Electric cars.

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
Batteries are I'm afraid a necessary evil and a technically poor short term answer to the problem. Motorsport is switching to super capacitors which discharge into wheel motors to accelerate the car and switch to a much smaller, lower powered and efficient engine to maintain cruising speeds. Batteries have a massive environmental impact during production and disposal, have a limited life span and are expensive given they are disposable. It's great that companies are introducing this technology but it has a long way to go before it is sustainably economical to buy the car and replace the batteries in the long term. I'm not having a dig at any of the manufacturers and I'm glad they are showing people the alternative. What's often overlooked is the cost/environmental impact of buying and running compared to that of maintaining what you've got.
 

Randlesuk

vroom vroom!
Hi All,

there are a few questions there and think this site for the iOn minisite may help. Its quite a good overview of the iOn and its sustainability.

I agree with aasilencers somewhat - Its by no way a perfect technology but its a good start and there are many benefits to having an electric vehicle. At the moment renewable energy would be of course a way forward but is by no way there yet.

Costs and maintenance are covered on the site.

Happy reading. Its certainly an interesting technology.

Gemma
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
Moving on from the Top Gear Chicken wire/ Dodgem idea, they are implanting con-tactless charging cells into the surface of some race tracks which charge via a magnetic field as the car passes over them. Some say it will turn the tracks into Scalextic circuits but it is a viable charging option, even if the infra structure would be expensive to create. The reason Bio-ethanol hasn't worked out in this country is because of the space we have to grow the grain to make the fuel relative to usage. It's also useless for starting in cold weather which is why it's good in Brazil but not so good here. It's also very expensive and your car will use more fuel whilst creating less power from the engine unless it's properly modified. That said I firmly believe the future lies in a replacement for petrol (ie Bio-ethanol) rather than electric cars. I guess Electric cars will find a place as town cars and small commute cars and alternative fuels will power cars for the longer journeys. Hydrogen cells make for interesting research too.
 

Kickstart

Well-Known Forumite
Hi

Afraid I have virtually no faith in the idea of electric cars.

Short range is bad enough, but short lived and expensive batteries are a killer. Think the Renault Zoe battery rental is £70 a month (so do 10 miles a day average and you are paying 23p a mile in battery hire), but suspect once the car is about 10 years old the batteries will no longer be supported resulting in the car being scrap.

At the moment the pricing is being distorted by taxation. If you compare the fuel for an electric car with that used in a conventional IC engine powered car then that is comparing something that is taxed at 5% (VAT on domestic fuel) with something taxed at well over 100% (a £1.40 litre of petrol, over 80p is tax). Longer term that will change as electric car use is taxed somehow to maintain revenue.

When an electric car comes out that has a 300+ mile range, can be charged fully in 5 minutes without shortening the battery life, has good performance, little or no weight penalty and has batteries that will last as long as I want to keep the car (maybe 30 years) then they may be useable.

Hate to think of the efficiency of a remote inductive charging system.

All the best

Keith
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
Yes but other than massive inefficiency and interrupting pacemakers, hearing aids and other electronic devices they are still a leap forwards on static charging points for batteries which run flat half way through your journey and take 8 hours to charge up again. Maybe if all electric cars cam with a mule and harness so when the batteries ran flat the mule could pull you home. Go low tech rather than high tech. The future is the past.
 

Toble

Well-Known Forumite
Ah, you beat me to it.
What bothers me about that particular car is that they are retro-fitting existing model rather than making them new.
Surely that car is a really heavy beast, with its ridiculously thick stainless steel bodywork, and a lightweight fibreglass/GRP/carbon-fibre body shell would be a better way to go. You know, lower the weight, lower the power requirements.
That would, however, bollocks up the conductivity requirements for time travel.
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
I think you're right about the heavy body needed for time travel, that's why they needed a train to get the system working in the third film. If they stick with the nuclear power plant used to generate time travel as the car was originally designed with it could generate propulsion as well. I think they've missed a trick there.
 

Toble

Well-Known Forumite
I think you're right about the heavy body needed for time travel, that's why they needed a train to get the system working in the third film. If they stick with the nuclear power plant used to generate time travel as the car was originally designed with it could generate propulsion as well. I think they've missed a trick there.

Well it didn't need to be heavy (although everything is heavy due to a possible problem with Earth's gravity in the future), it just formed the perfect Faraday Cage.
Nuclear power wise, are you refering to requiring stolen nuclear materials (thus angering the Libyan VW Owners Club), or the "Mr Fusion" conversion?
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
The Libyan VW owners. Any idea why Libyan terrorists would use a VW camper as an assassination vehicle? Always seemed an odd choice.
 

Toble

Well-Known Forumite
The Libyan VW owners. Any idea why Libyan terrorists would use a VW camper as an assassination vehicle? Always seemed an odd choice.
Well, despite the poor handling, the big sunroof would seem to be a bonus. Ideal for launching RPGs from. Plus in the 80s in the USA they were really cheap. My sister tells me that it was a Brazilian built model.
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
Your sister is making a bold political statement inferring that Libyan terrorists are linked with Brazil. Knowing that they were cheap in the USA during the 80's gives me an idea. fit a tow bar to the Delorean and bring a few back to sell at a huge profit. Of course you'd have to be sure they didn't have any terrorists in them and there would be a suspicious gap in the service history.
 

Toble

Well-Known Forumite
Your sister is making a bold political statement inferring that Libyan terrorists are linked with Brazil. Knowing that they were cheap in the USA during the 80's gives me an idea. fit a tow bar to the Delorean and bring a few back to sell at a huge profit. Of course you'd have to be sure they didn't have any terrorists in them and there would be a suspicious gap in the service history.
My sister is not an expert on international relations, only VW vans.
Brazilian built VW Breadloaf vans are becoming very popular, and thus expensive, now. I doubt a train of them would be either viable or profitable.
 

Kickstart

Well-Known Forumite
Ah, you beat me to it.
and a lightweight fibreglass/GRP/carbon-fibre body shell would be a better way to go. You know, lower the weight, lower the power requirements.

Being slightly serious about it, suspect GRP / carbon fibre might be frowned upon due to the difficulty in recycling.

All the best

Keith
 

Toble

Well-Known Forumite
Being slightly serious about it, suspect GRP / carbon fibre might be frowned upon due to the difficulty in recycling.
I might be wrong, but can't carbon fibre be recycled into new carbon fibre, and GRP be recycled into new GRP?
 

AA Silencers

Well-Known Forumite
It's not so easy as they're composites and hard to separate. There is a new product being developed in motorsport that is basically a clever injection moulded plastic. It's not a structurally rigid as composites but is easy to reform and has some great impact absorption properties. Should it go beyond the limit of it's elasticity or ability to be reshaped it is easy to recycle. It's also much lighter than carbon fibre.
 

Kickstart

Well-Known Forumite
I might be wrong, but can't carbon fibre be recycled into new carbon fibre, and GRP be recycled into new GRP?

Not sure you can separate the carbon figure from the resin that allows it to hold its shape

All the best

Keith
 
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