Electric powered cars.

ThreeSpool. TBH, I cannot say I have ever seen one, let alone one with a towbar hitch.

I have oft seen the man with a Gallon plastic petrol container thumbing a lift to get petrol for his car, having run out.

Guess I will “P” myself laughing come the day I see a man carrying a massive battery to the nearest re charging point:D and having to wait 8 to 12 hrs for it to re charge.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Not only spending £30k buying it new, but I just can’t imagine them holding there value as they age.

You’d be better digging a big hole and chucking £30k in it.

Have you every seen one with a tow hitch? Me neither. :rolleyes:

Pagon. re your thread 26. This is exactly the point I was making, it’s a no brainer right from the start, and I also stated, I would leave the Leccy car at home, and use the petrol mini.

I cannot see why they are pushing, (Pardon the pun,) electric car so much, we are told the supplies of the oil fields are finite which I accept. Who of us, here on the forum could afford, or even want to fork out £30.000 yay, perchance even more, for something that is going to need new batteries, just a few yrs down the line.
Also James, I agree, has anyone actualy seen any tests re these vehicles, say 4 up, in a storm, ie full lights, wipers heater to clear the screens front and rear, and if going away for a few days, the luggage for 4.
The manufacturers blurb sounds good, but at the end of the day it’s them who will benefit with sales. But like Double Glazing salesmen,Joe Public is far wiser these days.
Can somewon put me right, is Hydrogen, the same as what they called “Heavy water” as in the film, “The heros of Telemark”, if so, after all these years, we should have been using it years ago by now.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

[QUOTE=spitfireman;1782846]During the 60s in Maidstone many people were struck by Trolleybuses as you couldn’t hear them coming.

I couldn’t agree more re the “Silent Assasin” approach, I find the elderly who have these electric Mobility Scooters. There is a wall all around my house, which ends at the pavement. The car, HD1 or HD2 has to be at least halfway past the end of the wall before I can see clearly both ways. There is one woman, who has one of these vehicles, who must travel just beneath the Sound Barrier, you just cant hear them coming. I was unaware, they don’t even need Insurance, so if you were hit by one of these “Silent Assasins” and were left unable to work for several months,You would most certainly be in the proverbial.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

Inkworm, i remember my father talking about riding a peddle bike round Belfast in the 40’s & 50’s , getting the wheel caught in the tram tracks and ending up going some place he didnt want to go ,So you can keep your scalextrix on the sitting room floor for now ! 😀

A similar thing happened when I first went solo in an old mini, there was thick mud on the road that had rather deep tractor ruts in, this had frozen and therefore controlled the fact that the mini at the speed I was trying to go ended up rolling the hedge.

Still got potential though!

Inkworm, i remember my father talking about riding a peddle bike round Belfast in the 40’s & 50’s , getting the wheel caught in the tram tracks and ending up going some place he didnt want to go ,So you can keep your scalextrix on the sitting room floor for now ! 😀

As regards pure electic cars, they would be fine for someone, like me, who only does a few miles per week in and out of the nearby town. But if I was heading off down the country for a once a fortnight trip would need something more practical…

Still, i could do without the almost E600 p.a. annual road tax of my 115 BHP, 0 to 60 havent a clue, mondeo diesel.

Edit; Just remembered all those light blue, three wheeled, Disabled cars from way back, were they battery or some petrol engine akin to an over revved sewing machines ?

I would just like to point out that electric cars have been around for decades so why can’t we just upsize scalextric sets to life size?

During the 60s in Maidstone many people were struck by Trolleybuses as you couldn’t hear them coming. I once read the number of pedestians killed by them in London during the 40s/50s exceeded diesel/petrol buses that greatly outnumbered them (4 to 1) The problem will be, people crossing the road usually use sight and hearing in the thought process to step out. A silent car will disable the hearing bit and the number of people knocked down will increase.

A way round this of course is to fit these vehicle with a couple of external 400 watt speakers and have V8 petrol engine noise (coupled to the accelerator pedal):D

Baz

I recently visited Basel in Switzerland where trams, buses, cars, bikes and pedestrians all seem to get along just fine. Folks just need to watch where they’re going.

I have to laugh at the ‘greenies’.
Everything is lovely in their little world – they fastidiously separate their trash into different bins for recycling, and drive their little electric cars around, knowing they are saving the planet.
In my locale, the market fell out of the recycling business, so the council just put everything surreptitiously into landfill, even though folk had separated it out very carefully. I’ll bet that happens a lot all over the country.
Electric cars generate more carbon emissions during their production than conventional cars, and the elecricity they depend on is still mainly produced by burning coal in power stations.
Meanwhile the emerging nations are furiously pumping out all sorts of emissions…

In the meantime, my V8, 287 BHP, 0-60 in 6.1 seconds, 187mph (

Only 287BHP from a V8.
Sounds like a Yank motor or a very old European one.
I’ve seen 2.0L engines with more HP than that!

Back on topic: I think hydrogen is the way to go. There are ways to transport it safely and they’ve made a hyrdrogen fuel cell work. It’s been around for years. With more investment it’ll only get better, smaller, more efficient and safer.
Imagine pulling into a filling station and asking for a gallon of water to fuel your car.

I think Honda already have a fuel cell that can be plugged into a range of vehicles. I saw a road test of a car and a motorbike. Half way through, the person doing the road test unplugged the fuel cell from the car and plugged it into a waiting motorcycle and sped off.

During the 60s in Maidstone many people were struck by Trolleybuses as you couldn’t hear them coming. I once read the number of pedestians killed by them in London during the 40s/50s exceeded diesel/petrol buses that greatly outnumbered them (4 to 1) The problem will be, people crossing the road usually use sight and hearing in the thought process to step out. A silent car will disable the hearing bit and the number of people knocked down will increase.

A way round this of course is to fit these vehicle with a couple of external 400 watt speakers and have V8 petrol engine noise (coupled to the accelerator pedal):D

Baz

PeeDee, you must live in America to only shave .4 of a sec of my 0-60 time with an extra 87BHP and not moan about the price of fuel. I bet your torque is rather good though.

Come on what is it you drive?

As the future Sir Jeremy Clarkson stated on TG. We need a chicken wire grid over the roads, just like bumper cars.
The future will hold a non fossil fuel car. Batteries may or may not be the answer. The power that can be harnessed from an electric motor is vast, but obviously it needs real electricity not rechargeable cells.
Hydrogen, one major problem…..it’s in the hands of the public….which leads to all sorts of problems from accidents, bomb makers etc.
In the meantime, my V8, 287 BHP, 0-60 in 6.1 seconds, 187mph (When chipped which mine isn’t so I’m stuck at 155) 30mpg 1.93 tonne living room is doing just fine.

Nissan 200SX a very nice car!:)

No.
Been there done that.
I had a Nissan 200SX a few years ago. I would love another one but I need a practical car these days.

My current car does 0-60 in 7.6secs and will get 50mpg (not at the same time though) and costs £155 in road tax so I get the best of both worlds 🙂

You must be very lucky for the price of petrol not to bother you at all.
I used to run the odd gas-guzzler but I’m afraid they had to go.:(

Not really Arthur, My wife and I are Pensioners living on the state pension and pension credit plus attendance allowance.

We don’t go on holidays or buy expensive things for the home. We make do and mend as our generation was brought up to do. The petrol for the cars costs about £15 a week and the combined insurance for both cars is just under £500 a year. The cars being Japanese are very reliable(touch wood)and are both getting to be old ladies now in car terms. Its our only indulgence and we have always had cars that stand out from the usual housing estate nondescript rubbish.

Take the Prelude for instance 200BHP 0-60mph in 6.5 seconds all the toys from airbags to 4 wheel steering. If you wanted to buy one today you would get a nice looking reliable sports car and change from £1,000(ok I bought mine 7 years ago and only gave £3,000 for it then) One MOT fail in all that time for upper ball joints. Not bad for a car with 140,000 miles on the clock

Tempted yet?:diablo::)

Whilst batteries are expensive they don’t necessarily all have to be replaced at the same time. Most electric cars of tomorrow are being designed I’m told to have individual cells replaced as they die off. Therefore £7k in one hit might not be the true cost.
If you do loads of local miles each year then worth buying a dedicated electric car. If not then a combi car of some description is the better bet.

The process of producing Hydrogen and Oxygen from water is a well known and relatively simple process, unfortunately the energy used to achieve this far exceeds the energy produced by it’s use as fuel.

I sincerely hope that there is a better method of producing Hydrogen because it would give a very clean fuel although quite volatile.

Sounds familiar…. http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=110202

Anyway, Hydrogen cell vehicles are the future, not batteries… One question – just how difficult is it to make Hydrogen fuel?….

Presumably you lot would have laughed at the horseless carriage 120 years ago 🙂

The fact that electric cars may not be very practical now does not mean they won’t be in the very near future.

I have two fast cars that gobble up petrol one is a Honda Prelude 2.2VTEC and the other is a Subaru Impreza. I may now only drive 50 odd miles a week but I don’t hang about getting where I am going. I pay the price for this but who cares I maybe getting on a bit but I have not slowed down.

You must be very lucky for the price of petrol not to bother you at all.
I used to run the odd gas-guzzler but I’m afraid they had to go.:(