I can answer at the moment. Let us just say that I can't see Tesla being anything more than a rich man's plaything in countries like South Africa, for example, where spotty internet coverage, and national stage 4 power load shedding are part of everybody's operational week!

[OFSO]

I must confess that about ten years ago my diesel Mondeo refused to acknowledge the ignition key, had to be towed to a local French dealer from the station parking lot while we taxied home over the border, and I picked it up the next day. Ford USA sent an engineer from the Valencia works who spent two days with the car and could not find what had happened. But that's once in a lifetime of owning more cars than I can remember.

[PHXPhlyer]

Electric vehicles tease a new energy source: Gravity
A series of projects use loaded trains or trucks to generate energy while going downhill, making the vehicles particularly eco-friendly.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environ ... -rcna30116

Several new projects that aim to exploit the Earth’s gravity for power hint at how electric vehicles could unlock otherwise impossible ways of generating energy.

They include trains across the Australian Outback and dump trucks that need no gas. There’s even a proposal to haul water down a mountain to power the trip back up.

All three projects rely on a peculiarity of electric motors: they can generate electricity as well as use it. That means using the motor to slow an electric vehicle can recharge its batteries — a feature called “regenerative braking” in electric cars.

It turns out that under the right conditions — going far enough downhill at enough of an angle with a heavy load — electric vehicles can generate a useful amount of energy. They can make enough, in fact, to power their trip back up, and they often make electricity to spare — once they’ve dropped off their cargo.

“When you have a descent of 10 percent, from top to bottom, you never need to recharge,” said Roger Miauton, the chief executive of the Swiss electric vehicle firm eMining AG. “You generate enough energy going downhill as you need to get back up again.”

Miauton’s company manufactures the eDumper, a 65-ton dump truck that’s said to be the world’s largest electric vehicle. Its diesel engine and fuel tank have been replaced with electric motors, batteries and cooling machinery, and it’s now working at a quarry near Biel in Switzerland, hauling 70-ton loads of lime and rocks down a mountainside.

The 65-ton eDumper generates electricity when it carries a 70-ton load downhill from where it's quarried and makes enough to drive back to the top empty.

Thanks to the expense of the high-tech systems, an eDumper costs about twice as much as a diesel-powered truck. But it never needs any fuel — a savings of between 11,000 and 22,000 gallons of diesel a year, along with its carbon emissions — and it almost never needs recharging. Test drives show it generates about as much electricity going down as it uses going up. Miauton said the company is now making three more eDumpers for mines in Germany, and it has plans for even larger electric dump trucks.

The concept of making electricity on a downhill run will soon get an even bigger boost. The Australian mining company Fortescue, a major producer of iron ore, announced in March that it will build “Infinity Trains” to generate electricity while carrying loads of ore from mines in the Outback.

The company currently runs 16 trains in Western Australia driven by 54 locomotives that use a total of around 20 million gallons of diesel fuel every year. Each train has up to 244 cars. They can be almost two miles long and carry more than 37,000 tons of ore.

Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said four routes from mines in the inland Pilbara region are sufficiently uphill of their final destination — Port Hedland on the northern coast — that they’re suitable for Infinity Trains. The company plans to have them working on all four routes before 2030 by developing the dynamic braking feature many locomotives already have to convert gravity into electricity, she said in an email. Some routes will generate even more energy than they need for the return trip, and the company will use the extra electricity elsewhere in its operations.

The most innovative proposal for making electricity from gravity may be electric truck hydropower. According to a study published in March, a fleet of electric trucks filled with water high in the mountains can generate electricity as they travel downhill on regular roads. The empty trucks can then drive back for more water, or be used elsewhere.

Study lead author Julian Hunt, a Brazil-based researcher with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, said the system is about as cost-effective for generating electricity as wind, solar and regular hydropower.

To start with, electric truck hydropower can be much less expensive than the alternatives.

“You just need to buy electric trucks and be able to connect them to the grid — that’s the whole cost,” he said. “But for hydropower plants you need huge dams, tunnels, turbines, and lots of other different components that have very high investment costs.”

Depending on conditions, the water-carrying electric trucks could also be deployed to generate electricity from different stages of a mountain descent, or even from different rivers on different roads. “It’s very flexible, very modular,” he said.

The system won’t always be suitable — how much the drivers of the trucks are paid, for example, will affect the price of its electricity. But Hunt said it can be useful where regular hydropower storage in mountain lakes isn’t feasible and where rivers dry up in summer. It will also eliminate many of the environmental and social impacts caused by large hydropower plants, such as the need to flood large areas of land for reservoirs or to relocate communities, he said.

Christopher Knittel, a professor of energy economics who heads the Center Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he’s concerned that the costs of such a system might be greater than the estimates.

But “this is an interesting idea, for sure,” he said in an email. “Given how quickly things are moving and the need for new technologies, I am always excited to see thinking outside the box.”

PP