Car (or bike) Chat!

[Jimbo]

I think it looks better in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5MHzbNLr4I

[Macca]

I think it looks better in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5MHzbNLr4I

It does but still I think it falls a bit short. It only looks good from a few angles, from the others it is just a bit too bland for me.

It's loads better looking than this travesty though:

[struth]

my kona is ok looking.. not gonna wow the crowds but then its not supposed to. its just an honest little motor to get from a to b in comfort, safety and not cost the earth. although winter does suck power from battery due to heating. an advantage of ice is you get the heating free

[AJSki2fly]

my kona is ok looking.. not gonna wow the crowds but then its not supposed to. its just an honest little motor to get from a to b in comfort, safety and not cost the earth. although winter does suck power from battery due to heating. an advantage of ice is you get the heating free

Yep Kona EV was one that does a good job. I think the main issue is when car manufacturers who have decades of ICE build mentality really struggle to get what you need to do to make an efficient and cost effective EV. To try and keep up with the competition they take the easy route until the rubbish product gets slammed.

[dave2010]

my kona is ok looking.. not gonna wow the crowds but then its not supposed to. its just an honest little motor to get from a to b in comfort, safety and not cost the earth. although winter does suck power from battery due to heating. an advantage of ice is you get the heating free

Another way of looking at it is that most of the year, when you don’t need much heat, an ICE car is just warming the crows - at the owner’s expense.

[struth]

Another way of looking at it is that most of the year, when you don’t need much heat, an ICE car is just warming the crows - at the owner’s expense.

Also, electric vehicles don't need to convert reciprocating motion into rotary motion because the EV's electric motor is already spinning. This leads to a 50% gain in efficiency of 80% for an EV to only 30% with an ice, and with very little friction and vibration. Its horses for courses really. Long distance the ice goes further and refuels much quicker. Costs of fuel vary depending on where you get it as does electricity. At home charging may be relatively slow but its still way cheaper. If doing less than 150 miles a day and usually arrive home at night your on a winner.

[dave2010]

If doing less than 150 miles a day and usually arrive home at night your on a winner.

Absolutely - as long as you remember to plug your car in.

I have met people at chargers who "forgot" to charge up the day before, or whose charger failed. Our home charger did fail, and we were without a good home unit for a few weeks while we complained, and eventually got a working replacement.

I just saw this - which is quite interesting - though not really a "good" solution - https://youtu.be/6liX9KuSwkk - Hydrogen ICE cars.

[struth]

Absolutely - as long as you remember to plug your car in.

I have met people at chargers who "forgot" to charge up the day before, or whose charger failed. Our home charger did fail, and we were without a good home unit for a few weeks while we complained, and eventually got a working replacement.

I just saw this - which is quite interesting - though not really a "good" solution - https://youtu.be/6liX9KuSwkk - Hydrogen ICE cars.

yes if you can find any hydrogen... think there is only one in scotland

[Pigmy Pony]

Isn't modern technology marvelous - until it goes wrong.

Again referring to the taxi ride, I noticed that the rearview mirror was actually a TV display and was a split screen: one half showing the rear view, the second the forward view. I suppose that if the system failed, the driver would have to rely on the wing mirrors.

Have you never been behind a taxi? They don't use their mirrors

[AJSki2fly]

Also, electric vehicles don't need to convert reciprocating motion into rotary motion because the EV's electric motor is already spinning. This leads to a 50% gain in efficiency of 80% for an EV to only 30% with an ice, and with very little friction and vibration. Its horses for courses really. Long distance the ice goes further and refuels much quicker. Costs of fuel vary depending on where you get it as does electricity. At home charging may be relatively slow but its still way cheaper. If doing less than 150 miles a day and usually arrive home at night your on a winner.

Yes that's right Grant, but it can be even more cost effective with an EV. We power ours for about 50% from solar, so free motoring, the rest is a mix of Supercharging and Overnight cheap rate with Octopus. Below is a table which gives the real figures from our usage.

Even if we had paid 10p/kwh for the electricity we got free, by charging overnight all the time, this would have only have cost an additional £38.67

If we had done this in a ICE(petrol) car doing 40mpg it would have cost £780 give or take £10, and that takes into account petrol prices as they changed.

So saving £680 in 10 months just think if we were doing 10K miles a year then the savings would be about 3 times that. Plus it is much more Carbon efficient.

Anyone who thinks an EV is not cost effective does not really understand it fully IMO, you need to buy an efficient one that charges quickly, and charge from a home charger as much as possible and use overnight cheap charging as much as possible, only use superchargers if away on long trips. If you want to make even bigger saving savings and it sits at home 80% of the time stick 6 solar panels on the roof and charge it from them in the day for 2/3 of the year.

	Travelled	% of total Miles	Kwh used	Electricity cost	% of Cost	Cost per mile
Home Charge (0.21p/Kwh - pre Octopus)	313	8.8	77.5	£13.97	13.8	£0.04
Tesla Supercharger	1202	33.7	310.35	£74.48	73.4	£0.06
Octopus Cheap rate	674	17.5	260.86	£13.05	12.9	£0.02
Free No charge	2048	57.8	386.73			£0.00
Totals	3563			£101.50		£0.03