Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[Woody]

[VP959]

Of course our electricity generation capacity, and the grid, here in the UK would be hard pressed to match any large increase in demand, but that is another issue!

Not going to be an issue for some time, though, given the massive spare generation and distribution capacity available. For example, this is UK electricity usage over the past week (from this site: https://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ ) :

This shows that there is around 10GW of spare generation capacity for around 6 or 7 hours every night. That equates to around 65GWh of spare energy that's available every night, and at 4 miles per kWh (pretty typical EV consumption) then that spare ~65GWh per day is enough to drive around 260 million miles per day. Average mileage driven in the UK (as of 2020) is 6,800 miles per year, or about 18 miles per day, so there is enough generation and distribution capacity right now to run around 14.4 million EVs.

Even if all new car sales were EVs from today it's still going to be many years before we use up all that spare capacity we have in the system at the moment. At a rough guess, our current generation and distribution capacity will be enough for at least another decade, maybe longer, so there is a fair bit of time to provide the small amount of additional capacity we may need by around 2035 to 2040.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Of course our electricity generation capacity, and the grid, here in the UK would be hard pressed to match any large increase in demand, but that is another issue!

Not going to be an issue for some time, though, given the massive spare generation and distribution capacity available. For example, this is UK electricity usage over the past week (from this site: https://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ ) :

UK weekly demand.jpg

there is a fair bit of time to provide the small amount of additional capacity we may need by around 2035 to 2040.

That summer graph is reassuring, but we shouldn't forget that a lot of capacity will be lost over the coming years as nuclear power stations, as well other carbon sources are wound down, are mothballed and their replacements are delivered years later than government had planned (as per normal)....

[OFSO]

Woody, in my youth I had friends that used to have summer jobs driving milk floats, at the end of their rounds they used to meet and race through Leicester back to the depot. I seem to remember that on at least one occasion they went so fast they caught on fire.

[k3k3]

My father passed his driving test in a Portsea Island Mutual Co-Operative Society milk float in 1951.

And I still rmember my mum's Divi number, 26200.

[G-CPTN]

A couple of years ago, there was a regular visitor to our local carpark - a decommissioned milk-float that had been altered to operate at highway speeds.

I wonder what happened to it?

[ExSp33db1rd]

Electric car ? Not going to be my problem now anyway, I guess I'm driving my last car, and I can drive from my home to Auckland and back, (should I ever be daft enough to want to ) with one 7 minute refuelling stop at my local, convenient, garage as I leave home, instead of multi, inconvenient, lengthy, stops to complete the round trip plus business mileage. ( if it ain't broke don't fix it, so I won't be )

Currently away from home, with occasional access via a back alley only used by Appt. owners entering their garage / parking space. Stopped to put some rubbish in a bin and turned around straight into an electric vehicle approaching super silently. No injury, but …… ?

I guess I'll become like those horse driven carriage drivers of yesteryear, and demand that all electric vehicles have a man with a red flag preceding them. Thinks …. can you put cards in the edge of the wheels to "clack" - like we used to do with our school bicycles ? At least those electric milk floats had empty milk bottle crates that rattled !

[TheGreenGoblin]

I guess I'll become like those horse driven carriage drivers of yesteryear, and demand that all electric vehicles have a man with a red flag preceding them. Thinks …. can you put cards in the edge of the wheels to "clack" - like we used to do with our school bicycles ? At least those electric milk floats had empty milk bottle crates that rattled !

You know of course that the human body and mind cannot stand speeds higher than about 25 miles an hour, despite all the piffle those chaps who purport to fly "aeroplanes" talk! All this new technology, so much of it, so little time to get used to it!

[ExSp33db1rd]

All this new technology, so much of it, so little time to get used to it!

Agreed, the Digital Age has me beat at every turn.

[OFSO]

"A new type of silicon-anode lithium-ion battery could be the solution the EV market is waiting for as it can allegedly charge from empty to full in less than 10 minutes.

Designed and built by California-based Enovix, the battery also maintains 93 percent of its capacity past 1,000 charges and was minimally affected by six months of operation at elevated temperatures, the company claims. These are both key parts of the US Advanced Battery Consortium's (USABC) high-performance EV battery goals.

Per the USABC [PDF], a battery that can reach 80 percent charge in 15 minutes and handle at least 1,000 charging cycles can be called "advanced," and by that standard Enovix has accomplished goals that USABC considered mid- to long-term." (The Reg, today)

[llondel]

Lifetime of three years then, assuming it was fully drained and recharged once a day. Although usually the lifetime is the point at which it has dropped to 80% of initial capacity, so it's not a hard failure.

OTOH, stuffing 75kWh into a battery in 15 minutes is not for the faint of heart. That's of the order of 1000A charge current, assuming about a 300V battery. A charging station along the same lines as a current filling station with 4-8 pumps would need a power feed rated for a small town.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Another former Leicester milk float driver here !

[Hydromet]

OTOH, stuffing 75kWh into a battery in 15 minutes is not for the faint of heart. That's of the order of 1000A charge current, assuming about a 300V battery. A charging station along the same lines as a current filling station with 4-8 pumps would need a power feed rated for a small town.

But only intermittently. Would this create more problems?

I'm thinking of Australia, where it's possible for a country servo to go from 0 to 8 to 0 in a matter of less than an hour.

I know almost nothing about electrickery.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Typical of the dim light bulb, low wattage type thinkers in the current British government:

The British government is ending its subsidy programme for electric cars with immediate effect. The sudden move only affects newly purchased electric cars. Subsidies for electric vans, electric taxis and electric motorbikes are to continue.

All existing applications for the grant will still be considered, as will grants not yet applied for electric cars bought in the two working days before the announcement (14.6.), according to the UK government. For newly purchased electric cars, however, the government subsidy programme ends with immediate effect.

The government had scaled down the programme several times. Most recently, only electric cars up to a price of 32,000 pounds were subsidised with 1,500 pounds. The plug-in car grant was thus only available for a few vehicles on the market anyway. The repeated reduction to the equivalent of about 1,750 euros had already caused speculation about an imminent end.

The government justifies the step by saying that the successive cuts in the subsidy and the number of eligible models had had “hardly any impact on the rapidly increasing sales and the steadily growing model range”. In other words, customers did not necessarily make their purchase decision dependent on the subsidy, but simply took the (reduced) subsidy with them.

Therefore, the government wants to refocus the subsidy – “on the main barriers to the transition to electric vehicles, including public charging and support for the purchase of other road vehicles where the transition to electric vehicles needs to be further developed”. While the electric car incentive scheme is now ending, the UK government is pledging £300 million in funding for the purchase of electric vans, electric taxis and electric motorbikes. However, the announcement does not announce an increase in subsidies to expand the charging infrastructure.

Although the government is cancelling the purchase premium for new electric cars, other subsidies will continue. For example, electric vehicles continue to be exempt from vehicle tax and can benefit from reduced tax rates for company cars, as in Germany.

“The government continues to invest record amounts in the transition to EVs, with £2.5 billion injected since 2020, and has set the most ambitious phase-out dates for new diesel and petrol sales of any major country,” says Trudy Harrison, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Transport. “But government funding must always be invested where it has the highest impact if that success story is to continue.”

https://topcarnews.net/the-british-gove ... 19758.html

[OFSO]

ELECTRIC CARS - AN APOLOGY

In recent postings I may have given the impression that in contrast to utterly reliable diesel cars, battery-powered cars were somehow unreliable, quirky and possibly dangerous. Nothing could be further from the truth. My Mondeo sits helplessly outside right now, its own battery having, in the manner of diesel cars, failed overnight. It's very difficult to access, not amenable to being recharged, and I don't have the lockout codes should I change it myself. I will be attempting to start it later with my Li-I pack from Halfords.

(In all fairness, after seven years and 75,000 kms of stop-start service.)

[OFSO]

Battery utterly dead. Deader than a dead fish on the shore of the Dead Sea. Started with Halfords Li-I starter. Drove to Ford, only stalled it once on the way at roadworks, restarted it with Halfords magic. (Anti-stall not working of course). Into workshop, still running.

[PHXPhlyer]

Lightyear 0 solar-assisted car will go into production this year

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ligh ... index.html

(CNN) — Dutch company Lightyear has announced that this fall it will start making the world's first production car fitted with solar panels.
The Lightyear 0 will have curved solar panels in its roof, hood and trunk that top up the electric battery as it drives (or remains parked) and the first delivery in Europe could be as early as November.
The company says the car will be able to drive around 388 miles without stopping to recharge, and will have an additional range of up to 44 miles a day from the solar panels. For comparison, that's slightly more than a Tesla Model 3 (374 miles), and significantly more than the Kia Niro Long Range (285 miles).
Each hour in the sun will add up to six miles of charge to the battery, according to Lightyear. The solar range will give an added drip feed of miles for long journeys but also means you'll spend less time at charging points -- or may not even need them at all. The company says that in a hot county such as Spain or Portugal, if your daily commute is less than 22 miles, you won't need to plug in the car for up to seven months. In a cloudier climate, like the Netherlands, the car would need charging after two months.

Smaller battery, lighter car
The "0" has much in common with the Lightyear One prototype that was unveiled two years ago, but is able to do more with a smaller battery, says company CEO and co-founder Lex Hoefsloot. "The powertrain is the most efficient in the world," he claims, adding that the car's aerodynamic shape and four in-wheel motors enable a smaller battery to provide the same range.

That means "the whole car is lighter," he says, "and you get into this positive feedback cycle where everything can become lighter as well. That's how we've been able to get to 1,575 kilograms. If you look at other cars that offer similar range, they're all about 40% heavier."
Other companies are developing cars with solar panels, but none are ready to hit the market yet. The Sono Sion, slated for production in 2023, promises to provide an average of 10 miles of solar range per day. The Aptera Never Charge is a futuristic-looking three-wheeler that the company claims will collect about 40 miles' worth of solar energy a day. Aptera told CNN that it hopes the car will enter production in 2023, and it already has 24,000 reservations.
But while the whole concept of the Lightyear 0 may be based around improving efficiency and cutting charging time, it has a maximum speed of just 100 mph, while its 0 to 100 mph time is a sluggish 10 seconds, something that Hoefsloot admits is down to a focus on range.

It's expensive too: One of the 946 launch models will set you back €250,000 ($262,000) -- slightly more than a Ferrari Roma, and some distance clear of mid-range family EVs like the Nissan Leaf (around $27,000 in the US) or the Tesla Model 3 (around $50,000).
The company hopes to launch a "people's model" -- the tentatively named Lightyear Two -- by 2025, that will retail for around €30,000 ($31,215).

PP

[OFSO]

Yeah, well I won't put the Ford up for sale just yet. Cars with stop/go have a battery life of 6 years (ish) and around 50K miles. The wife's 2004 Fiesta, not stop/go, mostly go, is on its third. Doesn't get driven much and winter temperatures are not good for the battery.

[Woody]

The Lightyear 0 will have curved solar panels in its roof, hood and trunk that top up the electric battery as it drives (or remains parked) and the first delivery in Europe could be as early as November.

Possibly not the best time of year for solar recharging

[CharlieOneSix]

My EV6 is still on the high seas somewhere, although it can't be far from the UK. It went into production the week commencing 9 May and my Kia dealer says I will be able to collect it on/about July 8th, eight months since ordering and due to the semiconductor shortage some three months later than indicated when I placed the order. Mrs C16 will be pleased to get sole use of her car back! I'm told the list price for new EV6 orders went up by £2500 yesterday.